Let’s Be Honest

 

Today we welcome a new weekly feature as well aas a new writer to the team. Host of the EPL Roundtable podcast Kevin DeVries joins us to share his views on the game. Kevin is based in the US and is a Tottenham fan for his sins as well as an avid US sports fan. We are very pleased that he has agreed to write for us.

 

We are part of the problem.

As football fans we constantly discuss how much we want stability at our clubs, yet turn to twitter to vent our ‘#_______Out‘ campaigns. Once we’ve decided that we don’t like a manager everything he does well was obvious and every mistake twice as obvious. Is this fair? Probably not, but how much impact do managers truly have on the success of their clubs?

It’s easy to chalk up the accomplishments of the top clubs to simply having elite talent. Liverpool have the ‘SAS‘, Manchester City have Toure and Chelsea have Hazard. The point being that great players can somewhat mask the true value of managers (see Villas-Boas, Andre).

While loads of resources and talent play a part, without the right man at the helm it’s all for naught. Don’t believe me? Well you could either Google ‘David Moyes sad face‘ or just read the first instalment of …..

FACT TIME!

  • Using the same core of players, Brendan Rodgers’ switch to a midfield diamond has seen Liverpool surpass last season’s goal tally by a staggering 22 goals with four matches left to play.
  • Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea side have conceded just 24 goals this season (15 fewer than last season), and only six in 2014.
  • Manuel Pellegrini has balanced Manchester City’s attack with five players contributing more than five goals and more than five assists compared to last year’s two – and one of them was Tevez.

So, ‘We get it, the title challenging teams are good.’  That’s fair. Let’s look deeper at the impact of two fashion-challenged mid-season replacements, your very own Tony Pulis and the promotion of Tim Sherwood at my club Spurs. From the 23rd December, when both were in the job, their records looked like this …

BLIND STUDY!

  • Manager A: 9W, 4D, 5L, 31Pts
  • Manager B: 9W, 3D, 6L, 30Pts

Can you guess which is which? Here’s a hint. One of them had a player that cost £26 million pounds while the other’s entire squad cost less than £26 million!

That may have been a gimmicky comparison but it illustrates the impact of good coaching. A good team with a great manager has a much better chance at success than a more talented team with a bad one. Brendan Rodgers has managed Liverpool into the title chase and Tony Pulis has seemingly managed Palace to safety.

That’s the impact great managers have on the success of their clubs.

‘#_______In!’

 

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