Winning the Home Fans and Tactics
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| English Football Grandstand |
One of the qualities managers need to have a successful career is the ability ‘win the home fans.’ This means that both the manager and his players need to adapt to a winning mentality to ensure that there a positive atmosphere at the club and also the fans are satisfied with their team’s performances.
If you look at Jose Mourinho’s first two seasons at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea never lost a game at home throughout those two seasons and had only lost six away games. The reason for this was the winning mentality of Mourinho, which rejuvenated his players to stay as a unit and be tough to beat. This is what he called ‘parking the bus’. This was usually implemented by the ‘Special One’ when he was intending to either draw or secure victory in tight games.
However, it was not only Chelsea’s double season dominance that made the fans fall in love with Mourinho, they also admired his personality and passion for the game. So now if you look at people like Guardiola and Klopp, you can see that they have made the City and Liverpool fans fall for them due to their personality and more importantly desire to achieve more success with their clubs.
It is usually said that if a team wants to have the chance of winning the league, they would probably need to make their home ground a ‘fortress’. This means staying unbeaten in all of their home games throughout an entire season. Although, on their quest to win the 2018-19 title, City did lose one home game to Crystal Palace at home, but still managed to keep hold of their title on the final day of the season.
Coming back to Klopp and Guardiola, the thing that stands out from their managerial tactics is the way they use the crowd to get behind the players. This is one of the main reasons as to why City and Liverpool have dominated English football for the past two to three years. This is why the Etihad Stadium and Anfield are such daunting places for visiting teams to come and play, it is the home fans of both these teams that get so jeered up by both of these managers which then enables both sets of players to consistently perform at the highest level and achieve more success.
What is even more enthralling about these two mangers is their ability to make good players into top class players, take Raheem Sterling and Sadio Mane as an example. When Sterling started his professional career at Liverpool, he looked a good player but wasn’t really showing his full array of talent until he came to City and Guardiola, where the Catalan completely changed the England winger’s game, where he is now known as one of the top attacking midfielders in the country.
The same has happened with Sadio Mané at Liverpool, where his game has completed elevated under Klopp after he joined the Reds from Southampton in 2016. So, you can see that some players can thrive under a top-class manager and become even better players.
If you look back at Unai Emery’s short stint at Arsenal, he was never able to win the fans over with his style of football as the team were inconsistent in getting positive results. Although Arsenal reached the final of the 2019 Europa League, the Spaniard failed to obtain any trophy success as well as a top four finish in his first season at the club.
This is the main reason as to why managing a football team is one of the toughest jobs in sport, you are being constantly being monitored by the club, fans and the media and you know that one mistake could result in a sacking by the owner.
Some clubs such as Chelsea have strict owners, where they demand success almost season after season. That is why there has been a revolving door of thirteen managers at the club since Mourinho’s first stint at Stamford Bridge. André Villas-Boas, Avaram Grant Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink, Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri have also had their opportunities at the club but were sacked the season after either winning a piece of silverware or reaching the final of a competition. This is why it is so difficult to manage a team like Chelsea, as not only do you have to win the hearts of the fans but keep faith in the owners as well.
Di Mateo was also sacked five months after winning the Champions League The former Chelsea midfielder was dismissed by Abramovich following a poor run of results. So, you can see that managing in big leagues such as the Premier League is fun but difficult as the level of competition is more superior than any other League around the world.
The best Premier League managers have always been the ones who thrive under pressure. This includes making the right decisions at the right time. If look at Manchester City’s home game against Leicester City, Vincent Kompany had not started a game in ages and because it was such a crucial moment for the defending champions as they knew that one slip up could have tilted the title towards Liverpool, but thankfully when Guardiola’s decision to start with the experienced Belgian paid off as his wonder strike in the 70th minute moved City towards the brink of winning back-to-back Premier League titles.
So, you can see that the best mangers are the ones which make big decisions at crucial times. Whether these decisions are tactical or based on instincts is another matter, but the ones who get them right more often are the more successful when it comes to winning silverware consistently for a period of time.
Coming back to Sir Alex, there were also some rumours which say that before every United game used to bribe the referee to try and get all the decisions in his favour. Whether this is true or not is a debatable subject, but it seems as if most referees were reluctant to give decisions against him as they may have felt pressurised due to his respectability and power. Also, the fact that Manchester United is the most powerful club in the world in terms of its fans and legacy may have led to the referees being pressurised to make decision in favour of him rather than against him.
He also had a huge say about how much extra time the fourth official would signal after 90 minutes. This is what United fans named as ‘Fergie-time’, where United won most of their game under the Scotsman. Although this sounds like cheating, Ferguson never got punished for it.
So, you can see that Ferguson was a real winner meaning that he would do anything in his power to ensure that his team were winning more matches.
Tactics are essential for any manager in the game, they are the key to winning games of football. the best managers have always been great tacticians, which is what Ferguson was.
In terms of using tactics, He would usually go for the military approach, where he liked to have a box-to-box midfield. This tactic included midfielders who could attack and defend at the same time. However, what was more crucial was how the players responded to these tactics and they did so. but this was varied accordingly to who United were playing.
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