Effective managers vs Style-inducing managers (part 1)

Is there a right or wrong way to achieve success as a football manager? No, as some say, “don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Are you the type of manager that walks into a company with a proven style and try to teach this style to your new team? You are a ‘style-inducing’ manager. On the other hand, are you the type of manager who walks into a company and builds a style by providing a system based on the qualities that highlight the strength of the staff/players at your disposal? You are an ‘effective’ manager.

Effective football managers are managers with no style of play but assess their players’ strengths and weaknesses and aim to build a tactical system that brings out the best in the players at their disposal. Some have likened these managers to pragmatic managers, but every manager shows a bit of pragmatism even style-inducing managers. However, it could be said that they are more pragmatic than style-inducing managers. With these managers, one cannot know what to expect in terms of the style their teams would display. Since they are thorough in the system or setup and leave the players to create a style of play, the style created would depend on the players they have got at their disposal.

Effective managers are known to prioritise tactical discipline of the players off the ball over the style produced by the teams they manage (what you do on the ball). However, using their players' strengths, they figure out ways to get the job done on the pitch. They believe that making their teams difficult to beat without the ball (controlling games without the ball) is the first step to build a formidable team. Some examples of effective managers are José Mourinho, Massimiliano Allegri, Fabio Capello, Antonio Conte, Rafael Benítez, Diego Simeone, Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, and Roy Hodgson.

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