When the going gets tough and results aren’t going as first envisaged, there could be the temptation to quash all your previous work and go back to ‘basics’. At this moment in time, there is a well known Premier League outfit that hasn’t had the best start to their campaign. The media are now asking lots of questions, with one being about the system that the manager is using. Here we will discuss the pro’s and con’s, that face this manager and the processes he may have to take, to implement change…..

At the start of pre-season a new manager can come into a club and can start getting to grips with the culture of the workplace, as well as exploring what ideas may/may not work. Previously, we have discussed the importance of taking your players abilities as a starting point, before applying tactical principles and formations.
Once the manager in question is underway with his new team, he will of course start conveying a message about ‘how’ he wishes to set up his team and their intentions when playing. Pre-season usually compromises of a programme that lasts around 6-8 weeks and varies massively, depending on what club you are at. (Why it varies is due to the application of each manager and with most, their subjective application coming first – “we need to run 60km this week to get top fit!?”)

For this example let’s say that the manager wants to play a certain style of football and is working around the clock to implement his ideas. Days and training sessions pass, with around 6 games taking place to improve football fitness. During this time of the season, there should be a clear idea of the objective(s) you wish to achieve and how you intend to reach these.

Throughout pre-season there maybe some ‘surprise’ performances where your team may not perform as well as you wanted, or there was a negative match result. Either way, there isn’t usually much attention given, as it’s just ‘pre-season’ and the players are getting ‘minutes’.

These excuses are often heard and while there is no real impact from match results, the process (how) you set out for the game, should be regarded highly. These matches are ‘experiments’ and allow you to test certain hypothesis, while evaluating after to see if you set up correctly or not.

Regardless of the evaluation process (if you do this or not), the start of the season will arrive and the games begin. No matter how much work you do in pre-season, there are no guarantees that you will win. There is of course a higher chance of achieving success, if you have planned logically and have prepared your players for the unpredictability, that they are about to experience.

Fast forward to match day number 5 and to date you are yet to register a single point on the board. In professional football, the pressure would of course be building and there would be a lot of media attention. Most of the reports would no doubt be negative and as you can probably imagine, there would be talk of the manager getting removed from his position.

Onto the next game and the hope of achieving the first 3 points of the season. While the manager may not bring attention to this fact, we know that the fans will be asking if today is the day!

Before this game is due to be played, the manager will have to decide on what his intentions are for the next game and how he’ll achieve these. Work will of course been applied on the training pitch and the players would (hopefully) know. what their requirements will be to be victorious.

The question now is, does the manager stick to the exact process he has applied previously – but lost all 4 games? Or, do they abandon these principles and start a new process? The pro’s and con’s of this are explained below;

Pro’s

Players responsibility – The responsibility of the players is removed and the manager is now signalling, that it is very much his problem and is now attempting to fix it
Manager acknowledging that change maybe needed – By changing the way things are being done, this would signal that the manager identifies that something hasn’t worked and is now intending to change it

Con’s

Team communication – This takes a lot of time to build and the longer that the process is given to improve, the higher chance of it getting better. Changing something at the first sign of a struggle, will effect the communication across the field
Loss of trust – By changing what the manager initially conveyed, he/she could be showing signs of not believing in the initial process, which then effects the trust. If the manager doesn’t believe, then how would you expect the players too?
Listening to all of the ‘noise’ – Outside of the football club, the media have been applying a lot of external attention on what is happening on the pitch. By changing things, it could show that these outlets are now causing discomfort and the manager is losing control
A sign of pressure – The first sign of pressure building and acknowledging that things are now getting tough, is changing principles amongst all of the negative attention. This could look like a ‘reaction’ to what has been caused…..

While there could be a lot more to add to both of these lists, upon reflection it’s clear to see that the con’s of changing amongst a negative period, outweigh the pro’s.

The manager should revaluate the players abilities, adapt his tactical principles and maybe consider a change in formation. By doing this, the initial hypotheses could still be used, but it has been adapted to cope with the challenges, that have already been faced.

Maybe, in this situation the manager has to stick firmly to his beliefs, even though it could cost him his job……