1.0MRKT Insights - Football Consultancy Serviceshttps://mrktinsights.comrich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="dS2Gi6dGaV"><a href="https://mrktinsights.com/index.php/2024/05/24/hiring-head-coaches-why-style-matters/">Hiring Head Coaches – Why Style Matters.</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://mrktinsights.com/index.php/2024/05/24/hiring-head-coaches-why-style-matters/embed/#?secret=dS2Gi6dGaV" width="600" height="338" title="“Hiring Head Coaches – Why Style Matters.” — MRKT Insights - Football Consultancy Services" data-secret="dS2Gi6dGaV" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /** * WordPress inline HTML embed * * @since 4.4.0 * @output wp-includes/js/wp-embed.js * * Single line comments should not be used since they will break * the script when inlined in get_post_embed_html(), specifically * when the comments are not stripped out due to SCRIPT_DEBUG * being turned on. */ (function ( window, document ) { 'use strict'; /* Abort for ancient browsers. */ if ( ! document.querySelector || ! window.addEventListener || typeof URL === 'undefined' ) { return; } /** @namespace wp */ window.wp = window.wp || {}; /* Abort if script was already executed. */ if ( !! window.wp.receiveEmbedMessage ) { return; } /** * Receive embed message. * * @param {MessageEvent} e */ window.wp.receiveEmbedMessage = function( e ) { var data = e.data; /* Verify shape of message. */ if ( ! ( data || data.secret || data.message || data.value ) || /[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test( data.secret ) ) { return; } var iframes = document.querySelectorAll( 'iframe[data-secret="' + data.secret + '"]' ), blockquotes = document.querySelectorAll( 'blockquote[data-secret="' + data.secret + '"]' ), allowedProtocols = new RegExp( '^https?:$', 'i' ), i, source, height, sourceURL, targetURL; for ( i = 0; i < blockquotes.length; i++ ) { blockquotes[ i ].style.display = 'none'; } for ( i = 0; i < iframes.length; i++ ) { source = iframes[ i ]; if ( e.source !== source.contentWindow ) { continue; } source.removeAttribute( 'style' ); if ( 'height' === data.message ) { /* Resize the iframe on request. */ height = parseInt( data.value, 10 ); if ( height > 1000 ) { height = 1000; } else if ( ~~height < 200 ) { height = 200; } source.height = height; } else if ( 'link' === data.message ) { /* Link to a specific URL on request. */ sourceURL = new URL( source.getAttribute( 'src' ) ); targetURL = new URL( data.value ); if ( allowedProtocols.test( targetURL.protocol ) && targetURL.host === sourceURL.host && document.activeElement === source ) { window.top.location.href = data.value; } } } }; function onLoad() { var iframes = document.querySelectorAll( 'iframe.wp-embedded-content' ), i, source, secret; for ( i = 0; i < iframes.length; i++ ) { /** @var {IframeElement} */ source = iframes[ i ]; secret = source.getAttribute( 'data-secret' ); if ( ! secret ) { /* Add secret to iframe */ secret = Math.random().toString( 36 ).substring( 2, 12 ); source.src += '#?secret=' + secret; source.setAttribute( 'data-secret', secret ); } /* * Let post embed window know that the parent is ready for receiving the height message, in case the iframe * loaded before wp-embed.js was loaded. When the ready message is received by the post embed window, the * window will then (re-)send the height message right away. */ source.contentWindow.postMessage( { message: 'ready', secret: secret }, '*' ); } } window.addEventListener( 'message', window.wp.receiveEmbedMessage, false ); document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', onLoad, false ); })( window, document ); //# sourceURL=https://mrktinsights.com/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.js /* ]]> */ </script> Staff in major European clubs are being summoned to meeting rooms. Their clubs need a new head coach, someone who can be trusted to work well with their star players with a track record of success. The staff enter the room and find their seats, they look from the technical director to the director of strategy, to the general manager standing in front of a flip chart, pen in hand, the room falls into expectant silence. Finally, the technical director clears his throat, looking at the floor, “Err right lads, any ideas?” This summer is the perfect storm, more top jobs are available with few obvious candidates. It was only a few years ago that Carlo Ancelotti took a job at 15th-placed Everton, partly due to a lack of obvious openings at a Champions League-level club. Different clubs have different appetites for risk, Arsenal, and Dortmund took risks on managers (which as always will be used interchangeably with Head Coach in this article) who fell outside of the “proven winner with a track record of playing the right sort of football” criteria used by most elite clubs. There are a handful of managers who meet the criteria and are out of work, Mourinho and Conte for example but this is where we run into our first modern football issue. Who runs the club? The theory is simple, an owner buys a club, he then appoints a Technical Director / Director of Football who then employs a Head Coach. This is the hierarchy. The problem with this is the Head Coach is seen and treated by everyone in the club as “the gaffer”. Some managers are more gaffer-ish than others.  Technical Directors want a Head Coach who treats them as, at least, an equal, and makes them part of the process when thinking through their strategy for the first team. Rightly or wrongly some managers are seen as not wanting to work with Technical Directors and wanting full control over areas the Technical Director sees as their remit.   People who reach top positions in football have fought off a lot of competition to get the job. They will face a lot of criticism if things go wrong. They don’t want to be hostages of other people’s decisions so they generally do fight for control.  So few Technical Directors will actively choose people perceived as being controlling even if they have had success. They are typically the choices of owners and fewer and fewer of the biggest clubs are owner-run.  How do they play? Most elite level clubs play a similar style of football. They control possession, they are used to breaking down deep defences, they tend to play a high defensive line and look to regain the ball high up the pitch. They also have technically proficient players with good athleticism.  So good teams, play good football, with good players. What if you have players who are less good?  You have to adapt, sit deeper, play longer, look to counter? Lots of Head Coaches do this. But by doing so are they costing themselves the opportunity to coach at a higher level? One of the tools we have developed in the last year is a system that looks at the style of play a manager has implemented.  We aren’t looking at how good the team is but at the way the team plays.  “Attacking Possession” is our name for a bundle of different metrics that show how a team builds the attack, and retains the ball in the final third, it looks at certain types of build up zone and pass type. It deliberately excludes xG and other factors that measure effectiveness, we just want to know the style. We have the same for “Attacking Pressure” which looks at territory. That measure concentrates mainly on pinning the opposition back high up the pitch. What we find is that to be elite a team needs to dominate in both Possession and Pressure. Think of Guardiola and Klopp with high turnovers, territorial dominance, and a high line but also dominance of the ball. In lower leagues, Pressure correlates more highly than Possession for success. Possession doesn’t seem to matter much at all. In the higher leagues, our Attacking Possession basket is key, correlating very highly with the top end of the leagues. Using this information we can very quickly assign scores to every manager in world football to show evidence of them having coached in a possession or pressure-heavy system. We score both contextually (within that season in their league) and globally (within all seasons recorded across all leagues). So what have we found? Our data goes back to 15/16 so we are able to track the progress of coaches at different clubs, and look at the ones who have progressed up the leagues and those that haven’t. What we have found is that the Head Coaches who have been hired by clubs at higher levels are those who play in an “attacking possession” style EVEN IF the results haven’t stood out. Attacking Possession (and pressure) are ranked on a scale of 0.00-1.00 (you can call it 0-100 if you prefer) If we look in England at League One then 4 managers have hit the threshold of 0.87, and all 4 have gone onto higher levels; McKenna (Ipswich), Martin (MK), Manning (MK), Smith (Walsall). In the Championship we have Martin (Swansea/Southampton), Farke (Norwich/Leeds), Jokanovic/Parker/Silva (Fulham), Potter (Swansea), Carrick (Boro), Frank (Brentford), Kompany (Burnley), and Maresca (Leicester). Apart from Carrick and Martin all the others have won promotion or been appointed by Premier League teams. Potter has consistently shown he can coach an attacking possession system. This does not mean the results have followed, but he can coach teams to play in a style that correlates with success. But Potter failed at Chelsea, and Brighton are better since he left?! Maybe (although it is fair to say he progressed Brighton a lot) but again we aren’t saying this guarantees success only that parthttps://mrktinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-20.png