Who is to more to blame for poor soccer team performances: Players or manager?

 Managers are the ones who get the sack when things turn bad for a club, however a manager can only have a certain amount of influence on and off the pitch. The manager can’t make the players work, he can only tell them what he expects of them and what he expects the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses are – it is up to the players to use this knowledge to exploit a team’s weakness.


Coaches and managers get a lot of abuse and are often in the firing line when the club they manage or coach has some bad results, but the manager can’t have a direct impact on the pitch, as he doesn’t play the football. Yes his decisions might change things a little, but it is all down to the players, and whether they want to win.

The players have to work as a team and listen to the advice of their manager, but also use their own creativity and experience on the pitch. The manager can’t constantly tell each player what to do next or where to move; this is all down to the player and the team. Team work is key in football, and although the manager can pick the line up for the squad, he can’t make them work well together – that is something that the players have to adjust to and work out.

Players don’t get fired or risk losing their job when they miss easy chances to score, or mess up a pass – no one thinks much of it, only the manager. Fact is that footballers make mistakes on the pitch, and this influences the game. Look at England’s last match against Holland in August 2009 – Rio Ferdinand gave the ball away and Holland scored, then Gareth Barry gave the ball away and Holland scored a second, yet no one got on the case of those two players because everyone just looked at the manager, Fabio Capello. Then when Jermain Defoe scored two goals for England to make it 2-2, no one really cared that we gave two goals away in the first half!

Footballers get paid a lot of money, and when things go well they take all the credit, however when things don’t go their way it is immediately the managers fault according to some players and the press, however this isn’t the case. If a player doesn’t perform well that is the players fault – the manager has no impact on that. The manager or coach may set training for the player but the player also has a say in what he trains. If he feels that his training isn’t benefiting him then he should speak to the coach or manager about it.

Managers can’t change the way players play when they are on the pitch; they can only prepare them as much as possible in training, but if the player chooses to play a different way or not use what they learnt in training, then that is not the manager’s fault. Training is not also just down to the manager to take care of – there are many coaches for different areas, yet they never get “bad press” or fired do they?

Posted in: Debates