How much difference do managers make?

[Jurgen the German]

Who has replicated what he's done?

Sure, money helps, but he's consistently gotten results with that money in a way that I don't think many managers have been able to match. He's consistently been getting big profile, high budget jobs because he's been delivering results time and time again. And he's delivered results where others haven't.

Ranieri at Chelsea didn't succeed, at least not to the level they expected. Mourinho came in and succeeded immediately. Mancini took much longer to just edge a league win at City. Mourinho's points record at Chelsea still stands. Inter did well in the league before him, but at least as well with him and then won the CL as well. Real were a great side, but they looked distinctly worse than Barca, he won the league there as well though, where others had failed.

And that's not even going into what he did in Portugal.

You might say that there haven't been many managers replicating what he's done because very few have been given a chance to try, but there's a reason why he's been given that chance. His results.

I'm still not sure whether his time at Madrid can be classed as a success. I mean he was brought there to win the Champions League. He spent plenty of money, but could never make it past the semi finals. He won the league last season, but it's bloody difficult to win the league every single season, even if you are a great side like Barca are.

He clearly did a fantastic job at Porto and Inter. He delivered unprecedented success to Chelsea, but he quickly fizzled out after two years. And the money is a big factor. I know not every club succeeds by throwing cash around, but when you have as much money as he did there, with the players already there, it was going to be hard to not succeed. But I accept that he deserves full credit for the strength of their defence when he was there. The way their back four used to hold a line was obviously down to coaching from him IMO.

I think some managers aren't a good fit at a club, like I'm not sure if Moyes is the right man for United.

Sometimes I think managers get too much blame, the players don't get nearly enough, but the manager is the easy spacegoat.

 

[milo]

Well, he inherited a great Liverpool side the first time around.

The point I was try to make in the opening post was whether changes in the way (good) clubs are run and the size of back room teams has made the choice of manager less important. So this wouldn't apply to Dalglish's first spell, although it was pretty successful.

 

[Rossi22]

Not a lot, it's more about getting the right fit. Football managers are like F1 drivers, the one with the best car generally wins.

 

[braineclipse]

I'm still not sure whether his time at Madrid can be classed as a success. I mean he was brought there to win the Champions League. He spent plenty of money, but could never make it past the semi finals. He won the league last season, but it's bloody difficult to win the league every single season, even if you are a great side like Barca are.

He clearly did a fantastic job at Porto and Inter. He delivered unprecedented success to Chelsea, but he quickly fizzled out after two years. And the money is a big factor. I know not every club succeeds by throwing cash around, but when you have as much money as he did there, with the players already there, it was going to be hard to not succeed. But I accept that he deserves full credit for the strength of their defence when he was there. The way their back four used to hold a line was obviously down to coaching from him IMO.

I think some managers aren't a good fit at a club, like I'm not sure if Moyes is the right man for United.

Sometimes I think managers get too much blame, the players don't get nearly enough, but the manager is the easy spacegoat.

Real is difficult to judge I suppose. He did bring them the league title, overtaking Barca. I think that was his first priority, they were really tired of being in the shadow of Barca. Although I think your point about it being difficult to win the league every season is a good one.

He was clearly fired prematurely at Chelsea, luckily. The job he did there was outstanding, why they reportedly want him back.