League Table MW 08 : 2026 – 2027

Seven managers scored 12 this week, and five of them had just drawn or lost. Le Bris climbs four places, seven days after the lowest score the table has recorded. Sage drops four the other way. Iraola had one of the better interviews of the round and is still nineteenth, because a bad September takes a long time to work out of an average.

These reviews look at how each manager’s post-match words help players keep their confidence, learn and prepare for the next match. The quotations are short extracts, followed by analysis.

Quote of the Week: Frank Lampard, Coventry City

[B]ut when you see this is predominantly the team that played in the Championship I think eight of our boys played in the Championship last year and now they’ve shown that they’re growing but the test now is consistency. Show it and keep showing it and then games will go in your favour. The opposition won’t put two in the top corner. You will get what you maybe feel you may deserve and that’s football.

Frank Lampard after Tottenham Hotspur 3 – 1 Coventry City, Monday 19 October 2026. Source: BBC Sport.

After the 3-1 defeat, Lampard refuses to let the scoreline define his players. The two goals were pure quality into the top corner, so he sees it as Tottenham’s individual brilliance rather than anything Coventry did wrong. They were one-off moments rather than a deeper problem, and he says plainly that those sorts of finishes don’t come along every week.

Against that, he points to real progress. Eight of the side were in the Championship last season, and they are already showing they belong at this level. That improvement is down to them, it is across the board, and it looks built to last. Put the two together and he has both halves of the Elevate Formula in a single answer.

He does not dress up the gap either. The real test now is consistency: keep doing it, and keep doing it again.

Low IDQ Quote: Enzo Maresca, Manchester City

Yeah, no, even for us, it was, I think, a good game, good performance, but unfortunately, we lost. But overall, I think we did enough, you know, to, you know, we deserve something more. But it’s football, we learn from that, and we move on.

Enzo Maresca after Aston Villa 2 – 1 Manchester City, Saturday 24 October 2026. Source: BBC Sport.

This is City’s first defeat of the season, and Maresca is calm, fair and generous about Villa. He also leaves his players with nothing to hold on to. Saying they deserved more is a fair comment on the game, and he says it three times, including as his closing line, but it tells the players nothing about what he wants from them.

He does take the blame for the opening fifteen minutes. They expected Villa to set up one way and got another, and that was his call.

After that the interview gives them little to work with. No strength of theirs is named, no behaviour to repeat, and no next step beyond learning from it and moving on. Maresca has scored 10, 8, 9, 11, 10 and 10 in the weeks before this, so he knows how to do it. Over a long season almost every team loses more often than it would like, and being a Good Loser, as the 7 Skills define it, is what builds confidence, resilience and performance.

On Identity: Régis Le Bris, Sunderland

As a manager, I’m always concerned because it’s my job. The most important is the energy of the squad because it means belief. It means consistency, it means togetherness, and this week we showed everything about that, about our identity. So now it’s a question of time, consistency as well, because to win again in the Premier League, you have to be perfect, and so still one or two steps to make to win this game.

Régis Le Bris after Sunderland 0 – 0 Leeds United, Sunday 25 October 2026. Source: BBC Sport.

Seven days earlier Le Bris scored 1 out of 12, for an interview that told his players the problem was a different one every week and hard to fix. This is the same man after a goalless draw and a winless run of six.

He names what the group is made of: energy, belief, consistency and togetherness. He calls it their identity, and he talks about it as something they already have rather than something he hopes they will grow into. He has reasons for the poor start and he will not list them, because what counts now is what is coming and the players are getting closer to their best.

The one are he doesn’t score is the step itself. Saying there are one or two steps to make is honest, but he never says what they are. His players are left without a clear next step. The other test is still ahead of him. He has handled a draw well, and a defeat is a different thing.

How the scores work

I score six things: a clear aim (Towards Outcome); player strengths (SQAs); how setbacks are explained (Adversity); confidence (Identity); practical next steps (Path); and leadership after a win, loss or draw. Each category is worth two points, giving a maximum of 12. Two points means the language clearly supports the players, one means it offers some help, and zero means it offers little help or risks undermining them.

• Good Winner: using the confidence that comes with a win to help players improve. The manager recognises what worked and gives constructive guidance about what to do better next time.
• Good Loser: helping players keep their belief after a defeat. The manager keeps the setback in perspective, reminds players of strengths they can rely on and gives them a useful next step. Explaining a loss through a specific external event can help, provided the players also hear reasons to believe they can succeed.

After a draw, I look for a balance of ambition, confidence and practical guidance. Crediting the opposition is good sportsmanship, but earns no points by itself. Scores describe the interview reviewed, rather than everything a manager says or does.

The match result has no bearing on the score in this table. A manager can build confidence after a defeat or destroy it after a victory. Honesty needs to be handled carefully. A detailed account of every weakness may be accurate, but it can leave players with less belief in themselves. The manager must retain credibility while building the players’ confidence.

Which Identity level are they addressing?

Identity is made up of the beliefs we build about ourselves over time. A manager’s words can strengthen or weaken those beliefs. We will track how each manager affects the five parts of Identity: Safety, Belonging, Esteem, Capability and Purpose. This will be recorded, although the individual levels do not receive a separate score.