Premier Managers Revealed: Matchweek 6

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.

Marco Rose is up three places in a week his side lost 5-1, which tells you how little the scoreline matters here. Roberto De Zerbi and Xabi Alonso are up two. Régis Le Bris and Álvaro Arbeloa are down two. Andoni Iraola scored four out of twelve at Anfield, the lowest single score the table has recorded, and he was calm and polite throughout.

Quote of the Week: Fabian Hürzeler

Sunderland 0–2 Brighton & Hove Albion

We are known for scoring goals, we are known for playing nice football. But I always wanted to emphasise, we don’t want to be this nice club anymore. We want to be a team that plays also effective football and that was a good start today.

I sound a little old school but there’s an old phrase, ‘defence wins championships’. We’re not speaking about championships, don’t get me wrong, but defence wins also games.

If we keep working hard for this and if everyone understands, ‘okay I need to work hard no matter if I’m a striker, a winger, offensive midfielder, I have responsibility, I need to take ownership to defend my own goal’. I think then you can have these kind of performances and that’s what my team did today.

Hürzeler starts that answer with Brighton’s reputation and then takes it off them. They’re known for scoring goals and playing nice football, and he says the nice club is finished. On its own, a team that plays effective football would just be a slogan, so two answers later he says what it means for an actual player. Whatever you are, striker, winger, offensive midfielder, you own the job of defending your own goal. A winger can do something with that on Monday morning. And a clean sheet with ten men at the Stadium of Light is the proof that makes it stick. Most clubs would settle for being called nice. He’s decided it’s getting in the way.

Breakdown: Towards 2 · SQAs 2 · Adversity 2 · Identity 2 · Path 2 · Good Winner* 2 · 12/12

Source: Sussex Express post-match press conference, and Brighton & Hove Albion.

Low IDQ Quote of the Week: Andoni Iraola

Liverpool 0–3 Manchester City

I think the first foul of Ryan is never a yellow card – never. This kind of game, just a stomp in the big toe or something like minor. He [the referee] doesn’t even call the foul straight away – he lets it go. I think Elliot Anderson does a couple of steps, he decides to go down. I don’t know why after he shows the yellow card because it’s not a situation where he leaves an advantage. We had nine players behind the ball, it was in the middle of the pitch, no danger there.

But I think the players deserve credit today because I think they’ve given everything.

I think also the supporters have been fantastic today – fantastic before, during, after.

Iraola is calm here and he’s specific, and he might well be right about the first yellow. He protects his players and thanks the crowd, which counts for something. The problem is where it leaves them. Everything that explains a 3-0 defeat at Anfield is handed to the referee, and in the whole press conference he never says what Liverpool got wrong that they could fix. Given everything is praise for effort, and effort is all they walk out with. The Elevate Formula wants the problem sitting outside the players and a strength of theirs sitting beside it. Iraola has done the first bit and not the second, so a dressing room goes home pointing at a man they’ll never be able to influence.

Breakdown: Towards 0 · SQAs 1 · Adversity 1 · Identity 1 · Path 0 · Good Loser* 1 · 4/12

Source: Liverpool FC post-match press conference.

Special Attention: Roberto De Zerbi

Manchester United 1–1 Tottenham Hotspur

I kissed Rodrigo and I said thanks, because it’s clear – it’s a mistake from Rodrigo, because it’s not the right reaction in football, but now Tottenham needs to react. Sometimes the reactions are not nice, not positive for the team, but I think in that moment, in 10 players, maybe we played with more courage, we played with more energy and we changed the game, and from a long time Tottenham played without this blood, this character. Now I am the coach and I want to see this character every game, because Manchester United in the second half showed character.

Now the target is to build the team, not the group of the players. We are a great group of players, but we are not a team yet. Today, this game, we show to be a team.

He kissed the player who’d just been sent off and thanked him, and in the same sentence he called it a mistake. So the red card stays Bentancur’s one moment, and what came out of it, the blood and the character, becomes the standard for every week after this. He says straight out that Tottenham have gone without it for a long time. Then he tells a squad that cost a fortune that it isn’t a team yet, which is a hard thing to hear, and it works because he follows it with what being a team actually involves. He gives Manchester United credit for showing the same in the second half, so the standard is about behaviour any side can produce. He scored six in Matchweek 1 and twelve here, the biggest rise in the ledger.

Breakdown: Towards 2 · SQAs 2 · Adversity 2 · Identity 2 · Path 2 · Draw Leadership 2 · 12/12

Source: Tottenham Hotspur, every word of the post-match press conference.

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.