Football is a numbers game. And numbers usually provide a likely possibility for football manager analysis and other bits of information. The coach is usually the architect of a team’s performance since the coach is in charge of both players and support staff. Numbers don’t necessarily mean that it’s all about home and away wins, number of shots on target, goals scored, and corners taken.
What about manager’s numbers? Experienced bettors look for injured or benched players (due to previous red card bookings). They also look at how a coach performs under difficult situations when their top player is injured and usually the behaviour of each coach and their consistency with previous records.
Habits are difficult to change in a human being. Since habits bring out the character of a specific coach and usually the most loved coach by teams has easy time getting results from players than an arrogant or disliked coach. So this begs a key question-football manager’s stats are they useful or useless? This is so common question a question that we wiill break down today.
The Manager’s Stats
Football manager’s stats as a topic discussed by majority of punters with each bringing out a favourite coach and defending them with previous records on wins/losses. In the football world, the managers stats are useful but in some situations such information is not at all of any use.
A good manager doesn’t impose a philosophy but works with what he has to bring out a high performance team and the transition can be slow in cases whereby a new manager tries to impose a personal philosophy. There are some who believe judging a manager on numbers is being unfair. Well this may be true since some parameters are not added and the final decision on picking manager is incomplete.
Some of the parameters include; how a player’s performance under a manager while also taking into account a number of factors like pitch condition, quality of teammates and pitch condition. What we are doing here involving all the parameters is simply trying to get a feel of the coaches’ decision, like why a rarely benched top player is not involved in specific match, Why is a coach is substituting a striker with a defender and so forth. These are the common questions asked and such uncountable parameters helps in better decision making.
Game Plan Changes
Top managers like Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane all have different game plans and usually adapt as the match progress. They introduce different game plans practiced in training and despite being the architect it all depends on the players abilities to follow the directions well. Uncooperative players are usually benched since the coach requires the game plan to work as one unit and not an individual.
Pre-match and post-match interviews usually brings out the coaches reasons for making a specific decision. A few number of coaches have been known to take responsibility for losses and congratulating the team for wins. It’s also right to say that when top managers lock horns in a match there is a difference in gaming style and sometimes this may work or fail.
Since each manager understands the other well, it may be difficult to win with normal game plans and therefore deploying new tricks can decide the match winner.
Information to keep in mind
The below stats provided can help in decision making since you are better positioned and you also get a better understanding of managers game plan. However, you also need to include other bits of information to narrow down all possibilities and avoiding random information in your predictions. Look out for the following info:
- Both scored and conceded number of goals
This information brings out the manager’s game plan. Is here playing defensive or offensive? Numbers usually provide an almost accurate final prediction and is viewed to be reliable.
- Home and Away results
Here we look at home performance in front of supportive fans and away records. Pitch atmosphere affects the games tempo with a hostile fan environment may affect player’s performance compared to a friendly atmosphere.
- Draws percentage for home and away matches.
An average of draws for home and away matches provides a general idea. But with supportive information like player injuries can affect the final outcome.
- Winning margin
Does the coach continue offensive attacks with a goal margin? Average winning goal margin? And losing margin records also show a managers and team’s attitude. Look for managers who pressure players to increase the winning margin and also the minimum margin of goals.
- Percentage of disappointments
First half losses and the average comebacks. The manager’s stats on number of comebacks provide information on the coach and some managers are known to be aggressive during the second half. The never give up spirit of managers and players can change a disappointment in the earlier minutes into a win.
- Average scoring minute
Do teams score early or later on during the game? An average number shows the possible outcome and teams are usually more motivated during the second half after the 15 minute break. The numbers help us get a possibility without basing all decisions on luck only but real numbers, which translates to better chances of winning.
- Half time results
Aggressive offensive attacks usually are motivated by a favourite team to win being a goal down and can’t afford to lose such a crucial such motivation results in more goals being scored and the opponent manager may decide to defend such a slim lead. Such decisions may result in the leading team conceding more goals since there aim is defending.
- Super subs
In difficult matches a top player may be benched as a tactic by the coach only to substituted in the dying minutes and give the team a winning goal. Managers usually consider players fatigue, motivation and general performance.
In conclusion, information acquired from managers stats can be important in the decision-making process and you may also require other bits of information, to get a credible possibility in order to win. Football Manager Analysis is considered to be time consuming but it’s worth it at the end.
