by Carson, Mike
Mancini had made a fair start, with City finishing fifth. But for his first full season in charge he started shaping the team in his image: ‘In the summer when I changed players, and bought players that were for me good players, that month we start to work on their mentality and their attitude.’ There’s that word again – mentality – the mindset of commitment and hard work. Mancini attributes it in large part to his small-club origins: ‘I had always this mentality even when I was a player and I wanted to play always to win. And from my colleagues too I wanted 100 per cent because only by this can you arrive on the target. I didn’t always play for a top team – this was my choice because I wanted to play for 15 years for Sampdoria and then three years for Lazio. I started playing for Bologna when I was young, but they were all small teams and with these teams who never won, we won everything. And I learnt this: that if you are in a small team and if you want to win, you work hard and you can do everything. Also if you are not the top team, it is important that you have players with good mentality – that you have teammates who say they want to win, they want to work, to improve.’
Mancini’s early work paid off: he managed to shift the mindset of the squad, and City’s trophy drought ended with the FA Cup. In Mancini’s view, that was a turning point: ‘I think we changed our mentality after the FA Cup. We started to believe in ourselves. When you arrive in a club that has not been winning, you need to win one title. It’s not important [if it’s the] FA Cup or Carling Cup – it’s important to start. When you start to win, the mentality changes. And the players are human beings – if every day you work hard and if you still don’t achieve your goals after one or two years the players can go down. If instead you work hard and in the end you win a title, your job becomes easier. It is never easy to do this job; but when you win your car is full, everybody is with you. When you lose you are alone.’
Preparation is everything
Football matches themselves are intense bursts of activity in the flow of the work that the manager, staff and players do together over weeks and months. Getting the pacing right is all-important. Mancini’s approach is to even out the workload: ‘Before the game we spend a lot of time together. I believe you should work every day during the week to prepare the game, because the day of the game the players have pressure. Usually I speak ten minutes with the players before the game and maybe another five minutes in the dressing room. The day of the game I don’t think they need a lot of this because if you are a good manager you explain everything during the week on the training ground.’
In the run-up to the match, one of the manager’s tasks is to help his players into the right frame of mind for their burst of high performance. Much of the preparation is personal. Glenn Hoddle recalls his own preparation as a player, involving getting detached, listening to music and using visualisation techniques. Then he’d drive to the ground, visualising how he was going to play. Where his manager really helped him was in two areas: guidance on his tactical role on the team, and helping him to stay positive: ‘I would also have to think about positive things. You can learn from your negatives, of course, but people don’t learn enough from their positives. As a player and as people we always analyse when we play bad or when something goes bad. We don’t analyse enough when things are going really well – we take that for granted. I’ve found with experience how to deal with those fears and those anxieties I had when I was younger, and I’ve tried to hand that on to my players as a coach and get them to learn that early. If you haven’t played that well in a match – well, there must have been one or two things that you did well because you are back in the team again. So, an hour before kick-off, focus on the strengths that you have got and learn from the good things that happen to you. Grasp hold of them, then step back into the arena and play again.’
Hope Powell reinforces both Mancini’s view of the flow of preparation and Hoddle’s commitment to the positives. She adds to that a clear message of ownership: ‘We have meetings every day with players where I give them ownership. We do a lot of group work, scenarios, what happens if? what would you do if? We have a lot of unit meetings – the back four and the goalkeeper, the midfield and the front three – and for each unit we ask what’s your role within the overall philosophy? Then I get them to share it with each other. What I am trying to do more and more is get the players to own their performances rather than leaving it all to the manager. They own the game. Then when we’re leaving for the stadium, it’s just about reinforcing the work that we’ve done in training: a gentle reminder of what the job is, remember what we’re good at, remember what we can do, what your role is, what your responsibilities are.’
One thing the managers all point to is de-emphasising the Big Event. All the preparation is done before. The well-prepared team arrives at the field of play confident in its ability to deal with whatever comes. Such a team has no need for pre-match hype; they are professionals, out to do their job to the best of their very considerable ability.
The Training Ground
Training is not just about honing footballing skills. At Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti built great rapport with the players through the professional setting of the training ground: ‘I gave to the players all my experience, everything because I found a fantastic group. The English players were the symbol of the team: Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Terry – they are great professionals. The English players surprised me because on the pitch they are really professional. Outside the pitch I don’t know, but on the pitch nothing compares, not the French or Italians, because you have to push the French to work hard. The same is true with the Italian players – you have to push them too. The English you have to push to stop! I felt really good about the group, we had a very good relationship.’
Brendan Rodgers accepts the implied compliment to English footballers, and builds on that on his own training ground: ‘The English players have a will, and that goes back to part of my philosophy, about integrating into their football their other qualities. Decision-making is the big one. I build their decision-making capabilities. We practise this. Get intelligence working alongside that natural fight, that willingness the English player has, and you get a big player.’
The training ground is an ideal environment for building the team and for the manager to assess the quality and state of his players. Many issues can be addressed and opinions formed. Howard Wilkinson found a need to address head-on a poor behaviour before a match: ‘I had a player who didn’t like doing set pieces in training. Every time we were practising them he would be mucking about. So one morning I went out with a ball with his name on it and said, “Here you are – this is your own ball – you go and play with that, and we’ll get on with this!” I wanted to keep it light, but give him a clear message: what you are doing is at the expense of everyone else. Carry on doing it by all means, but understand that while you may think it’s funny, it’s actually disrespectful. We’ve all actually said that there are certain common goals and common ways of doing things and processes that we think have to be there, and we have committed to them. We all agreed that this is the best way to do it, so you are being disrespectful of your teammates.’ And did it work? ‘Just about. There was a laugh because he had got what he wanted, but he was suddenly not with the team. He wanted his own way, but he wanted to be included too. At least we got to a greater awareness.’
Sam Allardyce uses the training ground as a place to build on what’s going well. ‘I do put my hand on the shoulder of a player and have a conversation when times are tough – just like my managers used to do with me when I was playing. But it’s even more important to say, “You are playing really, really well – don’t start slipping up! I don’t want to be coming to you when things go bad, don’t let them go bad.” I tell them don’t start practising when it’s too late. Most players start practising when they are going bad. Practise while it’s going well, because it’s easier then.’
Training is about preparation on every front: both skills and mindsets can be
assessed and addressed. Neil Warnock vividly remembers his first encounter with a player whose position was unclear, but whose mindset was excellent. ‘Craig Short was at Scarborough when I started there. He was a bank clerk earning a small wage and he had such a great attitude. I was only a young manager then. They told me he was a right-winger and I played him everywhere: right-winger definitely not, midfield definitely not, striker definitely not. One game I told him, “Look, you’ve played everywhere else – just go and play centre half.” He was marking Peter Withe, who was one of the top players at the time, playing briefly in the reserve team at Birmingham. I told Craig to mark him, wherever he went: “Just go with him everywhere. If he gets subbed, you go down the tunnel with him.” He was all over him like a rash, and after about 20 minutes Peter came over to the bench and said can someone get this so-and-so off my back! In the end he made a great career out of it – and he’s such a superb lad as well. To see people like that, that’s what makes me proud.’ Warnock stuck with a player whose mindset was ideal, and coached him through the technical challenges.
Football managers are at home on the training ground. We’d expect that. For the former players especially, it is a second home. The great football leaders push themselves and their team on the training ground, and fashion team spirit, character and a winning mindset.
Team selection
When Ancelotti played for Fabio Capello at Milan, he got angry with his manager for leaving him out of the team. ‘He took me out. I didn’t play and I didn’t understand the reason because I wanted to play, and I was really angry with him. Capello told me, “One day you will understand, you will be a manager.” And when I became a manager I understood that it’s not easy.’
Team selection – picking those who will start, those who will be on the bench and those who will not appear – is one of the toughest tests of a manager’s leadership. Few if any find it an easy task. Mancini is no different: ‘It is difficult because if you are a player you know that when the manager says we need to play [in this particular way] that you will be on the bench. This is my worst moment as a manager because I understand their feelings in that moment and this is difficult. I would like to change this, but until they change the rules to play with 14 or 15 players then 11 players will be happy, the other players will be upset. If you are a top club you have maybe 20 top players and I think that moment can be difficult.’ Mancini feels this keenly. David Platt recalls the dream situation where City had a settled, winning 11 for the six-match run-in to their title in 2012. A dream on paper – but a real pain for the leader. ‘He really does not enjoy having to leave players out. That run of games meant that good players were on the sidelines, and that gave him great personal concern.’ But when Mancini finds the winning mentality he so keenly seeks in his players, his selection task becomes less painful. Kolo Touré was not always a first-choice defender under Mancini, but he does embody the winning mindset. He reflects: ‘It’s not easy to not always be the one who is picked by the manager. But my attitude is always to keep going and give 100 per cent, and put pressure on the manager to give me time to play as well.’
Actually playing – bringing their skills, capabilities and flair to the big stage – is probably the greatest single motivator for true professionals. The top managers agree that this dwarfs the question of money for pretty much everyone. And it is the very mindset that Mancini promotes at all levels of his squad: the desire to play, the desire to win. Small wonder then that there is a disconnect when players are asked to take a back seat, however temporary. And with a squad of more than 20 players vying for 11 starting places, it is a leadership challenge. How then do the managers deal with it?
Most football managers do three things. The first is to be up front, clear and personal – without prejudicing team morale. Mick McCarthy tells people individually, but picks his moment carefully: ‘If I’m leaving a player out I speak to him and tell him. I never pin a team sheet up or anything like that. It’s a horrible one for them, but at least they are getting it from me. They all prefer to be told. I’ve never done any different. I’ve never shied away. I may have left someone off a subs’ bench, but the subs get named just before the kick-off. If you tell the subs prior to the game, that will have affected them completely, so you need every one of the 20 to know they have a chance of being involved. The 11 starters will know either Thursday or Friday, so you get some of them feeling a bit disenchanted, but if you tell any of the rest of them they aren’t going to be playing at all then they will come along heads down and that’s unsettling for everyone else. Some will have an inkling, but they don’t know. You have to keep everyone involved.’
Alex McLeish adds to that the need to be discreet with the modern football professional: ‘At Aberdeen we would sit and have a pre-match meal and then we would watch Football Focus on the television. Archie Knox [the assistant manager] would come and tap somebody on the shoulder and say, “Gaffer wants a word with you.” This would be about 1 p.m. before going to the stadium and you knew as soon as you got that tap on the shoulder, that’s me dropped. It was fine for us, and Alex [Ferguson] was great – but I’ve found it really awkward in recent years trying to do it that way because all the players know, and I know that the modern-day guy is extremely sensitive. One or two players at Birmingham wanted me to tell them on the Friday – anything, but not getting that tap on the shoulder in front of their colleagues. After a few times, some players would even find the one-on-one approach disconcerting, when I thought I was giving them great respect. I now use the tap on the shoulder for other things like a tactical change – but for team selection I try and mix it up a bit to keep them on their toes.’
The second thing is to engage the players in the reasoning. This is not about consensus decision-making, nor about a leader justifying himself. It is about treating players like the adults they are, and cutting them in on your thinking. Many of today’s managers have learned from less-than-perfect experiences as players. Glenn Hoddle recalls: ‘When I was a player, I hated getting left out and not told why. Too many managers do that. So when I became a manager, I always told people why – even if it was just a quick word. Then I’d say, “If you want to talk more, come and see me on Monday after the game.” Lots of them did come. In fact if he didn’t come, I would have a question mark over his appetite!’ In short: a leader needs to be transparent with his people. If a leader has integrity, he has no reason to fear being open, and Hoddle’s invitation to his people to ‘find out more’ earned him considerable respect among his players.
The third thing is to work with the players who are left out. Hoddle believes there are times when managing the ones that aren’t playing is more important even than working with the ones who are. ‘When I had a team I used to ask them which is the most important team: is it the one that starts the game or the one that finishes the game?’ Games can be won or lost by the substitutes – they are very, very important people. And the ones that are out of the team remain crucial to team spirit – and might be tomorrow’s first choice. So in the World Cup in France, we did everything to make the players who weren’t selected feel part of the team – that at any given moment they could be called on – and they had a part to play in winning the World Cup.’
Selecting the best 11 for a given day is a technical, knowledge-based skill. Knowing your own mind, communicating your choices, and inspiring the rest of the squad to continue to give their all day after day – this is a real test of leadership.
The half-time team talk
The half-time team talk is the stuff of legend in football because of its potential to change the course of the game. Most fans will be able to point to the time their team staged an extraordinary turnaround – or suffered a reverse in the second half – but fans cannot really know what goes on during those few crucial minutes.
Half-time emotions can run high, but more often it is a practical session, an opportunity for the manager to communicate clearly with the players in an oasis of calm befo
re 45 more minutes of intensity. Mancini is honest about the variability of the talk: ‘You can have different situations depending on the score, depending on the performance and whether we made a lot of mistakes, and depending maybe also on my confidence at that moment.’ Regardless of the content though, his players know to expect a standard pattern: ‘During half-time it is important for the players to have a 10-minute rest and to recover because they spend a lot of energy. After, we talk for five minutes on specifics, tactics for the second half.’ It’s interesting – though unsurprising – that Mancini’s focus is clearly on the needs of the players: hearing their experience and offering them rest.
Most managers make time for encouragement – for the whole team and for individuals. Hoddle would always finish on the positives, making sure they walked up the tunnel with a positive mindset. As he candidly admits, ‘Sometimes as a footballer they switch off during a talk – the last thing that they hear is probably the only thing they remember.’ Mick McCarthy agrees: ‘Sometimes I just encourage a player at half-time – say something on the way out, just a little word to say how much you love him, I guess. That’s what we do. You have to. One of my philosophies is love them for what they bring to the party, try and make them better, practise, but you actually bring them in and love them for what they’ve got, don’t loathe them for what they haven’t got.’
Of course, there are times when tough love is the right approach – and some characters respond well to a stern word. Martin Jol admits he can become ‘autocratic’ if the situation merits: ‘I can remember being really angry in the dressing room when I think we [Spurs] were 2-0 or 3-0 down away to Middlesbrough. The second half we came back to 3-3, so it helped. But if you do that all the time, I think it loses its impact on players.’
