What makes a good international manager ?

[Virosh]

Watching England crash out of the World Cup against Germany and now watching Argentina demolish Mexico, it makes me wonder if managerial ability on a club level translates into success on the international level. England today were managed by one of the most successful managers in the world in the past 20 years, yet have looked shackled and unmotivated for large parts of the tournament. Germany are managed by someone with a decidedly poor record on a club level, yet today some of the play they showed was beyond world-class. Argentina are beating opposition easily, scoring for fun and look like they are enjoying their game; led by a manager, who in his club career of 23 games has won a total of 3. Scolari famously won the world cup in 2002 and then went on to make Portugal a very formidable opponent. Well, we all know what happened after that.

What if the skills necessary to be good in those games are not the same skills that make a good club manager? It is different, it must be different, to motivate and organise 11 players who play with each other no more than 10 games a year, but who play against each other around 40 games a year. What if the role of the international manager is not to drill his players to exhaustion and hold them to a strict game plan, but to find a way to let them express themselves; not to devise new ways to organise them on the field, but to find a system that suits his best players and work with it. (In our greatest international success in USA 94, Bulgaria famously took it easy before the quarterfinal against the then-champions Germany, who were breaking their backs in training.) The way games are played, you won't have the sheer time to teach these dogs new tricks - in a week they'll be back to their familiar setting of club football and the tricks will be eagerly forgotten.

There have been exceptions to the rule - as every good budding rule-maker will tell you - Lippi, Rehhagel and Hiddink have all enjoyed success at both stages. But I'd argue they're not an exception. In all likelihood, they have managed to adapt their ideas from the rigorous demands of every-day club training to the less strict atmosphere of international management.

Maybe what England have needed is not the disciplinarian in Capello, but the charismatic in Scolari, not the coy in Eriksson, but the flamboyant in Maradona.

Edited June 27, 2010 by Virosh

[Katon]

Steve McClaren would be another example - he's not exactly on the level of Capello as a club manager, but he's certainly better than his England results would suggest.

I think that the limited pool of available players also makes a huge difference. At club level if you want a good defensive midfielder you can sign one; at international level, you can choose between Owen Hargreaves' crutches and Gareth Barry, and then you get to figure out what to do for a keeper.

[Spiller86]

Steve McClaren would be another example - he's not exactly on the level of Capello as a club manager, but he's certainly better than his England results would suggest.

I think that the limited pool of available players also makes a huge difference. At club level if you want a good defensive midfielder you can sign one; at international level, you can choose between Owen Hargreaves' crutches and Gareth Barry, and then you get to figure out what to do for a keeper.

About halfway through the first half last night when Barry was passing terribly and just being a general screwup, I remembered just how good Hargreaves was in 2006, obviously since then he has settled for being a Manc and has spent most of his time in the knee specialists office, but no way he would have let Ozil have the space he had last night.

Furthermore, at least Parker would have had the common sense to foul Ozil when he got away on the break for that last goal. Can't believe some have suggested Barry played well last night, he was the worst on the park. At least Rooney didn't do anything to do anything wrong, Barry just had an absolute nightmare.

[Nibs]

What makes a good international manager?

I think having a good grasp of said countries language would help (is actually a MUST).

Capello is a great coach, but I think this world cup confirmed once again that foreign coaches running international teams is an absolute no no. It may well work at club level (when the team will consist of many different nationalities anyway) but it doesn't work in internationals. I know that is only part of the problem. The deep lying problem is our squad of players is just not good enough, but I do think someone like Redknap would have got more out of them in this competition and in fact he would be my choice to take over with immediate effect.

[Dorset]

A panacea for the ‘English malaise’ at international level, so evident in the failure of the so-called ‘golden generation‘, was never more obvious than in the immediate aftermath of the game against Germany. No sooner had the bookies installed Roy and Harry as favourites to succeed an expensive Italian as National Scapegoat than a best of both worlds answer to England’s problems flashed into my mind in somewhat bizarre riddling guise. Answer me this - who in FA football land is not English, but is universally accepted as the foundling father when it comes to our beautiful game? Who in FA football land, where there appears to be no time to spare in the headlong rush towards failure, is always given unlimited time to succeed? And who, when installed in FA football land, would understand their little foibles better than they understand them themselves?

Yes, you’ve guessed it, Arsene Wenger has to be appointed the next England manager because, after trying every trickster from the turnip, running, bonking and umbrella men, it is time to turn to the Emirates everyman. Just think of the benefits…

a] undeniable in-the-palm-of-the-hand control of the British press and Media in general (especially a forever fawning BBC) that in future will guarantee acceptance of murderous results abroad instead of merely condoning them in the Premiership.

b] apart from Theo and any young gang of troublemakers he may be part of, complete freedom from preconceived ideas on the ability [or otherwise] of current England squad players or their various cliques. Arsene’s total lack of familiarity with any them at club level brings a whole new meaning to the words clean slate for Le Professor.

c] unlimited length of honeymoon period in office - a certainty by virtue of there being no need for tangible signs of success other than a symbolic transference of his style of football into the FA mindset.

d] already intimate knowledge of the training ground facilities and also access to a vast scouting network that in an instant can be diverted from the poorest regions of France and North Africa to similar areas up’t north… maybe even into deepest Liverpool too.

Convinced? Whether you are or not, I’m sure there are loads of Arsenal fans who can see the advantages, not least in terms of solving a problem that, for them, had seemed insolvable over the last five years. During that time Arsene’s feet had always been too firmly dug in under the table for him to consider moving on, but now he is nowhere near the permanent fixture he once was. Just don’t tell the FA why this should be and we might all have the perfect solution to everyone’s problems.

[coco]

What makes a good international manager ?

Communication is vital.

[PloKoon13]

Not playing 4-4-2 against a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 full of technically skilled players is probably a start.

I don't care where he's from, there's no excuse for a tactical blunder like that.

Edited June 29, 2010 by PloKoon13

[Plavi26]

It's a really interesting question, especially when you look at the results and pedigree of many of the managers that are/are not successful on International stage. I recently started watching the documentary series History of Football that came out in 2001, and most of the international managers seem to be less concentrated on the way tactics play out in a game, but more toward forming the players and staff to bond together and communicate together. The managers need to have total control over the selection and how they pan out things, because the same generation of players will have success for a certain number of years then fade away, the idea is gelling that same generation of players and plan ahead on who can be removed for the better of team unity rather then individual pedigree.

Maybe the best answer on the European scene, especially for England where the pond of good talent is greater then world class talent, is the idea of "total football" that was played by the Bulgarians/Holland/Germany in the past. A team of decent players that can shift positions without much problem, therefor able to cover for teammates going into attack.

England lacked many things this time around:

1) The players didn't seem to gel at all. Each and everyone had a different agenda where the main goal was to upper his image then to help out the national team.

2) Communication between the players seem to be inexistent, and the off pitch problems did nothing to improve an already alarming situation.

3) The media and FA had an influence on the team, Cappello seemed weak in front of the pressure. (I think Jose's mentality that it's "us" against the world would make wonders for England)

4) The formation was too easy to break down for lower opposition, so why apply it against stronger sides?

5) Calling up players out of form, past their prime and mostly the merry-go-round captaincy issue was a complete joke, and to do so right before a major tournament is even worst. (this also brings us back to point 1-2 and 3)

Anyway those are my two cents.

[aliboy66]

jose mourinho

[charierre]

He must have the ability to galvanise together individuals ...many of whom are considered 'top dog' within their own clubs.....and mould them into a team with a good work ethic. Being prepeared to leave those out that don't fit the bill.

He must be able to converse openly with the media and convince them of what are achievable goals.

He must be tactically aware and able to compete at the highest level

He must be the same nationality as the team he is managing and instill in the team a sense of national pride

He must have a lot of good luck

[PloKoon13]

He should tell the media to shove it and let him do his job. If I was England manager I think the highlight of my job would be to act like a complete dick to the media. That and telling Jamie Carragher he'd never wear an England shirt again.

[Randy36]

Any good manager is one who empathises with his team and is looked upon as a father figure. Sadly in England's case Capello was dealing with a bunch of prima donnas who had difficulty in comprehending their places in the "pecking order". Sure Capello made mistakes but let's face it the team thought they were better than they really are. I would love to know what Capello really thinks of this bumch of over-hyped prima donnas. I would hazard a guess it would be less than complimentary!

[PloKoon13]

Any good manager is one who empathises with his team and is looked upon as a father figure. Sadly in England's case Capello was dealing with a bunch of prima donnas who had difficulty in comprehending their places in the "pecking order". Sure Capello made mistakes but let's face it the team thought they were better than they really are. I would love to know what Capello really thinks of this bumch of over-hyped prima donnas. I would hazard a guess it would be less than complimentary!

I'd like to know what the England players really think of their arrogant and tactically useless prick of a manager too.

[dkw]

Your all looking to much into this. The answer is simply one who wins games.

[icecoolguy22]

A good international mananger needs to get the best out of his player resources, he needs to be flexible to get the best performance in a konck out competition. This is the area Capello let England down, played a system where his best players adapt to new positions , and ultimately failed. I'm not sure motivational skill is a huge factor, it's not the same as club football where players have to play 50 games in 10 months, to the extent they drag themselves onto the filed to play in summer heat or on in -5 chill. Respect is a huge factor, we have seen what happened to the French team.

[heckel]

1) needs to play the best team for the job and not the most renowned star players.

2) practice a f**k load of set pieces.

3) good fitness coach

4) devil-may-care attitude in relation to players/media/nation's FA

5) fluency in the mother-tongue

6) read the writing on the wall in games, and CHANGE the formation if it's not going well. No second chances.