What Did The Manager Say?
"I prefer not to speak. If I speak I am In big trouble & I don't want to be in big trouble"
With a match every 3-days, its becoming difficult to keep up with all the narratives that involve each Premier League team, so I’ve proceeded to gather the most interesting comments from the top managers in the league to add some color to their current states. I view a manager’s public press conference comments as a very valuable tool that can be used to either motivate your players and club or to manipulate and demoralize your opposition. Let’s see how that’s working out -
Liverpool & Jurgen Klopp - “They [Brentford] stretch the rules in these moments, full-body contact. There was only one offensive foul off a set-piece tonight which was whistled and it was against us, which is really funny!”
"I know people will [say] I use it as an excuse," said Klopp. "It's not. I expect us to do better. I didn't want to play the game they wanted to play but in the end it happened like that and we have to point at ourselves and we do that 100 per cent”
No, Klopp and Liverpool did not jump into a time-machine back to 2014 to face Stoke City. If you’re familiar with Brentford’s style you’ll know these comments from Klopp are the standard cookie cutter post-Brenftord loss comments most managers would have made. Brentford is an extremely physical team that relies on causing havoc in set-pieces and winning every 50/50 duel to gain points.
The narrative at Liverpool is that Klopp’s players are in a rut and he’s going to say whatever he must say to get them out of it. Klopp doesn’t want to make excuses, winners don’t do that, so he’ll remind you why its so difficult to play against Brentford without confusing the callout as praise for the opposition; and then he’ll take responsibility. This is a softer approach than publicly asking his players to bring more to the game. A loss against Brentford isn’t worth rocking the boat but at some point Liverpool is going to need to turn up.
Tottenham & Antonio Conte - “I want to be honest, I want to be very clear,” Conte said. “I have said this to the club, I have said my opinions. The fans deserve the best. Maybe to stay in fifth is the best. Maybe sixth, seventh, fifth or fourth is the best.”
Conte is a manager who’s received much praise on this program for his ability to instill a discipline and identity in his team that although might not translate to pretty football, it has been proven to grind out points.
However, with these comments, Conte has made an ultimatum decision. He has forgone on motivating the players at his disposable and instead is challenging his board to make signings with the threat of total bust otherwise.
I’m onboard with the substance of Conte’s comments, I had pegged Spurs with a top 4 finish but that was before seeing that Newcastle would lose half as many games as Man City (Newcastle has 1 loss) at this stage in the season.
The narrative at Tottenham is sign players in the January window or accept Europa League football. Conte should be doing better, he’s not getting the best out of his players like Eddie Howe is but the threat of a 7th place finish indicates he’s maxed out the potential of the squad as its built and unless improved, it may be time for him to go.
Chelsea & Graham Potter - “Credit Nottingham Forest,” he said. “They are here [in the Premier League] for the first time in ages, celebrating everything, and rightly so. They have to use their advantages, which is the environment, the crowd.”
“I think we stood up today though. The effort was there. But away from home teams are not going to make it easy. [Opposing] players are asking [to exchange] shirts and we have to be humble enough to know that’s what we’re up against. [I’d] run through a brick wall to say: ‘I am going to be good enough to play for Chelsea.’”
Graham Potter is struggling to revive and reenergize Chelsea since his takeover from Tuchel and in this 1-1 draw vs Nottingham Forest he’s gone the route of praising the opposition so as to lift his team’s morale. Graham Potter is trying to build self-esteem in his Chelsea players by telling them that Forest’s ability to increase their motivation levels and over-perform against them was because they faced you, Chelsea.
The narrative at Chelsea is that Potter needs to turn things around ASAP or he’ll be sacked. Unlike Conte, Chelsea fans believe reinforcements and new signings are close, some have already been completed, so its up to the manager to lift the morale and playing style otherwise someone else will need to come in and do that.
Manchester United & Erik Ten Hag - “Everyone has to match the standards and the rules. You have to be consequent and thats what I expect on the pitch, otherwise you can’t be successful.”
"In the first half, you analyse the game but sometimes things do not work as expected. Wolves did not create many chances and we did but you have to be sharp. I was not happy at half-time and I told them with this attitude they will not win this game and everyone had to give 10% more."
Erik Ten Hag has developed a bit of a straight-shooter reputation at Manchester United. As a testament to Ten Hag, I had the upmost confidence that he would handle the situation in an expert manner when the on-form and current star player Marcus Rashford had to be dropped from the starting lineup due to disciplinary reasons.
Maybe it’s because Manchester United won this game that Ten Hag can make the public comments that he asked his players for more effort. Maybe if Manchester United had lost then Ten Hag would have credited Wolves’ effort? Or maybe he would have gotten involved in a spat with the referee for a disallowed Marcus Rashford 2nd goal?
The narrative at Manchester United is that Ten Hag doesn’t beat around the bush, he addresses the concerns dead-on and treats his players like professionals. Ten Hag is clear in his message, you get what you put in, so let’s put everything into this.
Arsenal & Mikel Arteta - "We knew the result [of the Manchester City game], but the boost is we have to come here and win, and to do that we have to perform at the highest level in this league. Tonight we had to have a big performance to win against a really good Brighton side. We had to dig in as well.”
"[We have] a lot of things to improve, especially in defending moments. We still have room to improve."
Slowly but surely, the idea that Arsenal will win the league title is settling across Premier league fans’ minds, as it must be within the playing squad as well. This means that Mikel Arteta’s biggest challenge for the remainder of the season is simply managing expectations.
Arteta knows who his best starting XI is. He knows what his players are good at and what they struggle with. He understands how to put each individual and more importantly, the team, in a football-situation that they can be successful in. But can he keep their heads in the game? Can he ensure his players maintain the same intensity and focus every single 3 days against all forms of opposition?
The narrative at Arsenal is take it one game at a time. From now until May, Arteta is going to hammer home the old cliché until captain Ødegaard has the Prem trophy in both hands lifted high above his head.
Manchester City & Pep Guardiola - “They [Everton] made a fantastic goal with the first shot on target they had, so we played a real real good game. Of course the result was not expected but that is football, it is not the first time it happened. We did everything to win. They played really well.”
“Afterwards they broke a bit the rhythm because the referees were not ready but, in general, we did everything and unfortunately could not win.”
Remember Graham Potter’s play of trying to praise the opposition so as to lift the morale of his own players? Remember Klopp’s play of not making excuses but still mentioning the ref-excuses? Pep has gone with a classic hybrid play here.
Pep was not going to praise Everton’s performance, why would he when he was not impressed, but he’ll credit them for the fantastic goal and he’ll take a little shot at the referee too.
The narrative at Manchester City is that the team is not worried that they’re not top of the league but they’re not really sure why they’re not. The team is playing well, at times you could say they’re playing the most beautiful and cutthroat football across the league, but for reasons that seem to change from week to week, they are 7points off Arsenal at the top. What are they waiting for to pick it up?