A player of "limited ability" saves a manager of limited ability?

[Super_Ally 0]

A player of "limited ability" saves a manager of limited ability?: Time for braver management.

 

After George Burley's embarrassingly ill-thought out comments regarding Rangers' right back Kirk Broadfoot, he should be both apologising to the utility defender and thanking him. The opening line; "A player of "limited ability" saves a manager of limited ability?" was actually a text I sent to a few friends at half time in the Iceland game. How better for Kirk to shut up his detractors and throw more egg in the face of Burley for his managerial inexperience, than to come up with the opening goal in what was already a make or break game for both Scotland's World Cup hopes and for George Burley's tenure as the national team manager?

 

Some journalists actually praised Burley for his straight talking, perhaps in an attempt to prevent this creating any further distractions in the Scotland camp prior to the beginning of an increasingly important qualifying campaign. It is a shame therefore that these same journalists did not do any "straight-talking" of their own. His commments were foolish at best and showed up his inexperience for dealing with players at the highest level. However I digress.

 

My real reason for posting this is that it has reinforced a long standing belief I have that there are very few "brave" managers in modern football in this country. This is based on two major forms of decision making required by a football manager. Namely, squad and team selections and making substitutions. The situation with Broadfoot accurately sums up the first point.

 

Scotland is a small footballing nation, with fewer players at grass roots level than the larger European super-powers of football and consequently fewer world-class or elite level performers. Take out Ferguson, Hutton and maybe even the two keepers, Gordon and McGregor and we really are struggling. Consider the players comprising the squad for the Macedonia and Iceland games to illustrate this point.

 

With Alan Hutton out injured, their are few in form right backs available to Scotland of genuine quality. Burley called up just two players to cover this position. Alexander and Broadfoot. Alexander is an average journeyman-pro who is likely a beneficiary of the Berti Vogts era where caps were handed out like jelly babies. There are numerous players who recieved caps during the dark days of Vogts time. Some who even served us fairly well. However, we do have a stronger group of players now and these older stalwarts' time has come and gone.

 

Alexander is a 36 year old, Championship defender with Burnley. Whilst he perhaps once was a useful back up player in the squad, with his ageing years and a question mark over whether he ever truely was good enough for the international scene, it's time to look to players who can carry us into 2010 and beyond.

 

And this is where the lack of "bravery", as I see it, comes in. In a straight choice between Alexander and his younger, more athletic team mate, Burley went for "experience". Alexander undoubtedly has greater international experience. However, Broadfoot has played consistently for one of Europe's biggest clubs, competing in the Champions' League and even a UEFA cup final. Broadfoot is also currently playing th better football, combining solid defensive displays with a willingness to get forward that is just not possible for a man of Alexander's years.

 

Burley however, hid behind the banner of "experience". Alexander as a more senior member of the squad got the nod as he had previously been capped. Ignore the player's' ability. Ignore their current club form and the fact that one of the club's has been operating at a higher level of football including elite European competition and instead take the easy option of picking the guy who has the most caps.

 

Burley is not alone in doing this. It is a feature of management throughout Britain and perhaps across the globe. I am not advocating throwing a whole team of untested players into a team for games of such importance. But what happened to the saying "if you're good enough, you're old enough". It's not as if leaving out Alexander for Broadfoot would greatly affect experience in the squad. Not with guys like Gordon, McFadden and Fletcher who have experience of Premiership football, European football and two victories over a decent French side. Not to mention the fact that whilst Broadfoot may not have international experience he has significantly more big game experience than Alexander.

 

The other area in which many manager's show a lack of bravery is in making substitutions. Waiting until there's 6 minutes left to change a game when it's been obvious since half time that the current tactics and line up just aren't working. Expecting a striker to come on, get up to pace with the game and slot away a winning or equalising goal in the last few minutes, when the rest of the team couldn't do it in the previous 80-minutes.

 

Something also demonstrated by Burley when he waited til the last few minutes to throw Boyd on to rescue the game against Macedonia. Certainly this approach of waiting and hoping for some fluke occurence or refereeing decision to throw you a lifeline rather than taking control and trying to change the game for themself is not solely the preserve of Burley. Neither is his treatment of Boyd. Former Scotland manager McLeish was guilty of that, as is Walter Smith at Rangers.

 

If you don't trust a player to perform from the first minute and demonstrate that to the player by regularly leaving him on the bench, don't continually expect him to save your arse by doing what everyone knows they do best. Although here I'm getting into another well trodden path of arguement.

 

The only manager I know of who is prepared to change a game early when it's not going right is Jose Mourinho. In one Chelsea game in which they were 2 down at half time he made a triple substitution and they were 3-2 up midway through the second half.

 

Obviously modern football is a results business and it is the manager alone who lives and dies on the results he achieves. However I feel the success of Broadfoot and Hutton in replacing their more decorated peers (in terms of caps earned) shows that a modern football manager has to show bravery and sometimes it is necessary to put your faith in the up and coming star at the expense of the ageing journeyman.

[pete 2,499]

Well written piece ally, although i disagree that one performance of Broadfoot or any player in fact is a reason for a manager being wrong. At this moment we cannot tear Burley apart as he has not had anywhere near his strongest team. I didn't see the game tonight but from what i heard on the radio, Burley was well praised for making the changes he did and they turned out to be a winning formula. I think we need to give Burley a chance and get off his back. He has only had 3 or 4 games ffs.

[Guest damien]

Burley's team selection I'd say was spot not bad, although why he picked D.Fletcher and Maloney are beyond me. Fletcher offered nothing and Maloney kept falling on his arse trying to copy McGheadhinos trick.

[Guest lazyscot]

Enjoyed your post, and I agree with your thoughts on conservative substitution patterns these days.

 

I would also like to see Burley get a shot with his first-team squad before passing judgement, though I fear this may never occur.

 

And, I was disappointed with Fletcher's play, too. I thought he'd been one of Utd's best players this season and was hoping he could carry it over.

 

Finally, I wouldn't blame Maloney for not pulling off any moves, I hear he has limited-ability.

[Frankie 8,552]

Excellent post mate....

 

Unfortunately, the fans can often be to blame for manager's overly cautious approach. Far too many supporters - especially Rangers ones I'd contend - don't give new/young players a chance.

 

Thus it's easy for many managers to react to this by opting for tried and often not so trusted players. But I guess that's where bravery comes in. There's none braver than SAF. Smith has direct experience of that courage so he should use it.

[alexscottislegend 2,306]

Unfortunately that 'limited ability ' tag looks set to follow Kirk the rest of his career. Hearing him speak on the radio afterwards showed me that he has the perfect attitude, though. Really hope this will get the detractors off his back; doubt it though. That insult could actually turn out to be the best thing that's happened to him.

[bmck 117]

do you mind if we publish this on the front page s_a? its excellent.

[Super_Ally 0]

Well written piece ally, although i disagree that one performance of Broadfoot or any player in fact is a reason for a manager being wrong. At this moment we cannot tear Burley apart as he has not had anywhere near his strongest team. I didn't see the game tonight but from what i heard on the radio, Burley was well praised for making the changes he did and they turned out to be a winning formula. I think we need to give Burley a chance and get off his back. He has only had 3 or 4 games ffs

 

This wasn't meant merely as an attack on Burley. It's issues with footballing management in general and recent decisions by Burley made useful illustrations of my main two gripes.

 

Obviously I was pleased he made the changes for last night. However if he'd picked the team on form instead of previous caps earner perhaps things might have been different in Macedonia.

 

I think Frankie is spot on with the reason for this conservative approach to club management and obviously the intense media pressure surrounding international fixtures might account for international managers using a similar approach. However they are in the job because they are supposed to be tactically more aware and better man managers than joe public or the media and as such should be brave enough to pick their best players not their oldest/"most experienced".

 

Just to reinforce the point it's not a direct attack on Burley. Good for him getting the qualifying campaign back on track. As I say it's just that some of his recent decisions suitably highlight the issue of conservative management that has been increasingly frustrating to me over the last couple of years.

[Super_Ally 0]

do you mind if we publish this on the front page s_a? its excellent.

 

 

Feel free.

[bmck 117]

nice one!! cheers.