winning

For me, world cup is dead – my two teams (England because of Rooney/Gerrard and Argentina because of Tevez) are out of it. I have been thinking about management lessons in football – for some time now, especially with coaches like Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson – on why they are able to maintain quality and control for so long (apart from the fact that they are managing rich clubs). Anyway here is some pseudo psychological pseudo management theory in no particular sequence – in the lines of Tom Peters et al (just finished The Little Big Things by Tom Peters) –

1.   Team that wants the ball more, goes after it, chases it, intercepts rather than waiting for it – wins. From my frustration of England giving away ball and then passively running after it.

2.   There is some sense of purpose, larger goal (defending honor as best team, underdogs on a run, pride / national glory, utter loyalty to boss, reputation as a fighter, history etc) behind winning teams. Irony is that you need to create a larger goal/story, but if you manufacture one you automatically fail. You need to believe in the story, live it and don’t even realize that you are creating the story. England did not have one and Argentina had one, but now it seems hollow.

3.   There is extra confidence, extra ability, and creativity in a team that is winning. Winning follows more winning.

4.   Winning manager is defending his team every step of the way – not barking at them. I don’t understand why Capello should continue.

5.   Respect should be there – whether that is because of ability or an iron hand will make the difference. If there is no respect, they are doomed anyway.

6.   When any one player starts to think it is okay to break rules, chaos starts. Recovery from that is difficult, often leads to the player leaving the team, which is best. Covering up problems never works (like when a player openly criticizes tactics and later says he shouldn’t have – he is clearly feeling it to the extent of opening up in public, that means something is badly broken already). Ferguson is master in this – he could let go of Beckham, Nistelrooy, Ronaldo and Tevez and still win Premier League – it takes tremendous belief in his own principles to make such a decision to let go of your star player to save the team.

7.   A player who looks frustrated game after game shows a failing manager – he couldn’t address the problem or doesn’t know/didn’t see/ignoring/trivializing. Again with Capello and Rooney in mind.

8.   Be insanely and openly passionate and principled. Your sense of purpose, ownership, commitment, desire rubs off on team.

9.   Can you win with workman-like team with a practical mentality towards winning or with one that has quality and is driven/motivated due to some higher goal? Remains to be seen with Holland.