Benitez' attitude - Man-management
Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:17 am
ive been thinking a lot about our great leaders of the past and each of their differing psychological approaches to their players welfare. (obviously a generalisation that is of little substance to us, other than the purpose of discussion) someone mentioned in another thread the name 'Roy Evans' in the context of his personality-and not his technical acumen- which inspired me to go down this path in the pursuit of some understanding of Rafa Benitez and his own methods applied in handling the players mental state in both his pre-match 'tub-thumping' speech (if he does that at all) and his own post-match 'assessment' of the teams fortunes. win, lose or draw: warts and all.
far from one who strikes me as the 'arm around the shoulder' type, similar to the well documented instances of Gerard Houllier. and there are quite a few accounts of this approach littered throughout the ill fated frenchmans tenure at the club. and in truth, he does 'come across' in that fashion.(im not interested in the comparisons drawn at O.L neither) from that ive read and seen- it is a fair assumption to regard Houllier exactly in that vein pretty much without doubt.
going back to Evans- again, a man who assumes total humility in his general manner and approachability. and having met the fella iam in this case able to qualify that. Prior to that things appear on the surface to be quite different during Souness reign- its easy to comprehend that. and im guessing to a lesser degree within the atmosphere of Dalglish's dressing room there would also have been a well defined system of man-management for the morale of the individual members of his team. (whether that was down to himself/moran/evans or whoever) perhaps a little easier to realise due to the lengthy period of success the club was about to emerge from. maybe the job became difficult for Kenny, as the results began to dry up, so did the spirit within the camp. and managing the players would definitely have become an increasingly thankless task.
further back in time still and the 'lore' and 'legends' abound over Bob Paisley and the archetypal Bill Shankly. on the face of it 'chalk and cheese' - in real terms both were adept at assuaging the utmost respect from pretty much anybody who walked out onto the pitch in battle under their direction. its quite reasonable to assume both men had their own individual 'stamp' of authority that the players (of that era) felt comfortable with. and the accounts of 'shanks' and his well documented methods of 'gee-ing up' his charges are of a quite brilliant nature.
but what of today? and the 'modern day' footballer -pampered beyond all sense of reason let alone necessity. how do they respond to being handled like 'cogs in wheels' ? do they rise up to the parapit and stand on their own two feet..do they demand praise and brownie points for the slightest thing (they arent 5 years old?) or are they of sufficient character as to need nothing more than a clear plan to follow. even if it is written in big, un-joined up writing. well of course they need telling that they are good enough....but not constantly. their own moral fibre and self esteem should carry them part of the way towards that level of personal salvation.
we will of course never get the true measure of Rafa Benitez and what he actually does/says while tending to his work detail by alone listening to his (public) pre/post match thoughts.. quite correctly most of the talk of any real note takes place behind closed doors away from the glaring, greedy eyes and ears of the worlds media. privately, he may well be yet another incarnation of the man we percieve him to be. and he certainly 'appears' to be a true gentleman in whatever respect.
but what about down at ground zero. what does he actually impart to his players that makes them tick at a professional level.
i dont think for one minute the guy is any sort of push-over and certainly not lacking in intellect whatsoever. and its fair to assume he stands little if any nonsense while you are in the same room. recently we heard a quote from Steven Gerrard depicting the boss to be 'cool and calculating' in failing to blurt out too many words of encouragement to his players. how significant, if at all relative that is, will no doubt be of note to the more 'sensitive' types in the squad.
but stubborness is a much less favourable attribute to cope with should you have the heart and soul of the club beating a path to the managers office in denal of its effect.. and my feelings are this may be a viable point. clearly none of the players can question the authority of a man who is plainly 'driven' in his quest and a paragon of unshakeable faith where carrying out his own convictions. the translation of which could easily be percieved by some as indeed 'pig headedness' though a glance at his CV should dispel any doubt. however,perhaps not everything Benitez does is handled in the right way when you end up with players questioning each other on the pitch due to not being able to understand the sentiment and failing to interpret the managers ideas- obviously the lines of communication need re-establishing fast. what is your opinion?
far from one who strikes me as the 'arm around the shoulder' type, similar to the well documented instances of Gerard Houllier. and there are quite a few accounts of this approach littered throughout the ill fated frenchmans tenure at the club. and in truth, he does 'come across' in that fashion.(im not interested in the comparisons drawn at O.L neither) from that ive read and seen- it is a fair assumption to regard Houllier exactly in that vein pretty much without doubt.
going back to Evans- again, a man who assumes total humility in his general manner and approachability. and having met the fella iam in this case able to qualify that. Prior to that things appear on the surface to be quite different during Souness reign- its easy to comprehend that. and im guessing to a lesser degree within the atmosphere of Dalglish's dressing room there would also have been a well defined system of man-management for the morale of the individual members of his team. (whether that was down to himself/moran/evans or whoever) perhaps a little easier to realise due to the lengthy period of success the club was about to emerge from. maybe the job became difficult for Kenny, as the results began to dry up, so did the spirit within the camp. and managing the players would definitely have become an increasingly thankless task.
further back in time still and the 'lore' and 'legends' abound over Bob Paisley and the archetypal Bill Shankly. on the face of it 'chalk and cheese' - in real terms both were adept at assuaging the utmost respect from pretty much anybody who walked out onto the pitch in battle under their direction. its quite reasonable to assume both men had their own individual 'stamp' of authority that the players (of that era) felt comfortable with. and the accounts of 'shanks' and his well documented methods of 'gee-ing up' his charges are of a quite brilliant nature.
but what of today? and the 'modern day' footballer -pampered beyond all sense of reason let alone necessity. how do they respond to being handled like 'cogs in wheels' ? do they rise up to the parapit and stand on their own two feet..do they demand praise and brownie points for the slightest thing (they arent 5 years old?) or are they of sufficient character as to need nothing more than a clear plan to follow. even if it is written in big, un-joined up writing. well of course they need telling that they are good enough....but not constantly. their own moral fibre and self esteem should carry them part of the way towards that level of personal salvation.
we will of course never get the true measure of Rafa Benitez and what he actually does/says while tending to his work detail by alone listening to his (public) pre/post match thoughts.. quite correctly most of the talk of any real note takes place behind closed doors away from the glaring, greedy eyes and ears of the worlds media. privately, he may well be yet another incarnation of the man we percieve him to be. and he certainly 'appears' to be a true gentleman in whatever respect.
but what about down at ground zero. what does he actually impart to his players that makes them tick at a professional level.
i dont think for one minute the guy is any sort of push-over and certainly not lacking in intellect whatsoever. and its fair to assume he stands little if any nonsense while you are in the same room. recently we heard a quote from Steven Gerrard depicting the boss to be 'cool and calculating' in failing to blurt out too many words of encouragement to his players. how significant, if at all relative that is, will no doubt be of note to the more 'sensitive' types in the squad.
but stubborness is a much less favourable attribute to cope with should you have the heart and soul of the club beating a path to the managers office in denal of its effect.. and my feelings are this may be a viable point. clearly none of the players can question the authority of a man who is plainly 'driven' in his quest and a paragon of unshakeable faith where carrying out his own convictions. the translation of which could easily be percieved by some as indeed 'pig headedness' though a glance at his CV should dispel any doubt. however,perhaps not everything Benitez does is handled in the right way when you end up with players questioning each other on the pitch due to not being able to understand the sentiment and failing to interpret the managers ideas- obviously the lines of communication need re-establishing fast. what is your opinion?