Heres the scenario.
You are the new manager of a new club called "afc Charlton United"
You might not like the clubs name...but you do really like the fans and you want to be successful and get the absolute best out of the team.
Your squad is a serious bunch of average Joe's.
Confidence levels are very typical/average normal.
You have a mediocre transfer budget. Your glass is just either half full or half empty in that sense.
You are the clubs manager. You are in charge of everything.
...
Explain your tactics?
How would you treat the players?
How would you get the best out of them?
What would be your long term strategic plan?
Who would be your assistant manager?
As fans...we all mostly think we know best. Most of the time, we are probably close to being correct and accurate. It depends.
Apart from Bowyer, Chris Powell and Parky...most of the managers we've had since the curbs days...have been complete clowns.
It's a hard question to answer and has a lot of variables about it.
You have a 5 year contract.
You won't get sacked.
It's pre season and the transfer window is now open.
Off you go...about to give the players a training session and advise them.
What's the plan?
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5 year contract and won't get sacked?
I'd do f**k all, leave it all to my assistant and let the players play how they want and do what they want.
Then getting paid again to go on Talksport etc.
Then plan my tactics on getting her in bed.
We managed to bring in three players to replace those that had decided to call it a day. At our level were were a possession based side but this did not work in Division 1. The midfields we played against were too skilful and competitive and we badly lacked pace at the back. We lost our first two league games 6-1. We were not as bad as the scoreline, but defensively we conceded goals due to lack of pace. I lost my joint manager to an unfair ban when we were second from bottom and struggling in late November.
I contemplated packing it in, but I wanted to try one idea. I gave more ownership to the players. I had a captain who was a natural leader though he was one of our weaker players and our best outfield player (who we had signed that season) played for himself, not the team. So I created a management committee of myself, and these two players but involved all of them. I wanted the team to feel ownership and a feeling we were in it together against the world.
We were limited to one hour training a week on a Wednesday night. Both my co-manager and I held the belief that lack of time restricted what we could do tactically so we used it mostly to play competitive small sided games with me and him in goal. Our drills were reactive to the previous game, short and simple - defending corners, building basic attacks then a match. When you are losing, you get stick from parents and I got e-mails blaming our lack of drills for our defeats. But our players enjoyed training and always broke a good sweat.
I asked my players to identify if they had any athletes in their schools who were fast and knew how to kick a football. With the fast being more important than the football. I thought those that could do both very well would already be signed for clubs. One was suggested who could run the 100 metres in 11 seconds. We took him on without seeing him play and without him having to pay any joining fees as a trial at first. We still let in goals through poor positioning, but nobody could get behind us and this was our biggest issue previously. I was told by parents he could not kick a ball properly, but he did us proud and fixed our defensive problem sufficiently.
Another issue was we couldn't outplay teams. These were top teams, one was coached by Ian Culverhouse. These were teams we never beat in the past. Despite some initial understandable opposition, we developed a long ball game. I have a video where we beat the top team 4-1 (and we missed a penalty) and we didn't string more than three passes together for the whole game and they looked far better than us. I am proud of this. We competed and didn't give an inch. Our keeper - my son was a top player, our central midfielder who played too much for himself started playing for the team and became a leader on the pitch, and we had a striker who missed sitters but managed to find chances others couldn't and ended up top scorer in the league. He joined us from the bottom club in the fourth division last season, and I could see his strengths and fought to get him when they folded. We had a physical team.
A negative was that the spirit of us against the world meant that we had an issue with dissent and we were a bit competitive physically so we racked up an amazing amount of fines and were under threat of being kicked out of the league and the club wasn't happy. I had some players that couldn't play football very well and we were F*ing beating teams coached by ex professionals. We went on a great run and ended up third in the league and our final kick in youth football was scoring the winning penalty in the cup final shoot out (my son saved three penalties in the game). This was played at Bishop's Stortfords Prokit stadium with hundreds of noisy supporters - most of them theirs.
We were not popular. A common message I got from opposing managers was after we beat them was, I'm glad we don't have to play you again. But this always made me feel proud. I always replied something along the lines that I'm glad we don't have to play you again either. The best team and eventual league winners actually appreciated what we was achieving to be fair and I am proud of a message I received praising our spirit from their manager despite us doing the double over them.
Anyway, not professional, but that's how we did it. My assistants were my players. We were dirty-ish and played an extreme long ball game. And we beat teams every week we shouldn't have been on the same pitch as. There is a book in there which I might write one day.
"Alright lads, I'm your new gaffer. Name's dave2l.
"Sit a circle lads. I want to start off by telling you I ain't the special one" (expected them to laugh but they didn't)
"We're going to play a 4-3-3 formation. It will most likely be our default formation. When away from home...maybe we will revert to a 4-2-3-1".
"All of this may change though. It's just the basic vibe"
"Erm...I don't really know what else to say to ya really"
"Assume I need coaching badges.... anyone want a beer after Birmingham beat the shit out of us on Tuesday. Some great pubs up there"
I tend to play the game of how many Sunday league clichés can I shout at but in context. Most I've achieved is 42 but I did use Google for inspiration.
"This Ref hasn't got a clue. He just hasn't got a clue..."
"Oh f*ck off ref!"
"I'm gana serious complaint about this ref"
Was I close? 😉