Why do Managers Receive All the Blame When a Team is Underperforming?
Welcome to another of my post… sometimes I begin to wonder who takes a lot of the blame in football when a team is not performing well. I see a lot of sports lovers most especially team sports like football, basketball etc get furious if their favorite team is performing badly. Focusing on football, club football fans usually put the blame on the manager when their favorite team isn’t performing well on the pitch. This is very interesting and it gets me to wonder why fans put blame on the manager when a team is not performing well.
Since we are focusing on football, we all know that football is a team sport, which means that there is a system involved. There are people who are part of the team and play different roles to ensure success of that particular team. The club board, the manager/coach, the players, the back room staffs, training coaches, chefs, medical departments, doctors and all other personnel involved, all make up the team. All these roles work hand in hand on a daily basis to ensure that the team performs in the best possible way on the pitch.
If there are a lot of persons involved or part of a team, so why do the manager take the blame when a team is not performing well?... Yes, it is true that the manager is in charge of a team and it is his job to figure out and set up the team’s structure and how they play, the tactics, formation and player selection, however, the manager only has so much to do as it is the players who are responsible to carry out those instructions on the football pitch. Even though the manager can do a bad jib in managing the team or his tactics doesn’t work, there are also cases where the players are just good enough to execute those instructions effectively… what will the manager do if he has players who aren’t good enough?.
Also, the other departments play a huge role in a teams’ performance. Imagine if the fitness coaches or the medical departments didn’t do their job well, the players might not be in the best shape to perform at their best and if they perform badly, the manager takes the blame. For me, I think that everyone should share the blame as there isn’t really a formula to tell who should take most of the blame as the reason for the poor performances could come from any side. Sometimes the board also play a big part as not signing the right players or sighing the right manager could be a huge factor that could cause a team not to perform well, especially consecutively. Thanks for reading :).
Hi @designieplay, thanks for taking the time to post your question and thoughts.
What is a manager?
Management is a different kind of discipline from being an individual contributor. The manager has one single purpose, to make sure a team delivers on its assigned task.
Now that task may be a football match, a track relay, an engineering project or a catering job. It doesn't really matter which form the task takes, what matters is that the team delivers.
Each of the people within the team are responsible for their own actions within the event and may invest much or little effort in trying to achieve it. That does not excuse the manager from the responsibility for the success or failure. Nor should the manager (or at least a good one) try and escape that responsibility.
The managers role is to manage the team before, during and after the event.
Before
They should be looking before hand at each member of their team to understand what their needs are in terms of skills, training and personal needs. They should also be looking to see if those people are team players and working to build the team on a constant basis.
During
During the event they should be looking at how team members are performing and take action to control and guide that for the best result for the team. Even if that means pulling them out if they are not performing well or damaging the team. That applies even if they are the "superstar" in the team.
After
After the event the manager should provide timely feedback and encouragement to make sure that the team knows where they did well and where they went wrong.
Failure is expected
When discussing management it can be easily forgotten that failure does and will happen. Even the most successful companies and teams in the world all fail on a regular basis. Some people are scared of failure and therefore won't enter management as a result.
Conclusion
Going back to your original question, the reason that the manager gets the blame is that they are ultimately in charge. They have control over the team and the individuals. If someone is not playing ball, then the manager needs to fix that situation before it damages the team. They should start with working with that person to understand any issues and resolve them, but if after an appropriate time they don't change their ways, the manager needs to be willing to manage them out of the team.
I hope in someway I have answered your question.
Thanks a whole lot for your valuable comment and for sharing your view. You are right, they have control over the team and their selection decisions play a key role in the teams' performance