Prediction League "Playing to Win" vs "Playing Not to Lose"

I'm just going to give a simple example of the difference between the effect of both philosophies.

United and City both had a slow and stuttered start to the season. Both struggled with a late end to the previous season, playing catch up in games and some hangover in terms of tiredness. City ALSO had the disadvantage of losing much of the spine of their team due to players leaving or being injured (in red below). Although I've not included him below, I'd add Kompany as well as it was clear he was a big loss for them last season.

Man City 2019-2020 - KDB, Ederson, Rodri, Otamendi, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, David Silva, Sterling, Fernandhino, Walker.

+ Aguero

The players in blue below are the new additions or those who Pep has brought in and relied on more this season than last season.

Man City 2020-2021 - Ederson, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Sterling, Foden, Dias, Gundogan, Stones, Cancelo, Sterling.

And yet, despite their slow and stuttering start, Pep has encapsulated his philosophy into a new team and their performances typify that philosophy. Players like Cancelo, Gundogan, Dias and Stones have shone. Young raw talent like Foden have developed and grown.

They don't even have their best midfielder. And with Aguero out they're not even playing with an out and out striker.

Pep could easily have just copped out and blamed the injuries, the loss of pivotally important players like D Silva, Aguero, KDB. He could've set up to be cautious and not lose games and grind out results, especially after the start they'd had and where they were in the table a couple of months ago. But he's not a defeatist, he's quickly moulded the new additions and built another team that purrs in attack and is solid in defence.

Ole on the other hand lacks belief, his whole approach signals fear in our players. Fear of defeat.

The bottom line is, put Ole in charge of that City side and Pep in charge of this United side and see the difference in fortunes of both.

The excuses, blaming the players needs to stop. We may not be the best side in the league but the squad is more than capable of performing at a higher level than what Ole is capable of and in the season we're having, especially with many of our rivals faltering, we're more than capable of challenging for the league.

 

But, we're getting there you know.

City and Liverpool have been unbelievable these last few seasons, awesome, and we're trying really hard to get there.

We're not getting carried away and that.




Yay.

 

Roy Keane

"I'm scratching my head with United. The worry for me watching them today, they almost lacked the belief they could go and win the game,"

"It's Man Utd, you're looking at Arsenal who are missing a few players, the game was there for the taking."

"There was a real lack of quality today from Man Utd, and a real lack of conviction and desire to go and take the game to Arsenal."

"And it looks as if the players have got almost frightened of the challenge, 'I don't think we're ready for that yet'."

"At the moment you might try to pretend it's not that important but it is vitally important - especially when they're there for the taking."

"This Arsenal team are eighth in the league and they were missing three of their best players," he said.

"Man Utd and Ole afterwards are going, 'ah, we take the draw'. Too many draws when a team is there for the taking doesn't win you the big prizes."

Damning indictment of the manager and the ethos he instills in his players

 

Teams are built in a manager’s image and Ole is sort of a coward in that regard. We can hide all we want around that very fact, but the results tell all the truth that we must own!

Draws are also worse than losing, in my opinion. When you draw a game, you pull the “happy with the draw” nonsense. But when you lose, you’re faced to confront the truth that you are not as good as you tell yourself. Thus serving as a catalyst for change. With the draws that we keep getting against the top sides, Ole can come out with a smile and suggest that we move to the next.

In a regular season, 41 points from 21 games will get us nowhere near the top. But hey, this isn’t a regular season and we sit pretty in second place patting ourselves on the back that we are going somewhere.

Under Ole, United will always be “almost men”!