EPL Insights: Rodgers, Clarke, AVB and managerial projects

“It’s easy to stay put. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.”

That’s what a Premier League managerial job has been all about – a pursuit of making a difference at the club and also not undermining the importance of consistent results. A project, as the board members term the scheme of things during a manager’s appointment, whether they have the gusto to adhere to its roller-coaster experience is something they usually answer by pressing the panic button on crucial moments – and that’s eventually a farewell to the manager in less than a year.

People with their ambitions limited to their cheque books, who call themselves as the running force of the club, usually prefer promising the fans about long-term financial stability and a squad strength to fuel trophy ambitions in every pre-season. However, with the season reaching to the Christmas eve, it’s the managerial departures and the pragmatic approach that fills up the news columns rather than the efforts put by a manager to induce elementary changes in the club’s system.

Every season we witness the introduction of several potential projects. This season we have Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool, Andre Villas Boas at Tottenham and Steve Clarke guiding West Brom - all three of them will certainly have their own peculiar methods to device a model for consistent growth, they still have a common challenge to revive their side’s ambitions.

Another thing, in fact a figure that plays a crucial role in the career of these three promising managerial prospects is Jose Mourinho. Rodgers, Clarke and AVB were learning the finest of details of their trade from the Portuguese genius during their tenure at Chelsea. In fact, AVB was an element of prime importance in the early years of success attained by the Special One. Some would also like to label AVB’s career as a ‘Mourinho’s tale horrible gone wrong!’, but we can keep that tale wrapped up for another day. Rodgers was another prodigious talent with a shrewd footballing brain. Mourinho gave him his big break with Chelsea as a youth coach and later promoted to train the reserve side. Clarke, on the other hand is still known for those solid defensive units that he organized at Chelsea, and wherever he goes, people expect him to restore balance at the back. Finally, he has decided to captain a ship, to command it all alone and he has enough experience with elite clubs to back himself as he confronts a huge challenge in filling Roy Hodgson’s boots at the Hawthorns.

We’ve already seen how they have fared the transfer window, with Rodgers and AVB looking for drastic changes in the setup; Steve Clarke, on the other hand, opted for strengthening the foundations laid in Hodgson’s successful stint with West Brom. It’s always an entertaining topic for banter on whether a manager should prefer sweeping changes to the squad and tactical teams or believe on growing the setup, accepting the club’s philosophy and improve after careful periodical analysis. To be fair, both the methods of bringing through changes have their own sets of preceding requirements. Every manager wants to make changes according to his favourable tactical, only difference being some would have the funds to flash in the market, while others would ponder on tweaking strategies according to the available talent in the roster.

Rodgers and Liverpool unveiled their project with a long term forecasts, the board supporting the manager’s approach but sadly were largely inexperienced in handling the deadline day transfer negotiations. The apology to the fans from John W. Henry, shows how disconcerting the issue has been around the club as they lost the services of Clint Dempsey to Spurs for a matter of 1 million pounds. The club management always knew that Carroll wasn’t a part of Rodgers’ plans and measures should have been taken to find a replacement upfront, which led by Luis Suarez is nothing more than a toothless unit. Moreover, Rodgers has work cut out for him on the tactical front too with Gerrard still looking for a feasible role in the lineup, the full-backs lacking positional sense and the midfield still lacking a holding point, problems for this Liverpool side are endless. The side still needs improvements on all fronts which has also taken a toll on the results, with a point in three games Liverpool are off to their worst league start ever. The only positive to take from here for Rodgers is that things can’t go any worst from here. The Fenway group might call it a learning curve, but only corrective steps will improve to gloomy response from the fans and not the open letter apologies.

Andre Villas Boas has already had a fair share of complaining fans at the Lane and surprisingly, the season is just three weeks old. Doesn’t a man deserve a benefit of doubt? He still needs to shape up things with his squad. His three key signings – Moussa Dembele, Clint Dempsey and Gylfi Sigurdsson needs some time to get used to the new tactical framework. The side is compared to the fluidity which Redknapp instilled in the side, but what Villas Boas wants to bring is methodical game-play, defensive discipline- a side that can compete for every yard on the pitch, even against the big boys of the League. Unlike Henry at Liverpool, Daniel Levy got rid of Madrid-bound Modric at a good price and managed to sign a host of promising players to provide quality in all the departments. Lloris will bring more competition in the goalkeeping area, while players like Vertonghen and Dembele retains much needed steel, tailor-made options for the pressing game AVB looks to implement at the club. Even as the side is off to a slow start, the manager can still do a whole lot better with some time in his favour and a gradual inception of his methods on the training ground. AVB accepts the fact that he hurried things a bit at Stamford Bridge which cost his job; he surely wouldn’t want to relive the nightmare.

Steve Clarke hasn’t been bothered much by the media; neither with criticism or with a rare note of plaudits for his side as he bags seven points of the possible nine in his first three outings as a Premier League manager. Clarke hasn’t really tried to revamp the setup, as Hodgson has provided him a bunch of players that can prove to be a match for the best of the league. The Hawthorns was a difficult place for the visitors last season and one can expect more problems for them as Clarke is trying to bring in a sense of adventure with his circulation of ball upfront that looks to be combining brilliantly with their direct play upfront. Clarke has already made his intentions clear that he will field attacking sides in the Cup competitions and with performances to back his words, one can expect plenty of surprises from Clarke’s lads this season.

It’s still early days to judge the credentials of these projects, but with fans getting impatient within such a short span, we are leaving no space for improvement in modern football. Everyone now expects a quick-fix. It will be interesting to see how much time the owners provide the managers to make a significant difference to the side. Even Clarke, Rodgers and AVB will have a stage where balancing results and applying changes will coincide and threaten their position at the club at a time when most managerial project crumble into pieces.