So Teddy Sheringham is sacked as manager of Stevenage. With only three points taken from the last eight games and the club hovering above the League Two trap-door, the former England striker was relieved of his duties, in this his first managerial post.
One of the negative patterns that Sheringham wasn’t able to resolve, was that of his team conceding costly late goals. York City, Crawley Town, Leyton Orient and Yeovil were all beneficiaries of his sides inability to close out a game.
The failure to solve problems is one of the most obvious reasons why a manager loses his job. A good coach can see why his team is under-performing and knows the footballing solution to apply.
Sheringham’s inability to solve his team’s late goals problem, suggested either that he didn’t know what to do about it. Or failed to effectively communicate the solution to his players. The players know the problem. And they know the manager hasn’t got the solution. And so the manager starts to lose some of his authority.
A strong team can either take that authority for themselves and sort out the under-performance as a group. Or that authority starts to turn against the manager. Turns to indifference. Apathy. Poor discipline. That is when it is suggested that the manager has lost the dressing room.
Most football problems are solveable. In the lower leagues, repetitive drills align the players with the tactical and mental disciplines needed to be organised and hard to beat, But if you as a coach, aren’t inclined towards the endless training ground repetition that is sometimes necessary, then you may not be able to transfer your ideas to your players.
A lot of managers come back wiser and stronger after a sacking. And that all depends on your ability to learn lessons from failure. For within every failure are the seeds of the next success!