{"id":25,"date":"2015-07-01T13:15:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T12:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2017-02-07T11:23:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T11:23:22","slug":"fm15-beating-brian-will-they-one-day-argue-who-was-better-clough-or-darwen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2015\/07\/fm15-beating-brian-will-they-one-day-argue-who-was-better-clough-or-darwen\/","title":{"rendered":"#FM15 : Beating Brian : Will they one day argue who was better, Clough or Darwen?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Brian Clough is one of my favourite managers ever.\u00a0 Not so much because of what he won, or the teams he put together, but more because of the man himself.\u00a0 I know Bob Paisley was probably a better manager.\u00a0 I know that Ferguson hammers him on trophies won.\u00a0 Hell, even Bobby Gould won the FA Cup as a manager.\u00a0 But none of them, and I mean none of them, had the personality, the alluring character and the sheer entertainment value as Brian Clough.<\/p>\n
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Michael Sheen’s portrayal of him in the movie “The Damned United”, adapted from David Peace’s excellent novel, was a work of art.\u00a0 Even typing this now I can hear his voice.\u00a0 Clough was at his best when he took over an ailing club and rebuilt it into a something new, he was not at his best when he took over something that was already working well – Leeds for example.\u00a0 In taking over Wolverhampton Wanderers, claimed to be “Champions of the World” back in the 1950’s, I have my own version of Clough’s Derby or, to a lesser extent, his Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n
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I have my methods of playing this game we all love.\u00a0 Mine are slightly different, just like Brian’s were.\u00a0 I think in his own way he would have respected me.\u00a0 He was one for the non-obvious too and, although I suspect he didn’t sit there pouring through data as I now do, he was always looking that bargain, that player that others had written off but he could get more out of.<\/p>\n
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The method, inspired by a bit of Moneyball<\/i> and a bit of Soccernomics<\/i>, has been christened “Searching the Stats.”\u00a0 My good friend Alex Stewart hosted my initial thoughts on how the system can be used in Football Manager to make better recruitment decisions and hopefully save some money at the same time.\u00a0 In a nutshell, I tend to ignore a player’s technical, physical and most of their mental attributes.\u00a0 At a push I will cast an eye over their determination, decisions and off the ball.\u00a0 What I am really interested in is the key performance data that tells me whether they are good at their job.\u00a0 To read up on my method, visit the original post at Put Niels in Goal here.<\/p>\n
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This recruitment strategy combined with the rules I have set myself below mean that Wolves should become known as a very, very well run club.<\/p>\n
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Now, it takes at least six months to start building up a picture of a player’s performance as, in my opinion, I need at least 15 games to use as a sample.\u00a0 Anything less than that becomes a bit of guess work.\u00a0 That means for my first six months at Molineux I will not be looking to make sweeping changes.\u00a0 Take note Brian.\u00a0 I will work with what I have, develop the younger players and take a view in the January window.<\/p>\n
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Wolves have a really decent set-up, I have never looked at the club until now.\u00a0 It has a solid backroom staff, though I am likely to have a search for my own Peter Taylor, great facilities and a squad that looks at first glance to be far better than the predicted 19th place finish.\u00a0 There is also a strong core of youth talent in the U21’s and U18’s that I believe I can develop.<\/p>\n
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I’m quite excited by a young defensive midfield called Jordi Ortega who I have moved up from U21’s.\u00a0 There is also going to be a challenge in our best player, Bakary Sako.\u00a0 My initial scribble down of a tactical framework does not include a left-winger, and that is his best position.<\/p>\n
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We are predicted to finish 19th this season and the board are asking for a mid-table finish.\u00a0 I would like to think, despite my total inexperience at this level, that I will over-achieve that.\u00a0 I have a tactic that I have been dabbling with in pre-season and the early signs are very, very promising.\u00a0 Having read “Lines & Diamonds”<\/i> by the Hand of God and kindly hosted on Si Sports Centre, the penny dropped that some of my previous tactical attempts have been a little complex.\u00a0 Again, following Mr Clough, I am keeping it simple.\u00a0 Ball on the floor, work it into the box and when you lose it, try and win it back again as quickly as possible.\u00a0 Couple that with an attacking three inspired by @www.thehighertempopress.comfmanalysis but tweaked by myself, the team now massively resembles the Rushmoor Saints U9’s side I coached back in the late-90’s.\u00a0 Boy were those kids tactically flexible, not many sides at that age played with a half-back and a false nine supported by a couple of lads playing in free roles.<\/p>\n
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The Championship is the Sky-proclaimed “toughest league in the world” – we shall see.\u00a0 With the update I am using from the ever-busy @www.thehighertempopress.comfmwhizzkids Hull, Burnley and QPR will be in the division alongside other former Premier League sides Derby, Middlesboro, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottm Forest, Fulham, Cardiff, Blackburn, Ipswich, Charlton, Leeds and Birmingham.\u00a0 Including us that is 16 of the 24 clubs that have graced the top flight since football began, or if you don’t believe Sky, since the Premier League started.<\/p>\n
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There are eleven players in a football team, therefore there will be eleven updates to this journey.\u00a0 This is the first, the introduction.\u00a0 I hope it has caught your attention enough to follow it over the next ten episodes, one a week.\u00a0 Each episode will be a season, therefore I am aiming for a decade in charge of Molineux.<\/p>\n
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To consider the decade a success I need to look at what Clough achieved in his career.\u00a0 At Derby he got them promoted into the top flight in his second season, and won the league three seasons later.\u00a0 That is some feat.\u00a0 Hard to beat you would imagine.\u00a0 Except Clough not just beat it, he completely beasted it at Forest.\u00a0 He got them promoted from the second tier in his first full season, then won the top flight the following season.\u00a0 That just does not happen anymore!\u00a0 They then won the European Cup for the next two years, incredible.\u00a0 Putting the two together in the decade of 1971-1981 Clough won the following.<\/p>\n
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Stunning.\u00a0 Therefore, what would constitute a successful decade at Wolves?\u00a0 To keep pace with Clough I need to get promoted in the first season, this season.\u00a0 Yikes.\u00a0 Even if I achieve that there is no way on earth that I will win the Premier League at the first attempt, but I think if I can win it three times in the remaining nine seasons that would be considered beating the great man.\u00a0 Equally, I would imagine I can overhaul his League Cup record.\u00a0 Clough actually lifted that trophy four times, but the final two were at the back end of his career and outside the decade boundary that I chose.\u00a0 The really hard one to beat will be the European Cup\/Champions League – I think winning it twice in a decade would be amazing, and winning back-to-backs absolutely unlikely.\u00a0 Clough never won the FA Cup, so I can beat him there and if I am winning all that silverware then I am bound to pick up more than one manager of the year.<\/p>\n
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Can I beat Brian Clough?\u00a0 When we look back at the 2024\/25 season we will know the answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brian Clough is one of my favourite managers ever.\u00a0 Not so much because of what he won, or the teams he put together, but more because of the man himself.\u00a0 I know Bob Paisley was probably a better manager.\u00a0 I know that Ferguson hammers him on trophies won.\u00a0 Hell, even Bobby Gould won the FA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26],"yoast_head":"\n