By the time you’re reading this, Liverpool would have hoisted their 20th English Premier League title. I don’t remember a single football pundit who predicted this at the start of the season, following Jurgen Klopp’s shocking decision to step down from his role as manager. Nearly everyone predicted a monumental Liverpool collapse, and for good reason. Manchester United have been disunited since the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2013 retirement. Arsenal have been also-rans at best since Arsene Wenger exited in 2018. Everyone knows Manchester City will struggle once Pep Guardiola’s time is up.
So why do organisations struggle after the exit of their long-serving, especially charismatic, arrowheads? What did Liverpool do differently to have won the world’s most competitive league at the first time of asking after the exit of one of the game’s greatest managers? How did a season widely billed to be a rebuild end up a renaissance?
I am talking to founders and CEOs!
- FOCUS ON THE NEEDS OF THE GROUP
Chief executive Michael Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes assessed the quality and makeup of the Liverpool squad, then went shopping for a manager whose playing style suited them. That’s not as easy as it sounds.
Liverpool did not go after the most brilliant or successful manager out there; they hunted the one whose self-set playing style matched their squad’s talent. And that’s the difference with Manchester (Dis)United. Everyone in world football knows Reuben Amorim (I have since rechristened him Reuben Awori!😂) doesn’t joke with his three centre backs in defence. Liverpool scouted him too but discarded the idea, knowing they lacked the players for that system. Man U lacked it as well but hired him anyway; erroneously thinking if Amorim won in Portugal, he could in England too. No success ever exists wholesale, independent of its unique ingredients. Well, as a diehard Liverpool fan, my sincere hope is that they haven’t yet learned a lesson!
So, founders, when your leader leaves, you’re not to chase the next best thing out there. You should instead be gunning for the best man for the unique skill set of your group.
- HAVE A SPECIFIC PROFILE
I have been watching football since ‘Japan ‘93’ but I had never heard the name ‘Arne Slot’ until Liverpool slotted him in last year. The decision makers wanted a man who, working with a smaller budget than the bigger teams, had tasted success. Again, not as straightforward as it sounds. It wasn’t just about winning, but were you a budgetary underdog when you did it?
They wanted someone with a pressing and playing style similar to Klopp’s, but they also — after identifying how injuries cost us dearly in Klopp’s final season — wanted a coach with a track record of minimising injuries specifically via his playing style. Slot was no household name but he met specific criteria wanted by Edwards and Hughes.
This is one of the reasons Manchester United has been disunited. Their scattergun approach to hiring has taken them to the pragmatic David Moyes, stopgap Ryan Giggs, disciplinarian Louis van Gaal, serial-winning but caustic José Mourinho, attack-minded Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Michael Carrick, high-presser Ralf Rangnick, the previously successful Erik ten Hag, rookie Ruud van Nistelrooy and then Amorim. All 10 coaches are markedly different in their own ways, with no clear-cut uniting features. Man U do not exactly know what or who they want, which is why I fully expect them to endure at least one more decade of misery. Hello founders, don’t be like Man U; know the specific profile of hire to replace your departing manager.
- EVOLVE — DON’T ‘REPLACE’
Liverpool never set out to hire a like-for-like replacement. They didn’t attempt hiring the next best charismatic fellow out there — someone who, like Klopp, could get the entire fanbase hooked to the TV as he spoke. They didn’t hire another post-match fist-pumper like Klopp. They hired a man of his own methods who could spearhead the evolution of his team rather than reenact Klopp’s.
I know football is all fun and passion, but I mostly watch it with my management hat.
What other management lessons exist from Liverpool’s unexpected title charge? Feel free to add yours.
