[sws_blue_box box_size=”575″] Editors Note: You may want to read the first ever EPL Manager Index article to be able to understand how the author is scoring each manager on a weekly basis: EPL Manager Index Introduction [/sws_blue_box]
I think the Premier League managers are getting into this now…..
Week 7 of the EPL Manager Impact Index delivered 265 points worth of manager impacts, the second highest so far (and that’s with a manager short, although the next MII will include Gus Poyet’s introduction to the Premier League).
There were 7 substitute impacts this week, the highest number of sub impacts in a week so far this. The most successful substitutes so far in the EPL are:
There are still 5 managers yet to receive any points from a substitute impact: Wenger, Hughton, Hughes, Allardyce and Rodgers.
So far there is only 1 manager who has used 100% of his available substitutions, Jose Mourinho (with 21 obviously), although he has gained exactly the same amount of points for sub impacts as Michael Laudrup who has only used 15 subs so far.
Manager of the Week and The 30 Club:
Two new members of The 30 Club this week with Star Manager, Mauricio Pochettino being joined by Jose Mourinho. Pochettino had as near a perfect week as is possible, gaining points in 8 different sections. His decision to hook Lambert and bring on Rodriguez resulted in an extra 15 points being earned.
Sam Allardyce and David Moyes will be able to liven things up in the Negative Collective with a new manager joining the party.
Michael Laudrup scored -2 points this week, having zero impact on the game and shedding points for losing against a team in a lower group.
First half / Second half wins
This is a chart showing the Wins by half of all the managers, top right is good, bottom left bad.
Whilst Brendan Rodgers appears to be masterful at winning first halves, he hasn’t yet had a half time impact that has resulted in a second half win.
Conversely, Pochettino has won 5 of 7 second halves, however has only won 1 first half so far. Maybe his translator is the king of half time team talks?
It’s obvious that no manager ever sends a team out to not score until the opposition have, therefore we can safely assume that every manager sends their teams out to score the first goal. So let’s see who’s being most successful at it.
Brendan Rodgers and Arsene Wenger lead the way in scoring the first goal in the first half with 5 apiece, however, whereas Wenger has also scored the first goal in 4 second halves, Rodgers hasn’t scored any. Is this a worry for Liverpool fans or does the above suggest that scoring the first goal in the first half and then aiming to just hold their position in the second half is a viable tactic?
The Table
Finally, a look at the Week 7 table.
The movers and shakers this week are Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino climbing 8 and 6 places respectively, with Pochettino claiming the top of the table at the expense of Arsene Wenger who drops down to 2nd.
Villas Boas and Laudrup are the weeks highest fallers, dropping 5 and 6 places each.
The gap between the top and the bottom has increased further with 59 points between Ian Holloway in 19th and Pochettino in 1st.
It will be interesting to see how Gus Poyet does when he joins the Index and i’ll be looking at comparisons between him and Di Canio in the future.
Keep your comments coming to @trigsmith or via the comments box below.
[sws_blue_box box_size=”575″] Editors Note: You may want to read the first ever EPL Manager Index article to be able to understand how the author is scoring each manager on a weekly basis: EPL Manager Index Introduction [/sws_blue_box]