If you were an employee in some company, the period after you get hired is the time you spend learning the most. Fast forward 15 years and you have become a big executive or the CEO. Would you still be learning new things, at least at the same pace as before? Simply put, have you ever had a conversation with your boss and it seemed like he has no clue what he's talking about? That's not a problem since their role would be more managerial than executive or tactical.

Is It possible That Managers Have Stopped Learning New Things Long Ago?

Having reached the highest on-pitch position in the game, do top managers still learn a new thing? Do you think Pep Guardiola still analyzes opponents the way he did at Barca B?

Ted Knutson, CEO and co-founder of StatsBomb, is one of the people who deal directly with club owners, executives, and managers in top clubs. He's one of the people responsible for Brentford's rise using data. Something I will talk about later. Ted says, no, top managers like Pep, Klopp, and others don't learn anything new.

It is not because they don't want to, but simply because their time doesn't allow that. Once you become a manager at top clubs like City, Real Madrid, and Liverpool, it becomes impossible for you to have the time to learn new things. You could pick up a few things every now and then. But, you can't learn something new from start to finish.

Someone like Mauricio Pochettino arrives at the club at 7:30 in the morning and gets home at 7:30 at night. Twelve hours spent between training and meetings with scouts and administrators. When would he learn anything about the newest pressure tactics?

It's Not Surprising

That is why we don't see managers at top levels changing their style as they have surpassed the phase where they could learn anything new. That's the problem with managers like Pirlo and Gary Neville. They have surpassed the first and most important period of their lives as managers, the period where they manage a club in the second division that allows them to work without pressure.

How It Applies To Top Managers

You might think that doesn't apply to managers like Pep Guardiola because he previously coached Barca B, Klopp who managed Mainz, and Pochettino who coached Espanyol and Southampton. But you'd be wrong.

The pressure tactics those three picked up in their past experience have changed massively in the last few years, a revolution in which they haven't participated. Going back to the employee example, imagine that by the time you became the boss, the computer was invented. There are new problems that you wouldn't be equipped to deal with.

The Solution

According to Knutson, these managers resort to hiring young, aspiring assistants who have studied the changes that happened to tactics relating to the top managers' style. Assistants who get the benefit of working without all the pressure that top managers fall under.

In Conclusion

It's difficult imagining that our favorite managers don't deserve even half the credit they deserve for tactical changes. Their job is completely different from what we have imagined. There's a whole team behind them that determines all the tasks these managers don't have the time to do.

Those tasks aren't simple either, they include players signed, players promoted, players development, tactical changes to the team, and many more things. The fact is, assistants are actually the closest things we have to the image of a manager in our heads.

Top managers' role comprises mostly of yes or no decisions or general instructions and vision. They're simply the Steve Jobs of football, their roles aren't to invent anything new, they don't develop anything, they're merely the face of a process that involves tens of people.