It’s guest blog time again, and this week it’s the turn of Anna Say who takes a look at the changing demeanour and tone of Daniel Farke…
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We know that the Daniel Farke we see is not necessarily the same guy that our players see in the dressing room but, for now, I want to examine how he has come across in the press, the approach he has taken and how that has changed this season compared to his first two.
This season Farke’s approach when talking to the media has noticeably differed. He has softened, he has protected his team, and he has backed his players even after the worst of performances. Has this good-intentioned change in approach actually had a negative impact on the team? Opinions will differ on this, but I for one think it has.
Over the course of the season, City fans have been told on numerous occasions that their team is ‘inexperienced’, that the team are ‘underdogs’ and that they are ‘favourites to go down’. When researching this I found these phrases to have been mentioned in no less than 14 separate pre-match press conferences, with the numbers likely to be a lot higher if all other interviews are considered.
This started in the very first presser of the season and appears defeatist because it’s an attitude that gives players an easy out. It’s almost an expectation to fail, when instead of saying we might fail because of this, Farke should have been saying we will succeed in spite of it.
If we look at his post-match press conferences, in particular the ones after the team has lost, we see that they too have changed. Instead of pointing out mistakes and expressing frustration with the team, Farke regularly defends them regardless of the performance.
Taking the 5-1 home defeat by Villa for example, it was disgraceful all-round but the first thing Farke says in his post-match interview is “I can’t blame the lads too much”, going on to then name all the things that went against them on that day, with the major one being injuries.
There was no anger, no fire and no passion, just an almost second-nature defensive stance from him. This begs the question, how can a team be expected to improve when their coach still defends them even after the worst of performances?
Compare this to any loss over the two previous seasons and the differences become quite clear. Even early in the 2018/19 season when losing to West Brom and Leeds, when it looked like we were once again going nowhere, Farke would not make excuses. He would be honest.
If we lost a game due to bad defending, he would talk of not being ruthless enough in front of goal when we had chances we just couldn’t convert, and he would tell us if the team didn’t perform to the best of their ability.
He did not, however, talk of City being inexperienced and being the underdogs when he had every reason to. At that time, we still had players who were getting used to English football, we had young players who had been brought into the squad and players who were getting used to playing again after being out for long periods. He didn’t use that excuse last season because it didn’t matter – all that mattered was their quality.
So why now? Why use it time and time again this season? Why use it as a reason for your players to fail when it never mattered before?
Let’s now look at how Farke previously dealt with player’s attitudes, in particular players who were not pulling their weight and not working as part of the team.
The first player who comes to mind is obviously Nelson Oliveira, a man whose attitude was questionable from the very first game in the 2017/18 season, right through to his very last. Farke, early on in his first season when asked about Oliveira…
“We can’t just lie back and work at 80 per cent. We have to be hungry and greedy to improve and when I don’t have the feeling there is a player willing to work in a disciplined way to improve his situation and that of the team, I will do without them.”
Olivera had a generally poor attitude and a poor discipline, something Farke was not about to let him get away with. He dropped him and all of the fans knew why, so it became a choice that was very difficult to disagree with.
However, Olivera was not the only one to be dropped because of his work discipline and attitude. In that same season, Josh Murphy faced being dropped in the week prior to City playing away at Middlesbrough.
“Josh Murphy wasn’t professional enough with his preparation for Middlesbrough. We decided to do without him. If a player isn’t there with his will 100 per cent, I will do without him, however good he is”
We know now, after recent interviews with the player himself, that at the time Murphy was not in a good headspace and was struggling with a lot, though this should not deflect from the point that Farke did not think he was being professional enough and therefore had no problem in dropping him.
This was explained to the fans and once again there were little to no complaints. Farke gave these two players nowhere to hide, he set a precedent and limited their very purpose as footballers, which is getting game time. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we didn’t hear of any other disciplinary issues thereafter.
Returning to this season, there is a clear difference in approach. It would be difficult for even the most positive of fans to believe this team has had an outstanding attitude, and that they have given 100 percent every step of the way. Some of the performances this season have been so lacklustre, they have been hard to watch, but Farke has regularly made a point of saying how together the team is, how fantastic their attitude is and how they are all trying so hard.
He has, on so many occasions, refused to say that his team has not been good enough and that they have not tried hard enough, even when it has appeared obvious to anyone watching. This makes you wonder who he was trying to convince, the fans, or himself.
When it comes to individual players this season, we have seen several left out of the team without much of an explanation, one example being Emi Buendia, early on in the campaign. At that point he was one of our best players, certainly our most creative, so dropping him without an explanation left fans understandably angry.
Farke, in the past, seemed to have no problem with telling us why a player has been dropped, or if the team has not been working to his standard, only for him to ‘close up’ in the Premier League and drop the transparency that had been so prevalent between the club and fans for the two previous seasons.
On several occasions this season, Daniel has commented that he will not speak about individual players and the only logical reason for this is he wants to protect them. Which is, as I first stated, a very natural reaction.
But, unfortunately, by doing that he has closed the team off and shielded them from the fans, leaving supporters with nothing to do but speculate, in doing so fracturing the unity that was so important in getting us up to the Premier League in the first place.
Now looking forward. We face a season back in the Championship and it is important not to suffer the relegation hangover. If we are going to do that, then the protecting and defending of his players must stop. Now is the time for some tough love.
The Burnley post-match interview was a particularly good start, where we saw a fired-up, angry Farke who appeared done with making excuses.
That is the way that he must stay if he is going to stand any chance of whipping this team back into shape. I believe in Daniel Farke and I believe that he has the capabilities of being a world class manager, but if that is going to happen then we can never again see the Farke we saw this season.
Farke has shown, in that regard, weakness and let his players become weak. He let them believe they were not good enough to be in the Premier League and shielded them to the point where they lost all passion and desire.It is time to leave that behind.
No more excuses, it’s time to bring back the team that we saw last season. The team that had passion, fire, and belief.
The team that kept winning against all odds. The team that became champions.
Great read Anna and your last sentence/paragraph sums up everything that is wrong with the team.
David Freezer summed it all up when we played Chelsea I think it was when you could almost see that the players were resigned to defeat as soon as they conceded a goal.
What’s need is a captain in the mould of Grant Holt who will ‘get on the players’ backs’ and urge them on totry and not only equalise, but go on to win the game!!
#remembermillwall
There’s no doubt that the level of scrutiny, for both managers and players, is on a completely different level than the Championship and I have little doubt that Daniel has certainly felt that pressure this season.
That said, he does sound a bit repetitive in both his pre-match and post match interviews. You have to wonder, as you allude to, Anna, whether this has resulted in some of the players switching off at times.
Brilliant article which gets right to the heart of the problem. The number one priority for any manager is to MOTIVATE. Daniel has sadly failed to do this throughout the season as you rightly point out. I find the continuous excuses hard to listen to. To be fair he has not been dealt a good hand with injuries and some of the poor signings from Mr Webber but if he is staying on he must improve his approach. We don’t want to do a Stoke.
Indded @Cyprus canary – DF firstly needs to motivate the players and as I said earlier, a player on the pitch who can urge the players to at least TRY!!:-(
Interesting read. I can see a lot of what you are getting at. I would expect Farke to handle things differently in the media driven Premier League than the championship, what he says in public is totally different to in private and wisely so.
The truth is we were inexperienced all over except Krul, Klose and Tettey, if he said anything different our fans would have not been taken in. For me what is said to the players in private is the main thing, a lot of it is hype and the need to feed the media gluttons
What did bother me more was seeing Farke in shots during the many matches we had to endure, not the usual man in his techie area pointing, shouting and encouraging, but was very often seen sitting down looking empty, void of anything.. while his players were being thrown to the lions, (dramatic I know) In truth I thought he does not really know what to do and doesn’t care, he is leaving soon
Again for me personally, that radiated much more than his words pre or post match, I actions do speak louder than words. I would imagine it was almost impossible to come to the microphone after some of the dire stuff we all witnessed, to say something positive. In my view he should have done a Sir Alex
If you really want a case of bad pressers and discouraging your team, you only really have to go back to Chris Houghton, what he said was terrible almost every game, that from a man who had years and years experience in the League. I don’t think Farke is anywhere near that bad.
If Farke has shown weakness, it is what happens on the green stuff, playing the same way game in game out, it was worked out before we arrived in the Premier. Subs being made too late, etc .
With Pukki seeing as he was really the only outlet for goals, why not change the system a little to getting him firing again. Building your team up is tpart of a managers brief, the best building of confidence comes from winning and scoring goals. Equally losing game after game is confidence sucking as we have seen, when a player realises deep inside that he isn’t quite as good, as perhaps he has been told
We all long for the winning streak to return where we almost swept everything aside, but I fear that we might have to be prepared to wait, managers know what we are about, it seems easy to be able to nullify.
The players and coaching staff will have learned a lot from this season, hopefully they will emerge after this to be stronger wiser and better equipped, if only coming from the thought “to hell if I want to go through that again” as motivation. A good run starting from the beginning will help and go a long way of getting over this season.
For me Farke has to show a different philosophy in setting up. if he cannot that is his real weakness.
whoops I forgot to spell check. and to say as was said above we need leaders front and back in the mould of Holt, Roberts Malky Fleming etc
As Head Coach Daniel Farke must motivate his players. What he says to the media may well be very different to what he says behind closed doors to individual players and the team as a whole. If I was a player then I would take more notice of what was said to me face to face than what what was said to the Media.
You are right that his public facing comments have changed. What would be interesting is to ask him why? It may not be the most obvious reason. Is he protecting players to protect their resale value, for example. Is he indirectly trying to protect himself? Is he modelling himself on other Premier League managers or manager?
Nonetheless, a thought provoking read, thanks.
Hi Anna
A good read and excellent comments.
Man City got beaten by the Arse-Nal and Pep said an interesting thing in the papers the next day “I am not here to motivate you these games should motivate you” now it could be a misquote but other managers/coaches in the past have eluded to similar thinks.
Players are professionals a s self motivation should be part of their make up as in any walk of life even in the most hum drum of profession you can’t always expect to be pushed to perform at your highest skills all the time.
The ok message if we are relegated started from the Top as usual in a interview the Smith’s said we have firstly planned for relegation and not once was it pronounced that the club were planning to stay up when this is drip fed via the media then confidence seeps away and players mentally think we are expect to fail and lose heart.
Webber has admitted he didn’t get all the recruitment right but with peanuts to spend you only get poor options but the wasted money on expensive loans wasn’t helpful.
Possibly Farke was tutored in his media responses to follow others for the premiership he has looked uncomfortable at times so maybe he will recover his true media face next season.
Klose, Zimmerman and Godfrey should start if possible in the next game it would be a solid back line with Aaron and Lewis but then again injuries hit the club and that could be another reason Farke’s attitude has changed maybe he didn’t want to blame form on injuries and let player discipline slip as everyone has said we need the more open straight talking Farke back or his reign next season could be short lived.
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Stay safe and well
Hi Anna,
A very good article, I 100% agree with you. There has been an inevitability about the season- “favourites for the 20th position” is a line I remember hearing many times. The psychology has to change for next season- we need passion, fight and the fans back too!
Cheers,
Peter
Interesting, although I’m not sure I entirely agree.
As mentioned somewhere above, what is more important is what is said in private.
I’m not sure that coming out of a game and hammering the players in public is a great tactic, even though we may feel they deserve it. Let’s not forget that, for this group of players, losing is a completely new experience. It’s quite possible that Daniel, who is also completely untested at this level as well, feels that to encourage rather than lambast is the way forward at this time.
I don’t feel that he has been unduly negative going into games, merely acknowledging the size of that task ahead of us and I think that’s an acceptable position to take.
I do agree, however, that next season needs to be different and I am sure it will be. I see a big shake up with this group, indeed we are seeing the start of that already.
Anna, I think you may some great points.
I have always felt that the ‘clear-and-honest’ communication from this regime has been when is suited them. Incredibly quick to criticize the players they didn’t sign (Murphy, Howson, Oliveira etc…), incredibly slow to discuss the players they did (e.g. where’s Mo?)
I also found Webber’s phrase of ‘if you want a scapegoat, blame me’, interesting. A scapegoat is usually not the person who’s done something wrong, but is taking the blame. There seems to be a lot of blame dodging, if you ask me.
Also another interesting bit I saw on Pinkun yesterday – Ragget is no longer an NCFC player (according to his contract), but no one at the club has a) mentioned it to him and b) mentioned it to us. According to the piece.
Something is amiss, if you ask me.
Hi Dave
Yes the Raggett issue concerns me also. You could argue in a half-hearted kind of way that if we don’t want to take up the option on him we could do that under the cloak of darkness.
But isn’t it common decency to officially release the lad and if his agent then declares he’s available on a free to interested partners so be it?
He never, ever was given a chance here. Too physically strong, probably.
Many might see this as a minor issue but to me it’s indicative of something I dislike.
As everyone else has said, great [and original] article Anna.
Shows lack of respect for the player, but surely his agent should have been jumping all over this for the last couple of months, you can’t blame the Cov-19 he has a phone a d knows SW but the clubs stance is bad as well
Great column Anna, and very thought provoking.
Whilst the whole season has turned into a horrible drag to its conclusion, I cannot help but think that something went really wrong during lockdown.
Yes, we were struggling before, but we had beaten Bournemouth and Leicester, done Spurs on penalties, and only been narrowly defeated by Livarpool and Sheffield Utd. We had a real chance of staying up.
Since re-start, we have not looked remotely like a Premier League team, let alone one playing for their lives/futures at this level (FA Cup excepted).
What re-start has highlighted is the huge gulf between those at the top and bottom of the PL, and their respective strengths in depth. Just compare the subs benches which we have had to name with those of our peers.
O T B C
Good read, but two points:
1. Everyone has focussed on the last 10 games since lockdown to define our season, but that’s not the full story. Until the Southampton game we were competitive in most matches and whilst we were probably still going down, the manner would probably have been very different in front of crowds. Maybe by assuming the fatalistic ” we have no chance” attitude, Farke was merely adopting our own version of siege mentality.
2. He has no choice but to change next season – we will be one of the strongest teams, so trying to suggest we are unlikely to finish in the top 6 having spent no money isn’t an option. But he will try to reduce the pressure on the team to succeed in some way, because that’s his job. He will know that 7th will be a failure, as the players will – that’s a different kind of pressure to an unexpected promotion season.
Let’s see how we get on now, for the first time under Farke’s management, we will be expected to win most weeks.
Excellent article. A major flaw for me with DF is the lack of inspiration he brings at half time. We have conceded so many goals just after half time. Good managers like Wilder earn their money then. Look at the Sheff Utd home game this season. It is a balance ultimately. Managers like Roy Keane, Pearson, Roeder can only keep the fear thing up temporarily but curiously it worked for all of Alex Ferguson’s career.
I’d just like to see us stop making the same mistakes every week with no changes. I think DF has been worked out. The extra subs mean forwards can close us down until we make our inevitable mistake knowing there are others on the bench to replace them.