With defences like these, who’d be a Premier League manager?

The life of a football manager is, we all know, pretty stressful. Recent medical studies have shown that during a game, managers put extreme pressure on the hearts as their heart rate soars and their blood pressure rises. At this stage of the season, with relegation, promotion and play-off issues all being affected in almost every game, that pressure gets even greater.

Crucial

The bottom two clubs in the Premier League, West Brom and Middlesbrough, both faced games in which they would have desperately hoped to pick up some crucial points yesterday. West Brom were at home to fellow strugglers Stoke and Middlesbrough travelled to Bolton, who were still not totally safe from the drop.

Tony Mowbray will have known that three points against Stoke was essential for his team to have any hope of staying up. Gareth Southgate will have known that defeat at Bolton was not an option. His team had to battle for at least a point.

Ineptitude

Sadly for both men, their team’s defences produced displays of such ineptitude that any chance of collecting points was all over very early on.

Of course, the manager and his staff buy the players, train and coach the players and pick the team. They have to accept responsibility for the results and usually pay for regular defeats with the loss of their job. Both West Brom and Middlesbrough have been exceptionally loyal to their manager’s this season despite results. Whether that remains the case at the end of the season is another matter.

Despite agreeing that manager’s should be judged on results, I have to say that I felt very sorry for both of these men yesterday. They were both decent centre-halves in their day and they must have been tearing their hair out at the comedy defending that their current charges displayed on the day.

Unlikely

Although Tony Mowbray coaches and manages the team I feel that it is very unlikely that in his pre-match team talk he will have said, “Two minutes in lads, I want my centre half Shelton Martis to completely misjudge a ball and let it bounce over his head. Let their striker have a shot, but if he doesn’t catch it quite right and hits it straight at our keeper Scott Carson, I want Scotty to dive over the ball and let it in.”

Of course, if that is what Mowbray said in his team talk, he will have been absolutely delighted with what he saw! In reality, he will have been devastated that the hard work, planning, sleepless nights, coaching, training, hopes, dreams and constant pressure, were all for nothing because of two basic errors made by well paid young men who should be expected to do better.

Basic errors

A similar thing happened to Gareth Southgate at Bolton. He certainly couldn’t have asked for any more effort from his Middlesbrough players as they battled and fought for the club. However, they are Premier League footballers and the basic errors they made in their defending were quite simply shocking. To allow Kevin Davies to get on the end of a cross after eight minutes was poor. To allow Gary Cahill to fire home from ten yards in the middle of the penalty area when seven Boro defenders were around him but not marking him was unacceptable.

I have no idea how Tony Mowbray and Gareth Southgate can make the necessary changes over the next few days to change their fortunes around on the pitch. In fact, I don’t think it is possible for either of them. West Brom are now eight points from safety and Middlesbrough are five points from safety.

Pressure

It is very likely that both teams will be relegated and it is also likely that both managers will be looking for work before the start of next season. That is real pressure on those two men and whilst the likes of Rafa Benitez and Sir Alex Ferguson talk about pressure, being at the bottom is always harder than being at the top.

The fact is that you can be the best coach in the world and you can run the best training sessions in the world and give the best team talks in the world and send your team out prepared in the best possible way, but if individuals make silly mistakes, there is absolutely nothing that the manager can do.

Who’d be a Premier League boss?