In American football, the head coach seems to matter lot. Its head coach might be the most impactful in all of sports. Some people think a basketball head coach is also impactful. But it is believed that in baseball, the value of a manager is vastly overstated. I agree. You could probably have a computer program manage a team all season and it would do just as well. But what about soccer managers? How much impact do they really have? During a match, it just doesn't seem they have hardly any impact. Perhaps in pre-match preparation? So between baseball and soccer, which sport has the more impactful manager?
In soccer, the prevailing belief is that you do your coaching in practice. There's very little in-game that can be done. Remember, there's very little in the way of substitutions and once you pull a player, they're done. So, once the whistle blows to begin the game, you don't have a chance to really speak to your players on the field until halftime. There's adjustments that can be made at that time. There's also adjustments that can be made with the 3 subs you do get if you need to change tactics and/or formations. Otherwise, that's all done during training. It's hard to say which manager is more impactful. If you're question is about in-game impactfulness, then it's baseball as they can discuss things with players as the game is going on.
I am evaluting both pregame preparation impact and in-game coaching impact together. I am much more familiar with baseball than soccer. In baseball, it's maybe almost half and half I think. Prior to the game, hitters and pitchers and fielder's need to study opponents carefully to be most effective. And in-game, there's decisions that need to be made almost every pitch, although many of them are no-brainers. It sounds like in soccer, the only coaching impact is in pregame preparation according to you. In that case, the soccer manager's pregame prep impact would need to equal the baseball manager's combined pre- and in-game impact for both managers to have equal impact, I guess?
I love soccer but I am going with baseball. And the reason being is that in baseball, it is so critical for him to make the right decision in either pulling a starting pitcher or letting him go longer. Grady Little of the Red Sox lost his job after the 2003 season because he left Pedro Martinez in too long as the starter and it caused the Yankees to come back and tie the game and eventually win in extra innings.
Correct. It's all done pregame with the halftime adjustments and your 3 substitutions sprinkled in. Of course, those things can greatly affect the game in the 2nd half. There is some that will go on during the game but only if it's proving that your pregame plan isn't working.
