So are you telling me "world class" players are only needed to win league titles but not cup comps?
How did that work when Chelsea had more "world class" players than us in the league last year then?
FWIW, I agree with the general consensus in this thread about having better quality players in a team. But it is important to keep things in perspective, like I did with the Istanbul question because not everything in football is black and white. So, not forgetting or overlooking what a manager can do, especially after coming off the back of the season we have just had which undoubtedly was a success due to the system as much as it was the personel shouldn't be brushed aside IMO.
In fact both the system and the personel compliment each other, and finishing second and above a team with arguably more world class players reinforces this. I'm sure if we had a Roy Hodgson system in place last season we wouldn't have finished second.
No mate, but World class players play to a higher level
consistently while lesser players can raise their game on occasion. Traore was generally poor but could on occasion play well for example. So over a season the higher level played by World class players is much more influential.
I have seen players like Steve Davis at Fulham outplay Gerrard on occasion, but over a season Gerrards influence and ability far outweighs the odd occasion when lesser players outshine him, which would be another example.
Chelsea had a problem scoring goals, doesn't matter how great the World Class players are, if you can't convert your chances into goals. Similarly we had a problem conceding goals, but we had the third best player in the world scoring for fun ..... Chelsea didn't.
Suarez was the difference, if Torres was half the player he used to be (when he was World class) Chelsea would probably have finished in front of us .
I don't think anyone is arguing that a manager doesn't have any influence mate.... just that a manager will get better results with better players than he would with 11 Traores, and the better the players
in the system the better he will do.
There is a reason that top managers pay fortunes for top players and it is because no matter how good the system, it can always be improved by better players.
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