The insufferable rise and rise of ‘Manager-Ball’

The second goal was, apparently, pure Cars-Ball: a surging run from Declan Rice, a clever pass from Kobbie Mainoo, a swift one-two with Bukayo Saka, a sharp cut-back to the edge of the box to set up a clinical finish by Jack Grealish into the bottom corner. In five passes, Ireland were cut apart. On the touchline, in his England tracksuit, Lee Carsley took a quick sip from a plastic water bottle. This was the crystallisation of his plan, his vision, the start of England’s brave new era: the dawn of Cars-Ball, which in the space of a week had become a byword for change, a symbol of hope, a way of moving forward into a bold future.

Except, not quite. The extent that Cars-Ball had suddenly entered the mainstream was illustrated by the fact that England’s interim manager was asked whether the second goal of his debut win in Dublin was indeed, Cars-Ball. “It’s definitely not,” he replied. “It’s the players, it’s what they can do.” In other words, England’s second goal against Dublin was the product of the hours elite players spend in training being encouraged to pass and move and find space. As much as Carsley has a reputation as an expansive and adventurous coach, he had not claimed to have reinvented the wheel, as the promise of Cars-Ball perhaps suggests.

Not that the understated Carsley promised anything of the sort, of course. Instead, Cars-Ball is simply the latest example of  the ‘[insert manager]-Ball’ epidemic, a crisis that has now engulfed the game. This has become particularly evident in the Premier League, as the return from the international break has brought a deluge of tweets from fans of almost every club expressing sentiments such as: “Two sleeps until Slot-Ball *double crying emoji*” or “Iraola-Ball back tomorrow *double heart-eyes emoji*”. Ball is everywhere, it encompasses everything; to the point where Cars-Ball comes to life halfway through his first match as interim manager.

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But how did we get here? The origins, perhaps, come from Moneyball, the 2003 book by Michael Lewis - later turned into a Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt - about the Oakland A’s baseball team and their general manager, Billy Beane. In Moneyball, the A’s looked to beat the system by using statistics and data-driven approach to on-field areas such as player recruitment and roster building. In essence, Moneyball was a revolutionary idea, a different way of looking at the game. But while the formulas and algorithms produced by Beane and his team at the A’s were complicated and way beyond the interest of the general baseball fan to understand, the concept of Moneyball was not. It sold the story.

In English football, Wenger-Ball appears to be the first recorded case of the ‘[insert manager]-Ball’ craze, although only after the publication of Moneyball. And that makes sense: under Wenger revolutionised many aspects of professional football in England after arriving at Arsenal, particularly with their emphasis on stylish possession, shorter passing and fluid attacking movements. Arsenal became so synonymous with their distinct style under Wenger that it became the source of a line on the IT Crowd, as Moss pointed out that the thing about Arsenal is they “always try to walk it in” when attempting to fit in with a crowd of football fans. A term like Wenger-Ball was not required in order for Arsenal’s style to be easily understood.

Similarly, from Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho into Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, certain managers had the force of personality that sold their story anyway. Klopp did this himself when he famously explained the difference between Wenger’s Arsenal and his Borussia Dortmund side: “Wenger likes having the ball, playing football, passing, it’s like an orchestra. But it is a silent song. I like heavy metal, loud.”

Klopp, therefore, avoided becoming ‘Klopp-Balled’, as heavy metal football was a perfect illustration of what his teams were all about. Guardiola is almost seen as a descendent of Johan Cruyff and his Total Football, which perhaps explains why, for a figure whose influence now touches every corner of elite modern football coaching, the all-encompassing Pep-Ball has never taken off.

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Guardiola, Klopp and Mourinho were all firmly established as characters and personalities as much as coaches before social media became what it is today, a platform that favours video and short clips. As a result, the rise of [insert manager]-Ball really took off around the time when Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli side would go viral once a week by scoring a goal that was worked sumptuously from back to front, sucking in the opposition press before immediately hitting them with a fluid attacking move and fast, vertical passes. Napoli’s style was different and memorable enough for Sarri-Ball to catch on, as was the case for other managers who really started to stretch the game by demanding their teams to build possession and create quick transitions, such as Bielsa-Ball, coined in a post from Leeds United’s own Twitter account in July 2020.

The success of rebranding the England cricket team in the Baz-Ball era has further fueled the craze, while the wider influence of Guardiola means there are more and more coaches in the Premier League looking to play in an attacking, possession-based way, leading to Ange-Ball, Arteta-Ball and Maresca-Ball, to name a few, and a top-flight where the majority of teams are attempting to play a similar style. It means a route-one pragmatist such as Sean Dyche becomes an outlier, with his own distinct approach to the majority of the Premier League, so even he ends up with Dyche-Ball. Often, though, this is used sarcastically, as was seen in the late stages of Moyes-Ball and, of course, Southgate-Ball.

But it has come too far. The subtle changes Liverpool’s style of play inside and outside of possession from Klopp to Arne Slot has already led to Slot-Ball entering the mainstream, of which Liverpool fans are quickly becoming devout followers of just three games into the season. The early evidence of Slot-Ball is held up as a promising sign, each clip of a passing move from back to front another piece of content for internet fans to salivate over. For now, in the two games under Carsley, Cars-Ball has come to represent something similar for England: an idea, a hope and, at the very least, something to follow and grasp onto. And, in football today, if you’re struggling to offer that as a manager, perhaps you’ve already failed.