Who needs assistance - the role of assistant managers and coaching opportunities in New Zealand

3-5-2.  4-5-1.  4-4-2.  Numbers on a page to many of those outside of football but for those who play and love the game, three numbers paint a clear picture of personnel, attitude and what makes a team tick. 

Football tactics have come a long way over the years from the 2-3-5 of the fifties and sixties, the fashionable but now obsolete 3-5-2 of the nineties to the currently in vogue 4-2-3-1.  (As an aside, Jonathan Wilson�s excellent book Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics is fascinating reading for those interested in this sort of thing in a particularly nerdy kind of way). 

One of the most fascinating systems to have been attempted in recent years was Manchester United's 4-0-6 of last year (or 4-6-0, depending how you looked at it).  Without a recognised central striker, as many as six attacking players revolved through a range of positions leaving most defences aghast as they struggled to cope with the fluid movement of a talented bunch of players comfortable playing in midfield as well as further forward, both wide and centrally.  The results were there for all to see as United won the Champions League and the Premiership in some style.

Much of the credit for this innovative system went to United assistant Carlos Quieroz but the system was actually developed by Luciano Spalletti at Roma.  Faced with Francesco Totti as his only recognised striker in 2005, a player who preferred to drop deep into midfield rather than play off the last shoulder of defenders, he developed a system without strikers based on continual movement through fixed zones to play to the strength of the players he had available. 

Carlos Quieroz has now left United to take over the helm of his native Portugal (and incidentally has made a mediocre start to qualifying), United have signed Dimitar Berbatov to play centrally and have reverted to a more orthodox 4-4-2 with decidedly mixed results.

After defeat at Arsenal on Saturday left United 8 points off the pace in the Premier League, questions are being raised about how the loss of Quieroz is affecting the style that United are playing, and the role of the assistant in general.  Quieroz converted Alex Ferguson, an initial sceptic, to 4-5-1 in Europe in his first spell at the club and has clearly had an influence on the new Iberian generation at United.  In short, he's been an increasingly important figure in recent years despite the title of assistant. 

It is no coincidence either that Sammy Lee's return as assistant to Rafa Benitez at Liverpool has led to a more focussed approach in the Premier League.  Nor that Gianfranco Zola and Paul Ince's first acts as Premiership managers were to appoint experienced assistants (Chelsea's Steve Clarke and Scotland's Archie Knox respectively) and Luiz Felipe Scolari appointed true-blue Chelsea man Ray Wilkins as Clarke's replacement.  Which makes Ricki Herbert's recruitment of Brian Turner as unsurprising as Stu Jacobs' dumping at the end of last season was a shock.  Most managers need an assistant.

As well as providing a pathway into professionalism for players, one overlooked consequence of the addition of the Kingz, Knights and now the Phoenix is the pathway for coaches.  Where previously the limits of a coaches ambition was their local national league team and the All Whites job (and it is worth noting that Ricki Herbert is the first New Zealander to coach the side), coaching football is now a professional opportunity just like playing football.  But a quick perusal of most leagues around the world shows that other than at the highest level, or for particularly ambitious clubs, generally coaches are less mobile than players (unless they achieve particularly noteworthy success in international competition). 

Therefore, for New Zealand coaches there is stiff competition for jobs in New Zealand, and the opportunities in New Zealand are limited when one man, Ricki Herbert, holds the two plum jobs.  For an upwardly mobile and ambitious coach like Stu, losing his job as Phoenix assistant must be all the more galling when with Ricki in sole charge the team have played far less attractive football, and now, with (the admittedly part-time) Brian Turner involved (also assistant to Ricki at the All Whites), there has been an improvement in results.  He's been involved since around the time of the first win over Sydney and has to take some credit for the subsequent change in fortunes but his appointment is tacit admission by Phoenix management that the structure wasn't working.

And now another guy is occupying two high level roles.

The role of assistant is esoteric and eclectic.  At larger clubs the assistant will take many of the day to day training drills while the manager spends time on the overall management, liaising with scouts, signing players and dealing with the board.  The assistant might be a sounding board for tactics and will often be the link between the manager and the dressing room, keeping a closer eye on the attitude of players in training.  And they may be the nice guy that the players can confide in. 

At a club like the Phoenix that exists on a smaller scale clearly there is less of a need for the manager to be away from the training ground.  Anecdotally, Ricki's remit this year was to be more hands on with the players after spending a little too much time "supervising" his assistants last year.  Wayne O'Sullivan was downgraded to a "technical analyst" and it was expected that Ricki would do the bulk of the coaching.  But the results speak for themselves and Brian Turner is well liked by the players - it seems unlikely that the Phoenix will operate without an assistant again.

So where to now for Stu Jacobs?  Currently coaching Team Wellington, and still heavily involved with age group national sides, Stu has plenty on his plate.  But with the path to the two top jobs currently blocked he may look to a different pathway.  If Wellington's well publicised financial problems see them fall further behind the Auckland clubs, and if Auckland City again fail to topple Waitakere United, he may well be tempted to try his luck at a club that almost guarantees international exposure at the Oceania Champions League and may provide the platform for a move to the highest level by competing at the Club World Championship - in Auckland.  Just don't bet on him going back to the Phoenix.

Perhaps time will record Stu Jacobs as the first great casualty of the Phoenix era.