How hard is it to manage a great team?

We’ve all seen it time and time again. Great teams, undoubtedly great teams, failing to achieve anything close to what they should. The case this time around, of course, is Argentina.

The Albiclestes have done fairly well in their past two major tournaments, reaching the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup and the 2007 Copa America final. But as things stand currently, Argentina will not clinch a qualification spot for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as they sit in 5th place in South American qualifying standings with 22 points in 16 games.

While England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 (but is now already heading the World Cup after a swift change in managers from Steve McClaren to Fabio Capello), many see this Argentina team as one that is disintegrating much like England did two years ago.

Brazil leads the South American “CONMEBOL” qualifying standings with 33 points, followed by Paraguay (30 points), Chile (27 points) and Ecuador (23 points). Just below Argentina is Uruguay with 21 points. As things currently stand Argentina would be forced to play a World Cup play-off with the 4th place team in the CONCACAF region, which will certainly be either Honduras or Costa Rica.

The Argentineans are not short of talent by any means this time around, so what is the problem for Maradona’s men? Or is that just it? Maradona’s men? While arguably the greatest player to ever play the game (with George Best and Pele the sources of the only logical arguments), Maradona has never been a role model. Sure, every professional footballer would like to emulate the form of the “FIFA Player of the Century” on the pitch, but how many would like to have lived his life outside of the stadium?

Clearly, some players would rather watch footage of the graceful Argentinean than interact with the person he currently is (ex. Juan Roman Riquelme). Of course, Maradona is not a terrible person by any stretch of the imagination. And there is no reason why he should be the subject of hatred from the fans he brought the 1986 World Cup to. He loves Argentina, he loves the game of football, he is one of the most passionate people in the world, but he has never been a leader off the field.

During his illustrious career, Diego could lead on the field because he could change a game in a way that none of his teammates could. Off the field he led his teammates because in football you learn from playing with the best, and Maradona’s teammates understood that playing with a living legend would make the team better.

There is no sensible argument in dismissing the importance a football manager has on his team. A manager is responsible for every tactical, mental, and preparatory procedure on and off the field. But a manager, especially an international manager, must recognize who needs to lead on the field to make the team successful. Tactically, it is essential for any coach to understand that a player with the qualities to make a team great can have just as much of an influence on the squad as a coach.

This is where Maradona has failed to understand what his responsibility as a coach is. He wants to lead Argentina to victory, and yet, he doesn’t let his players express themselves on the field because he thinks in terms of his personal success as a manager. Even with the creativity of Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Diego Milito, and Sergio Aguero at his fingertips, Maradona has failed to see how these players could be leading Argentina on the field.

It is this very reason that a group made up of presidents of football clubs from Argentina’s Primera Dvision are heading a campaign to fire Diego Maradona. While obviously it may seem like an ambiguous claim to say that these club presidents want to fire Maradona because he has failed to let his world-class players lead their country on the field, the fact that they want FC Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola as a replacement speaks volumes.

“Argentina has a diamond in the rough, it is Messi, and none of the national experts have been able to get the best out of him. In contrast with Guardiola at Barcelona, Messi won three tournaments in a year," Marca quotes the group of club presidents as saying.

Pep Guardiola, only in his second full year as a manager, won the treble (Copa del Rey, La Liga, Champions League) for Barcelona last year. Guardiola, though whole-heartedly respected by his players, emphasized the initiative and ability of his players while simply letting them play a beautiful, natural, and enjoyable brand of football. In short, players like Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, and Carlos Puyol have led Barca with an on-field form of democracy that has enabled the squad to play as a collective unit. Riquelme is a world-class talent that could play Xavi’s role, but ultimately it is up to the Argentinean players to determine upon themselves how to play the wonderful style of football they are capable of.

As for the question, “how hard is it to manage a great team?”, the real question that needs to be addressed is “how can a manager of a great team have his players lead on the field?”. Maradona is unfortunately the example of how a coach can take make a team worse by taking responsibility away from its players. In football, only so much can come from one person. Maradona may have shown the full extent of what is capable of a single man on the field in his career, but he is highly undisciplined in understanding what a coach can do for a team.