Part of being a successful manager is being at the right place at the right time - that’s always the case. You need the right sort of players and the right sort of flow in order to shine. When that happens, and you capitalize on it, you get credit for it - and if you can sustain it for several seasons on the trot, you get even more credit. Then you lose the flow (to some degree) and fall from grace (to some degree) - it happens to most managers. Some bounce back, some never reach that height again, for whatever reason.
Coming up with an approach that works for your team is never about finding some sort of ***********’s stone which will keep you successful regardless of how your opponents develop (and adjust their own approach). But many fans these days tend to regard football in absolutes and extremes: If someone’s not doing well, the explanation they reach for is that he’s a bit shite and that he’s actually always been a bit shite - and thus his past achievements will have to be discredited: He was lucky (you have to be to some extent), he relied on top players (you always do if you want to win anything big), his success coincided with a poor period for his rivals (it often does to some extent, if your rivals are in rare form it’s generally harder to succeed), etc.
Coming up with an approach that works for your team is never about finding some sort of ***********’s stone which will keep you successful regardless of how your opponents develop (and adjust their own approach). But many fans these days tend to regard football in absolutes and extremes: If someone’s not doing well, the explanation they reach for is that he’s a bit shite and that he’s actually always been a bit shite - and thus his past achievements will have to be discredited: He was lucky (you have to be to some extent), he relied on top players (you always do if you want to win anything big), his success coincided with a poor period for his rivals (it often does to some extent, if your rivals are in rare form it’s generally harder to succeed), etc.
