Premier League 2011-12: Grading the Tactical Success of Each Team's Coach

The Premier League season has finished and each manager now knows the fate of their team.

It's been fantastic for some, satisfying for others and terrible for a certain few. We saw a huge variety of tactical systems throughout the season, so let's take a look at how well each manager utilised their squads.

A gaffer can only use what he's got in front of him, and it's up to him to decide how best to use the peripherals at hand.

Read on to see how each manager approached the game this season and how successful they were.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Arsenal

Manager: Arsene Wenger

Typical Formation: 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1

No change in shape for Arsenal this year with the major difference being Robin van Persie's fitness.

At times Arsenal lacked true discipline in the midfield as Alex Song gradually began to neglect his defensive duties. Although his assists were nice, the shape of the team suffered for it. 

Wenger was unable to utilise anyone else at defensive midfield due to constant injuries and the potential signing of Yann M'Vila would seriously shore things up.

Theo Walcott was poor at times, making people question the Frenchman's conservative use of starlet Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Overall, the classic Arsenal style remained. Short passing and controlling of games allowed them to have a strong season that finished in third.

Grade: B

Aston Villa

Manager: Alex McLeish

Typical Formation: 4-4-2

Typically speaking, a 4-4-2 is set out to attack. With two strikers and direct wingers, this formation is built to get the ball into the box and create opportunities.

Not when your playing for McLeish.

Aston Villa were the victims of the Scotsman's "small-club mentality"—the pretence that your side can't compete unless you play boring, uneventful, safe football.

His squad was decimated by injuries but the outlook was bleak from the beginning. Negative football was utilised from the start and 10,000 empty seats at Villa Park each game tells the complete story.

Grade: D-

Blackburn

Manager: Steve Kean

Typical Formation: 4-4-1-1

Blackburn have had an awful season and it's easy to see why.

Over the last five years, the Rovers have been successful in the air and dangerous from set pieces. This year, it all swapped round. Kean was unable to utilise the potential dominance of Scott Dann and Christopher Samba and simply leaked goals instead.

Blackburn were terrible at holding onto the ball and were easily spooked—something that resulted in long balls and direct movement up the left flank and through the centre.

They more or less relied on Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Junior Hoilett—two players who at one point looked able to carry them to safety.

In the end, relegation was deserved and a long-standing Premier League club went down without a fight. Shame.

Grade: D

Bolton

Manager: Owen Coyle

Typical Formation: 4-4-2 / 4-5-1

It started badly for Bolton and only got worse. Losing Lee Chung-Yong for the season before a ball was kicked was the biggest of blows and the Fabrice Muamba situation shook football to its very core.

Owen Coyle had Bolton playing their prettiest football in years last season. They tried to continue in the same vein this season but he didn't have the right personnel to do it.

Zat Knight, Nigel Reo-Coker and Muamba aren't comfortable in prolonged possession and David N'Gog isn't the tidiest front man.

The signing of Tim Ream bought some stability to the back line but Coyle needs a revamp if he wants to play some nice stuff next season.

Credit to Coyle for trying to play football, but he needs to play to his side's strengths.

It's a massive shame to see Bolton Wanderers relegated.

Grade: D+

Chelsea

Manager: Andre Villas-Boas / Roberto Di Matteo

Typical Formation: 4-2-3-1

Chelsea saw two managers this season. One was a massive failure, the other a potentially unprecedented success.

Villas-Boas had all the right ideas but rushed the implementation. He encouraged the team to play nice football but his major tactical failure was the misuse of squad personnel.

Yes, the Blues need to inject their squad with youth at some point, but leaving Frank Lampard out like he did was pure suicide.

Di Matteo has been excellent. In fact, he's been almost perfect since he stepped in and the systems he used to stifle Barcelona were excellent. By the way, Andre, Lamps was instrumental in those historic victories.

Grades: AVB: C /  RDM: A-

Everton

Manager: David Moyes

Typical Formation: 4-4-1-1

Moyes has guided Everton to another successful season whilst making excellent use of his peripherals.

The Toffees have played some good football this season—the eight-goal thriller at Old Trafford being a definite high point—and Moyes encourages tidy football built from a solid base.

Most of Everton's good work came from build up on the left-hand side of the pitch through Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar combining.

Marouane Fellaini became adept at forming the passing triangle necessary to control a game and when Nikica Jelavic arrived, that domination was transformed into goals.

Tim Cahill is a concern for next season.

Grade: B

Fulham

Manager: Martin Jol

Typical Formation: 4-4-2 / 4-4-1-1

Fulham were a bit "Jekyll and Hide" this season—fantastic one minute then disappointing the next.

Martin Jol was an undoubted success though, as throughout the year he addressed several issues and improved performances all over the pitch.

He got the very best out of Clint Dempsey—a player who had a direct hand in 53 percent of the Cottagers' goals—and is considered second only to Robin van Persie in the Most Valuable Player standings by many.

By Midseason it became apparent that the ball wasn't sticking up front. For all Fulham's good build up play, they weren't able to sustain pressure on the opposition due to the lack of a good target man.

Pavel Pogrebnyak more than fixed this problem.

Moussa Dembele and Dempsey attracted a lot of attention throughout this campaign thanks to their sparkling performances and Jol will have a tough task holding onto them this summer.

Grade: B

Liverpool

Manager: Kenny Dalglish

Typical Formation: 4-4-2 / 4-2-3-1

Dalglish has had a tumultuous first full season in charge of Liverpool.

He encouraged good football and although the results didn't go their way, the performances were very good for the most part.

The short, sharp passing that the Reds displayed in their loss to Arsenal saw them lose only to Robin van Persie's wonder strike and that pesky goal frame.

The ideas were there but certain individuals let him down. Andy Carroll doesn't really fit at Liverpool, but that's only because Stewart Downing was woeful (36 games, 199 crosses, no assists).

They didn't win enough games, but they struck the post and bar 35 times over the course of the season.

When it became apparent that there was nothing to play for, Dalglish started to experiment. He went three at the back against Stoke City and about five up front against Chelsea.

Grade: C+

Manchester City

Manager: Roberto Mancini

Typical Formation: 4-2-3-1

Roberto Mancini has had a tactically superb season. He produced a strong base formation which all players could slot into and experimented heavily using his deep squad.

There were times when Manchester City seemed stunted by their overly ambitious full-backs, but the majority of the season played host to some marvellous attacking play coupled with some strong, uncompromising defending.

Small tweaks during games won them critical points or produced amazing performances. For example, Pablo Zabaleta's role in the last Manchester derby, switching to wing-backs with 10 men against the Red Devils in the FA Cup or Yaya Toure's switch in the Newcastle away fixture.

Mario Balotelli takes some managing, too.

Grade: A

Manchester United

Manager: Sir Alex Ferguson

Typical Formation: 4-4-2 / 4-4-1-1

Sir Alex Ferguson failed to find a much-needed central, creative midfielder during the 2011 summer transfer window.

This very much limited what Manchester United could do since Tom Cleverley's bright start faltered after a bad ankle injury.

Ferguson's favoured 4-4-2 was sacrificed at times for a 4-4-1-1 with Wayne Rooney playing the withdrawn, creative striker role. He adapted his squad well considering the glaring hole he was trying to pave over.

A typically great season from the managerial legend with what could be considered one of his weakest ever teams. It's a testament to Fergie that they were so close to winning the title—no other manager would come close.

Grade: B+

Newcastle United

Manager: Alan Pardew

Typical Formation: 4-4-2 / 4-4-3

Remarkable season for Newcastle United and Pardew. He's the PFA Manager of the Year, but there should be a PFA Scout of Year Award and Graham Carr should grab it.

The team was originally setup to accommodate Andy Carroll and use him as an aerial battering ram. When Carroll departed, Pardew didn't change the system but recruited new personnel—Demba Ba—to fulfil his role.

When Papiss Cisse arrived, Ba was moved wide to accommodate his fellow Senegalese's goal-scoring talents. Ryan Taylor and Davide Santon were able to provide the necessary ammunition from the flanks and Yohan Cabaye did a fantastic job 

Pardew was not only tactically spot on this season, but he was great in the transfer market and excellent in his close man-management of the players.

Grade: A-

Norwich City

Manager: Paul Lambert

Typical Formation: 4-4-2 / 4-4-1-1

Congratulations to Norwich City for retaining their Premier League status.

Paul Lambert did what plenty of other successful managers did this season and played to his team's strengths.

Grant Holt was utilised in a long-ball, cross-heavy system which bullied opposing defences. Even some of the sternest fell, such as Liverpool's Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger.

Daniel Fox was utilised brilliantly in a controlling midfield role to keep the team ticking over and Kyle Naughton may have launched his Premier League career.

Grade: B

Queens Park Rangers

Manager: Neil Warnock / Mark Hughes

Typical Formation: Mixed

Warnock played good football but received no end product from his strikers. That's probably because he persisted with Jay Bothroyd, though.

Shaun Wright-Phillips flourished under Warnock and produced the football of his life. They played a very wide game to stretch the opposition and looked brilliant on their own patch.

Hughes didn't seem to settle on a style or system of play, often chopping and changing his team in accordance with whoever was suspended for the weekend.

In January, QPR did a "Hughes classic"—buy whoever you can see and don't worry about building a "team." This resulted in some disjointed performances and they'll need to regroup over the summer to avoid what happened this season.

Grade: C-

Stoke City

Manager: Tony Pulis

Typical Formation: 4-5-1 / 4-3-3

Stoke played another season in their classic fashion—long balls, crosses, set pieces and headers.

Props to Pulis for doing what works as Stoke secured another season in England's top-tier and played well in Europe as well.

The summer signings of Peter Crouch and Wilson Palacios bedded well into the tactical system and Robert Huth scored his usual striker's haul.

I'd like to see Stoke buy a few more creative outlets this summer and perhaps some defenders more comfortable on the ball.

The only way for Stoke to improve from here is to get better on the deck.

Grade: B-

Sunderland

Manager: Steve Bruce / Martin O'Neill

Typical Formation: 4-4-2

Sunderland ended the season in typical O'Neill fashion. Long balls from defence, traditional wide play and a big man up front.

They'll have some decisions to make during the summer, as Stephane Sessegnon is attracting attention and Nicklas Bendtner's loan deal is set to expire.

Tactically, things didn't change dramatically when Bruce was replaced. It was more O'Neill's man-management skills that led his team to safety.

Grade: C+

Swansea City

Manager: Brendan Rodgers

Typical Formation: 4-5-1 / 4-3-3

Swansea City brought us the Premier League's answer to Barcelona's tiki-taka this season. Brendan Rodgers should be commended in his efforts and, while it failed drastically at Reading, the system he runs suits the Swans perfectly.

There aren't many other teams where Ashley Williams could look like a top-tier central defender. Ryan Taylor, Angel Rangel, Joe Allen and Nathan Dyer are all average players—or so we thought.

Rodgers brings the best out of you by instilling confidence in your game. Swansea's home form has been phenomenal and the only blip is the away record.

Grade: A-

Tottenham Hotspur

Manager: Harry Redknapp

Typical Formation: 4-4-1-1

Redknapp has had Tottenham playing some of the most scintillating football the Premier League has seen in recent years.

Results have gone against them during the second half of the season and there have been some questionable calls to be fair.

Gareth Bale might play right midfield for Wales, but it didn't work for Spurs. Even worse was stuffing Luka Modric, the heart and soul of the midfield at White Hart Lane, out on the left where he couldn't make an impact.

It's certainly been a season of two halves.

Grade: B-

West Bromwich Albion

Manager: Roy Hodgson

Typical Formation: 4-4-2

West Brom were a strange one this season. Midseason they were brilliant away and awful at home—a pattern Albion fans haven't seen in quite some time. They settled toward the tail end, however, and looked in no danger of troubling either Europe or the relegation zone.

Hodgson stuck religiously to his 4-4-2 (or varieties of it) and will continue to use it for the English national team this summer at the European Championships.

This was another creative team who should have scored more goals than they did. He utilised James Morrison and Chris Brunt very well, encouraging long-range shooting and plenty of crosses.

Grade: B-

Wigan Athletic

Manager: Roberto Martinez

Typical Formation: 3-5-2

The fact that Wigan went on a nine-game losing streak early in the season and subsequently avoided relegation more or less inducts Martinez into folklore.

During the losing streak, Martinez was using a 4-3-3 and leaked goals galore. It takes cojones to make a drastic switch in formation and the Spanish tactician changed to a three centre-back system.

It could have gone horribly, horribly wrong. But it didn't!

Beating Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Arsenal is a serious achievement. Bigger clubs will come calling for Roberto.

Grade: B+

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Manager: Mick McCarthy / Terry Connor

Typical Formation: 4-4-2

Mick McCarthy played the season out like he always does but couldn't seem to inspire his team like usual.

Wolves have great wide men and McCarthy utilised the attacking prowess of Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly well when they were available.

Steven Fletcher got plenty of joy out of those two as the traditional 4-4-2 played to his strengths. One must question the peculiar use of Kevin Doyle, however, as he started appearing on the right of midfield toward the tail end of the season—the part where they desperately needed goals.

I'm not really sure what to say about Terry Connor's situation. The whole thing was a mess.

Grade: C+