Watching players like Tijjani Reijnders, Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Hugo Ekitike, Mohammed Kudus, Antoine Semenyo, or Lamine Yamal reminds you how insignificant a manager is. The coach lays the foundation, but the players are the reason we show up.

Without the manager, the coach, they’re nothing. They need structure and guidance, but they also need to have that confidence to become irreplaceable. That is one of the manager’s main jobs, to instill that confidence.

Being irreplaceable is a hard thing to achieve in football as an attacking player. If you offer something no one else does, you are special, but if you offer something no one else does and your actions result in goals, you are irreplaceable.

You give those players the ball, and they will find a way to surprise you with a goal. Assisting the assist, an assist, a goal, goals.

You’ve seen your team make that same exact pass and get into those same areas of the pitch, but these players put something extra on that next action once they receive the ball that other players can’t when they drive, dribble, pass, or shoot, that other players can’t.

You can replace them but you’ll never achieve what you could achieve with them.

The manager is responsible for creating an environment for those moments, but it doesn’t matter how good the tactics are, how much they prepare, how much they train, how many friendlies they play, how far they’ve travelled, or how much rest they get; you need players that create moments.

You need to become irreplaceable.