Managers Under Fire: The Premier League Managers Under Most Pressure To Perform

Author: Last Updated: October 21, 2022

Are the natives getting restless at your club? Because let’s face it, in the turbulent world of football management, most managers are scarcely a bad month away from the sack.

We’re almost at the halfway point of the Premier League season, which means we have a good idea where every team might end up. The big indicators are there, as to which clubs are over or under performing on expectations so far.

With some teams far from where they had hoped to be at this stage, fans of a number of clubs are beginning to vent their frustrations, putting the man in the dugout firmly in the spotlight.

Any football fan will have spent hours talking over the mistakes made by managers. What formation to play, who to sign, which substitution to make – just like we kick every ball, we’re all closet managers. Title-winning closet managers!

The pressure is that great on whoever is at the helm, that it is conceivable they no longer enjoy the game they love. And with so much riding on the outcome of the season, any number of managers could be about to head to the job centre in the not too distant future.

Here at Cheeky Punter we’ve analysed managerial performance, thousands of social media posts, and a whole host of other metrics, to rank Managers Under Fire.

Managers Under Fire

How Did We Do Our Rankings?

Question MarkBy tracking social media posts referencing 56 managers across the English Premier League, Scottish Premier League and the EFL Championship, in relation to a whole host of terms, including ‘sack’, or ‘pressure’, while at the same time combining it with sentiment analysis, article engagement clicks, and bookmakers odds from the best football betting Sites, we can now identify the positions under imminent threat.

Sean Dyce: Most Under Fire

Under FireBased on the data, Sean Dyche, who is currently the longest-serving manager in the Premier League, having been at Burnley since 2012, is the most under pressure.

The Lancashire-based club, who have found it tough going this season, sit just above the relegation places with 0.94 points per match, and fans’ patience starting to wear thin. 17% of reaction to articles about the long-serving Clarets boss provoked an angry reaction, and his sentiment score was comfortably the lowest of all top-flight managers.

A gruelling festive schedule for all clubs means that Christmas and the new year is likely to be a pivotal period for the gravelly-voiced Dyche, and we think you’d have to be a brave man to send him packing!

Who Else Is For The Chop?

Dyche is followed on the list by newly-appointed Norwich manager Dean Smith, who is still on his probationary period, and is struggling to turn the Norfolk clubs fortunes around.

Smith is given a 2.90% chance of being the next Prem chief out of a job (Dyche was 3.80%), but with many pondering the club’s decision to remove Daniel Farket and appoint the 50-year-old, that pressure could quite quickly ramp up.

Watford’s Claudio Ranieri, who has backed his side not to buckle under the pressure of a relegation scrap, sits in third place. The 70-year-old Italian, who famously led 5000-1 Leicester to the Premier League title in 2015-2016, was immediately under pressure to steer the Hornets away from any relegation dogfight, and with just 0.75 point per match this campaign, as well as several football betting sites making him third favourite to depart next, the fans, who appear to be on side at the moment, could well turn soon.

Rafa Benitez is ranked fourth having faced mass criticism from Everton fans in recent weeks following a dismal run of results. The Spaniard has found it tough managing the Blue half of Liverpool this season, and that is reflected by his lofty score of 14 in this study. His sentiment score does, however, show there is some mileage left in his relationship with the Toffees’ fans.

Least Under Fire Managers: No Surprises Here

The least under pressure managers provided no surprises as Thomas Tuchel, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp took 20th, 19th and 18th place respectively.

West Ham’s David Moyes is placed just above them with the London club in fine form this year, while newly-appointed Villa boss and Liverpool Legend Steven Gerrard ranked in 16th place, enjoying a great start to life in the Midlands.

North of the border, where the pressure is a tad less intense, the managerial merry-go-round is also in full swing.

What About Across The Border? Scottish Managers

Scottish PremiershipRoss County manager Malky Mackay is far and away the most under pressure boss in the SPL, according to our research.

Mackay was appointed by Ross County last May, but things have not gone to plan with his side sitting at the wrong end of the table, and embroiled in a relegation battle. He returned a -0.25395 sentiment score, a 12% angry reaction score to press articles and just 0.89 points per match.

Livingston manager David Martindale did not fare much better, ranking in second place with his side slipping down the league, while Jim Goodwin of St Mirren rounded off the top three with fans’ patience wearing thin during his two-and-a-half year tenure. The pair scored nine and eight respectively, with Mackay way ahead on 11.

Elsewhere, on the list Hearts manager Robbie Neilson ranked at the bottom of the list, making him the ‘safest’ in his current role. The Edinburgh based club have enjoyed a fine season battling it out with Glasgow giants Celtic and Rangers at the top end of the table.

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