Photo by Jeffrey F Lin on Unsplash

If You’ve Got The Ball, You Can’t Lose

In football (soccer) there are clashing philosophies. Defend or attack?Manchester City’s approach under Pep Guardiola is simple:

Keep the ball.

If the other team haven’t got it, they can’t score. If you have, you can. It’s hard to argue against. It doesn’t feel overly defensive, or overly attacking.

How can we apply this approach to life?

The reason I’m wondering is because I’m annoyed. I heard a CEO try to defend the awful performance of their private profit-making company. They’re being paid vast amounts while failing to deliver essential public services.

Was there an alternative to his defensiveness? What could’ve been his version of ‘keep the ball’?

Perhaps an honest assessment of the company’s failings but a well-thought out positive plan to put them right.

Not kicking the ball away, not fouling the opposition striker. Passing, building, progressing.