Under pressure, coaches and managers often take refuge in predictable clichés. Favoring explanation and authenticity then becomes a real competitive advantage.
If the players express themselves mainly on the pitch, it is on the sidelines and in the press room that the coaches play a completely different game. Pre-match conferences are an opportunity to observe the opponent’s tactics, appear calm, hide doubts and put the pressure back on the opposing team. Post-match conferences serve to explain the victory without revealing its strategy, to justify the defeat without bitterness and to provide enough information to satisfy the media. A balancing act that often gives rise to the greatest sporting clichés.
To go beyond the general impression and measure this phenomenon, we analyzed 394 press conferences during the last World Cup. By diverting the famous sports indicator of xG, “Expected Goals”, we calculated the “Expected Cliché” xC of the selectors.
The model analyzes each press conference of each coach during the tournament using a dictionary of more than 200 football clichés in six different languages. The tracker recognizes paraphrases and variations, assigning higher scores to phrases that have become football’s most overused ready-made responses. The objective? Distinguish those who provide real analyzes from those who take refuge behind ready-made phrases.
The xC index: when statistics measure the rhetoric of coaches
With an average score of 28 xC per press conference, Didier Deschamps has established himself as one of the most authentic coaches. Rather than using sometimes abstract concepts, he preferred to decipher his tactical choices and what really happened on the ground, limiting his rare photos to the notions of humility and state of mind. The Argentinian Marcelo Bielsa has the lowest cliché score in the competition with 6xC on average per press conference, while Tony Popović, and his 59.5 xC on average per press conference, appears to be the most clichéd coach.
Among the 14,270 photos recorded throughout the World Cup, the famous “We respect each opponent” is the most used expression of the competition. Affirmed on multiple occasions as a rhetorical shield, it is closely followed by the inevitable “We focus on what we can control”.
From the stadium to the meeting room, the mechanisms are identical among leaders
The pressure faced by international coaches is unique, but the communication challenge is not. Whether leading a national team, a global company, or a political party, pressure regularly shapes the way we communicate.
The evolution of these “Expected Clichés” follows a curve that we find in all crisis situations: the more the stakes increase, the more communication becomes blocked. By going from 28 xC during the group stage to 46 xC around the final, the coaches show that, under pressure, the natural reflex is to take refuge in predictable elements of language.
This is where the lesson extends beyond the confines of the football field. In the business world, customers and partners do not expect brands to reveal all their manufacturing secrets. On the other hand, they demand transparency and easily identify ready-made answers.
Leaders who make an impact are not necessarily the most charismatic or the best speakers. These are those who, under pressure, refuse to immerse themselves in a usual institutional discourse in favor of explanation and clarity. Faced with increasingly educated and demanding audiences, authenticity is not just a plus, it is a real competitive advantage.
