Erik ten Hag scores highly on brilliant Premier League baldness-to-win ratio graphic

Erik ten Hag’s start to the season has been impressive at Manchester United, and one graphic designer, known as F_Edits online, has made a rather interesting graphic to display this.

Many comparisons have been made between Manchester United‘s Erik ten Hag and Manchester City‘s Pep Guardiola since the Dutch manager took the reigns at Old Trafford.

There have been many intense discussions relating comparisons between to their play style, man management, and what has happened when the two sides have met in the Premier League this season.

Manchester City won the first bout in an impressive 6-3 win over United at the Etihad, however Ten Hag was able to enact his revenge at Old Trafford earlier this year when Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes helped United come from behind to defeat Guardiola’s men 2-1 in a fantastic performance.

However, one other comparison, or more specifically similarity, that has been drawn between the two managers is the fact that both manager are bald.

There has been a long-lasting running joke that the best managers are almost always bald, with examples being raised such as Pep Guardiola, Zinedine Zidane, and more recently Ten Hag himself… but how true is this theory?

Fredrik, who describes himself as a “motion and graphic designer”, has crunched the numbers – with a loose positive correlation clear to see between the “baldness” of a manager and their Premier League win ratio.

As can be seen in the above tweet, Erik ten Hag is only bettered by Pep Guardiola when it comes to his baldness-to-win-percentage ratio in the Premier League. Another interesting plot-point on the graphic is Everton’s new manager Sean Dyche, who they have tasked with helping them survive in the Premier League despite the looming threat of relegation at the end of this season.

Although this graphic is obviously more for comedic purposes than any real statistical analysis, there is probably some grounded explanation behind why some bald managers seem to excel at their roles – and it’s more correlation than causation.

Baldness, for the most past, is caused by age. As males get older, they tend to lose their hair, with factors such as stress coming in to play in relation to this too.

Famously, Jose Mourinho once said on Guardiola and baldness:  “When you enjoy what you do, you don’t lose your hair, and Guardiola is bald. He doesn’t enjoy football.”

The stress of being an elite-level Premier League manager, or in a more general sense a manager in any top-flight level of football, will no doubt be through the roof – but also, there is the factor of experience as managers age coming into play.

Managers often age like fine wine – as they get older, they gain more experience and therefore their abilities broaden. Whether there is any more to this theory (probably not) we do not know, however one thing is clear: that graphic is brilliant.