Manager reputation and player perfomance

[kubo]

When discussing manager reputation in FM (such as in this excellent thread) it's usually in relation to one's chance of getting hired - what rep do I need to get a job at this club or that club? However, I'm more interested in the relationship between manager reputation and your players perfomances. The game strongly implies that your players will not perform to their best if they aren't impressed with your standing in the game, they "are not convinced by your ability to give team talks", they "look complacent", they "feel the manager lacks credibility" and so on. But does anyone know just how much effect this has - is it bordering on cosmetic or is it a major obstacle for getting results?

One example. I recently started a new game with Werder Bremen, picked professional football of german nationality for my manager persona. No surprise that the players weren't impressed by my standing. Now, after drawing our first two league games we crashed at home to Wolfsburg; 2-3, calamitous defending. Worst offender was our captain Clemens Fritz, who gave away the winning goal with an absolutely awful back pass. At full time, the game kindly informed me that mr Fritz "looked uninterested". So the question's this: did he gave away the ball cause he cannot read the game - or cause he just couldn't give a damn?

TLDR: How much harder is the game when managing a big club with a background of professional footballer rather than former international? Or, to put it another way, is it my tactics or my poor reputation?