"Of course, you know why you lost..."

If you have ever played cricket, you will have heard some variation of that statement after a defeat. Everyone has an opinion.

It's the situation England found themselves in the 2015 World Cup, where their first two games were one-sided defeats. I'm sure your team has been in the same position, and has asked the same questions about how to turn things around.

So, here are some common misconceptions about the reasons behind a loss. They apply at every level, it's just the shouting from the sidelines gets louder the further up in standard you raise. Avoid the trap of believing them within your own team and you will be able to get out of your slump rather than chasing your tail.

Myth: The tactics are wrong

One of the main criticisms of England in the World Cup was the lack of yorkers at the death. The cries from twitter were almost audible. The English tactics of bowling slower ball bouncers were so clearly wrong. Yorker bowling was the missing element between winning and losing.

Here's the thing no one pointed out (because England lost); the tactic was sound. Yes, it failed. Yes, well-executed yorkers would have been better. Consider this though: Poorly executed yorkers are just as terrible as bad bouncers. The key point is not the tactic but how well you apply the tactic.

Your plan might be brilliant, but if your bowlers can hit the right spot, or if the fielders drop the catches, what fault the tactic?

It's very rare to see bad tactics. It happens, especially with younger players who have not got a grasp of the basics. Once you are past that, the plan always exists, even if it is as simple as "pitch it up, hit the stumps, set a ring field". That's a good tactic. Where it falls down is when the bowling is wayward.

In other words, it's the execution, not the tactic.

What that means is you need to review your tactics in the light of how well you put them into action, and not whether you won or lost. A good review of every game is essential for all teams.

To take it to the next level, a good captain is able to review her plans during the game. As we often say, no plan survives contact with the enemy, so all captains and lieutenants need to develop the sense of when to change plans. That's very tough but worth the work.

Myth: The coach is inexperienced

It's natural to assume a coach can only do a good job if he has experienced success at, or above, the level he coaches. That's why you see so many ex-Internationals coach countries and first class teams, and why you see so many ex-first class players at club and school level. That's why an inexperienced coach is blamed for losing.

Yet, there is no correlation between coach experience and team success. John Buchanan coached one of the great Australia sides with 7 first class games. Greg Chappell did not have a good time with India despite all his Test runs as a player. Not all good players make good coaches. Not all good coaches were good players. The skills are different.

Experience is a factor. It's only one of many, and not a very important one. It's far more important to know how to get the best from someone else. That might mean technical knowledge, psychology or fitness. It's certainly about helping players develop their own skill and experience. As the saying goes, "The coach is the student, the player is the University".

If there is a problem with the coach, it's not down to experience.

As long as the coach is striving to create a team of confident, self sufficent cricketers you have a coach who is doing a good job.

Myth: Tinkering is bad

When you lose, it's easy to look back at every decision as the cause of the loss. We then call these changes "tinkering". Think about how loaded the term has become. It implies you have no idea what you are doing, and you are frantically scrambling around when the answer is obvious to everyone else.

Any deviation from a clear line towards victory is "muddled thinking" when the game is lost, and "a flash of inspiration" when the game is won.

The truth is a lot less clear.

In reality, tinkering is everything.

To build skill, you need to experiment, adjust and experiment again. As we know from the last myth, no one can tell you the answers, you have to learn them yourself. That is the exact definition of tinkering.

This is not clean and straight. It's messy with lots of dead ends and mistakes. That makes it unappealing to people on the outside of the process. We like to think that winning cricket games is about having a team of naturally-talented players who can outperform the opposition. In reality it's mostly about being the one who makes fewer mistakes.

It's clear that changes are not the cause of a loss. In fact, if you never tried anything new, you would never improve.

So, rather than putting a value judgement on tactical or technical changes, take pride in being open to new ideas, even though you know many of them will not work. Pick the right time to tinker, and tinker like crazy. Each mistake is one fewer towards getting it right.

True mastery of tinkering comes when you develop an instinct for when to abandon a change that is failing. But the only way to achieve that is from the hard slog of experience, lots of mistakes and a lot of both tinkering and inspiration.

So, don't blame tinkering, or lack of "common sense" tactics, or an inexperienced coach.

Look at how expertly skills are executed, how self-sufficent and confident players are, and what atmosphere and culture the team has for improvement. These areas are far more likely to be at the root of your loss than a bunch of myths.