Surely the influence is the recruitment of players and the selection process for the head coach? Like their mantra is young players and a high press (this might be wrong) so they recruit young players and then recruit a manager who at least says he plays high press. surely this is just the same as most clubs nowadays. I think the days of a manager who has ultimate autonomy over signings etc is over.
What he said was they showed him the data that proved the young lad should be playing over the older player and the manager was playing the older player due to him being on more money.