Bulgaria boss quits amid racism furore

Krasimir Balakov has quit as Bulgaria coach in the wake of the 6-0 Euro 2020 qualifying defeat to England which was marred by racist abuse.

England’s black players were targeted by monkey chanting in Monday night’s match, which Balakov said he had not heard.

He later issued a statement apologising to the England players and to anyone offended by the abusive chanting.

“The performance of Bulgaria’s men’s national team in recent months has been described as unsatisfactory, which is why the national coach Krasimir Balakov resigned,” the BFU said in a statement.

Balakov himself said: “I am no longer a national team coach and I wish success to the next coach. At the moment, the situation is not rosy.” ON the day after Manchester United’s latest deflating defeat, to Newcastle United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer bounded into his office. The word from the staff was that “you wouldn’t know he’d lost”.

This is Solskjaer’s general demeanour, but isn’t quite a case of that kind of deluded optimism he has been accused of.

The United manager knows there are huge problems. He couldn’t not. Sources say he was downbeat after the 2-0 defeat to West Ham and questioning everything about the squad.

The primary problem, however, is that they just don’t ask enough questions of opposition defences. United have only scored nine goals in eight matches, making them the eighth lowest scorers in the league.

In such situations, the rationale is to look at the underlying numbers; the encouragement that chances are being created but not taken. This cannot be the case here, because the numbers are even worse. Opta figures have United at 1.01 xG, the fourth worst in the Premier League.

That essentially means they are the fourth worst at creating quality chances. The fact they willingly sold the “out” of a proven 20-goal striker in Romelu Lukaku without a replacement only makes this more damning, seemingly summing up so many of the club’s bad decisions.

You don’t really need the numbers to see this, of course. The play has been bad enough. United look like a team who have forgotten how to attack.

It is nevertheless something that will be all the clearer to see tomorrow, cast against the brilliance of Liverpool’s forward line.

Whereas United are so dismal, the European champions are so full of life. Liverpool are a dizzying whirlwind of attacking movement, that itself stems from a clear idea of play on which Jurgen Klopp’s approach is based.

Coaches who have attempted to stop Liverpool speak of how their No.8s and full-backs are so effective at controlling the shape of a game and where the ball goes, before the movement of the attackers devastates the shape of the opposition defence.

For many in the game, this is the main difference between United and Liverpool and Manchester City — as well as their main problem.

There is not the same core idea, from which everything else can flow, including recruitment. It all begs the question of what exactly Solskjaer is actually trying to do with this team. What are the side being told? What are the instructions? Is there anything like the same co-ordination that we see at City or Liverpool?

United sources would dispute this. They maintain that a broad strategy was put in place in 2013, the summer Sir Alex Ferguson retired, with three pillars: (1) to win major trophies; (2) to play attacking football, with “X-factor players” and (3) promote youth.

Within that, the decision was deliberately taken to make the definition of “attacking football” relatively broad. The common counter-argument is that this runs contrary to best practice among the leading clubs.

And all of that puts more onus on Solskjaer’s idea, and the amount of faith entrusted in him — which Old Trafford sources maintain is unwavering.

He was given the job because the club realised he was so “in sync” with their overall strategy and a “cultural reboot”, and his more specific ideas fit with that.

Solskjaer ultimately wants a defensively solid United playing at the kind of devastating speed opposition sides can’t deal with.

Players are encouraged to take risks. This is at least what they are trying to hone, and incorporate into a solid team structure, even if there are questions over whether assistants Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna are taking too much in coaching.

One widespread criticism to add to this is that this isn’t really a way of playing, but really just principles of a counter-attacking game. And they fall down when teams willingly give you the ball.

This has been one of the