Henry the Great must shake off the ‘curse’
One newspaper headline described Thierry Henry as “cursed” in the wake of his managerial bow with Monaco, and the France great will be desperate to put that behind him in Wednesday’s Champions League encounter with Club Brugge.
Henry’s long-awaited first game as a coach in his own right ended in a 2-1 defeat at Strasbourg on Saturday, with Monaco’s night marred by goalkeeping errors, a sending-off and injuries.
The headline in question appeared in the following day’s edition of sports daily L’Equipe, and that game made it clear to the 41-year-old that he has a massive job on his hands.
Monaco, the club where Henry began his playing career before going on to star for Arsenal, are in a critical condition, having lost their last five games and gone 11 matches without a win.
They are enduring their worst start to a season in 65 years and their longest run without a league win for a decade.
Monaco may often be mocked for their paltry attendances, but they have a passionate fan base who will be worried for their team, less than 18 months after they won the Ligue 1 title in style.
“I was aware that it would be hard to put something in place after just two days of work,” said Henry at the weekend, having had limited time on the training ground since taking over.
Better will be required, however, if Monaco are to register their first points in Champions League Group A when they go to Belgium.
For Henry, it is an early return to the country after he ended a two-year stint as assistant to Belgium boss Roberto Martinez in order to strike out on his own.
Defeats against Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund mean Monaco remain pointless in Europe, and Wednesday’s match against the Belgian champions offers both sides a last chance to keep their hopes alive in the group.
More realistically, these teams are now fighting it out for third place and a berth in the Europa League knockout rounds.