PLAYER POWER
If Belgium can ignore boss to win, why can’t England?
TWO days before Belgium’s Group E match with Republic of Ireland, their under-pressure coach Marc Wilmots took a brave step and left Kevin de Bruyne out of his first-team training XI.
Wilmots did the same to Everton’s Romelu Lukaku but the Everton forward was used to it. Every day Lukaku would see Wilmots favour Liverpool’s Christian Benteke in his team shape.
The Belgian coach had his poker face on. A game of bluff was afoot. After his team’s miserable opening defeat by Italy, 47–yearold Wilmots clearly felt he had to do something.
Come game day in Bordeaux, Belgium swept the Irish aside 3-0. De Bruyne was man of the match and Lukaku scored two goals.
A victory for Belgium, certainly. A victory for the coach, too? Not necessarily.
‘The players see through it,’ said a Belgian source yesterday.
‘They knew Wilmots was playing games. Belgium won that game because the players took control on the field. They made the decisions. Wilmots picked the team. That’s about it.’
It is an interesting insight into Wilmots’ strange relationship with his players, who face Wales in the quarter-finals in Lille tomorrow, and raises questions about how influential a coach really is at international level.
As England adjust to life after Euro 2016, the apportioning of blame between the players and coach Roy Hodgson continues. Most people believe Hodgson to have been out of his depth but his players’ failure to think for themselves on the field has also been questioned.
In Belgium, Wilmots (below) is neither admired nor respected.
As an attacking midfielder of repute, he was fondly thought of but is not so as a coach.
Many wanted him sacked after Belgium’s World Cup quarter-final exit. Few believed him capable of doing any better here. His players believe his training is boring and predictable. More Hodgson comparisons, right there.
However, the difference is that Belgium have grown into this tournament, following their Ireland victory with a 1-0 win over Sweden and a 4-0 knockout destruction of Hungary.
Talented but notoriously skittish, the Belgian squad have found their stride and head into tomorrow’s game as favourites despite the fact they failed to beat Wales twice in qualifying. In short,
IAN LADYMAN Football Editor reports from Bordeaux
the Belgium players have stepped up when required, so why couldn’t England’s players?
‘ The Premier League must urgently think about a rest period in a European Championship or World Cup year,’ said Toby Alderweireld, Belgium’ s Tottenham defender.
‘When the other leagues take a winter break, we in England just gear up... and that translates into the elimination of England.
‘Keeping mental freshness is sometimes difficult . . . but it is easier when you win.’
Alderweireld’s take on the matter is diplomatic but overlooks the fact that the Belgium team is packed with players based in England and many of them — captain Eden Hazard for example — are showing improved form here in France.
Hazard’s influence on this Belgium team is not to be underestimated.
Made captain by Wilmots when Vincent Kompany was injured, he is a more popular figure than the Manchester City defender.
Kompany, for example, is nicknamed ‘The President’ by the Belgian media, a nod towards his apparent self-regard.
Where he saw part of his role as a conduit between coach and players, Hazard trades on his own popularity within the squad to lead and galvanise, much like Gareth Bale does for Wales.
Hazard is known to be driven by a desire to show the best of himself tomorrow.
As soon as the draw was made last December, the Chelsea winger remarked that topping Group D would set him on course for a return to Lille, where he made his name before his move to England.
‘ Undoubtedly that motivates Eden,’ added the Belgian source. ‘He has been talking about it for weeks. But this squad knows it has a chance now. It knew that as soon as they looked at their half of the knockout draw. ‘They think this could be their chance. There has been a shift of mentality.’ Wilmots clashed with some of his players after the Italy defeat. His relationship with Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is cool. But since the victory over Ireland, peace has broken out at the Belgium camp half an hour outside Bordeaux.
While they trained under cloudy skies yesterday, Wilmots’ assistant Vital Borkelmans was seen in conversation with Jan Vertonghen and Axel Witsel, both members of a small coterie of players whose opinions carry the greatest weight here in France. Borkelmans is slightly more personable than Wilmots, but again his influence is limited. This is a group of players who have taken the decision effectively to self-manage on the watch of a coach who they know will leave after this tournament, whatever happens.
Two days after their opening defeat, Belgium’s players held a meeting here in the Gironde. It was that discussion which gave birth to improved performance and, notably, Wilmots didn’t attend.
An act of mutiny? Or players simply taking responsibility for themselves? It depends on your point of view. Whatever the case, it is, as England have discovered to their cost, preferable to doing nothing at all.