‘ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST’
This Queen song could never be more relevant in the soccer world. Another manager bites the dust in a trend that has begun to spiral out of control. In the most recent sacking, former Tottenham manager Christian Gross became the 5th manager to be let go by FC Schalke 04 this season, setting an unwanted Bundesliga record for most managers sacked in one season after winning 1 in 12 games.
Destined for the pit of relegation, the Bundesliga basement boys are nine points adrift with 10 games to go. A miracle may be around the corner for Schalke and the next poor manager that steps into the role. Is this a key example that it might not always be the coach’s fault?
In terms of managers, to an abundance of club boards they are just pawns in a game of chess. It really doesn’t matter if they go or not to a certain degree. In soccer, it’s not all about how good the manger is, how good the players are, how good the physio is and all the staff. Yes, it has a crucial effect on performances, but a variable that does not get talked enough about is luck.
I know luck is a very dangerous word to use in sport, but how many goals are scored from deflections? Just imagine if that ball hit the person a few centimetres more in a different way it would go out for a corner. These fine margins have detrimental effects on the ‘keeper’s ability to read and shift his body to save the ball. A bad run of form can come from nowhere and start from nothing. If you think about it when teams get out of a bad spell of form, they are still using the same playing style from before the bump in the road. It’s easy to blame to manager for this, but the problem is the inefficiency of the 11 playing to finish and carry out the tactics. Yes, a coach might make a bad decision, a wrong tactical switch and many managers do deserve to get sacked, but being let go caused by a few games that affects the club’s image at most is disgraceful.
Teams can go out and play a flawless 90 minutes. Defence is strong, structure throughout the lines, the attack looks sharp all day and then it takes one bouncing ball to deflect into the back of the net to shatter all that perseverance. Seeing that work crumble in front of you, morale plummets.
People say athletes should not feel this way, they should be professionals. Soccer players are not robots, they can try their best to be professional about it some better than others, but they have 6, 7 days till the next game to get back in form. It might not even be after one loss, it might take two or three losses and it has a knock-on effect to the rest of the team.
Whether you like it or not, confidence and morale affects the game as much as fitness. Managers are not fully trained therapists. Yes, they do have a certain degree of responsibility for this issue, but this comes with planning trainings, matches, meetings, etc. All it takes is an unlucky deflection, someone not tracking back, a mistake by a knackered defender to push the team down a hole.
Coaches are not out there playing. They can only control what potentially happens, and that potential can only materialise if the team cooperates. Even if they do cooperate anyone can make a mistake and lose 1-0. It should not be about “Oh look, we lost 4 games on the trot, it must be the manager”. Unless you bring someone in who is clearly more talented by a huge margin, the underlying problems will still exist.
It is different for coaches who have negative impacts on players, because when a new manager comes in and cares, the performances will follow. Clubs need to start having an actual football brain to analyse the performances to see what is happening, what is the mood like in the dressing room? What is the relationship between players and the coach? These should be the factors to determine the manager’s future, not the attitude of “look we lost a few games and people are laughing at us, get a new manager”.
A key example of sticking with the manager is Daniel Farke and Norwich last season. They came rock bottom of the Premier League. If they got rid of Farke, they knew it would cause more damage than good. They accepted relegation and regrouped to go again in the championship with the same players, same coaches and they are currently top of the championship with nine straight wins.
Clubs and fan bases need to open their mind to other options rather than sack, sack, sack. It does not always work the way people want it to, but the last thing you need is disruption during the season. To the club boards unless you have a football brain in charge, it’s about what people are saying on social media, how is this affecting the club’s image? How much money will we lose? Soccer is ruthless and managers are the scapegoats. Manager after manager, it has become a norm to bite the dust.