It’s curtains for Rafa Benitez at Real Madrid, seven months into his tenure at the Bernabeu.
While his appointment was a surprise several months ago, his dismissal on the other hand has been a joke.
A scheduled press conference by Florentino Perez that had the press waiting for half hour, ended with a two minute speech which thanked Rafa Benitez for being a good coach and introduced the new manager as Zinedine Zidane. No reasons for sack, no explanations or apologies, but just business as usual: ‘he is gone and we have a new one here’. The press didn’t bother to ask questions after his or Zidane’s spechees except to ask for a family photograph and another with the board.
17 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses couldn’t save him, I wonder what would happen with Zizou, taking into consideration that he has no experience at this level.
It just highlights the power of the mob today, by that I mean fans on social media and the social village in our ever shrinking modern world.
It was the Madrid fans that plunged the dagger in the heart of Benitez and Perez just bought the coffin at the end. Yes the players were bored with his training methods and rigid approach, but it was the fans who took to their phones and tweets, ending a tenure that never took off in the first place.
Twelve managers in twelve years and twenty one managers since the Champions League era! Good luck to Zizou.
The lesson to the modern manager is becoming increasingly simple, loud and clear: you have to win over the players, the fans, the media, the staff and the board in that order, plus you have to win games and trophies. If you fail to win over the players and fans you’re toast, if the media or fans despise you, then it’s game over, and if you don’t win trophies or sell players, then the board look elsewhere.
While wishing Rafa all the best in the future, Zizou needs to be told that he is now sitting on a very hot seat that ejects its guests with reckless abandon. Good luck.
HIDDINK BRINGS CHANGE
When a new manager comes into any team, especially in mid-season, he brings about a change in the dressing room: fringe players are revived as they see a chance to impress and play, those who were playing but not delivering are relieved of their excuses and have to perform and most importantly a new manager brings a tactical variation to the team, different from whatever way the team had been playing before.
With the arrival of Guus Hiddink at Chelsea, all of the above have happened, plus there is more as well. The fact that Hiddink has been at Chelsea previously was not lost on the board when making him the replacement for Jose Mourinho and so Guus Hiddink.
He didnt meet Ballack, Essien, Lampard, Drogba, Malouda, Anelka, Cole, Carvalho and Cech but a few trusted lieutenants in Ivanovic, Terry, Mikel and the staff, all those who know him from his previous stint at Chelsea.
What is interesting is the tactical variation he brought to the middle of the pack against Palace. Mikel for Matic. In Mikel he found someone to hold play in front of the defence whose job is to win the ball and pass it, like Desailly did with Milan of old. Well it worked against Palace as the ‘others’ (Diego, Cesc, Oscar, Willian & Pedro) were present, especially when playing against a Palace team who were short on personnel and class. It’s early days but Cesc didnt have to worry about what happened behind him all the time and also all Mikel had to do was win the ball and pass backwards, sideways or forwards.
What would happen when there is a first class opposition pressing in the middle of the pack? What would happen when the ‘others’ are put to task by bigger teams and there is no fluidity in attack? All that remains to be seen, but i guess that is why he is paid to be the Chelsea coach. Does he play with a triangle in the middle with Mikel anchoring Matic and Cesc? Or does he leave Matic out entirely? Time will tell, but at the moment, Hiddink seems to be doing the right things at the right time as Chelsea, against Palace, looked like the team that dazzled at the beginning of last season.
KLOPP PULLING THE STRINGS
It’s hamstrings all the way at Liverpool. High intensity sprints and high pressing for 90 minutes is the tactic at Anfield, but with the intensity of the games, the frequency at which they come and no ‘winter pause’ as it happens in the continent, footballers in the British Isles exert their bodies even more.
What happens when you continually drive a car at high speed without breaks? You get it, it’s a crash or a bump and Liverpool seem to be doing bump or crash, or both at the moment, with the hamstring and muscle injuries.
They’re close to a cup final and a trophy, but I hope their style of football does not cost them everything, as it appears that Klopp’s style is pulling all the strings at the moment.