Is Domenech a clown?

Great manager or clown?

There have been some pretty disappointing performances in the World Cup so far. Mexico were not as good as expected against South Africa, Greece were terrible, England under performed and Serbia were nowhere near as good as I thought they’d be. Uruguay were poor and even Holland didn’t look as fluent as expected when they beat Denmark. Italy were not good although that doesn’t mean much by past experience.

They will have a chance to put things right when they play Mexico on Thursday but they need to make a significant improvement if they are not going to suffer a similar disastrous tournament to the one they had in Euro 2008 when they picked up just one point from three games.

Opinion

There have been many question marks over the head of France coach Raymond Domenech since he took over and now former France legend Zinedine Zidane has added his opinion. He told French television channel Canal Plus,

“Domenech is not a coach.”

Zidane didn’t protect the players from his observations.

“There is no teamwork. The players must take responsibility for themselves and they must put their ego to one side”.

Current players are usually very disappointed when former players go into the media and criticise them but this time everyone will have to listen and take notice. This isn’t just any old former player, this is Zinedine Zidane, the man who scored twice in the final when France won the World Cup in 1998. He also helped France win the European Championship in 2000 and inspired France to the World Cup final in 2006. This is the man who along with Maradona was probably the best player I have seen in my lifetime.

Strange

I have some sympathy for Domenech as he is in the strange position whereby he already knows that he will be replaced as France head coach by Laurent Blanc at the end of the tournament. That is a strange position for any manager to be in.

Despite having a little sympathy, I also can’t believe that Domenech is still in the role.

Target

The fifty-eight year old former Lyon manager has been the France manager since 2004. He took over after France were beaten in the quarter-final of Euro 2004 by eventual winners Greece. He was given the target of reaching at least the semi-finals in the 2006 World Cup.

After initially struggling in the qualifiers Domenech brought Makelele, Thuram and Zidane out of international retirement and they helped the team to the finals.

Ageing

They went to the finals in Germany with an ageing team and with a squad selection that mystified players, fans and the media alike. To begin with they played pretty poorly but eventually Zidane inspired them to the final which they lost on penalties to Italy.

The growing pressure on Domenech, who had publicly said that he would not pick players born under the star sign of Scorpio, was lifted a little although even a World Cup final could not satisfy his detractors.

Disaster

Despite qualifying relatively comfortably for Euro 2008 they had a disaster when they got there. Many people assumed that Domenech, who was becoming increasingly difficult to understand in terms of selection, tactics and his general comments, would be relieved of his duties.

He wasn’t and he remained in charge for the 2010 qualifiers. They finished behind Serbia and then qualified by beating Ireland in the play-offs in controversial circumstances.

Crossroads

Now Domenech stands at a crossroads as to how he will be remembered as France manager. If he can motivate this group of players to get the necessary results against Mexico and South Africa then he may escape with a half intact reputation. If he can’t, he is likely to be remembered as something of a clown.