What do fans want from their manager?

What do fans want from the manager of their team? I thought I would look at the case of Luiz Felipe Scolari to see if we could find out.

When did it become clear that Luiz Felipe Scolari and Chelsea were almost certain to be divorced? Everything started well after all. After a few games, Scolari was going to be the man who finally led Chelsea to Champions League glory.

Loss

Then came the loss to Liverpool and the end of that wonderful unbeaten home run. Further defeats to Arsenal and Roma and then Manchester United and Liverpool again, meant that the Brazilian world cup winner’s stay was but a short one.

Which of those things was the turning point? The answer is that I don’t think any of them actually were directly. Obviously there was a cumulative effect to what was going on and the stories of player unrest may or may not be true. Certainly the need for Abramovich to taste success is great and real and a few defeats would be more than he could take.

Doomed

I believe that the Scolari era was doomed to failure once he had lost the confidence of the Chelsea fans. The fans didn’t particularly like the way the team were playing in their narrow and often predictable way. They didn’t like his insistence on playing Deco despite the fact that he was quite clearly not adapting well to English football. They didn’t particularly like the fact that the names of Kalou and Malouda were constantly on the team-sheet.

The fans certainly didn’t like or understand many of the substitutions made by Scolari but despite this and all of the other matters, they knew that he was a world cup winner and that he simply must know his stuff.

Confidence

So in amongst all of this, what was the moment that Scolari lost the confidence of the fans? I believe it was in the post match interview he gave after the abject performance his team had given in the 3-0 defeat to their fierce rivals at the top of the Premier League, Manchester United. When asked what had gone wrong, Scolari answered, “I don’t know.”

Even allowing for language difficulties and the fact that he would have been hurting about what had just happened, that answer was unforgivable.

Stupid

We fans are not entirely stupid. We see the game and whilst we all have different opinions, we can all say where we think a team has gone wrong when they are beaten. For example, in the defeat at Manchester United, Chelsea were far too narrow, didn’t hold the ball at all up front and failed to mark players at set pieces. The work-rate wasn’t high enough and the players simply didn’t want it as much as the United players did. Their passing was sloppy and ineffective and too many of the big players under-performed.

That is just my lay-man’s view. Others may agree or disagree with all or some of what I have said, but I believe what I have said to be true. Whether Scolari agreed with me or not we shall never know, because all he said was, “I don’t know.”

Hurt

Chelsea fans were seriously hurt by that defeat, the manner of the defeat, the margin of the defeat and the fact that it was against Manchester United. They would have been hurt, upset and angry. They would have wanted to hear their manager explain in no uncertain terms what had gone wrong and what he was going to do to put it right before it was too late.

Sadly, they didn’t get that from their manager. I don’t know if Scolari just couldn’t put his feelings and thoughts into English or whether he was too cross to speak or whether he prefers not to discuss such things in public or whether he really didn’t have a clue!

Faith

Whatever the reason was, it was a big mistake. I don’t believe many of the Chelsea fans could have much faith in the ability of Scolari to turn things around after that game and that interview.

Fans want their managers to be honest and open with them and they want to see that the manager cares as much as they do and that he has the required amount of tactical nous to take the team forward. They don’t mind if they get in trouble with the FA or defend their players when they have done the indefensible. They don’t mind if they swear a lot or criticise referees. They just want them to show that they are good at what they do.

In Scolari’s case, he failed to do just that.