He finished his quota for unsuccessful results too soon after 4
defeats in 8 league games and elimination from Euro league. The team
started the previous season in fine form banging in the goals left,
right and center. The team included Arda, Kewell, Elano (from Citeh)
Baros, Keita and Jo came in the Jan. window on loan so the stuff was
good for most parts of the previous season but a dodgy keeper and
string of injuries meant they finished 3rd. Things were looking good
for this season until the directors decided to sell Elano, Keita and
refused to buy Jo. The replacements were not of required standard (a
case of Rafa's famous sofa-table lamp analogy), then Arda and Baros
got injured, and after a couple of poor displays the press (as in
other countries) got on his back and he left even though the board
would have liked to give him more time but the impatient fans had to
appeased. I guess he also shot himself in the foot when he insisted on
mostly playing 433 and soemtimes 4231 against every opponent when he
didn't have the players (esp. this season) to do it so too many times
the team was in trouble defensively. He did look clueless at times,
like a man with no plan B but he has helped develop a couple of
youngsters and he wasn't shy to take risks with them. I wouldn't take
his Galatasaray episode too seriously as the following managers have
also worked in Turkey and been sacked beacuse they were deemed to be
"not good enough": Hiddink, Lowe, Del Bosque, One thing though: I
think a manager's no.2 can be very important in some cases. Look what
happened after Pako left. Wilkins gone, Chelsea go pear shaped. Fergie
suffered for a while without Queiros and I've read somewhere that
after Ten Cate left for Ajax, Rijkaard found things harder. Maybe
there is some truth in it?
ilker
2010/12/31 Bill Thomas <anfield@me.com>
> Okay, it seems that Frank Rijkard is at least according to this
>
> http://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/liverpool-specials/next-permanent-manager
>
> the favourite for the post. He did very well at Barca and probably laid the ground work for their current success. He's available, having been fired by Galatasaray. So, what was the problem at Galatasaray?
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