- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Four years ago, I watched The World Game with bemusement as Craig Foster unprofessionally ranted at Ange Postecoglou, treating the guest with utter disrespect. I thought I saw the worst of Foster, but now he has reached a new nadir.
The funny thing is that only a day before Craig Foster was the one with the voice of reason, suggesting that this isn’t the time for over-analysis and over-criticism of the team. That the postmortem should happen after the World Cup, and this is the time to give the team the support when it needed it the most.
Now, in a complete turnaround that almost suggests bipolar personality, Foster on The World Cup show now calls for Pim Verbeek to be immediately sacked. He suggested a group of Australian captains should go up and demand for Verbeek to explain his tactics, and if they are not happy with his explanation, then they should enforce their own game plan on the team and if Pim is unhappy with that, let him leave.
That’s insane.
For someone who says that Australian coaches are under-qualified and lack experience and the need for foreign coaches to come and improve standards, what makes the players who have far less experience in coaching more qualified then Pim to make tactical decisions? After all would Foster be happy if the likes of Graham Arnold and Frank Farina, who are both ex-captains of the Socceroos, leading the “ex-captains committee”?
Also, would any coach in the world want to work in a country where there is a committee that second guesses the decision of a coach? History has shown clubs have been undermined when people in the upper management have interfered in the realms of the coach.
Considering the way Craig Johnston and Foster differ in their opinions of how Australia should play, especially after Johnston suggested that Australia should play route one football, there’s no reason that the “captains committee” will agree with each other, leaving an even more unfocused performance. Managing a sporting team is not a democracy and Foster’s idea of this committee is insane.
Lastly, sacking a coach in the middle of the World Cup is just mad. This has only happen once in the history of the World Cup (Cha Bum-Kun in the 1998 World Cup) and never after one game when the team hasn’t been eliminated yet. It’s impossible for anyone to come in with short notice and improve the performance of the team
Towards the end of the segment, Johnston then suggested as an alternative to the sacking of Verbeek that there should be a player led coup with the team ignoring the instructions from the manager and have one of the players become the de-facto manager of the Socceroos. Foster quickly agreed that this was a good solution.
Now to be fair, there have been some successful precedence to this, apparently Michael Ballack became a de-facto manager of Germany after the 2-1 loss to Croatia at Euro 2008 and Paraguay made it to the Round of 16 of the 2002 World Cup by ignoring the manager’s instruction. According to Chilavert: “At half-time, the players decided to go on the attack and not do things the way the coach had told us.”
However, although there are rumours of internal divisions in the Socceroos and there were hints that Grella and Kewell was dissatisfied with the tactics and selection, there’s no indication that Verbeek lost the confidence of the entire squad, unlike the Paraguay side. We also don’t have a leadership equivalent of a Ballack and a Chilavert. Also, didn’t Foster always say that Australian players are relatively tactically naive?
In the end, Foster’s rant reveals his own hypocrisy and his criticism and suggestion reveals his biggest weakness as an analyst – that he sometimes lets his emotions get in the way of his better judgment.
Now I have been a big critic of Verbeek and the way we have been playing for the last two to three years, but now isn’t the time for calling for his sacking or a player led revolt. This is the time to give Australia and Verbeek support and give him the opportunity to make amends, especially when Australia has not been eliminated at the World Cup yet.
As Foster previously suggested but ultimately forget, the time for the postmortem should occur after the World Cup.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.