Torn over Mike Mulvey’s sacking, Brisbane Roar star Thomas Broich says he is still trying to get his head right for Saturday night’s A-League clash with Perth Glory days after the coach’s poorly handled departure.
Even interim coach Frans Thijssen on Friday seemed surprised by championship winning mentor Mulvey’s dumping just six games into their title defence as they prepared to take on the ladder leaders at Suncorp Stadium.
Mulvey was sacked on Sunday for straying too far from the Roar’s “philosophy”.
But Broich believed the Roar were on the right track under Mulvey despite sitting third-last with a 1-5 record.
“I actually thought we were working pretty hard on the right stuff,” he said.
“I always had a good feeling going into games – we just could not produce the results.
“Whether this is the right step or not I don’t know but personally I find it very sad.
“He picked us up when we were rock bottom and he took us back up again and made us champions again – I am really grateful for that.”
Broich denied rumours of a team fallout with Mulvey but asked if the players should have been consulted before the coach’s sacking, Broich said: “That’s not up to me.
“I would like to think I am a big part of this club but when it comes to decision making the players are not involved.
“It’s completely up to the board.”
Broich said they had kept it simple at training in the four days under Thijssen’s control in order to get their mind back onto the job.
“It was quite turbulent for several days but we have to focus on the game tomorrow,” he said.
“It is about getting in the right head space, dig in and get those three points.”
Former Dutch international Thijssen hinted championship winning coaches in Europe would have been given more time than Mulvey to turn their season around.
“If Frank de Boer of (Dutch giants) Ajax wins the league and loses five games then he has a bit of credit,” he said.
“But as a coach and you don’t get results and your team is not playing well and you don’t see improvement then it is normal that a club makes a decision.”
Asked what he had been able to do with the team in four days, Thijssen said: “It would be silly for me to change the team and make big changes.
“For me the important thing is that the situation with the old coach is settled.
“There’s a rule in Holland with coaches, that you don’t sit on his chair until things are solved with the ex-coach.”
j binnie
Guest
Lionheart.- You've hit the big nail right on the head and driven it right home .jb
j binnie
Guest
Tom - A good question.You ask if it is my view that the Roar playing the way they do won't dominate Asian teams.I don't know if it is onlymy "view" but the facts suggest that this present team cannot dominate in their own league and if you go back to recent history neither of the teams that won championships or finished close could dominate in Asia either. You then ask if I think Mulvey HAD to go based on that reasoning???(from a board perspective). First of all let me say I don't know anyone on Roar's board or on their coaching staff (Brad Kearton played at Lions after I had left). To me,in my experience,the hardest bit of a manager/ coach's job is to survey his team and decide where it needs improving.It has been evident for some time now that the Roar team was getting to a stage where certain positions had at least to be covered if not replaced, As I said the championship winning team of a few seasons ago failed in Asia and IMO that team was a better all round team than Roar have today so surely that,again IMO, draws the attention to any apparent recruitment that has been attempted and it doesn't look too good for in the present squad 3 if not 4 of the "new" recruits are having a second go at "making it" with the club.The other who has come and gone is a player, who had tried to "make it" at Perth ,with mixed reviews, after an 8 club, 11 year career, in UK and at 33 could be deemed to fast approaching the veteran stage. Now to the second part of your question.The execution ,as you call it,is a blight on the club's higher management. Did Mulvey deserve to go???. Without knowing the 'goings-on" behind the scenes we will never know but someone,somewhere deemed it was time and I am quite sure whoever that being is he won't be influenced by what you or I think. You see,I speak from experience for the same thing happened to me many years ago the only difference being I beat the "conspirators " to the punch and left before they could get their act into gear.It could be said the team never again performed as well as they did in 1980/81 and ultimately were demoted out of the NSL. To itemise the answers. If Mulvey & others before him refused to improve the team intentionally then they deserve what they got If the board,or boards were refusing them the means and wherewithal to do that then IMO they were wrongly dismissed. Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge to differentiate between these two situations. Thanks for the questions Cheers jb
Lionheart
Guest
I thought I'd read that Thijssen was signed up to be youth Development officer, and was put in as interim coach instead, until the end of this season. There are obviously problems at Roar, the leaks to the Courier Mail before Mulvey's sacking point a discontented staff member, someone who pulls a lot of strings. The club is sending mixed messages, saying it's all about philosophy in the immediate aftermath, saying results don't matter, but then talking about recovering the season and the ACL ahead. Thijssen, in the local media, was reported as telling the players that if they aren't up to standard they'll be sacked. Last night Fox reported that Roar are close to signing a Portugese coach, and that Thijssen told them he'd like to stay on as coach. Inexperienced and naive management seems more and more at work here.
TomCahill
Guest
JB am I right in saying that the way Roar play won't dominate Asian teams and so Mulvey had to go? (from a board perspective). I feel like you agree with the motives but not the execution of Mulvey's sacking, am I completely misreading you here?
j binnie
Guest
Let's get this thing out in the open so that people are not left wondering. Frans Thijssen did not jump on a plane in somewhere?????(he has no coaching job on record for the last 5 years) and come to Australia for a holiday of sorts just to go to a game and watch Victory beat Roar and, miracle of miracles, was noticed in the crowd by "someone"??? and right there and then was offered the job of interim coach with Brisbane Roar pending their appointment of someone "better"????? at season's end. and ,if he was a good boy demote him to a youth development coach when ,and if ,this "super" coach arrived, This is fairy tale stuff on a par with the workings of Hans Christian Andersen,the doyen of that genre of stories, Mike Mulvey was targeted by someone as not being the man to take Roar to the next level, success in the Asian competition,the same one that Ange Postecoglue "failed" in just a few years ago. Back then the media were full of unending praise for Roar, Ange, the team,and a hiatus was set into peoples minds that to go "into Asia" was just going to be a "stroll in the park" It was not to be and the next year the team again performed well in "our" competition so once again the obvious was ignored and no real improvement was made in the playing staff. Then came the breaking point,another 2 "stars" left the club and were not replaced and the team lost 5 out of 6 matches.That brings us up to date,so lets do the obvious,fire the coach,and come up with a new body who will stick to the club's philosophy,a philosophy that hasn't worked too well when measured in a different scenario ie Asia, but has continued to work well,all be it somewhat cheatingly in our own little (in world standards ) league. Lainie, there is a story in there somewhere and neither you,nor any other writer appears to be interested in uncovering the truth. jb
Stevo
Roar Rookie
The words from Broich and Thijssen pretty point to the sacking of Mulvey as having very little to do with winning or football style but a clash of personalities or just a jittery board or both.