By Ewah Chika.
By Ewah Chika.
Marc Wilmots is not just a normal coach, the 47 year-old former Red Devils coach (Belgian national team ) is also his country's all time highest goalscorer in the FIFA World Cup with five goals and a former Senator of his country with the Mouvement Reformateur Party.
Like in other sports, all these were not considered when it was announced by the Belgium FA (KBVB) of his sacking this month after Belgium were knocked out of the just concluded European
Competition in the quarter-final by a less fancied Wales. Wilmots was the envy of every coach judging by the abundance of talent in his team. The Belgian team was ranked second in the world before the tournament and also had the highest number of stars judging by names and quality followed by hosts France and Spain. To buttress further , the Red Devils were so richly blessed with star players that players such as Michy Batshuayi (recently signed by Chelsea from Marseille for €40 million ), Yanick Carrasco (Atletico Madrid), Divork Origi (Liverpool), Christian Benteke (Liverpool) and Moussa Dembele (Tottenham) all started from the bench. The former Schalke 04 player made some wrong calls during the tournament although luck played it's role as he lost his captain, leader and best defender Vincent Kompany to injury before the tournament . Wilmots could not also rely on established and experienced players like Thomas Vermalean and Jan Vengthorgen due to suspension and injury. In their place came inexperienced and below average players (Thomas Munier, Jason Denayer and Jordan Lukaku) judging from their performance in the game against Wales which they lost 3-1.
It will be unfair to attribute Wilmorts' sack entirely on the quarter-final loss as the former Bordeaux player was total out thought and out foxed by Italian coach Antonie Conte in the group opener as Belgium could not cope with Conte's high energy pressing and counter attacking football based on a 3-5-2 formation (Belgium lost 2-0 on the night).
Wilmots clearly lacks the tactical knowledge required to manage such array of stars which was evident all through the qualifiers for the tournament as Belgium only managed a draw against Wales losing the other one in a two legged encounter although the topped their group. Part of the problem is the fact that Wilmots isn't the type of manager that gives his players detailed tactical instruction and roadmap rather relying heavily on his improvising vague theme. The coach could also have done better if he had a more tactically smart assistant but this wasn't to be as his No2, Vital Borkelmans isn't far from him.
With Wilmots in charge, Belgium ended up old-fashioned , lacking attacking movements unless those initiated out of intuition by the likes of Eden Hazard and Kelvin De Bruyne. Wilmots also wasn't strong enough to drop the big stars when the under-performed due to the sole reason of avoiding the breaking of his team's unity and cohesion.
Having taken over on interim basis in May 2012 before going onto become a permanent coach , Wilmots succeed in not only qualifying Belgium for the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and European Competition last summer but also making it to the quarter-final on both occasions before losing to Argentina and Wales in the latter. This was a big improvement on the achievements of his predecessors Dick Advocaat and George's Leekens who could not even qualify the national team for a major tournament in their reign. Wilmots is also credited with blooding young players like Carrasco, Origi, Munier and Batshuayi who represent the future for the national team.
While these are valid points, the main question that has refused to be answered is if Wilmots really underachieved judging from the array of stars in the national team (golden generation ) and also from the achievement of less fancied nations In the Euro's (Portugal, Wales and Iceland) in the just concluded Euro's in France .
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