- Jan 20, 2006
- 45,213
- 8,229
Sammy Lee and the new Bolton coach whose name scapes me?. I watched Bolton vs Bayern and Man United and it is very unlikely that Sammy would have obtained those results when they were leaking goals left and right against much worse opposition.
I am pretty sure that Juande Ramos, even with the same players Jol had would do a better job, cause he is a better coach IMO. Could Houllier win the CH L with the squad Benitez inherited? Could Rainieri beat the Premiership total number of points with Mourinho squad?.
I agree with you that the most significant factor is the players, no doubt about it, but coaches play an important part too. That's why some are considered better and train the best teams, although there are a few that could be doing a great job at bigger clubs and don't get the chance.
Lee had a dream of getting Bolton to play more attractive football. It didn't work (although in fairness Bolton began shipping goals at an alarming rate about halfway through last season, when Allardyce was in charge). Megson has simply gone back to what Bolton always did best, playing at a high tempo, closing down, and kicking people. Also, for reasons best known to himself Hitzfeld took Ribéry off, and suddenly Bayern looked nowhere near as effective. That was very much a second-string Bolton, too. To tell truth, I've watched a fair bit of Bundesliga this season and I've not been that impressed.
I'm not at all convinced by Benitez. In the EPL Liverpool still look no more realistic title challengers than they did under Houllier. Yes, they won the CL, but that was because Milan unaccountably imploded; replay that game a hundred times and there would only be one result. Chelsea came no closer to the CL final under Mourinho than they did under Ranieri, and who knows how well Ranieri might have done if he'd been handed £70m to spend? Chelsea would certainly have been a lot more attractive to watch.