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The Great Coaching Debate

February 7th, 2008 | By: Rami | 10 Comments »

As I alluded to right after our last game in the African Cup, it is now time to make a decision about whether to extend Roger Lemerre’s contract or to have him play out his last four months (his contract expires in June) and then leave for good. The FTF is wasting no time in assessing our run through the African Cup as infosfoot.org reports that there was a meeting today to reexamine our participation and evaluate where things stand presently.

While there is no official word out there about this being a look specifically at how Lemerre and his staff did, you can bet that this is the primary question on the agenda. Tahar Sioud was asked about our coaching issue by mosaique fm on the plane ride back and he assured the reporter, Abdou, that this “dossier” would be studied closely. Remember that Mr. Sioud is the man who gave a so called “yellow card” to our coach after we surprisingly finished second in our qualifying group behind Sudan. No news has yet to come of this meeting but it is undoubtedly a matter of great interest.

Those who read the blog will certainly know that I’m not the biggest fan of our coach. In fact, I wish he’d spare us the speculation about the future and just resign from his post to give us more time to find a replacement. However, I think a lot of us are quick to forget that he is our most successful coach ever. 2004 might seem a long time ago but all you have to do is watch some highlights to remember just how great that tournament was for us. Sure its not like he lifted the title himself as the fans and certainly the players had a lot to do with that result. Still, Lemerre’s legacy in Tunisia will be that he instilled professionalism and accountability amongst the players who had been acting like amateurs for far too long. Under Lemerre you had the feeling that slacking off simply would not be tolerated. His strict nature made the players a lot more on edge and willing to work hard, kind of like the Capello effect that England might see in the future (although Capello is far superior in my book).

Furthermore, Lemerre had a huge impact on our defensive strength and our improved tactical placement in transition. However, in this strength also lies his weakness as he focuses so much on making a team solid that he forgets how to make it inventive and audacious. The guy can coach positioning but he’s proven time and time again that he simply is unable to have his players produce flowing football. With the players we now have at our disposal, this is more of a problem than ever. The era of the opportunistic Tunisia side that waited things out only to pounce when least expected should be left behind. Our current coach won’t change his ways at this point in his career so we can only hope that we will move in another direction. Therein lies the question: Who should be our next coach? Marchand? Decastel? Ben Chikha? Faouzi Benzarti etc? There’s a lot of other names being thrown around so if you have an opinion please post with your justification. The opposing viewpoint is that since World Cup is right around the corner we may as well keep the man who is already in charge. That would make it 8 years with the National team if that happens and I think that’s a damn long time.

Personally, I’m partial to Bertrand Marchand since he is a good foreign coach who has had success in Africa and is not new to the Tunisian Football landscape which means that his transition time would be reduced significantly. Plus he seems to get along quite well with his players and would probably be more open to an attacking style. Then again, Jose Mourinho said he appreciates Chikhaoui’s game so maybe he’d be up for it

Whatever the case, we need to also make sure that whoever ends up coaching our team can make the players believe that they can beat any team on the planet on any given day. The mental side of the game is where it all starts and when I hear Maaloul saying after the Cameroon game that the players came in kind of scared I find myself saying “then you didn’t do your job buddy!” There’s no reason we should fear anyone. Especially after the heart we showed in coming back in a game that looked lost for certain. Look at Egypt, they just destroyed Cote d’Ivoire today. Obviously Shehata has them believing they can take anybody, no matter how famous their players are. That’s exactly what we need.

Speaking of Chikhaoui, check this interview on RMC (it’s near the middle). Pretty funny stuff. He admits that Lemerre did good and bad things like any other coach but refuses to comment on who he’d like to come in next. Very diplomatic answers from a class act. He states his preference for Spain and England as opposed to Ligue 1 in France and I can’t blame him. I think he skipped the France step with Zurich. Once the summer rolls around it will be time for a bigger Championship.

Update

Word on Kooora.com is that Roger Lemerre has resigned this afternoon after a meeting with Tahar Sioud! The search begins….

Special thanks to Rachid for alerting me to this juicy bit of news. Let’s wait to hear about this mosaique and elsewhere for complete confirmation.

Tags: Bertrand Marchand, Carthage Eagles, Group H, Roger Lemerre, Tunisia Soccer, Yassine Chikhaoui

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Comments

By thamer | February 7th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

I don’t think any tunisian player has ever gotten as much attention as chikhaoui is getting…ever. Not that he doesnt deserve it, but im not used to hearing non tunisians speak of one of our players and if they could one day be one of the bet players in the world. One of interviews says that if he went to marseille, he would become a star in 15 days and that he would be a starter on any team in the french league. Even compares him to florent malouda. And that jose mourinho is impressed by him is a big deal as well. i also wish chermiti would get as much attention. although hes not as good as chika (which is nothing to be ashamed of) im sure he’ll be burning up whatever league he ends up playing in. like we’ve been saying, the future looks bright for tunisian football.

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By tamim | February 8th, 2008 at 2:00 am

it is time for your revenge rami……we will beat cameroon for tunisia on sunday!!!

By Moni | February 8th, 2008 at 3:12 am

In the end Lemerre contributed in making the EN proffesional.
This man wich sometimes I hated , If I see the picture where he sleeps, I don’t know..He belongs to Tunisia’s Football History and have made some good achievements. Tunisia could opt for a new coach what would be wise, but tunisia should also give him respect, Its really weird where I first many times critisized him , know Iff I see him on tv ore the pictures Iám wondering iff he is happy and had a nice time in Tunisia I hope he had and he deserve a warm hand shake for his work.
Merci Lemerre.

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By Daily Dose 2.8.08 - World Cup Blog - African Cup of Nations 2008 | February 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am

[...] Should Carthage Eagles let Lemerre go? (Tunisia Blog) [...]

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By Rachid | February 8th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

In my opinion, Tunisia’s FF would be wise to get rid of Lemerre asap and select either Marchand or Decastel (in that order) for the next phase. They’re both familiar with what’s going on in Tunisia and would hit the ground running. This is the same reason Moez Idriss selected Marchand, and that proved very successful for l’Etoile. Benzarti would not be a good choice, unless he takes some anger management classes. We don’t need a coach who’d be banging on windows and kicking the ground.

Maaloul belongs in a nice comfortable studio (such as can be afforded by the Gulf countries) analyzing games. He’s quite good at that and at bullshitting in general. He’s not a doer.

I’m surprised by Egypt’s performance given how they struggled during the qualification phase. But, it looks like relying on “local” players is not such a bad idea. Ironically, this should have favored Tunisia since both the CAF cups have been won by two Tunisian teams!

During the game against Cameroon, it was as if the football gods wanted to tell Lemerrre his defensive theory was obsolete. Our best defender got injured, Ben Frej came in, and you know how that changed the game dramatically. Both Lemerre and Maaloul failed to know the capability of their team, set the bar so low, and acted happy to see through the second round! For this mistake alone, they should be let go! CHANGE IS GOOD!!!

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By Rami | February 8th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

Decastel has already said he’s leaving CSS after this season so he’ll be available soon but I think it’s a different situation with Marchand who is enjoying quite a bit of success with Etoile. It will be interesting to see how this develops. You make a good point Rachid about why Marchand is your first choice and I’m with you there. Maaloul gets my respect in that at least he explained himself to reporters most of the time while Lemerre treated them like a nuisance or the scum of the earth. He apologized to Jaziri personally on Hannibal TV for not being clearer about him not being selected and I thought that was a good gesture. I do have my issues with him though of course. The main one is that he doesn’t seem to get the players pumped and full of self belief. Lemerre is at fault there too.

In fairness we took a lot of Etoile players. Looking back I still am shocked that Karim Nafti didn’t make the squad, we could’ve used him. The list itself wasn’t the main issue in my eyes. It’s just how we used the players we took to Ghana and the whole style of play that you refer to. Nice point about the football gods. I was thinking something along those lines: maybe it’s better we didn’t make it to the semis or even the final since it would have made getting rid of Lemerre a little trickier because people would have had an argument that the results achieved under him are quite good, despite the playing style. So perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise. Change isn’t just good, it’s absolutely necessary if we are to dream BIG and start seeing the attacking football that our skilled technicians have proven they can put on display.

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By Rachid | February 8th, 2008 at 4:34 pm

I just saw on “Kooora.com” that Lemerre, after lengthy negotiations with Sioud, has agreed to resign within the next several hours! What a relief!!!

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By harissa | February 8th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

Tunisia is already bankrupt, why don’t they hire a 1/3-mondist to run a lousy team like Tunisia. look at Egypt and Uganda, they all have local players with local coach; they are doing very well. Tunisia does not need bench-warmers in European teams to play in the national team, use people from Enejm elmetlaoui, Ennadi Alahli Elmatri, Alnakl Arrifi be Ghazala, Tala… I can go on.

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By Rami | February 8th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

Phew! thanks for the update buddy, I’ll update this post with this information once I’m back home from work… Glad to see that Lemerre is at least giving us a chance to have more time to pick our next coach and get him situated. I am full of optimism but I just hope their next choice is a good one. We can’t afford to be stuck with someone with the same mentality and outlook.

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By realjsk | February 8th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

I endorse the nomination of Marchand and Descastels to coach our national team. They both proved that they can lead to great results in a short time. They also have a wide experience now in Tunisian soccer and they won’t need 6 months to get adjusted. I am also against long-term contracts. I believe that a 2-year contract would be ideal for the coach to show what he is capable of without being trapped if things don’t go well. I would have really opted for a Tunisian coach if there was one up to the challenge. If you look around, you will find: Khaled ben Yahya (who I think has never taken a job without resigning before the end of his contract), Maher Kanzari, Farid ben Bilgacem, Nabil Maaloul. All of these names either don’t have enough experience, or have not proven themselves yet (apart from one or two successful seasons). As of Youcef Zwawi, he took the national team twice, and we all know how both times ended up with. The national team is not a field of experiments. I am not sure of what should be done to produce quality Tunisian coaches, but something has to be done for the good of our football.

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