Just who is Scolari trying to kid?

Yesterday quotes from our ex-manager – the venerable Mr. Scolari – appeared all over the web. Luiz alleged that it was player power, and specifically the power of Drogba, Cech and Ballack, that got him the elbow in February.

He goes on to say that it’s always the manager that gets fired first, not the players, because the directors and owners of European football clubs end up siding with the latter. You can read an overview of his comments in the Sun here.

Nice deflection, Scolari. The fact is that the best managers of the game don’t get fired before players. How many players, for example, have left Old Trafford in the last ten years because their actions led them to fall out of favour with the boss? And how many from Arsenal?

The difference with Scolari of course, was that he didn’t have the record of success to back him up when players (who have better records in European football than he does) started taking issue with his methods and, as a consequence, the board didn’t really have much choice.

So, wake up Scolari. Chelsea were sliding towards 5th in the table and out of the Champions League spots. Hiddink came in and scored more than a point per game more than you did (see here for the full statistical breakdown). Player power played a part in your demise, but wasn’t the primary factor – that was you.

Oh, and good luck with Bunyodkor.

Am I being too harsh on the big man? Post a comment.

Comments

[Pete]

Nope, you're right on. Lazy training sessions and poor tactics did him in. While I have no doubt there were player grumblings in the locker room, he brought it on himself.

[Michael Hepp]

When he was sacked almost everyone said we rushed to the decision, we didn't give him enough time, blah, blah blah. The experts, the blogs, and even SAF also chimed in and said what a bad decision it was. Well, everyone, was wrong. We would have won the Premier league as we should have with proper coaching.

And now he comes out and blames the players.... too late for that. The results show he was not doing a very good job and now it all looks like sour grapes.

[Anthony Calleja]

Once again we fully agree Russell. No doubt Luiz Felipe is a great and classy manager and his record with Brazil, Portugal and the first part of the season with Chelsea showed it as at first Chelsea were playing really classy and attractive football, were winning and even led the table. However the problems started when opposing teams realized the Scolari plan and started playing defensive and negative football to which Scolari did not have an alternative or another plan. To be fair with Scolari, at the start of the season, he wanted Robinho and Chelsea did not give him Robinho who was just the type of player who could break down packed defences. To make things worse Scolari had some strange ideas which precipitated things like not wanting players defending the goal line during corners. How many goals and points we lost because of it? Another problem was that he tried unnecessarily to change players habits which effected their confidence like he tried to change Petr Cech's habits of seeing opposing strikers on Video before a match which is a very good idea in my opinion and he caused Petr to lose alot of confidence and become hesitant as happened to ther Chelsea players. Or his thick headed refusal to play Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka together, even going as far as to prefer Di Santo and Stoch to Drogba.Finally his latin nature led to him having preferences and resulted in the formation of cliques instead of the whole Chelsea team being united together, our players were divided into pro and con Scolari groups. His training methods also failed and resulted in a lack of fitness and mental strength in our Chelsea and the conceeding of many last gasp goals and points which would have made all the difference. Under Scolari, our Chelsea players and we Chelsea fans were being turned into nervous wrecks and that it was a right decision to sack him, and indeed it should have been done earlier, was confirmed how Guus Hiddink converted the same team and the same players into a team of true brothers that was unbeatable, no where more evident than in the transformation of Didier Drogba. Its a pity that we could not keep Guus Hiddink because if he was with us earlier last season, or with us this season, we would have won everything. How can Scolari blame the players especially Didier Drogba, Micheal Ballack and Petr Cech? How can Scolari describe Cech as rude, who apart from being the best goalkeeper in the world is a true and quiet gentleman. Scolari nearly lost us alot of loyal true blue Chelsea players like Cech, Drogba and Malouda amongst others. And Scolari is no victim, a look at his compensation package amply demonstrates this.