Despite refusing to resign following Korea’s shock 3-2 loss in Qatar and expressing that he is fully focused on Korea’s two remaining World Cup qualifiers, Uli Stielike will, according to reports, be sacked tomorrow at 1am EST, 2pm KST, when the KFA’s Technical Committee convenes.
The Technical Committee chair, Lee Yong-soo, told Yonhap News yesterday that the entire committee will resign tomorrow and that they will leave at the same time as the Korean boss. “We have not yet received any word as to his resignation,” said Lee.
Stielike claims that “(He) haven’t given resigning any thought. I’m focused on the most important thing, which is the two remaining qualifiers.”
However, he isn’t living in denial, saying, “Whether I will be the head coach or someone else will be on the bench is of secondary importance. I will accept the decision of the technical committee.”
The Technical Committee however has the power to sack the manager and it appears that they are set on doing so.
Another high-ranking official on the committee said “We are holding on to second place, and the general feeling around the KFA is that even if we do qualify for the World Cup, we won’t be so competitive if we play the way we have.”
Reports suggest that the team’s new assistant manager, Jung Hae-seong, will be promoted to interim boss until September (after the two final qualifiers) before the KFA searches for a replacement. Jung was a coach at the 2002 and 2010 World Cups under Guus Hiddink and Huh Jung-moo.
Happier times.
It seems reasonable to fire the head coach from the recent context, but I started reading the Wikipedia page “List of South Korea national football team managers”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_Korea_national_football_team_managers
Uli Stielike has the following within the entire history of South Korean National Football Team:
– Most wins (25)
– Highest win % (71.43%) among coaches with 20 wins or more
– The longest serving head coach (33months)
Guus Hiddink had:
– Wins (14)
– Win % (35.9%)
– 17 month career
I now feel like KFA, media, & the fans are reacting out of emotion/panic & not looking at the bigger picture.
We might be firing one of the best coaches we may have in the history of South Korean National Football Team who may be just going through a slump.
Perhaps instead of firing the head coach, maybe we could add in an energetic assistant coach that could provide a missing link during these trying times. It’s tough not being able to emotionally charge the players that you are coaching when you don’t speak the language, so perhaps a talented interpreter/assistant coach can fix the current concerns.
Back in 2007 former head coach, Pim Verbeek, expressed that South Korean fans & the media just have unrealistic expectations as he was resigning.
If the ENTIRE list of South Korean Nat’l Football Team head coaches have a shorter length of career than most of NFL running backs, maybe we should ask ourselves, “Maybe it’s not the head coaches, maybe it’s something deeper within.”
One of the best coaches? Sorry, but I disagree…
Have you seen the team play? Sideways passing, no penetration, it took three years for him to play Lee Jaesung centrally. Lee is literally the only reason why the team looked potent in attack against Qatar, otherwise it would have been worse.
Defensively, it’s awful. Confidence is shot. I don’t disagree that there’s been an unlucky storm and that Kim Younggwon’s injury problems mean that the centreback position is missing its key player, but there are things managers can do to fix this. Not starting an ailing Kwak Taehwi, actively scouting new centrebacks.
Unrealistic expectations? Maybe. But losing to China and Qatar, would you say that asking for these things not to happen is unrealistic?
Stielike had the majority of his games against much, much weaker opposition. Like Laos, Myanmar, Kuwait, Lebanon. Hiddink was building with a vision for the World Cup. Stielike was taking pride in 8-0 wins against South East Asian countries who we are light years ahead of. The stats deceive. Surely you aren’t saying that Stielike > Hiddink.
Even if it’s “just a slump”, the team is on the verge of failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in decades. Claudio Ranieri won the league, but was sacked the next year anyway. And Leicester looked a new team under Craig Shakespeare shortly after. It’s just about changing air. The players need a new coach, if only to give them the notion that it’s a fresh start.
While Stielike had some success in the past, it appears that it’s been a while since he has lost the locker room. If players don’t like him, he shouldn’t be the manager. Korea definitely has some deeper lying issues, but Stielike could have done better. He doesn’t seem to be good at making tactical adjustments and doesn’t inspire confidence in his players.