Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

[Satchmo Distel]

Prandelli seems obvious as No. 1 but what about Del Bosque? He got the team from its walking slumber against France to its peak form against Italy in only 8 days.

Hodgson: I'm just not sure that just being "better than shit this time" is qualification for high praise.

Worst must be Blanc for finishing 2nd in that weak group with such good players in his squad.

[ooh aah]

Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

and their capitulation against Spain.

Some others for the worst:
Advocaat - how do you fail to qualify after winning your first game 4-1?

The Dutch coach who's name escapes me - plan A consisted of give it to Arjen Robben to cut inside. Plan B - With Plan A, we won't need a plan B. Oh wait...

Paulo Bento - When you're entire plan is to play for penalties, you'd think over 120 mins he'd work out the right order of penalty takers.

[Borracho]

Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

Best:
1 Prandelli
2 Olsen
3 Bilek

Worst:
1 van Marwijk
2 Advocaat
3 Trapattoni

[Borracho]

Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

Smuda was dreadful as well. Kept trying to bring on substitutes with 10 seconds to go.

[ooh aah]

Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

yeah I thought about Trap too, but I don't know how to judge him given the gap in player quality he was working with. If they had played like that in Group A or D, then fair enough.

But I'm guessing you've probably had this discussion many times.

[Borracho]

Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

Trapattoni had a bad tournament not because Ireland lost all three games, but because he blatantly ignored the evidence of his own eyes and continued to persist with tactics and players that were demonstrably failing badly.

Even against Italy, when all had been lost and nothing was left to play for except a shroud of respectability, he picked the same team that had already been ripped asunder twice. He was blatantly stubborn and obstinate for the sake of it. He fucked up needlessly on a lot of fronts, even if the group turned out to be by far the strongest in the competition.

[ooh aah]

Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

Yeah you're definitely right about the Italy game. The only thing I can think is that maybe he thought Italy would be nervous and they could frustrate them, and that they could get a result that would give the fans something to cheer about. But that could have been achieved by simply having a go, and giving some younger players tournament experience.

At the end of the day he is, and always has been, a conservative, systems manager. We knew that before the tournament, so the fact he stuck to type isn't that surprising

[Jimbags]

Best and Worst Managers of Euro 2012

Smuda was terrible, failing to beat the 10 men Greeks and outplayed by an average Czech side at home.