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The 2020-21 season has been a surreal one in many ways. Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year, the 2019-20 season extended till August, leaving clubs and their managers with a very short turnaround before the start of the next season.
Expectedly, a lot of clubs in Europe's top-five leagues, with the exception of PSG and Bayern Munich, have struggled for consistency this season.
Nine-time defending Serie A champions Juventus are struggling in fifth place in the league table. Premier League champions Liverpool are a point adrift of surprise leaders Leicester City. Spanish powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona are not in the top four after eight rounds.
If the trend continues for a while, a bevvy of managers could face the sack before the end of the season.
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Five managers that could be sacked this season
It is perhaps one of the worst-kept secrets in football that whenever a team struggles, more often than not, it's the manager who gets the boot regardless of his past performances at the club.
With the 2020-21 season being unlike any other in recent memory, several managers of top-5 league clubs could lose their jobs during the season if they are unable to turn around the indifferent forms of their teams.
On that note, let us have a look at five such managers who may not last at their present clubs till the end of the season.
#5 Antonio Conte (Inter Milan)
Last season, Antonio Conte sparked a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Inter Milan who ended just a point behind Juventus in the Serie A and also reached the Europa League final.
However, the former Juventus manager has failed to elicit the same kind of performance from the Nerazzurri this season with Inter sitting at a lowly seventh place in the league table and five points behind surprise leaders AC Milan.
Even in Europe, Conte's men have struggled to get going; Inter sit bottom in their Champions League group that contains Bayer Leverkusen, Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Madrid, garnering a solitary point from their first three games.
If Conte is unable to turn around Inter's indifferent form after the international break, he may even be out of his job by the turn of the year.
#4 Andrea Pirlo (Juventus)
In one of their worst starts to a Serie A season in recent memory, serial winners Juventus are four points adrift of early pacesetters AC Milan after seven games.
The Bianconeri started life under their new manager Andrea Pirlo with a convincing win on the opening day of the season but have unraveled as the season has progressed.
The absence of Cristiano Ronaldo for a few games after the player tested positive for COVID-19 hurt Juventus big time. The Serie A champions were beaten 0-2 at home by Barcelona in the Champions League and produced a few uninspiring results in the Serie A as well during this period.
In fact, Pirlo, who has taken the Juventus top job without having prior managerial experience, is yet to recognize his best playing XI and has tinkered with formations, something that has affected the team's performances. Further, his inability to utilise the services of new Barcelona arrival Arthur has also been criticized.
Despite the good form of Alvaro Morata, Juventus and Pirlo need to find a way to score goals and win games, convincingly or otherwise, when Cristiano Ronaldo is unavailable or has an off day.
It may be early days in the season, which means that Pirlo is not in immediate danger of losing his job. However, if the Bianconeri do not win a tenth consecutive Scudetto and are unable to crack the Champions League code yet again, the Juventus manager is unlikely to remain at the club's helm next season.
#3 Ronald Koeman (Barcelona)
Ronald Koeman was handed over the reins of a club that has had their worst season in more than a decade.
After failing to defend their La Liga title, Barcelona were humiliated 1-7 by eventual champions Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals to end a season without a trophy for the first time since 2007-08. As if that was not enough, club captain Lionel Messi expressed his desire to leave the club before the start of the season before he changed his mind and decided to stay on for a season.
With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the club's finances, Ronald Koeman had no big-name arrivals at the club and instead saw the prolific Luis Suarez leave Barcelona to join Atletico Madrid.
That coupled with the indifferent forms of Messi and Antoine Griezmann, Koeman's side has struggled in the Liga; they lost at home to arch-rivals Real Madrid and currently sit nine points off the league leaders after seven games. Even though Barcelona won 2-0 at Juventus in the Champions League, they are not tipped to go all the way in the competition this year.
If the former player is unable to arrest the club's indifferent form, and Barcelona endure another trophy-less season, Ronald Koeman's Camp Nou sojourn may end sooner than he may have hoped for.
#2 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United)
Ole Gunnar Solskaer could be another high-profile managerial casualty this season if Manchester United continue their series of uninspiring performances in the Premier League.
After overseeing one of the club's heaviest home defeats in history - Tottenham walloped ten-man United 6-1 at Old Trafford - Solskjaer's men lost to Arsenal at home in the Premier League for the first time in more than a decade.
In fact, Manchester United haven't managed to win any of their first four home games in the league for the first time since 1972-73, when they finished 18th. Considering the array of talent at his disposal, Solskjaer will hope that his team rediscover its form and turn around a rather dismal start to the season.
In Europe, Manchester United started brightly by winning their first two Champions League games of the season but fell to a disappointing defeat at competition debutants Istanbul Basaksehir.
It is not just the sequence of results but Solskjaer's questionable tactics and use of personnel in various games this season. A case in point is new signing Donny Van de Beek, who made a goal-scoring debut for the side but is not an automatic starter for Solskjaer.
If the Norwegian manager is unable to turn around his side's fortunes, he may not be around at the Old Trafford helm by the turn of the year.
#1 Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid)
It may be unthinkable to fathom that Zinedine Zidane, who has delivered three consecutive Champions League titles and two La Liga honors at Real Madrid, may actually face the sack this season.
However, that is a very likely proposition, as Zidane's men have made an uninspiring start to their La Liga title defense this season and have also looked far from convincing in Europe.
Even though Real Madrid won at the home of their arch-rivals Barcelona, the Merengues were beaten at home by newly-promoted Cadiz. Madrid then lost 1-4 at the Mestalla to find themselves four points adrift of surprise league leaders Real Sociedad after eight games.
Real Madrid also made one of their worse starts to a Champions League campaign in recent memory. The record champions lost at home to a much-changed Shakhtar Donetsk before playing out an uninspiring 2-2 draw at Bayer Leverkusen. Rodrygo saved the blushes for Madrid in the next game after the side squadered a 2-0 lead at home to Inter Milan before managing to conjure a late winner.
Zidane is not in immediate danger of losing his job, but if Real Madrid fail to win the La Liga or go deep in the Champions League - they have lost in the Round of 16 in the last two years - this season, the French manager could be relieved of his duties at the end of the season.
