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The 2019/20 season is still just a handful of games old; most domestic leagues have played only 5 or 6 games and the Champions League has literally just restarted, and yet we’ve already seen the first managerial casualty in the form of Javi Gracia, who was fired by Watford on the first weekend of September.
One thing is for certain, though – Gracia won’t be the only manager to lose his job this season. By the time 2019/20 is up, who knows how many more casualties we’ll have seen? And more to the point, who’s likely to be next in the firing line?
The following 5 managers are under pressure right now, and while they’ve all got time to turn things around, there’s every chance they could be joining Gracia next.
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#1 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Things weren’t boding well for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign at Manchester United when the Red Devils managed to win just two of their final nine games in 2018/19, finally being defeated by relegated Cardiff City in their last fixture. When they began 2019/20 by thumping Chelsea 4-0, it felt like the ship had been righted, but five games later, it appears that the victory was a false dawn.
Since then, United have won just one league game – beating Leicester City thanks to a Marcus Rashford penalty – while they’ve slumped to defeats against West Ham and Crystal Palace, both at Old Trafford. Draws against Wolves and Southampton were hardly impressive either, while their 1-0 win over Kazakh side Astana in the Europa League was one of the dullest games in recent memory.
That isn’t all that’s wrong at Old Trafford, though. While new signings Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Harry Maguire, and Daniel James have begun the season in good form, other key players have picked up worrying muscle injuries, with Luke Shaw, Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and now Marcus Rashford being sidelined.
It’s always hard to attribute blame when it comes to injuries, but back in February, Solskjaer admitted that the spate of injuries in his squad at that time were down to the intensity he had them training at. Is it a stretch to think that the same problem has arisen again?
At any rate, while United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward still seems to believe in Solskjaer’s abilities to turn things around at Old Trafford, it’s hard to see him sticking around unless the Red Devils’ dismal start to 2019/20 changes.
Also check out: Premier League Table La Liga Table Champions League Schedule
#2 Nuno Espirito Santo
When 2019/20’s Premier League ended with newly promoted Wolves in 7th position, it felt like manager Nuno Espirito Santo could do no wrong. The Portuguese boss had guided his side to some phenomenal results – victories over the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United – and with outstanding players like Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez at his disposal, many pundits were tipping the Midlanders to break into the top 6 in 2019/20.
Unfortunately for the former goalkeeper, to say things haven’t quite gone to plan thus far for Wolves would be an understatement. After a diabolical start to the season, Wolves currently sit in 19th place in the Premier League table, and along with Watford, are one of just two sides that that haven’t managed to win a game yet. Draws against Leicester City and Manchester United were acceptable – but heavy losses to Chelsea and Everton on the other hand on the other hand are a massive concern.
Last season, Wolves had the tightest defence outside of the top six – conceding just 46 goals, but this season they’ve already shipped 11, averaging 1.8 goals conceded per game. If they continue at that rate, they could concede 68 across the season – practically relegation form. So, what’s caused their issues?
Potentially to blame is their heavy schedule – Wolves have already played 7 games in Europe in 2019/20 as they had to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League, and with a thin squad of around 21 first team players, that kind of schedule would stretch any side.
Nuno still has the talent in his squad to turn around this slump, but given owners Fosun have an eye on becoming one of England’s most powerful clubs, it’s imperative that he does it soon. If his side can’t pull themselves up the table in the next few weeks, he could be in more danger than anyone thought possible at the start of the season.
#3 Marco Silva
As the 2019/20 Premier League season began, a lot of focus was placed on the so-called chasing pack behind the league’s traditional ‘Big Six’. Many fans felt that this could be the season in which one of Leicester City, Everton, Wolves or West Ham could break into that elite group, but while Leicester and West Ham are certainly making a fair go of it, the same cannot be said for the other two sides.
Wolves can blame their Europa League exploits for their current funk, but what about Everton? For Marco Silva and his Toffees, it’s harder to find a reason for what exactly has been going wrong thus far. Everton have picked up a couple of wins – a 3-2 victory over Wolves and a 1-0 win over Watford – but they’ve also slumped to 3 disappointing defeats, two of which came at the hands of newly promoted sides Sheffield United and Aston Villa.
Basically, after the latter part of last season appeared to suggest that Silva finally had a handle on the job at Goodison Park – they lost just once in their final 8 games – the early part of 2019/20 has seen them slip back into their old, inconsistent ways.
The most likely explanation appears to be that Silva is in charge of a somewhat unbalanced squad. Powerful midfielder Idrissa Gueye was sold to Paris St. Germain in the summer, and while Silva strengthened by buying the likes of Fabian Delph, Moise Kean and Alex Iwobi, there’s been little evidence thus far to suggest that those players are really upgrades on what the Portuguese boss already had.
An unsettled team is always a tricky thing to handle – and of Silva’s squad, only a handful of players have started every league game thus far despite no real injury headaches. Unless he can solve this issue soon, Everton’s slump could well continue, and Silva could well find his job on the line.
#4 Unai Emery
Sure, last season’s Golden Boot winner Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is still finding the back of the net on a regular basis, and while the Gunners have scored an impressive 11 goals in their opening 6 games, they’ve also conceded 10 – less than just 4 other sides in the league.
That statistic – as well as the alarming number of individual errors from Arsenal players that have led to goals – suggests that the Gunners’ defence is just as unreliable as it was last season despite the acquisition of David Luiz.
Emery can point to the fact that Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney have yet to return from injury, but given his side’s recent collapse against Watford, question marks have been raised over whether the Spaniard is the right man to get the best from those players anyway.
When you add the fact that even Emery’s captain Granit Xhaka doesn’t seem convinced that things are right at the Emirates right now – he stated that his team felt “scared” during the second half of the Watford game – it doesn’t seem like Emery is overseeing a settled camp.
If Emery can manage to shore up Arsenal’s defence then his reign could turn into a successful one, but if things continue the way they are, Gunners’ fans are likely to lose patience with the Spanish boss – and the Arsenal board could do, too.
#5 Zinedine Zidane
Moving away from the Premier League for a second and taking a look at Europe’s biggest clubs, it’s clear that the manager who’s under the most strain right now is French legend Zinedine Zidane, who took the helm at Real Madrid in March after first leaving the club just under a year prior. The old adage reads “never go back”, and recently, that’s seemed to ring true for the Frenchman.
Real’s league form hasn’t been terrible by any means – they have yet to lose thus far and have won 3 of their 5 games, and this weekend saw them inflict the first defeat of the season on Sevilla, who are managed by former Real boss Julen Lopetegui. But question marks are abound over their squad, which feels a little unbalanced, and new signing Eden Hazard has yet to show the kind of form that marked him out as a world-class talent at Chelsea.
Most worrying though was their total collapse in their Champions League group stage fixture against Paris St. Germain. Everyone knows that Real’s power-brokers have practically zero tolerance for failure in Europe – even if Los Blancos are in good form in LaLiga – and a loss like that must’ve been hard to take. Real were simply whitewashed by PSG, and worse still, it was Real’s former player Angel Di Maria who orchestrated their downfall with two goals.
More results like this weekend’s against Sevilla could definitely ease the pressure on Zidane, but with Real being renowned for a lack of patience and rumours about a move for Tottenham’s boss Mauricio Pochettino already flying around, it doesn’t feel like he’s safe for now.
