World Cup 2018: 5 Coaches That Have Disappointed So Far

The second round of matches in the group stages of the World Cup has been completed and, like week one, it has been an absolute joyride for fans and pundits.

Croatia's dismantling of Argentina was the standout result of the round but it was not the only one. Hosts; Sbornaya of Russia, El Tri of Mexico, Les Bleus of France sealed qualification with a match to spare.

There were also resurgent victories for Brazil and Germany against some very stubborn opposition (both victories required very late goals) and they will be confident of their chances to advance. Everything points to what would be the mother-of-all second round clashes between both teams.

One thing that has stood out though has been the abysmal coaching - especially by coaches of the favoured teams. While the so-called "minnows" have shown good organization and played to their strengths, the big teams have looked scattered, lacked cohesion and have been lucky more often than not.

Here is a look at 5 of the coaches that have been most disappointing in the tournament:

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#5 Adam Nawalka (Poland)

Nawalka has failed to get the best of his team

When the Polish FA choose to game the seeding system for the World Cup by not playing friendlies, coach Nawalka would have been forgiven for not being too worried. The Poles sailed through qualifying and looked like one of the dark horses to do well.

However, this lack of test fixtures leading up to the Mundial has come back to bite the Orly hard in the posterior. Against Senegal, the Poles were undone by the Teranga Lions' pace, directness, and defensive solidity.

Against Colombia, the Polish defence and midfield were unable to cope with the incisive passing and quality of the Colombian midfield especially James Rodriguez and Juan Quintero.

A top-heavy team with good strikers and a shambolic midfield lacking creativity, manager Nawalka failed to fashion a system that could get the ball to his strikers. The team's most creative midfielder: Piotr Zielinski was played too deep against the Senegalese and was wasted on the flanks in the humiliating loss to the Colombians.

While Nawalka was dealt a bad hand by the injury to top centre-back Kamil Glik before the tourney started, the defence was undone by pace and incisive movement in both games with players like Michal Pazdan and Lukasz Piszczek being consistently drawn out of position by the movement of their opponents.

Captain and talisman Robert Lewandowski has cut a frustrated figure and, with only pride left to play for against Japan, the team will need to be rejuvenated and a lot of the older players let go after the team gets back to Warsaw.

#4 Oscar Tabarez (Uruguay)

La Celeste's displays have matched their coach's demeanour

Solid but uninspiring, business-like but dull as dishwater, efficient but boring to watch are some appropriate phrase for describing just how dull the Uruguayan team has been at the World Cup so far.

Going into the Mundial, La Celeste boasted of a strike force that had outscored all other nations during the 2017/18 season but has looked worryingly bereft so far at the tournament. The team's goals so far have come from set pieces and, while they continue to look solid at the back, the lack of goals could haunt them in the latter stages of the tourney.

Luis Suarez, Christian Stuani, and Maxi Gomez scored a combined total of 63 goals in La Liga last season while Edinson Cavani won the Golden Boot in Ligue 1 with 28 goals. Yet, only one of the quartet: Suarez has scored a goal (which came off a goalkeeping howler against Saudi Arabia) while the other two: Stuani and Gomez are yet to even see action.

The lack of dynamic wingers and an effective system to get the ball to the frontline has been a major reason behind the team's lack of goals but this absence of creativity has bit been helped by Tabarez's deployment of three defensive-minded midfielders in games.

Cavani, in particular, has looked very frustrated as he has had to drift into midfield to receive the ball while Suarez has continued with his disjointed displays from his season at Barcelona.

With Portugal, Iran or Spain to come in the Round of 16, Tabarez may have to modify his tactics and infuse a bit of creativity into the team to allow his world-class forwards to prosper.

#3 Joachim Low (Germany)

Low's tactical setup has been disastrous, to say the least

That Die Mannschaft is still alive in Russia is due to a combination of factors having nothing to do with the manager's great tactics: poor finishing by opponents (especially Mexico), the determination of the players to do well and pure, dumb luck.

The World Cup-winning manager has failed to show any of the savvy tactics that saw him mastermind the title win in Brazil four years ago. Instead, he has managed to put out a team that looks devoid of a clear tactical setup and ideas of how to execute targets.

Against Mexico in their tournament opener, Low's decision to start with a midfield of Sami Khedira and Toni Kroos proved to be disastrous as his opposite number: Carlos Osorio's decision to play a fast-paced midfield caught the Germans pants down and only wastefulness in possession and bad decision-making stopped the Mexicans from winning with a bigger score.

Credit to him, he sought to correct this by playing Sebastian Rudy in place of Khedira against Sweden and, until he got injured, the midfield looked better than it had in the previous games.

However, the continued presence of a very disappointing Thomas Muller is one that defies logic. Jerome Boateng has been ropey all through the tournament, something Low should have noticed and pre-empted.

The Germans have their destiny in their own hands but, with a potential showdown against the Canarinho of Brazil in the next round, Low will have to do better than he has done so far.

#2 Didier Deschamps (France)

Deschamps' clownish tactics will be the ruin of a talented team

How do you get a team that has classy players in virtually every position, a team that is young and vibrant, to play like a collection of talentless farmers? Get them to be coached by Didier Deschamps.

Les Bleus have secured maximum points from their two Group C games so far but the manager can share no part of the glory as these results have come in spite of his tactics, formations, and team selections.

Playing in the first game against an Australian side that was clearly set up to defend and counter-attack, the former Juventus coach chose to play an unnecessary three-man midfield of N'Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, and Corentin Tolisso.

This set up left the front three: Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, and Ousmane Dembele isolated and unable to go past Australia's deep block.

The team's second half-display against Peru will go down as one of the worst by a favoured team in this World Cup as a team filled with attacking talent resorted to launching long balls forward to Olivier Giroud to stem the wave of Peruvian pressure.

With a potential tie against an unpredictable Nigerian team or the even more shambolic Argentines in the next round, it remains to be seen if Deschamps can find the needed wisdom from somewhere and make the required changes to the team setup.

#1 Jorge Sampaoli (Argentina)

No coach has come close to matching Smapaoli's incompetence

The standout winner, dignifying Argentina's shoddy, helter-skelter setup with the words "tactics" would be the overstatement of the year.

Nothing from La Albiceleste's displays at the World Cup has suggested that the team is being managed by the same man who led Chile to its first ever Copa America title in 2015 and who was at a point being tipped to become the coach at FC Barcelona.

While Sampaoli was in a very bad situation after leaving Sevilla to take charge of his native country at a trying time during CONMENBOL World Cup qualifiers, his lack of discernible tactics, difficult-to-understand formations and choice of rank average players has made world class players like Lionel Messi look like amateurs.

In the first game against Iceland, despite the deep block and man-marking tactics of the opposition, Sampaoli persisted with playing a formation that forced Messi to come deep to receive the ball and make something happen. The midfield was slow and ponderous while his choice of Willy Caballero as starting goalie added even more problems to an already shaky defence.

The setup against Croatia has to go down as one of the most inept in Argentina's proud World Cup history (topped only by Diego Maradona's against Germany at the 2010 World Cup) as the porous defence, non-existent midfield, and laboured attack contributed to a 3-0 shellacking by the impressive and better-coached Vatreni.

With the game against the Super Eagles of Nigeria representing Sampaoli's last chance to change the team's fortune, it remains to be seen if the multi-tattooed coach will be able to turn the team's fortunes around.