This time last week, Football Daily romanticised a continental renaissance of sorts. The arrival of Jürgen Klopp, Zinedine Zidane and Xavi Hernández on the international management scene piqued our interest. We were also impressed by the clanging brass stones of Roberto Mancini, who returned to the Italy ejector-seat three years after abruptly pulling the lever and abandoning his country in order to take the Saudi riyal.
Two games in and it’s time to appraise the respective early efforts of this glitzy A-list quartet of trophy-hoarding aristocrats, one of whom has had a somewhat chastening introduction to life in the international lane. Having begun his reign as Germany head coach by warning the national press not to intrude on his family’s privacy, Klopp was forced instead to contend with their coverage of him picking a 44-man squad in order to speed up “the process of opening the door for many new faces” as part of his plan to revolutionise the German squad. I don’t think we deserved that, but here we are.” Here we are, being in third place in their Nations League group and already facing a must(ish)-win match against Serbia to avoid possible relegation.
Xavi, meanwhile, chalked up his first Netherlands win in Belgrade against Serbia. The Barcelona legend had late callup Mexx Meerdink to thank at the final whistle after the AZ striker scored both goals in a 2-1 win. Next comes Thursday’s match against the group-leading Greeks.
Responding to suggestions that there were many moments when the Dutch needed to attack the spaces but didn’t do it, a contrite Xavi confessed, “there were many moments when we needed to attack the spaces, but we didn’t do it”. In danger of losing their global status as dark horses to Greece, Turkey rolled over to give Mancini the first win of his second spell in charge of Italy, who lost to Belgium last week. After being reappointed, the Italian apologised for doing the dirty on the Azzurri first time around in order to take up a lucrative contract with Saudi Arabia.
He has since had to face down questions about another of his former nation state paymasters. After referring to claims he had a “double contract” during his time at Manchester City, Mancini described the current scandal surrounding his former club as “not a problem that concerns me”. On a night when Michael Kayode marked the occasion of becoming the first Brentford player in history to represent Italy by scoring a goal, Mancini said the 22-year-old “will improve even more after another year in the Premier League”.
Given his lack of popularity among many Italy fans, whether he’ll still be around to see Kayode blossom remains to be seen. Their next appointment is in Paris on Friday against France, whose manager Zidane is the only one of our four heroes to get off to a perfect start in his new gig. After back-to-back 1-0 wins in Turkey and Belgium, the latter won by a sensational Michael Olise solo effort late-doors, Zidane was asked about his meme-worthy touchline celebration that involved a sprint, a little dance and leathering a spare ball off a cone.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
