These are the most difficult days for Rijkaard since the first year, where he was about to get fired, but the acquisition of Davids and the later run saved him.
Back then it looked as if he was not capable of starting an era, now it looks as if his era has come to an end. In between, there was always the same criticism and stuff said about him: that he is tactically not good, he is not good enough as a coach for Barca, that he has luck having these players...etc.
To me it's still incredible that a guy who has been the most succesful Barcelona coach after Johann Cruijff is not getting the credit and praise he rightfully deserves. He had a good team? Robson had an even better team, Van Gaal spent much more money on players and had a team just as good and not to mention all the coaches before and after, who didn't have a bit of his success, like Menotti having the luxury to have two of the history's best midfields in Schuster and Maradona etc.
It's also interesting that one of the best defensive midfields in football history, a guy who was the brain of the great Milan side, who as a player could read the game like few others could, is called tactically unaware. How does that work?
Or maybe it was Henk Ten Caate, the guy who was an absolute ace as an assistant, but so far has failed everywhere as a coach? Alright, a coach is dependent on his assistants reporting, helping him out with the right line-up etc. So what's the news?? Or do they think that as an example Jose came up with everything on his own?
The problem of Frank lies deeper and that's with his character and the character of his team. Frank believes in the intelligence of his pupils and the fact that all of them are professional and mature enough to give everything for their common goal, their employer, the club that pays them the mansion, cars and everything else. He somehow believes that he is just a coach who has to make decisions and tell what way the club has to go, and doesn't believe that he has to play daddy to mid-20 guys. He believes that the guys are grown up and should come up with a solution to their mental problems on their own, because that's how it works in real life. Which worker simply stops working because he had beef with his wife at home or who would skip work after going clubbing the night before? Frank has to deal with too many kids, and the grown up and more mature kids, the kids who always want to be first and win no matter what, they have either too little influence on the squad or are out injured right now. If you like it, Frank is like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, or De Niro in Sleepers, while right now he needs to be like De Niro in Godfather or Goodfellas. He needs to be Vito or Michael, or well, he has to be Michael.
To explain this, Michael is just overprotective and wants to have everything under control. He doesn't go easy, he is sort of brilliant and he knows it, he didn't want to be in this game probably, definetly not that long, so he has a professional distance to it, and if he has to make difficult decisions, like kill his brother, he does it. Managers that are very much like Michael are Sir Alex and Jose Mourinho. Look through Sir Alex career on his relationship with big players and he handled them once they got too much. He simply waved them goodbye! Could anyone imagine Frank handling let's say Paul Ince, Beckham or Van Nistelrooy like that? Or would Frank ever sub Ronaldinho or Messi out after 18 minutes, because he didn't like what they played, like Jose did? He wouldn't. He also can't as he simply is not like that. He respects and treats players like grown-ups, unlike other managers. That's why I personally believe that as an example Van Basten would be an ace as club manager, because he has that Michael character. When a player doesn't perform, he doesn't call him up and he also doesn't care about the media.
The other view of success is the utter pragmatism and rationality shown by Wenger. Wenger, unlike Mourinho or Ferguson, is not Michael, but he is at least Tom Hagen, the guy who runs the business like no other. He does everything in a subtle way. He would never sub a player out after 18 minutes, but he would bench him the next 20 games and sell him in summer. He, like Rijkaard, treats players with respect and as mature beings, but unlike Rijkaard, he has full control over the club and can do whatever he likes, and he doesn't have a press like Rijkaard has in Barcelona.
So as an example, if Wenger decides to give time to a player like Da Silva or Adebayor to settle in, or decides to do this or that with training and medical board, he has the full authority, and nobody really comments, which is not the case with Rijkaard.
So overall, I see the problem with him in his character rather than in his footballing intelligence or work and his character might just eventually leave to Barca losing to Espanyol and him retiring on his own then or him retiring at the end of this season without the success this talented team was supposed to have, without winning the titles they could have. It's simply impossible to be Robin Williams one day and Al Pacino the other, Oh Captain my Captain in the morning, and Michael at night. He might just try to be Father Bobby one day and the young Vito Corleone the other day, but that's about it.
I still hope for a miracle,me being wrong and that a change happens, the squad realizes what they have with Frank before it's too late. Maybe someone should play them some Joni Mitchell or Got til it's gone from Janet, so that they realize that they don't know what they got til it's gone and how much their life will be more difficult with Van Basten or Mou in charge and that Frank is the best thing that could have happened to them, but, I somehow have stopped to believe in the intelligence of some players and with Eto'o and Deco injured for the upcoming crucial games, I don't see the turnaround coming.
Additional read:
One of the best(if not the best) interviews with Frank I have ever read courtesy of
artversussport
