what on earth went wrong under Scolari?

[Rmpr 8,977]

The problem with Scolari is not the players egos, or anything like that.

His tatics are terribe, his teams play really ugly football.

Only in Brazil a guy like that is considered a genius.

This is where Brazil must improve: we dont have good managers, perhaps 3 or 4.

I cant stand this Scolari guy.

Henrique, you are the worst Palmeirense on Earth!!!

[Henrique 9,133]

Scolari relegated Palmeiras!!!!

Worst manager ever in Chelsea history, only AVB is as bad as him.

[Badboy 1,526]

Scolari relegated Palmeiras!!!!

Worst manager ever in Chelsea history, only AVB is as bad as him.

World cup winner 2002 when nobody expected Brazil to do anything. Maybe he's more suited to International football !

[wj818 25]

Was watching the 08/09 season review last night and I still cannot understand what went badly wrong under Scolari, we went from playing beautiful football to dire, predictable football in less than a month.

Pre season we won every game without conceding a goal (including a 5-0 thumping of AC Milan) and this looked really good heading into the new season.

We started the season playing a flashy brand off football we've never seen before, the Pompey, Villa and Middlesborough games were un-real and after the latter match at the Riverside i honestly believed we would have walked the league that season and at the time Jose Bosingwa and Deco looked like superb signing's, Scolari looked to have got the best out of Belleti aswell and he (Scolari) really looked like he cracked it and i thought we would walk to the title in superb style.

But in came Rafa off all people who came to SW6 with a tactical master plan, double up on the fullbacks and put Mikel under pressure and give him no time on the ball, it worked a treat and meant Liverpool walked away from Stamford Bridge with a 1-0 win, although we kept winning in the league for the next few weeks their was clearly something not clicking as shown by a worrying thumping in Rome and a Carling Cup exit to Burnley and then we had the week from hell that clearly shown the honeymoon period was well and truly over.

A 0-0 home draw to Newcastle where we looked toothless and devoid of ideas followed up by a awful performance in Bordeux and only a defensive howler on their behalf gave us a goal and we were in danger of going out of the competition and then came the real hammer blow, 1-0 up at half time and cruising to probably the most easiest 1-0 win for a long time RVP hits a quick fire double for the Gooners as the come out of Stamford Bridge with a 2-1 win, Scolari and the Chelsea faithfull were shell shocked and after they went 2-1 up we didnt look like equalizing.

December started with a comfortable win at whats slowly turning into our 2nd home (the Reebok) after that we went through to the last 16 of the CL depsite a nervy win against Cluj but after that followed un-inspiring draws against West Ham and Everton, a routine 2-0 win at home to WBA followed on Boxing Day and 2 days later 2 more dropped point down the road at Fulham, despite not losing this month there were still some pretty worrying signs and rumours of Scolari's sacking were getting louder.

The new year could not have possibly started any worse, a home draw in the cup to Southend and then a humiliating defeat at Old Trafford, the 3-0 defeat flattered us in all honesty it could have been 6, and although we won the FA Cup replay at Roots Hall (4-1) 3 days later, we were outplayed by a Southend side mid table in league one for the 1st half and were lucky to into the break 1-1, i would probably say that was the most underwhelming victory since ive supported the blues, fast forward another 3 days and we found ourself's 1-0 down at Stamford Bridge to a Stoke side that aint won away all season, a loss would surely have seen Scolari out of the door but Franco Di Santo and Miroslav Stoch off all players inspired 2 late goals scored by Belletti and Frank Lampard and Soclari's job was briefly saved.wins against Ipswich and Boro followed but another hammer blow at Anfield saw Scolari hanging on by a thread.

The Hull game was the one that saw Scolari get the chop, the players looked laboured, unfit and we could quite easily have lost that game, i went from thinking we would walk the league to worrying about our place in the top 4 in the space of 4 months, what i still can't work out to this day is how it went from one extreme to the other so quickly.

As you mentioned, Rafa was the first one to find a defect in our till then flying system, not only they won that game, if im not confused, they won at the bridge breaking our 64 or so unbeaten run, btw it was a deflected goal, sigh!!!

but anyway, It seem ages ago, but if i have to quiz myself, i guess his timeline would be like:

- Scolari started out with a 4-1-4-1 formation and used other variations (like 4-2-2-2) in his short reign, but basically, he tried to pack the midfield (why not? since we had loads of talented midfielders, and players like ballack and deco were just bought.) that's why he chose to make the midfield really narrow and leave the space out wide for our full backs to attack, and again we had players like cole, balleti and bosingwa, players who could play like a wingback, and provide the attacking width to our narrow system. (We didnt have decent wingers either).

- And we quickly adapted to the system didn't we?, with the quality of our midfielders, we controlled possession and dominated in midfield, at least against weaker teams. As we forced the opponent to play narrow to match our strength in midfield, eg: the other teams fullback would be sucked in the center to help his teammates out, leaving spaces out wide for our fullbacks like cole to bombard forward, and they did that with amazing efficiency, creating goals, if not scoring them, and started playing a vital role in the system, not just defending but attacking too.

- When liverpool came at the bridge, Rafa knew he couldn't let us dominate possession and give time for our fullbacks to make runs, so he played 4-4-1-1 to get an equal footing in midfield (4 vs 4), and used doubleup to pin our fullbacks at the back. The midfield being packed, we couldnt really dominate the midfield as we wouldve liked too, with the like of gerrard, alonso, mashcerano in the center, giving our players no time to rest, and specially i remmember, keane and kuyt taking turns to put pressure on mikel from distributing the ball, while our fullbacks were neutralized by their wingers who tightly marked, Our dominant midfield was matched as our midfielders fail to hold the ball long enough for our fullbacks to get into decent attacking positions, the two attacking strength, we had relied so much under Scolari, was subdued by rafas tactics. (the first domino fell)

-Usually a plan B, wouldve been in place, for times like these, but Due to drogbas injury at first and later a rift between drogba and scolari, he never got to use a system with a target man like drogba (well not as much as he wanted to). Eventually, unable to change the tactical weakness exposed by rafa (stop the fullbacks, stop chelsea's attack), and the lack of plan b, turned out to be the main reason Scolari got sacked.

-Lack of European club experience, unable to speak English, losing control of senior players (as always), unable to show tactical versatility, might be other reasons...

[manpe 10,855]

What went wrong on Earth under Scolari? How about that natural disasters killed more than 220,000 people in 2008, making it one of the most devastating years on record.

[Jase 43,479]

So, he has now been sacked from his last 3 jobs - Chelsea, Bunyodkor(left by mutual consent apparently) and Palmeiras. Perhaps he should have just stayed in international football management.

And according to the link below, he wants to return to the Premier League and even thinks he will be successful this time around!

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sports/2012-09/15/c_131852264.htm

[Rmpr 8,977]

So, he has now been sacked from his last 3 jobs - Chelsea, Bunyodkor(left by mutual consent apparently) and Palmeiras. Perhaps he should have just stayed in international football management.

And according to the link below, he wants to return to the Premier League and even thinks he will be successful this time around!

http://news.xinhuane...c_131852264.htm

Yes, he was sacked thursday!

He did some great things with Palmeiras though. You can imagine Palmeiras as a really big club that is in a really bad finacial situation. Big Phil (with no budget) won their second Copa do Brasil (FA CUP). Their last big trophy was in 1999 (Libertadores), wich was also won by him. He spotted a few nice bargains. However, the team went downhill in the league (20 points in 24 games and 14 defeats). He had to be sacked.

I would be totally shocked if he returns to manage any other club. He has said countless times that his dream would be to end his career at the WC.

Bunyodkor he was not getting paid (do not know the reasons since its owner is a Roman).

Btw, if he indeed return to EPL he will fail....

[Milan 17,835]

Probably the best moment under Scolari. And it was fantastic to hear it, so fucking loud and long!

[Henrique 9,133]

Yes, he was sacked thursday!

He did some great things with Palmeiras though. You can imagine Palmeiras as a really big club that is in a really bad finacial situation. Big Phil (with no budget) won their second Copa do Brasil (FA CUP). Their last big trophy was in 1999 (Libertadores), wich was also won by him. He spotted a few nice bargains. However, the team went downhill in the league (20 points in 24 games and 14 defeats). He had to be sacked.

I would be totally shocked if he returns to manage any other club. He has said countless times that his dream would be to end his career at the WC.

Bunyodkor he was not getting paid (do not know the reasons since its owner is a Roman).

Btw, if he indeed return to EPL he will fail....

Palmeiras is not in a really bad financial situation. Palmeiras has one of the biggest wage bills in Brazil, and was one of the biggest spenders in last 2 years.

Palmeiras squad is easily one of the top 10 in Brazil. The reason Palmeiras is in the botton of the table is very simple: Scolari.

[Buffalo talks Blue 85]

He was more of an International football coach. Thus had less experience on coaching club football. Chelsea was probably the first club he was coaching.

[The Mak 4,459]

Luiz Felipe Scolari claims he would like to work in England again

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8609980/Luiz-Felipe-Scolari-claims-he-would-like-to-work-in-England-again

Even reading that headline makes me somewhat terrified...let's hope he ends up at City!

[Heisenberg 1,824]

Luiz Felipe Scolari claims he would like to work in England again

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/8609980/Luiz-Felipe-Scolari-claims-he-would-like-to-work-in-England-again

Even reading that headline makes me somewhat terrified...let's hope he ends up at City!

Liverpool for me, Rodgers will be sacked next season and Brazil wont win the WC.