Sack the Coach! Err...Should We?

The last game of the season has been played by Melbourne Victory FC in Melbourne this evening. A 2-1 win in the last game at home looks perfect to Melbourne. But not to Melbourne's supporters who have had high expectations before the season started. The disappointment cannot be hide from their faces. They did sing during the game, and they did give their support to the team, but they also wanted the coach sacked.

I never thought the banner will be displayed in the game. Things were going alright in the first half. Melbourne got their first goal in the 2nd minute, courtesy of a header from Mark Byrnes, a central defender, when he jumped high to connect with Kristian Sarkies' corner. New Zealand Knights FC, Melbourne's opponent, are a poor side. So the Melbourne's fans were happy and jumping and singing to celebrate the goal.

Melbourne played well in the first half, they moved the ball around very well, kept creating chances, keeping possesion, but they could not score the second goal for long time. And then somehow NZ Knights' player gave a foul in the penalty box. The crowd shouted for penalty immediately and it was given by the ref. So, Kev took the penalty and made it 2-0 to Melbourne. The score didn't change until half time.

Following 15 minutes break, the play resumed again and then a couple minute later, a long white banner was displayed by some fans in the home end.

The banner said, "Enough is Enough Merrick Out" or something like this. I was quite surprissed with this protest from some fans. Patience is now non-existent in football. Fans want instant success, failure is not acceptable, even for an unexperienced coach in a new club and a very new team.

One thing though, the coach's history in Victorian football doesn't help him at all. He, unfortunately, has got more "failure" than successes. The Melbourne Victory team which he's coaching now has not been able to help him either. The fans have lost their patiences in him. Finishing at 7th place out of 8 is indeed not good enough.

The problems with his current team are, at least in my eyes, lack of team understanding, wasting too many chances and making mistake at the back. If you can't socre a goal and not taking up the chances you created, then you're in big trouble, that is the rule in football. If you don't score goals, you put more pressure to your defenders not to make mistakes. If you can't rely on your defence, then you know you're gonna lose points.

So, is this the coach's mistake or the players' mistake? Hard to tell...both did mistakes and there are a lot to learn from....sacking the coach doesn't mean all problems will be sorted out once and for all.

Patience is really non-existent in football...