by azriahmad » Fri May 28, 2004 8:07 am
It is logical to go for a British manager who has some Premiership experience because to become a football force, a club like Liverpool needs to be strong domestically first with Europe coming a bit later.
Conquering Europe has become much more difficult as the advent of the Champions' League format has made it into a marathon with the club with the most consistency and staying power, not necessarily the strongest, coming up on top. Nowadays, the teams have to be much more tactically astute, like Porto with a clever coach who can adapt his tactics and players according to the opponents.
British based managers like O'Neill would need less time to adapt to the Premiership but may be found wanting in Europe, wheras Benitez or Maurinho would logically struggle to find their feet in the Premiership initially but should do well in Europe. However, they represent the most intelligent coaches right now and shoud find their feet in most circumstances without too much of an adjustment time.
So, who do we opt for? British or foreign?
Del Bosqe is one hell of a coach given his ability to group together the galaticos with the ego to match to play together and win 2 la ligas and 2 Champions' League but perhaps Liverpool need a more pragmatic foreigner, if that is the route taken, like Benitez or Maurinho or even Ottmt Hizfield.