What is wrong at Muangthong and how to make it right

 

There’s been a few sweet moments over the last few weeks where it felt like the good times were back at Muangthong. The long queue for tickets ahead of the game against Kanchanaburi, accompanied by the obligatory speakers just loud enough to vibrate your body without actually crushing it, the escalating crowd noise in home and away fans at Thai Port, and the sea of blue-shirted Chonburi fans disembarking the coaches and posing for photos before El Classico. All fleeting flashbacks of a once great era at the club all had one thing in common: they occurred before a ball was kicked.

The on field trouble with the Kirins is not new in itself. We’ve slipped dangerously close to the relegation trapdoor a few times in recent seasons but this time around feels particularly risky, if not for the fact that “we’ve been here before” is a line being used by the actual head coach himself as a defence. As if playing badly n the past means we don’t need to be alarmed if it carries on. In fact the on pitch results are not a drop in form, they are the natural outcome of several factors that have all taken their toll. So with the defeat in El Classico in recent memory along with dreadful form and performances, it’s time for me to take a look at the main problems behind Muangthong’s demise and offer a few ideas about how they can be fixed before it’s too late.

1) It’s not lack of effort.

kirin red zone

Before we look at the problems, let’s remove one of the easy excuses off the table. I’ve seen a team of unmotivated players in action before and that is not what we have at Muangthong, at least not for the

most part. To the contrary: it’s clear that some of the younger players are giving it their all to the point that when the chips are down, they try to do too much. The physical commitment isn’t lacking either: by Thai standards, the players are not afraid to get stuck in. Likewise, I don’t see any signals that backroom staff are complacent or lazy. After the Prachup game there was an altercation between the head coach and some fans after the supporters refused to sing the customary club anthem to players after the game. The message was that the fans didn't want to sing for players not doing their best, to which coach that responded by saying he would not bring the players over the the fans next time. I actually supported coach Uthai on this: the worst thing we can do is lay the blame for our troubles at the feet of young players who are clearly striving to perform but not receiving the guidance they need. 

2) Loss of investment

The obvious one. When the Kirins were winning games for fun, they were backed by the might of SCG, a business managed by the Crown Property Group. Top players of the era such as Teerasil and Kawin made their name as part of a title-winning side packed with quality and no doubt commanding hefty wage bill. Nobody outside the boardroom knows why the sponsorship suddenly got cancelled. It would be easy to suggest that the sponsors simply saw the spike of popularity in Thai football ebbing away, yet other big brands such as True continued to fund Bangkok United even when they drew crowds of under 1,000. It goes without saying that having less money to pay players with will attract a low calibre of athlete.

3) Poor on and off-field leadership.

mtutd.com

This is one that irks me because it’s surely the easiest to fix. Mario Djuvoski was not a great coach or a great leader but he was competent. We let him go. Milos Joksic constantly overachieved at Rajpracha and Muangthong. He had an insight into basic but vital aspects of tactics and mentality that he somehow transfers to players of different cultures and mindset. We let him go.Since then I have truly struggled to find anything positive about our head coaches. We look tactically inept when things aren’t going well (more on that later) and substitutions seem random. On the field the club take pride in having a young squad, but a young squad needs on field guidance and leadership, which our veteran players are simply not providing.

4) Potentially poor coaching and/or poor tactics

Lack of transitional movement, especially in counter-attacks

This one may be harsh as I haven’t observed any training sessions but there have been several moments this season where I rack my brains to think what is going through the minds of players. At Port, one of out very first counter-attacks (the only type of attack we managed in the entire game and even then, rarely) a few players surged forward in a straight line without a single overlap or single player getting behind their marker. in the Clasico, the only overlaps we managed were hectic and unplanned, caused by players trying to make something happen by themselves. With ten minutes left in a vital game, we took position down Chonburi's right flank left with almost every player on the attack. Not a single player made a run or movement and not one of our foreign quota called for the ball. It was a moment so appalling the anger from the crowd was instant. That exposes a bigger problem...

No identity or game plan in adversity

We don’t seem to have any overall identity of cohesion in our game plan. The younger players knock it around quite well in early stages of a game but when things go against us - which is often these days - their heads drop. Unified movement gets forgotten, the foreign players tend to go through the motions -  and younger players display the most common symptom of destroyed confidence by trying to walk the ball into the net. When Zesh Rehman was our player, I remember sending signals to his fellow defenders to calm down or switch their position just slightly. Nothing spectacular, just simple reminders. I don't notice our veteran foreign players doing that these days. 

Possible lack of coaching impact in games

Again, maybe I’m being harsh as I don’t have a microphone at the dugout so I can only surmise. Going back to the Chonburi game, it became clear the player’s heads were dropping and the youngsters resorted to trying to create openings so simple they couldn’t miss. This approach may work in some situations for some teams but it's not working for us right now. Like many fans I was yelling at our lads to simply have a crack. Guess what? Our first goal came from Annas clearly thinking “f**k it!” and blasting a long shot into the top left corner of the net.  The second was scored by Melvin hitting a rebound because you know what else? Sometimes if you take a shot against an average team it will go in,  get deflected, or get cleared poorly.

What worries me though is that none of this basic insight was notably transferred from the coaching team to players during games. If it was, it didn’t stick under pressure or had no solution to go along with it. None of these scenarios are acceptable. The predictable outcome was the return to the “walk it in” approach we saw after our second goal last week and the utter drop off in movement and support that came with it. All of the above raises the question: what are Uthai and long-term coaches Dagno and Datsakorn doing and saying to players before, during and after the games? Then again, some of their best names on paper aren't delivering....

Poor performance of foreigners

mtutd.com

I will be quick here as I don’t like singling out individuals players for harsh criticism. It goes without saying that any team that loses their best player to injury before the season even starts will struggle, and so it turned out for us. The club has recently confirmed Popp will return for the second leg but we’ll
analyse that message again in a moment. Looking at our other players: Gremsci has been fine and not to blame for any goals that I recall and I actually think Nelson is effective at this level but the rest of the foreign quota have been average to poor. Melvyn actually looked good in early games but has been frankly dreadful recently. His commitment is not in doubt but he looks slow, clumsy and without ideas. Tristan Do is another player who looks jaded and was very lucky to avoid a second yellow against Choburi with his constant pull, nudging and generally scrappy style of play. as one of our oldest and more experienced players, does he not have any encouragement to offer the youngsters when the chips are down? Can he not offer feedback - calm or passionate - to the rest of the backline when it is hopelessly loose at times? Maybe he does but I don't see it.  As for Tonktov, all I will say is that he should not be playing for Muangthong in my opinion. 

It would be unfair to compare these foreign players to some from our past, but I find it very hard to believe that the money they presumably draw for their salaries could not be far, far better spent elsewhere. I would happily let any of them except Popp go if it meant we could get a quality foreign head coach through the door.

Lack of communication with fans

Now in fairness as Dale at Thai Football Podcast will tell you, this isn’t a Muangthong thing so much as a Thai football thing. The local culture is one of posting “happy birthday” messages to players and reminding people to cheer for the team. That’s by no means a bad thing and it suits the approach of many fans who simply want to enjoy the experience of wearing team colours and cheering the team no matter how good or bad the performance. Mind you, it hasn’t always stopped us from posting cheeky speculation such as the time we announced on our official website that we had offered a contract to Del Piero, almost certainly as a publicity stunt. 

In rough times though the lack of clarity can be really frustrating, especially when things don’t always come to fruition and some problems seem glaringly obvious. The head coach is not the right fit for the job. So are we looking for anyone? Why is it taking so long? Are we conducting interviews? Do we have a timescale? Any particular type of coach we are after? Who knows, we haven’t been told a single thing.

What about investment?Last season the club hyped up a big new sponsor and finally announced Fuji as a main photography sponsor or something similar. Not a Fuji logo in sight that I’ve seen since then. How did we not get the details and numbers on paper before an announcement like that?

I should point out we have performed much better in some other channels of communication. The official X account is fast and responsive with ticket news and score updates as well as responses to questions and even more importantly, when speculation over the future of the Thunderdome stadium itself resurfaced again, there was s a low key but official response from the owner who clearly detailed contingency plans in case the worst happened. Likewise when speculation about yet another venue change for the Chonburi game spread online, the club made a firm statement denying it. Let's hope the promise of Popp's return and a change of foreign players is also kept. Failure to keep to their word right now could have really long-term consequences for fan relations.

What's the solution?

With the problems laid bare, the obvious question is what’s next? It would be foolish to think an problem as deep as this is one to be fixed easily or quickly. Still, for what it’s worth, here are some fixes that any fan would probably be able to offer up and which the club almost certainly have in mind anyway.

1) Overhaul the coaching staff

'ello Muangthong, made a few fu*kups did we?
(lavenir.net)

Get Milos, Mario or better yet Rene back. Any of those three would be able to quickly forge some basic transitional players and team structure. Mario will never be accused of lacking passion, Rene always provides an added bonus of touchline drama and certainly won’t tolerate a lack of commitment and with Milos I sense that he would most likely get the youngsters responding to pressure with more stoicism. For the rest of the coaching staff, I think we need to thank Dago and Datsakorn for their excellent performances and history with the club but inform them now is the time to find new staff to take us forward.

2) Find investment

Easier said than done, I know. But with that said, Muangthong surely still makes an attractive opportunity for a big business or Thai elite to play with. Not so much as a profitable business perhaps - I’d be surprised if any club in Thailand isn’t running at a loss - but as a promotional and profile raising opportunity. In that sense we still have a lot to offer with a large following on social media, a fierce rivalry with Thailand’s now most successful club up north, a history (not present) of big crowd and hype and a large stadium surrounded by hugely popular event centres and a MRT link. Is there not a single influential figure out there with money to play with that wants to give Newin a run for his money? A big enough investment to bring in three or four key players and things could change again quite quickly.

3) Bring back the vibes

Remember these days? (kirin red zone)

This might not happen without the other two fixes but if word could get out about the buzz returning to MTUTD, the crowd should follow. It’s not that long ago that the Thunderdome would see helicopters landing in the centre circle, professional singers on the pitch at half time, parties outside the gates starting hours before kick off and players being featured in fashion ads in every shopping mall.
Somehow, some way, a return to that would make investment all the more likely. How do we achieve it? That’s one I can’t think of. There must be celebrity fans out there, a sponsor or investor willing to collaborate or people involved with Impact that know the tricks. We are literally right next to the most modern and popular exhibitions centres and event halls in the country. Have we at least asked their advice? Let's get sold out matches again. Any news fans can get to the stadium with my updated guide.

One thing I’ve seen a lot of on social media recently is Kirins fans feeling like they might lose the very existence of their club. For them this isn’t their second team or their “foreign team”, its their team. I don’t think that risk is probable yet, but I do think that it’s possible. And yet things could still be changed around and changed quickly if we can just get some big decisions and backroom manoeuvres in our favour. Will it happen? Time will tell.