Tier 2 here we come: Questions for the board at Muangthong

Yesterday's one-all draw at home to Lamphun Warriors means relegation is extremely likely. A team that hasn't been able to keep a clean sheet, let alone hold on to a win for a long, long time is not going to get the points needed for survival up against the likes of Buriram or Thai Port. 

Do miracles happen in football? Yes. I've seen a few great escapes in my time but I've seen plenty of relegation, too. What's the difference between the two? Well quality, obviously, but also an organised and disciplined back line - even if it isn't the most talented - and that intangible ability to show mental resilience and fight. Quality has returned to the side in the form of William Popp but the defence has been highly suspect all season. As for resilience, like I said last time, these youngsters need guidance and support. Hold that thought.

Now is the time the owners and leaders of the club must learn from the past to prepare for the future. Here is a list of tough, painful questions the board needs to ask to bring Muangthong back to the top. 

1) What's the plan for the club and the stadium?

Rumours of a lease expiry have been around for a long time. In fairness, there has been no credible source suggesting the club will be forced out, but the coinciding relegation naturally makes fans fear the worst. So what's the latest news? Do we have a plan B and a plan C if we need it? The rest of these questions are moot if we don't have a club in its current form, anyway.

2) Who will take responsibility for past recruitment?

You will be hard pressed to find a fan that doesn't feel the foreign quota of players has been a total failure this season. Recruitment in general has been bizarre, with some of our best players in positions we lack cover for being allowed to go out on loan. How were these players chosen? How can we be sure this won't happen again?

3) Who takes responsibility for fitness levels?

I highlighted huge concerns over coaching in my last post. When Mario Ivankovich stepped in as head coach in midseason, he immediately highlighted the disturbing lack of fitness in the first team. If he's correct, that is a catastrophic failure. A squad of young players halfway into a season were not up to fitness. How was this allowed to happen? Which coaches were responsible for first team fitness? 

There's a general culture in Thai football that individuals should not be singled out for criticism. In many ways, that's a very admirable mindset. But the downside to that is that problems and mistakes can't be addressed if nobody is held accountable. What if the squad struggles for fitness again next season? Do we still say "mai pen rai" because our coaches smile when the camera is on them?

4) Who will guide the youngsters next season? 

It's no secret that in the post-SCG era, our strategy is to raise talented youngsters with a couple of marquee players to guide them. The problem is that guidance hasn't always been there. We've already covered the lack of fitness and I discussed a lack of game plan and on-pitch guidance last time around. I wish I had been proven wrong.  

Will it be William Popp? I doubt it, unless he already has all the money he needs and is willing to play out of loyalty to the club. Popp has been the model professional on and off the Thunderdome pitch and nobody could blame him if he moved on. Without him, we desperately need a couple of seasoned, top tier veterans willing to stick it out in T2 and lead by example. Who will they be? 

I hope I'm wrong. I hope the glass is half full and somehow we pull off a miraculous escape. I'd be delighted to apologise and acknowledge my pessimism to everyone involved. But if I'm right, the questions above absolutely must be addressed if we are ever to return. It's not about being negative or unkind, it's just being real. It would be perfect if the club responded publicly to fans who've had to endure this season but that's not essential. What is essential is that someone at the top does the right thing and asks themselves.

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 only 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 in 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 of 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 of the crowd when 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 Uthai responded by saying he would not bring the players over to thank 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 a 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 lower calibre of athlete.

3) Poor on and off-field leadership.

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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 tactics and mentality that he somehow transfers to players of different cultures and mindsets. 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 takes 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, during one of our 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 remaining in a vital game, we took position down Chonburi's right flank left with almost every home 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 him 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 either didn’t stick under pressure or had no solution to go along with it. None of these outcomes are acceptable. The predictable result 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

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I will be quick here as I don’t like singling out individual 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. The rest of the foreign quota have been putting in performances ranging from 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. Being played out of position - this guy is not a winger on his best day - doesn't help either. Tristan Do is another player who looks jaded and was very lucky to avoid a second yellow against Choburi with his constant pulling, nudging and generally scrappy style of play. As club captain and 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 none other than Alessandro Del Piero.

But in rough times 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: 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 mystery sponsor and finally announced Fuji as a "main photography sponsor" or something similar. I haven't seen a single Fuji logo 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 club's official X account is fast and responsive with ticket news and score updates as well as responses to questions. Even more importantly, when speculation over the future of the Thunderdome stadium itself resurfaced again, there was 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 tactics 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 crowds and hype and a large stadium surrounded by hugely popular event centres and an 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 could change things 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 answer 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.

Book Review: Thai Football Tales: A Beautiful Madness

 

When this blog was in its zenith many years ago, a lot of information on transfers and behind the scenes news came from one person whom I would often watch games with or bump into at Muangthong matches. That person was Matt Riley and now, long after leaving the Big Mango and returning to Blighty, he’s released a fantastic book looking back on the surreal experience of Thai football or as he more poetically tags it, “a beautiful madness”. 

Let’s be clear: if you’re looking for a match-by-match, stat-by-stat, fluid report of the action from a team sweating it out in the minnow leagues that make up ASEAN, this is not the book for you. Don’t feel bad though, it was an assumption I myself made as I perused the opening chapters of the book. Matt had been good enough to ask me for feedback and I made an early note that his timeline seemed somewhat jumbled in the opening chapters before realizing it wasn’t by error so much as by irrelevance. 

That's because in capturing the “madness”, author Matt has used football as a microcosm of expatriate life in Thailand, primarily through reciting a collection of flashbulb memories of his incredible experiences. He doesn’t implicitly state this however, and I can only recall one moment where he actually stops to explain a specific aspect of the local culture, known as “greng-jai”. Perhaps he feels it’s self-evident or perhaps he wants to let his experiences in football simply speak for themselves.

Fortunately, as we might expect from a head of English at a prestigious international school, Matt is better equipped than the average punter to elucidate a sequence of moments that sometimes read like something out of a David Lynch movie. The experiences themselves are not embellished though, in many cases I can vouch for them first hand. The most striking (in more ways than one) memory recited by Matthew in the book is of the moment that the Charity Shield game between Muangthong and Thai Port FC was abandoned as riots started in the crowd. Like Matt, I had to run out of the stadium and across one of the most touristed areas of Bangkok to escape an ass-kicking. Was that the end of the saga? Far from it. The match was replayed in Bangkok at the peak of the political upheaval and fighting across Bangkok. Days after public transport in the city was suspended, fans had to make their way back to the stadium to see Muangthong and Thai Port play “behind closed doors”. When Thai Port scored, a section of the crowd dressed in neutral colours cheered. I remember saying to Matt “I’m not running again”. Luckily, we didn’t have to and the game passed peacefully. The animosity from those days is the reason why games between these two teams still exclude away fans to this day.

Other memories are even more dreamlike, including tigers in cages, (alleged) assassin referees, team managers calling Matt to ask him when the game starts, Godfathers, astronauts, exploding shoes and more. Matt remains humble - the exploding shoe story will confirm this - and doesn’t try to draw conclusions, moral teachings or anything else more than a truly remarkable set of encounters.

Those who are familiar with Thai football or simply “falang” (foreigners in Thailand) will crack a knowing smile of understanding at many of the cultural concepts - some enjoyable, some less so - that are covered in the pages of “Madness” while those who are not may find them even harder to comprehend, but no less gripping. Although the book is certainly not designed as a guide to Thai culture or sports, it still paints a picture of both.

I should note that there are some experiences I recall differently to Matt. That’s only to be expected. There are also some people, motivations and viewpoints I saw, and continue to see, differently to him but hey, it’s football. It’s people. It’s Thailand. 

In summary, Thai Football Tales is the book I would write if I had a slightly sharper literary knife. It serves as an extended look at Thailand and Thai football from the eyes of one person who has since returned home and can at least try to make sense of it all. It’s a short, entertaining and enjoyable read at an equally enjoyable price. 

Buriram ref suspended and six pointer coming up

The referee from the Buriram game suspended for two weeks following a Muangthong complaint. This is, of course, sticking a band aid ("plaster" as we Brits say) on a much more serious wound. Thai refs need much more training, monitoring and integrity.

Muangthong face BG Pathum tomorrow in a six-pointer. I personally preferred the club when they were known as Bangkok Glass and wore green as their main colour. They had a far more unique and fresh feel to them then, as well as their own superhero. I predict a MTUTD victory in this one.

A big win at Chonburi

 United were down to ten men but still clinched a big win at Chonburi yesterday. Mario celebrated by jumping the fence and celebrating with the away fans. More to follow.

Without Me

 No sooner had I posted about some memories of Rene on the touchline at Muangthong do I see that Robert Procurer has called in an old friend at Nonthaburi United...

Do yourself a favour and imagine Eminem's "Without Me" playing in the background right now. I hate DRM.

Chonburi memories

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Ahead of Muangthong's next game, Dale at the Chonburi blog has posted some of his (and his fellow supporters') favourite memories of clashes between the Quilins and The Sharks. Naturally for a Chonburi fan site, the selection includes Chonburi wins.

It made me reminisce on of some of my own memories. It's probably telling that one of the most lucid memories is of my sheer disbelief that a group like the TFA could be so incompetent as to reschedule a fixture six times in one half-season. Another non-football memory is of the one and only Rene Desayeye getting red-carded from the touchline at an away game at Chonburi.

But when it comes down to the action, this was my favourite clash with Chonburi, a game I remember as a packed stadium with a great atmosphere and as you'll see, a whole bunch of goals. Let's go back to May 2010...

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The best way to explain the excitement and noise for today's game is to say it matched any local derby in the UK. For the first time, Muangthong opened the upper West Stand of the Thunderdome, allowing a total of 21,000 fans into this game. A sea of red and an oasis of light blue covered the entire Impact Arena area with noise and colour. All fans were searched before entry but the mood was good. This was a special moment for Thai football and we could feel it. Like most fans, I was excited but nervous for my team.

One slightly unusual factor at play was Muangthong's choice of black strip - usually an away strip - making Chonburi use their own third choice of red stripes. Apparently this was due to the advice of a fortune teller.

Muangthong started out with what I consider to be our strongest line up: Kawin (GK) , Pakasit (RB) Piyachart (LB) , Jetsada (Cap, CB) Anupong (CB) , Sylla (DM) , Datsakorn (MD) , Siaka (MD) , Yaya (LW) , Christian (FW), Teeasil (ST)

Notice I put Yaya as a left winger today. A message in a bottle told me Muangthong's coaches believed Chonburi's right back would struggle to contain him. Boy, were they right!

Not that you'd know it from the opening moments, though. Chonburi's opener came as quick as it did in our last meeting. I was still trying to get focused on the game itself amid all the excitement, so all I recall is a striker sliding in from close range to beat Kawin. Damn.
Edit: My view was blocked but apparently this was an own-goal.

Muangthong responded well. Unlike previous games, the crosses came from the touchline and as such, they were delivered with more speed and less curl. But a few chances went amiss until someone - Datsakorn I think - was taken down in the box. At the risk of sounding like Arsene Wenger, I don't want to comment too much as I couldn't see what happened clearly. Chonburi's goalkeeper walked off and his team mates followed him. I never really understand the thinking of players when they do this. Still, there is no need to focus on it today.

The players returned , Dango took the penalty and scored.  1-1. The rest of the first half was balanced. Kawin pulled off some good stops and Muangthong kept up a good supply of crosses from both sides. Jetsada seemed to be playing notably further upfield than usual.

In the second half MTU were shooting towards me in the North Stand. Kone came on to replace Christian and made an immediate impact, getting in on a cross from the right wing that looped over Chonburi's keeper to send us home fans ecstatic. 2-1.

But, as seems customary, we did our best to let Chonburi back in. They began a spell of possession play that saw Byrne put one over and had Kawin tip another one over, several wasted free kicks and a cleared corner. We responded by taking off Datsakorn and bringing on Nattaporn. Jetsada seemed to move up to midfield officially. Then the tide turned.

Yaya had been tormenting the Chonburi back line for much of the game but as we began our own spell of possession play, he began to give the Sharks' back four nightmares that Freddy Krugger would be scared of.  As the coaches had planned, Yaya skimmed his marker over and over again, Kone seemed to find himself space whenever he needed it and Teersail was loving the extra options his teammates were giving him.

A free kick floated in by Piyachart met the head of Yaya to make it 3 - 1 around the seventy minute mark. This really seemed to be the mental clincher for both sides. The forward line continued to take it to the touchline and cut inside the Chonburi penalty area and were rewarded with a neatly set up goal for Teerasil about twelve minutes from time. 4-1. The home fans went delirious and began passing a giant flag around the ground. The away fans looked less chuffed.

During all this, the chances continued to flood in, some of them looked easier to score than to miss. But of course it's easy for a lazy fan like me to say that.

We were screaming for more of course, but the game quietened down. Chonburi did create more chances, hitting the crossbar and side post at least once each. But by then the Sharks knew today was not their day and that feeling must have been compounded when one of their team took what may have been the worst corner ever shortly before full time.

After the whistle, the teams swapped shirts, the players saluted both sets of fans and, needless to say, we hung around to soak it up.

Chonburi played well today. That they lost by this margin was because we, at times, were excellent. After our 'opening' game against VB Sports, I said nobody would be able to stop us if we played like that every game. Today, we played better than that. The title race is not even half way done and there are bound to be twists and turns but if we do retain, then today will surely stick out as one of the crucial moments.

For now we can reflect on a good game of football, some controversy, an amazing atmosphere and - as John Hannibal Smith would say - the love of having a "plan come together".


Some great pictures and video to come soon.


Man of the match:
I know, I know, it's the easy option to give it to Yaya. So many players did a great job today. Kawin, Sylla, Pakasit, Piyachart or Kone could all be in the running, but my overriding memory is the spell in the second half with Chonburi's back line looking like scarecrows thanks to this man. The champagne goes to the Ivorian.
 
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Photo credit: soccermotivators.com