Belgium is one of the most talented international sides we've seen in a long time, with athleticism, skill and flair from top to bottom of their roster. They're second in the FIFA rankings, qualified for Euro 2016 with ease and they have the pure ability to win the tournament for the first time in their history. But after losing their first group-stage match against Italy, Belgium now has a lot of work to do just to get to the knockout rounds -- and that's on their Achilles heel, manager Marc Wilmots.
Belgium needs a better manager than Marc Wilmots
Wilmots may have helped Belgium’s young talent grow on the international scene, but now he’s holding them back.
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Wilmots has been in charge of Belgium since 2012, taking over the national team at a low point in the country’s footballing history after spending several years as an assistant in the coaching staff. At the same time, though, a lot of incredible talent was starting to mature, talent that saw Belgium rapidly rise in quality and stature in the international scene, qualifying for the World Cup and reaching the quarterfinals before being eliminated.
That same quality helped Belgium breeze through Euro qualifying, and crowned them as a major favorite for the tournament. They have overwhelming attacking talent, a quality midfield, a tough defense -- Belgium really have it all ... except for a manager good enough to take full advantage of their team.
Time and again, we’ve seen examples of Wilmots making decisions that have held his team back. From odd formations, players played out of position or just plain ignoring certain in-form stars, there’s been a plethora of ways that Belgium could have been so much better with a better manager.
Just look at their loss to Italy and you’ll see a lot of reasons why. While it’s not Wilmots’ fault that his country has yet to produce any international-quality fullbacks for his team, his method of dealing with the issue is questionable at best. Laurent Ciman has made for a decent converted center back on the right, but he’s yet to sort out the best thing to do on the left.
Now, Wilmots has a few options both on the left and in the middle, but most assumed the three spots would go to some combination of Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Thomas Vermaelen. Vertonghen has frequently been Wilmots' choice on the left in the past, but with Vermaelen being able to play there as well and Vertonghen and Alderweireld forming an effective partnership in the middle with Tottenham Hotspur, it makes more sense to keep that connection going.
Unless you’re Wilmots. Then you break them up and pair Alderweireld with a player he doesn’t work as well with in Vermaelen, and then Belgium give up two goals because of it. Oops.
The midfield was a mess as well, with three defensive-minded midfielders -- some might go so far as to call them a trio of leg-breakers -- in Marouane Fellaini, Axel Witsel and Radja Nainggolan. The trio are good at what they do, but they also all do the same thing: run hard, tackle harder and generally be competent enough in possession to help the attack somewhat, while providing a long-range scoring threat. There's no real creative presence or possession hub in the trio, though, and all three have poor positional discipline -- a major disadvantage against a more disciplined and exploitative team like Italy.
That midfield was so unbalanced and unfocused that it left Belgium perilously exposed too many times, and left Belgium's attack starved of service for too much of the night. It's an especially curious decision as it forced Kevin De Bruyne to play out wide, severely limiting his ability to help build play and feed his fellow attackers. A better balanced midfield would have seen Belgium be much more competitive on the night, with just one of the starting trio of bruisers actually being in the lineup. That would see De Bruyne playing in the middle higher up the pitch, and include the more balancing presence of Moussa Dembélé -- a good possession player who can drive up the pitch and still do good work in defense. Add in Dries Mertens in the wide spot vacated by De Bruyne, and you've got a side that every team in Euro 2016 fears -- not the side that was so easy for Italy to exploit through their more tactical game.
And speaking of that tactical game, which Italy won brilliantly from first whistle to last, here’s Wilmots’ opinion of what went down:
Belgium coach Marc Wilmots: "I do not think we lost the tactical battle." https://t.co/CUlCb61DiY
— Paul Carr (@PCarrESPN) June 13, 2016
Wrong. Belgium was extremely predictable in their approach to the match, and they made few adjustments to that approach. Yes, Italy played defensively after going ahead, but Belgium did nothing to try to force them out of their shell. They just did the same things that weren’t working over and over again, and shock! It didn’t work. If Belgium didn’t lose the tactical battle, it’s because they didn’t play it. Italy did, and they won with ease because of it.
Perhaps it’s unfair to call Wilmots a bad manager. He certainly helped get Belgium to where they are, but now that they have the talent and success to be a top-level team, it doesn’t look like he has the managing chops to lead them in taking that next step. Frankly, that comes down to managerial experience, something Wilmots didn’t have much of before being promoted to the top spot for Belgium -- he was an interim manager for Schalke in Germany briefly back in 2003, and had a bad half-season in charge of Sint-Truidense the following season. Other than his four years in charge of Belgium, that is the sum total of his managerial experience.
Regardless, we have too many examples at this point that Wilmots doesn’t have what it takes to get the best out of Belgium’s potential. They could become a legendary international team, but they need a different manager to get there. Sorry, Marc Wilmots, but you’re not the guy.
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