LONDON: Bernd Stange has paid the price for Syria’s awful start to the Asian Cup with his job as the German was axed before the end of the group stage.
The Syrians went into the tournament strongly fancied to do well. They only narrowly missed out on qualification for last year’s World Cup — losing in the continental playoff to Australia — and had high hopes of success in the UAE.
But a drab and very underwhelming 0-0 against Palestine in their Group B opener and a shock 2-0 defeat at the hands of Jordan convinced the Syrian Football Association they had to take action before the last group clash against the Socceroos.
The Syrian FA issued a statement hours after the loss to their neighbors, stating Stange has been replaced by former coach Ayman Hakeem for the remainder of the tournament. However, in a later update, former head coach Fajr Ibrahim was announced as the replacement.
Hakeem will be tasked with picking up a win that could reignite the country’s AFC Asian Cup campaign.
“Coaches are always responsible for the performance of the team,” said Stange just hours before he was fired.
“We are one team and we win and we lose together.”
“There is not one person or a player who had a bad day. We win and we lose together and we have to lift up our team.
“We are disappointed extremely because we wanted to do something in this tournament, we wanted to go for the first time in history to the next round, Syria never achieved that and we need results and today was a disappointment.
“I will never ever blame one player or a group of players for something like this. Of course, the coach is responsible.”
The German is the second coach to be issued with his marching orders at the Asian Cup following Thailand’s decision to sack Milovan Rajevac following their 4-1 defeat to India.
Syria sack Bernd Stange after Jordan defeat
Syria sack Bernd Stange after Jordan defeat
- Syria lost 2-0 to Jordan on Thursday having drawn with Palestine in their Group B opener.
- German is the second coach to be axed at the Asian Cup before the end of the group stage.
Postecoglou admits taking Nottingham Forest post a ‘bad decision’
- Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September
- “There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou
LONDON: Ange Postecoglou has said he has only himself to blame for an extraordinarily brief reign as Nottingham Forest manager, with the Australian accepting he made “a bad decision” taking on the job with the Premier League strugglers.
Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September.
But infamously impatient Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Postecoglou just 39 days later, after the experienced manager lost six of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou, reflecting on his time at Forest for the Overlap podcast, said an over-eagerness to get back into management after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur three months earlier, had been the root cause of his troubles at the City Ground.
“There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou. “I should never have gone in there. That was on me. That was a bad decision by me to go in there. I’ve got to take ownership of that.
“It was too soon after Tottenham. I was taking over at a time where they were kind of used to doing things a certain way and I’m obviously going to do things differently. I’ve got to cop that, that was my mistake. It’s no-one else’s fault.”
Postecoglou remains without a club but he has ruled out returning to Celtic, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint from 2021-23, with the 73-year-old Martin O’Neill currently in caretaker charge of the Scottish champions until the end of the season.
“I loved Celtic, it’s a wonderful football club,” said Postecoglou, who left the Glasgow giants to join Spurs. “If I was younger, I probably would have stayed there longer. I probably would have stayed there three, four years.
“I think I could have made progress with them in Europe but at the time, it had taken me a long time to get to this sort of space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good.
“In terms of going back, I don’t go back. I just don’t think that’s kind of been my career.
“Whatever the next step is, it’ll be something new, somewhere I can make an impact in, somewhere I can win things, but it doesn’t diminish the affection I have for Celtic.”
