Hot-Seat Watch for World Football Players, Coaches After Weekend of Dec. 19-22
Another weekend of action has passed by in the world of football, with many of Europe's top leagues seeing their final gameweek before a winter break.
Some of the sides in those leagues contain players and managers basking in the winter warmth of adulation and impressed applause after good performances and results...while some are the opposite, struggling for form and faring worse in the league than expected.
Here's our hot-seat watch for individuals within the game; as ever, a reminder that this isn't a call for players to be sold the first day of the January transfer window or a demand that managers are sacked, but rather a reminder that they need to pick up quickly and offer much more than they have of late.
Hatem Ben Arfa, Hull City/Newcastle United
1 of 10
It's all gone horribly wrong for Hatem Ben Arfa over the last 12 months, from being a key Newcastle player to being unwanted, loaned out to Hull City and then dropped from their squad too.
Per the Express, he is now not going to play another game for the Tigers after his manager, Steve Bruce, was unhappy with his work ethic.
Ben Arfa will return to his parent club in January—but the manager there, Alan Pardew, has already said Ben Arfa will never play for that club, either. Chronicle Live report that Nice are interested and the playmaker's contract at Newcastle could be terminated to allow a move.
Steve Bruce, Hull City
2 of 10
Sticking at Hull, manager Steve Bruce is in all kinds of bother at the moment.
Aside from the Ben Arfa situation, long-serving defender Paul McShane has incurred Bruce's wrath as well due to a tweet about being demoted to the under-21 squad, per Daily Mail—and most importantly, results have been terrible.
Hull now sit 19th in the Premier League, two points from safety after 10 games without a win and six defeats in the last eight. Bruce needs things to pick up quickly for his side over the Christmas period.
Fran Escriba, Elche
3 of 10
Into the rest of Europe now, starting in Spain with Elche manager Fran Escriba, who continues to be unable to lead his side to victory.
Elche led 1-0 at the break at home to Malaga at the weekend, but lost their hold on the game soon after and suffered yet another defeat; they've won just once at home this season and scored only six in eight on their own turf.
Bottom of the table at the winter break, it's all uphill from here for Escriba and his side.
Jurgen Klopp, Borussia Dortmund
4 of 10
The crazy demise of Borussia Dortmund has lasted the entire first half of the season in the German Bundesliga, with Jurgen Klopp's team mere minutes from ending the first half of the campaign bottom of the entire table—before Freiburg shipped two late goals on Sunday and remained bottom themselves, on goal difference.
Klopp has won only four games with Dortmund in the league this term and they sit in the relegation zone, 17th place, a massive 30 points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
There appears to be no logical explanation for how the results of a team containing the likes of Mats Hummels, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nuri Sahin, Ilkay Gundogan, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and so many other talented players can be so bad, week after week. Klopp has to sort this out straight after German football returns in January.
Roberto Mancini, Inter Milan
5 of 10
Over in Italy's Serie A, Roberto Mancini has had quite an effect on Inter Milan since taking over: He's managed one win in five in the league since he joined and are further away from the Champions League places than ever.
Only a late comeback at home to Lazio stopped Mancini suffering a third defeat in four matches at the weekend.
He'll expect spending on reinforcements in January, but surely should have been doing far better than he has managed even up until now. Inter sit 11th in the table.
Nolito, Celta Vigo
6 of 10
One of the big stars of the early part of La Liga's season was Celta Vigo's Nolito, a technically gifted, creative forward who could score and set up goals with regularity. His form was such that he won an international call up for Spain and his side were flying near the top of the table.
The wheels have come off for Celta though, and Nolito hasn't been able to stop the general demise of the team affecting his own form.
It's six league games in a row now that Celta have lost—and they haven't managed a single goal in all that time either. Relegated to the bench the past couple of weeks, Nolito came on at the weekend with his side a goal down... and missed a penalty. Still no goals, still no avoiding defeats.
Edinson Cavani, PSG
7 of 10
Another forward now and one who works hard for the team cause, but of whom much, much more is expected than just mere work rate, considering his reputation, cost and position in a usually dominant side.
Paris Saint-Germain forward Edinson Cavani has tended to go through barren stages in his career and he's certainly in a difficult moment now, if not outright awful: Just one goal in his last six Ligue 1 matches against the likes of Metz (17th), Lille (13th) and Guingamp (12th). He also has just two in his last seven in all competitions—one of those was in the domestic cup, against second-tier Ajaccio.
More is needed and expected from Cavani if PSG are to trouble Europe's elite, or indeed overhaul Lyon and Marseille domestically.
Roberto Martinez, Everton
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We'll finish up with some more familiar faces from the Premier League in England.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has eased the pressure on himself over the past week with two much-improved performances yielding a win and a draw, but the other half of Merseyside sees more disappointment and inconsistency.
Challenging for a top-four place last season, Everton, under Roberto Martinez, are 11th in the table this term after just two wins in their last eight games. Indeed, in all competitions they have just one win in six.
A heavy and deserved 3-0 reversal to Southampton at the weekend—who were coming off a five-match losing streak themselves—did nothing to bring some Christmas cheer to Goodison Park.
Lee Mason, Referee
9 of 10
We normally only include players and head coaches in this series, but the odd time we're happy to make alternative inclusions.
This is one of those times: Referee Lee Mason continued his one-man campaign of blunders and ineptitude with a staggeringly bad red card handed out to Gabriel Agbonlahor at the weekend—a dismissal which has since been overturned, which if you take note of how many incidents that actually happens to, gives you some idea of how bad a decision it was.
It's far from the first time Mason has made such glaringly, obviously awful decisions this season. In fact it's not even the first time this month.
The Premier League and FA are tremendously quick to crack down on any players they believe have stepped out of line and brought the game into disrepute; when are incapable referees going to be treated the same way? With Mason in particular, it's a far-too-often recurring theme.
Nigel Pearson, Leicester City
10 of 10
Bringing up the rear in every column this week is Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson.
The Leicester boss is still feeling the heat from an argument with a supporter a few weeks back which he refused to apologise for—but perhaps he'd be receiving a fair bit more goodwill from the other fans if he was bringing points to his argument.
He's not—Leicester have lost five in a row, and 10 of the last 12. They are rock bottom of the table, three points adrift of their nearest rivals and five from safety. Leicester need more, Pearson needs to find more, and it needs to happen quickly.
They play Spurs next, but after that a bottom-two clash with Hull City could prove pivotal for both managers mentioned in this series this week.
