Hot Seat Watch for World Football Players, Coaches After Weekend of Jan. 10-12
It's time for our regular scouring of Europe's top leagues to see which clubs and individuals have been underperforming of late, with our take on football's hot seat watch.
Here we look at managers failing to get enough points on the board or producing poor displays, or perhaps players who have been in the news for unsavoury incidents, have failed to produce their best form or have been otherwise noteworthy in a negative sense.
As always, we're not calling for sackings or players to be dropped, merely serving reminders that improvements can, and in some cases must, be made.
Roberto Martinez, Everton
1 of 8
Everton boss Roberto Martinez continues to see his side struggle, with an FA Cup exit on Tuesday night being the latest blow. His side were unlucky to lose that one—playing most of the second half and all of extra time with 10 men, they took West Ham to penalties and only lost after goalkeeper Joel missed his spot-kick.
It's still another defeat, though, which means it's now just one win in 12 games in all competitions for the Toffees.
In the league alone, a run of four successive defeats was only halted with a home draw against Manchester City at the weekend. The next two games see key games against rivals around them, Crystal Palace and West Brom, both of whom have new managers.
Laurent Blanc, PSG
2 of 8
Over to France, Laurent Blanc will once again be coming under scrutiny for not taking Paris Saint-Germain to the top and clear of the chasing pack in Ligue 1.
In fact after a shock 4-2 weekend defeat to relegation-zone club Bastia, PSG are now fourth, outside the Champions League spots and four points off leaders Lyon.
Per Jonathan Johnson, Blanc still retains the club's support, but he will know he needs to string wins together fast.
Harry Redknapp, QPR
3 of 8
In the Premier League, Queens Park Rangers bafflingly continue to escape mass criticism in spite of their woeful play and form under Harry Redknapp.
The free-spending promoted side are back in the relegation zone after a 2-1 defeat to rivals Burnley at the weekend, meaning Redknapp's away record this season reads: 10 played, 10 lost. It's inexcusable and inevitable that it will lead to relegation unless the manager picks things up significantly.
With Manchester United, Stoke City and Southampton the next three opponents, points could continue to be hard to come by.
Richard Dunne, QPR
4 of 8
The players have to accept responsibility at QPR too, especially the defence, which at times has been laughably bad. Centre-back pair Richard Dunne and Steven Caulker were terrible against Burnley on both goals, allowing Danny Ings in particular a far too easy time of things in scoring.
Dunne, after the game, was also involved in an argument with a supporter, per BBC Sport.
Goalkeeper coach Kevin Hitchcock apparently had to intervene to move Dunne away from the scene.
Wojciech Szczesny, Arsenal
5 of 8
Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny might have been hoping for an immediate chance to make amends after he was fined for smoking in the changing rooms a week ago, but the chance was denied him by manager Arsene Wenger.
The boss opted to drop Szczesny, replacing him with David Ospina for a second match, and insisted that the selection was not due to the smoking incident, per Sami Mokbel's Daily Mail report, leaving little doubt that it could be anything other than poor form as the overriding factor.
Ospina has kept two clean sheets in his two games.
Paul Lambert, Aston Villa
6 of 8
Sticking in the Premier League, Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert has, like Redknapp, overseen an awful run of results of late, along with some poor football from his side.
Villa still sit in 13th position, but are increasingly getting drawn into the hugely tight group at the bottom: just three points separates them from 19th-place QPR.
Lambert's side have won two in 17 in the league, have only scored one goal in the last six league games and have by far the lowest scoring rate in the top flight, with just 11 this term. Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are their next three league fixtures.
Pippo Inzaghi, Milan
7 of 8
To Italy and Serie A now, where AC Milan boss Pippo Inzaghi still seems unable to find that regular winning formula for his side.
After a defeat at home to Sassuolo in midweek, his side could only then hold Torino to a 1-1 draw at the weekend, playing the entire second half with 10 men after Mattia De Sciglio was sent off. With just one win in the last five, Milan have slipped to eighth in the table again and are now five points off the top three.
Inzaghi did at least gain some measure of revenge over one of his opponents with a late 2-1 cup victory over Sassuolo on Tuesday, but league points are the priority.
Diego Simeone, Atletico Madrid
8 of 8
Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has had a tremendous year and arguably should have won the Coach of the Year award at the Ballon d'Or ceremony. He did, however, come under plenty of criticism at the weekend as his side lost the big game in La Liga, 3-1 at Barcelona.
Simeone's team selection saw Jesus Gamez come in at left-back, out of position and without having played much football of late. The surprising move was no doubt to combat Leo Messi cutting in on his left foot, but it didn't work at all.
Simeone was forced into a tactical shift just 20 minutes in to combat the rampant home side's dominance, and his side were roundly criticised for an overly aggressive approach to the game.
Jose Maria Gimenez's late challenge on Neymar, Raul Garcia's shove on the same player in front of the referee and the constant late fouls in midfield largely went unpunished in the game.
Even by Atletico's usual in-your-face approach, this was perhaps a step too far as the team got sidetracked by the battle and forgot to play the game. Simeone was, on this occasion, out-done tactically and with in-game management by his opposite number, Luis Enrique, who conversely badly needed the big win.
Expect Simeone to learn from the result and come back with his team far better prepared for the next big game...which is on Thursday, against Real Madrid.
