The 2019/20 season of Premier League has only just begun, yet there are already a few managers who have found themselves on the hot seat due to the mediocre or just outright disastrous showings of their clubs. It’s safe to say that the pressure to perform in Premier League is always there, and while the season is still very young (11 rounds played so far), there are a few clubs that have severely underperformed compared to the expectations set on them before the season started. That not only leaves us guessing how their campaign will end but also what does the future hold in store for their managers, who are, as always, the main man to blame for the club’s poor performances.
Top Candidates to be Sacked as Managers
1. Marco Silva – Everton
Marco Silva, manager of Everton, after the Premier League match between Burnley and Everton at Turf Moor, Burnley on Saturday 5th October 2019. (Credit: Pat Scaasi | MI News)
Marco Alexandre Saraiva da Silva endured a very tough and unforgiving start to his Premier League season, resulting in an immense pressure put on him to find a way and salvage the season for Everton, who have found themselves sitting at 17th spot in the league eleven rounds in. As it stands now, the Toffees hold onto a disappointing 3-2-6 record and only 11 points following a disastrous run of only one win in the last 7 Premier League matches.
They have already lost to Aston Villa (2:0), Bournemouth (3:1), Sheffield Utd (0:2), Manchester City (1:3) and Burnley (1:0). And while the defeat against Man City was nothing shocking, it’s the remaining defeats that are very worrying, seeing how Everton should at least grab a point against those teams. In the last 5 games, they managed to take 3 points against West Ham, while in Round 11 they avoid defeat and scored against Spurs in injury time. However, Everton’s campaign and the future of Marco Silva is put under a huge question mark.
2. Mauricio Pochettino – Tottenham
(Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images)
Surprisingly enough, it’s Mauricio Pochettino who has found himself as one of the bosses that could be sacked from their position, due to the dismissal start of the season of last year’s UCL runners-up. It would be safe to say Tottenham are enduring a worrying slump, which culminated in their defeat against League Two outfit, Colchester in Carabao Cup. However, that defeat is not the only thing Tottenham have to worry about, considering they are sitting at 11th place in EPL with a 3-4-4 record and 13 points to their name. In round eight they suffered a shock defeat against Brighton, who crushed Pochettino’s men 3:0.
That being said, Tottenham also struggle with their performances in their Champions League campaign, where they failed to defeat Olympiacos (2:2), and suffered one of the most crushing and humiliating defeats in their history against Bayern Munich at the start of October (2:7). True, they smashed Crvena Zvezda 5-0 in round 3 of UCL, but in Premier League they have only 3 wins in 11 matches. With the dismissal results also comes the rising frustration over Mauricio Pochettino, who has found himself as one of the favourites to be sacked from his position.
3. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – Manchester United
(Photo by James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
It’s been far from smooth sailing for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Manchester United, who are slowly but surely sliding down the EPL standings. In one moment, they were near the relegation zone. While seeing Man United in the relegation zone is something that surely won’t happen, we can safely assume Red Devils have just as much of a chance to finish top three, considering they won only three EPL games so far into 2019/20 season. As it stands now, Man United hold onto a 3-4-4 record and 13 points, which ties them with Tottenham, Wolves and West Ham and puts them 18 points behind the league leaders, Liverpool.
After failing to qualify for the UCL last season, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer endured a tough start of this term, with the latest and arguably the biggest setback when United lost to Newcastle (1:0). In the last 9 EPL matches, United won only once. To add salt to the wound, Man United are not fairing too well in EFL Cup either. Barely a month ago we saw Red Devils struggle against League One side, Rochdale, who pushed Solskjaer’s side into overtime and penalties (2:1). As far as United’s Europa League campaign is concerned, they are not doing too well either, seeing how they struggled against FC Astana (1:0) and failed to overcome AZ Alkmaar (1:1) at the start of October. In the 3rd round of the Europa League, they took all 3 points against Partizan in Belgrade, but they didn’t deserve the victory.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have got Klopp and Guardiola who are comfortably sitting at their positions as head coaches of Liverpool and Man City respectively. Out of the two, it’s Klopp who can’t be happier with how his men have performed so far into 2019/20 season, considering Liverpool are entering round 11 as the only undefeated team in EPL (10-1-0). Man City on the other side performed slightly worse with two defeats and a draw to their name, nonetheless, the Sky Blues are still in the race for the EPL title. Furthermore, Man City are also leading their UCL group with a perfect 3-0-0 score, so it’s safe to say their season so far has been fairly decent. With that in mind, we can be sure both Klopp’s and Guardiola’s future at their clubs looks very bright, whereas Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s, Mauricio Pochettino’s and Marco Silva’s is anything but that.
