does a coach have the right to trash his players in public?

After FC Lucerne’s defeat at Sion (4-2), coach Mario Frick attacked his players and repeatedly spoke of a more than embarrassing performance in front of the press. Did he do well? Or are his statements counterproductive? Our journalists disagree.

François Schmid-Bechtel and Claudio Zanini

The players know what to expect (François Schmid-Bechtel is for)

There are coaches who appear in front of television cameras after a heavy defeat and say: “I saw positive things”. What they think, but don’t say, is more along the lines of “disastrous performance.” We hear from coaches who, when asked how to get out of the negative spiral after a fifth loss in a row, respond: “We have to keep working hard.” What they say off-screen when the television cameras are turned off is more like: “We need reinforcements, you can’t gain anything with this squad.”

This way of giving soft answers has spread like a virus. Above all, you should not stand out or say what you think and what you feel. The speeches have become sanitized. The substitutes would like to play, but they perfectly understand the coach’s choices and respect him. Whoever scores a hat-trick is just happy to have been able to help the team. This is all just wind. The hero of a match is a hero, feels like one and has the right to make it known.

That is why it is nice to see that in this flow of diplomacy there are still exceptions like the Lucerne coach: Mario Frick. He is of course ruthless when he says: “I have never seen such an embarrassing performance before” or “I told the team that this was the first time I was ashamed of being the coach”. Meaningful words.

Expressing one thing in the locker room and another in front of the television cameras does not make it easier for the players. They then rightly wonder what it really is. With Frick, they know what to expect. And since FC Lucerne is not too badly placed in the standings, it is also a good time to wake up this young team.

Many fear that the current generation will be broken by such harsh remarks. They therefore require a cautious approach. But talented players have known since adolescence that football is not a sentimental sport. They have been constantly fighting since the age of 12 or 13 for their place and learning to deal with criticism. This is why Frick’s outburst will not destabilize the Lucernois, especially if he speaks constructively with his players. Moreover, he has already stressed that this pitiful performance was his responsibility.

Such statements weigh on relationships (Claudio Zanini is against)

On Sunday afternoon, Mario Frick showed that emotions can influence our thoughts and actions. Crude sentences spewed out without filter after his team’s disappointing defeat. He has never been “so ashamed” of his players. He spoke about the “most embarrassing performance” he witnessed. It was “low-level football.”

Frick was at the mercy of his emotions. He was just beating time and we can understand that. Who among us would like, after an emotionally taxing performance, to be pushed in front of a camera to dictate how we feel? Person. But showing up in front of the television is part of the game, and especially part of the coaching job.

What really matters are the consequences of its criticisms and the processes initiated in the minds of its executives. With one exception (replacement goalkeeper Vaso Vasic), FCL players belong to Gen Z. Whether this group can be ruled by carrots and sticks is an ideological question that it must answer itself. What we can say with certainty, however, is that if a coach publicly denounces his players, it can put a strain on the relationship. Besides, daily life teaches us that emotional outbursts are generally counterproductive.

Because a trainer works with young players, he or she must potentially expect total and unexplained failures. The coach should not have reacted in such dismay to Sion. He would expect a very aggressive opponent. It’s not like FCL has marched on the entire league in the recent past. There has been one win in the last six games, against relegation-threatened GC. Frick called this meeting a “dirty” victory, during which many things had not gone well. Anyone expecting a gala meeting of FC Lucerne in Sion has little sense of reality.

There was no need to dramatize the Valais episode unnecessarily, because it is likely that nothing was broken on the pitch on Sunday. A little more self-criticism on the part of the coach would have been in order.

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