Steven Gerrard, former Liverpool captain officially entered the EPL (England Premier League) / Premier League after being officially tied by Aston Villa as a new coach with a duration of 3.5 years. Gerrard previously handled one of the Scottish giants, Glasgow Rangers. Gerrard’s entry into the EPL adds to the number of coaches from England or nationality who train teams in the EPL. Before Gerrard entered Aston Villa, there were only 4 (four) English coaches in the EPL.
They are Eddie Howe (Newcastle United coach), Dean Smith (Norwich City coach), Sean Dyche (Burnley coach), and Graham Potter (Brighton Hove Albion coach). Compared to Steven Gerrard, their names may be less familiar to some football fans. With Gerrard’s entry into the EPL to coach Aston Villa, the number of English coaches in the EPL has increased to 5 people. That much if it is a percentage of the number of teams in the EPL, of course very little.
There are 20 teams in the EPL. This means that the number of English coaches in the EPL is only 5/20, aka only a quarter. The rest, as many as 15/20 or three-quarters of the teams in the EPL are coached by non-English coaches. This is inversely proportional to the dynamics of coaches in the Italian Serie A, for example. In Serie, there are only five non-Italian coaches, aka 5/20, only a quarter of the total number of coaches.
They are Jose Mourinho/PORTUGAL (coach AS Roma), Sinisa Mihajlovic/SERBIA (coach Bologna), Andriy Shevchenko/UKRAINE (coach Genoa), Igor Tudor/KROASIA (coach Verona), and Ivan Juric/KROASIA (coach Torino). Outside of them are coaches of Italian nationality or origin.
Back to the coaches in the EPL. The dominance of foreign coaches there is extraordinary. They don’t just train EPL teams, but also train big teams or top teams that are there. The 5 coaches from England only got to train mediocre teams. Maybe it’s Steven Gerrard who prefers to coach the mid-table team, Aston Villa.
The five teams that occupy the top flight at the moment are Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, West Ham United and Arsenal. Who coached the 5 teams? Chelsea is coached by Thomas Tuchel from Germany. Manchester City is coached by Pep Guardiola from Spain. Then Liverpool was coached by Jurgen Klopp from Germany. West Ham United is coached by Scottish David Moyes. Last Arsenal coached by Mikel Arteta from Spain.
In addition, two other elite teams that are currently slumped in the middle board, namely Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United are also coached by non-English coaches. Tottenham are coached by Antonio Conte from Italy and Manchester United have just brought in coach from Germany, Ralf Rangnick. If Frank Lampard had not been sacked by Chelsea on January 25, 2021, England would have had a “representative” coach who coached a big team. Unfortunately Lampard at that time was considered to have failed to bring achievements for Chelsea.
Even though when Lampard came to Stamford Bridge as a coach, Lampard did not have many choices of players who were quite capable. Because Chelsea at that time was punished by FIFA that they were not allowed to spend in two transfer markets. In addition, Chelsea also had to pay a fine of £460,000 or the equivalent of Rp. 8.4 billion. FIFA gave a punishment to Chelsea because Chelsea was found guilty in the case of buying underage players.
However, with the material of the players, Lampard was able to build strength by providing a large enough playing space for Chelsea’s young players. As a result, several young Chelsea players emerged and became the focus of the team. After being sacked by Chelsea, Lampard has actually been linked with a number of clubs. Call it Wolverhampton, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace, or Norwich City. However, it turned out that none of the clubs signed Lampard.
Wolverhampton instead brought Bruno Lage from Portugal. Newcastle United even signed Eddie Howe. Crystal Palace also suddenly brought in Patrick Viera from France and Norwich City chose Aston Villa’s “outcast” coach, Dean Smith. Regarding Lampard’s failure to train several of the above clubs, perhaps because there was no contract agreement between Lampard and those clubs. It may also be because there are things that Lampard or the clubs cannot fulfill.
In fact, if Lampard was to coach one of the clubs above, the number of coaches from England would not be what it is today. Only 5 people. Likewise, the quality of English coaches, if Lampard coaches one of the clubs above, will be able to compete with top coaches from other EPL clubs. Lampard’s big name when he was still playing, at least it would have a psychological impact.
Even if Lampard was currently the coach of any club in the EPL, we would see the excitement when the club that Lampard coached met Aston Villa who is currently coached by Steven Gerrard. The meeting between Lampard and Gerrard as a coach is certainly very interesting. Lampard and Gerrard were both mainstays of the England national team at that time. Lampard and Gerrard are also the mainstay players of two different clubs that compete with each other in the EPL. Lampard mainstay “The Blue” Chelsea and Gerrard mainstay “The Red” Liverpool.
But that’s just a supposition. The fact is that currently only Gerrard is a former mainstay of the England national team who is a coach in the EPL. Gerrard was “under siege” by the top non-English coaches in the EPL.
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