Morocco Sacking Vahid Halilhodzic and How it Would Affect the Team’s World Cup Campaign

We are approaching the kickoff of the World Cup in Qatar, and teams are starting to solidify their squad to ensure they do better in the competition. It is a typical exciting tournament with every  team pushing for World Cup glory. 

The odds are out. So you might check it out as you also get information about the NCAAF odds.

However, as we’re getting news of other teams working on their game plan with the coach that took them to the world cup, the Moroccan Football Federation has decided to let theirs go. The FRMF announced that it had sacked Vahid Halilhodzic, who has been handling the team since 2019 and will be leaving the team a few months before the biggest tournament. 

Sacking Vahid for whatever reason would be tough on the team because getting a new head coach close to a major competition would be difficult. We’ve seen it happen, and it never ends well for the team. In 2018, Spain sacked Julen Lopetegui before the competition started, and they struggled through the entire event.

With Vahid gone, it would mean that he has been sacked on three different occasions after he helped a team get into the world cup. First, it was with Cote d’Ivoire. Then, Japan sacked him after helping them make it to the 2018 world cup. With this news, Morocco would have to get a new coach before the tournament, and they need one that can impose workable tactics before the world cup begins. It is hard to see how Morocco would do well with this decision. So, we think about the FRMF sacking Vahid Halilhodzic and how it might affect the team at the world cup.

Vahid and the Moroccan Team

Since he joined as the head coach in August 2019, Vahid has imposed his playing style on the team and helped them to do better than a couple of years before that. The team has been getting better with their game plan, and you can see them play with a precise plan. But the lack of world-class players has been a barrier to winning competitions.

We can tell that Vahid has incredible plans for the team, but it hasn’t come to fruition. However, he helped shape the team, and they made it to the African Cup of Nations and now the FIFA World Cup during his three-year tenure at the team. Undoubtedly, he didn’t do badly with the Moroccan national team.

The Falling Out

The bitter-sweet relationship started with Vahid’s handling of the Hakim Ziyech relationship, leading to the Chelsea star retiring from international football. Many fans have turned against the coach, given that he has deprived them of one of their brightest talents. The team has struggled with Ziyech. 

And given that situation, Vahid has been in a bit of a rut with the Federation after the push to bring the star back to the team didn’t work out. Leading up to the sack, there have been rumors of division. During the announcement, the Federation claimed that the sacking was because of 

differences of opinion in the appropriate preparation for the World Cup.

His Replacement

Morocco has very little time to find a suitable replacement and ensure that he can handle the complexity of the team. They would need an experienced coach that can take on the job of coaching top players without any fuss and shaping them before the start of the FIFA World Cup, 

It would be a difficult job given that the team would have to prepare for a massive tournament and play for their various football. But one good thing about this is that we might see Hakim Ziyech come out of retirement to play for the Atlas Lions at the FIFA World Cup. This move can light up the mood in the Moroccan camp. 

Getting Things Right and Preparing for the World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is a tough competition that requires plenty of preparation before the start.

Any team that doesn’t put in the work would crash out, no matter how talented the squad is.

We’ve seen many top teams struggle in the competition after they failed to sort out their internal crisis before the competition. 

The French side at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was a significant example. Even though they were one of the most talented teams at the world cup, they couldn’t make it out of their group. Morocco already had a significant challenge to overcome in Group F before this; 

now, they have to be careful with the subsequent decisions made.

Our Thoughts

This news is a tough one to take, and we expect the lead-up to the world cup to be a

challenging ride for the team as they prepare for the FIFA World Cup. If they can get it right, we might see the team do better than expected. However, that is close to impossible, and only a handful of teams have been able to do it well.