Sparta Sacks Part of Coaching Staff After Disastrous Start to the Season

Prague's Sparta has announced changes to its coaching staff following a disappointing start to the new Czech league season. The club has parted ways with fitness coach Ian Coll and set-piece specialist Jack Wilson, the club's official website reports.

"We've just had one of Sparta's worst starts to a league season in a long time, and that simply doesn't match what our fans expect of us — or what we expect of ourselves," said club vice-chairman František Čupr. According to him, responsibility for the results lies with everyone — management, coaching staff and players alike.

Čupr stressed that the staff changes are a direct response to the team's results and level of play, and that the club expects a swift turnaround. "We'll make further decisions depending on how things develop," he added, not ruling out additional personnel changes if improvement fails to materialize.

What's wrong with the team's play

Sparta's sporting director Tomáš Rosický thanked the departing staff members for their work and admitted that the start of the season had been a failure both in terms of results and quality of play. "I'm convinced we have very high-quality players whose potential we haven't yet been able to unlock fully. Now it's up to all of us to prove that on the pitch," he said.

Of the seven league matches played so far, the Prague club has won just three and lost four. The most recent defeat came 1-2 away to Hradec Králové, and before that the team suffered a 0-3 home loss to their fiercest rival, Slavia, in the Prague derby. Things haven't gone any better in the Champions League either — Sparta were knocked out by France's Lyon.

An ongoing injury problem

Player injuries have remained another headache for the team since last season. Back in the summer, Rosický spoke openly about the issue in an interview, admitting the club was trying to get to the bottom of the problem. "It worries us a great deal, and we're trying to understand what's causing it. There's not much you can do about contact injuries, so we need to focus on diagnostics," he said at the time, leaving open the possibility of personnel decisions if the negative trend continued for long.

Notably, it was again from a corner kick that the team conceded in the latest match in Hradec Králové — the opening goal was scored by the opposition's midfielder, Vladimír Darida.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz