On Friday Belgium dispensed with the services of head coach Marc Wilmots. It was not a surprising decision considering that big things were expected of the Belgians at Euro 2016, but a star-studded team failed to deliver.
The Red Devils produced a tame performance to exit the competition 3-1 at the quarter-final stages against Wales. To be fair to Wilmots he was without at least three of his first defence, but the decision was not made on just that game though.
The team had underwhelmed in quite a few matches in recent months and even years, despite having a highly-rated squad. The current Red Devils squad has been labelled the Belgian ‘Golden Generation’.
In fact Belgium were regarded to have one of the best squads at Euro 2016, with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku all available to Wilmots.
However, the doubts over whether Wilmots could gel the highly-talented group of individuals into a team were justified, as the Red Devils looked like a team of strangers at times in France.
The likes of Wales, Italy and Iceland and ultimately Portugal all bestowed the virtues of team work being more important than individual players. Belgium never really looked like a team, more a group of individuals cobbled together into a team.
Wilmots lead the Red Devils to quarter-finals at the 2014 World Cup, which was also considered an underachievement. The next Belgian boss has a good group of individual players to work with. However he will have to find a way to turn his talented individuals into a team, which is often easier said than done.