Fenerbahçe and İsmail Kartal part ways: More than the coach needs to change
İsmail Kartal’s departure opens a new chapter at Fenerbahçe. The derby also demands scrutiny of the playing approach, squad planning and board’s responsibility.
Fenerbahçe’s separation from İsmail Kartal marks the first step towards change after the 2–1 defeat to Galatasaray. But treating the coach’s departure as the end of the reckoning would leave the problems on the pitch only partly addressed. In its announcement on 27 October, the club said Kartal had informed the board of his decision to leave and that discussions had taken place in a spirit of mutual understanding.
Technical responsibility remains
A coach is responsible for the defensive structure, playing out under pressure and finding attacking solutions. Fenerbahçe’s ineffective first half in the derby therefore deserves tactical criticism. The subsequent improvement cannot fully explain why the initiative was surrendered at the start.
Yet examining a coach’s responsibility is different from placing all responsibility on one person. How players complement each other, whether recruitment serves a shared playing idea and whether the squad has appropriate depth also require assessment. Touchline decisions alone cannot resolve these questions.
A new plan before a new name
Fenerbahçe need more than an announcement naming their next coach: they need a coherent direction for how they intend to play. Expectations of the new coach, the suitability of the current squad and who makes decisions within the football structure must be clear.
Players also carry responsibility. Making sound decisions under pressure, sustaining their effort and respecting the team’s structure in major matches are not solely coaching tasks. Post-match tension cannot settle the footballing questions either.
My assessment is that changing the coach can be a beginning, but cannot be the whole solution. Unless the board examines its choices, players their performances and the new coaching staff the structure they inherit with equal honesty, similar arguments risk returning behind different names.
The real measure for Fenerbahçe will be lasting improvement on the pitch, rather than the next coach’s first public statement.
Report / Barış Öztürk
