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The 20 worst performing managers from the Premier League and EFL in 2021/22

Marcelo Bielsa Dean Smith Aug21

Crunching the numbers to find out which managers across the whole 92 clubs have recorded the worst points per game average in the current campaign.

Thirty-two people have taken charge of matches in the Premier League this season. Throw in the EFL and that rises to an incredible 140 permanent, caretaker and temporary managers.
So to emerge as the worst of the lot is no mean feat.
Taking into account managers who got at least ten games under their belt, Planet Sport has compiled a league table of this season's worst-performing bosses, starting with the best of the worst.

20. Stephen Robinson (Morecambe)

Played: 33; Points: 30; Points per game: 0.91

Robinson actually shares the same points average with Chris Beech. However, he gets in ahead of the former Carlisle United manager thanks to his even worse record at St Mirren.

"Stephen had good success on the park with Motherwell which saw him reach the finals of both the League and Scottish Cups as well a third-place finish and qualification for the Europa League," said St Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick when announcing his appointment, carefully avoiding his record at Morecambe which saw him leave the League One club in the relegation zone following just seven wins from their 33 games.
Robinson has since gone on to take charge of 11 Saints games, losing eight.

19. Stephen Crainley (Fleetwood)

Pld: 29; Pts: 26; PPG: 0.89

Crainey has sensibly decided to revert back to his under-23 role after his spell as head coach at Highbury.

Taking over from Simon Grayson he picked up 26 points from his 29 games in charge as Fleetwood escaped relegation to League Two on goal difference.
Their final tally of 40 points would have seen them relegated in all but one of the ten previous seasons.

18. Marcelo Bielsa (Leeds United)

Pld: 26; Pts: 23; PPG: 0.88

Leeds fans adored Marcelo and Marcelo adored the Leeds fans but it was certainly a case of love is blind, with relegation sneaking up almost unnoticed on the Elland Road side.
Thankfully, the appointment of Jesse Marsch has opened their eyes to the reality of the situation: winning over the neutrals doesn't necessarily win you football matches.

Leeds were two points clear of the relegation zone when Bielsa bade farewell and have since slipped into the bottom three.

Bielsa may have got Leeds up but he left them in a whole heap of trouble.

17. Alex Revell (Stevenage)

Pld: 16; Pts: 14; PPG: 0.88

It's been quite the season for Alex Revell who started the campaign as Stevenage boss and ended it working in their academy.
In between he oversaw successive wins from their opening two games to fuel hopes of a promotion push and a 14-game run which yielded just a single victory and saw him relieved of his duties.

After two months out of the game he was then back at Broadhall Way as academy coach.

He can take some comfort from the fact he's not even the worst Stevenage manager in our rundown.

16. Keith Curle (Oldham)

Pld: 17; Pts: 15; PPG: 0.88

Oldham became the first former Premier League club to bow out of the EFL when filling the second League Two relegation spot in April. However, Curle can at least point to the club being outside the relegation zone when he was binned.

Four wins from 17 matches did for Curle, with the Latics two points above the drop zone when he departed in November.

Caretaker-boss Selim Benachour then dropped Oldham into the bottom two with two points from a possible 18, leaving John Sheridan with the ignominy of overseeing their drop into the National League. Rounding off the season with 11 defeats from 14, Sheridan narrowly escaped our list, with a points per game average of 0.95.

15. Mark Robinson (AFC Wimbledon)

Pld: 39; Pts: 33; PPG: 0.85

"We would like to place on record our belief that changing the Head Coach brings no guarantee of success and could carry higher risks than working to turn our on-pitch fortunes around alongside someone who has earned the respect of everyone at the club over the last 18 years."

So read the words of the AFC Wimbledon boards (AFCW PLC and the Dons Trust) after defeat at the hands of Cheltenham left the club a point adrift of League One safety with eight games remaining.

Five days later following on from a 1-0 defeat to Cambridge United clearly so horrific it forced the boards to completely realign their whole thinking on managerial sackings, Robinson was gone. The Dons didn't win another game and were subsequently relegated.
Maybe the risks were higher, after all.

14. Paul Tisdale (Stevenage)

Pld: 19; Pts: 16; PPG: 0.84

Tisdale spent 12 years at Exeter but has struggled for job security since with his spell at Stevenage spanning less than four months.
Chairman Phil Wallace succinctly summed up the reasons for Boro getting rid: "Paul has worked tirelessly for us since he joined but we have won three points from the last nine games to drop into a relegation fight."
Interestingly, Stevenage only scored more than two goals in a game on four occasions this season, with three coming in January under Tisdale.

13. Simon Grayson (Fleetwood Town)

Pld: 17; Pts: 14; PPG: 0.82

Incredibly, Fleetwood Town was Grayson's eighth job in football management. And it followed the pattern of the previous three, with the former Leicester City player sacked on the back of a poor set of results.

Seventeen games is all it took, with an eight-game winless run leaving the Cod Army 22nd in League One.

He was replaced by Town's under-23 coach Stephen Crainey who guided the side to safety with an only slightly more impressive 26 points from 29 games (see no.19).

12. Sean Dyche (Burnley)

Pld: 30; Pts: 23; PPG: 0.8

There were many who felt Dyche was harshly treated when he finally parted ways with Burnley after nine-and-a-half years at the helm.
That decision now looks inspired with three wins and a draw under caretaker boss Mike Jackson having lifted the Clarets out of the Premier League's bottom three.

Linked with a return to Watford he lost out to Rob Edwards but will confident of a return to management ahead of next season. Maybe even at Watford.

11. Mick McCarthy (Cardiff)

Pld: 14; Pts: 11; PPG: 0.79

Eighth in the Championship after a 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest in September it needed something pretty special from McCarthy to get him onto this list and in fairness he delivered.
A new club record of eight successive defeats followed - and only one goal scored - dropping the club to 21st.
With Cardiff only a point above the drop zone, the 62-year-old left the club, with Steve Morison eventually filling his shoes.
McCarthy has since revealed he applied for the Sunderland role following Lee Johnson's departure but his call wasn't returned.

10. Dean Smith (Aston Villa and Norwich)

Pld: 35; Pts: 26; PPG: 0.74

Smith would actually have sneaked into the top 20 thanks to his record at Villa, which saw the West Midlands side pick up just 12 points from their first ten games.

However, a move to Norwich has cemented a top-ten finish for the 51-year-old with just four wins coming since he succeeded Daniel Farke.

Will no doubt be nowhere near the top 20 next season as Norwich romp to the Championship title.

9. Neil Cox (Scunthorpe)

Pld: 15; Pts: 11; PPG: 0.73

Cox was only in charge for 15 League Two matches this season but, according to Transfermarkt used six different formations. Clearly his tactical fluidity was too much for that of his Scunthorpe players who won just two of those games.
Nevertheless, despite leaving the Iron bottom of the table and unsure where to stand at kick-offs, the former Aston Villa defender boasts a far superior record to that of his successor, who we will come to in time.

8. Poya Asbaghi (Barnsley)

Pld: 26; Pts: 19; PPG: 0.73

After stepping into the Oakwell hotseat in November, Asbaghi had to wait until February to taste his first win in charge - a run of 13 games. Bottom of the Championship, the Tykes briefly flickered into life, with that victory over QPR one of four in eight games.
However, it proved a false dawn and Asbaghi was sacked after defeat to Huddersfield confirmed Barnsley's relegation.

7. Darren Ferguson (Peterborough)

Pld: 32; Pts: 21; PPG: 0.66

Ferguson's third spell at Peterborough went very much the way of his first two, with Sir Alex's son doing well to get the Posh into the Championship only to struggle to keep them there.

However, while his first two stints at London Road were finished by mutual consent, his third appointment ended in resignation following a 1-0 defeat to Derby which left the club five points adrift of safety.

"We all wish the Gaffer and his wonderful family nothing but the best for the future," read a statement from the club who are keeping relations cordial in advance of Ferguson returning for the 2024/25 campaign.

6. David Artell (Crewe)

Pld: 42; Pts: 25; PPG: 0.6

Artell boasts the most number of games of our 20 worst-performing managers, with Crewe sticking with him until relegation from League One was confirmed.
A run of 14 defeats from 15 games sealed the Alex's fate, with a 2-0 loss to Doncaster consigning them to League Two. Defiantly predicting an instant return and vowing to stay until "somebody tells me otherwise", he duly met somebody two days later.

5. Roy Hodgson (Watford)

Pld: 16: Pts: 9; PPG: 0.56

Hodgson took the reins at Watford in January in perhaps the only ever instance of a 70-year-old manager being replaced by someone older than him.

The former Palace boss immediately made the Hornets harder to score against, with the Watford netting bulging just three times in his opening four games.

A 0-0 draw against Manchester United looked like it could be the launchpad to a safety but in solidifying things at the back, Hodgson had also curbed his side's attacking instincts. They scored just twice in his opening six games and although two goals did come in their next match, the 3-2 defeat to Arsenal kicked off a run of eight defeats in ten - and the inevitable relegation.

With games against Leicester and Chelsea still to come, expect Hodgson to be even higher up our list come the season-end.

4. Claudio Ranieri (Watford)

Pld: 13; Pts: 7; PPG: 0.54
You knew how it would end but for a few fleeting autumn moments we got to dream again as the Hornets stuck five past Everton and three games later hit four against Manchester United.
Of course, that's not such a rare occurrence nowadays, with even goal-shy Brighton achieving it, but at the time, with Watford up to 14th it was 2015/16 all over again.
Sadly, it couldn't last, as the Hornets lost seven of their next eight, leaving the overworked Vicarage Road personnel department to sort out yet another P45.

3. Markus Schopp (Barnsley)

Pld: 15; Pts: 8; PPG: 0.53

Faced with the difficult task of replacing Valerien Ismael at Oakwell, Schopp - Barnsley's third managerial hire from the Austrian Bundesliga - went on to make his predecessor look like a miracle worker.

Schopp oversaw just one win in 15, including a run of seven straight defeats, as the 2020/21 play-off semi-finalists slumped to 23rd in the Championship.

The South Yorkshire side managed just ten goals with Schopp at the helm.
"It is a pity that our hard work was not reflected in the results," he lamented.

2. Keith Hill (Scunthorpe)

Pld: 31; Pts: 15; PPG: 0.48

Until Saturday, Hill's was only public enemy number one in Scunthorpe. Now you can add Northampton to the list.
An Iron side featuring seven teenagers were hammered 7-0 by Bristol Rovers on the final day of the League Two campaign to deny Northampton promotion on goals scored.
The Cobblers believe Scunthorpe 'compromised the integrity of the league' by fielding a number of young, inexperienced stars.

However, to be fair to the youngsters, Hill had been unable to get performances from his more senior players either, winning just two of his 31 games at the helm.

Relegation was "100% not his fault," according to Hill who then drifted off into accidental Partridge while pointing the finger at the players he inherited.
"The first P of professionalism is punctuality. Proper practice. Pride. You don't take shortcuts. If you take shortcuts you fail."
Back of the net.

1. Daniel Farke (Norwich)

Pld: 11; Pts: 5; PPG: 0.45

"We feel that now is the right time for a change to give ourselves the best opportunity of retaining our Premier League status."

So said Norwich City sporting director Stuart Webber following the sacking of Daniel Farke.

It had been expected for weeks. However, it wasn't the 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea that proved the final straw. Or the 2-1 home defeat at the hands of fellow strugglers Leeds. No, it was the 2-1 win over Brentford - the Canaries' first victory in 11 attempts - which proved the undoing of the German.

Heavily linked with the Blackburn Rovers job, he'd be wise to target a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful promotion bid if he wants to avoid reappearing at the top of this list in 2023/24.

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