Tunisia appear to have taken decisive action following their World Cup defeat to Sweden and are set to appoint a manager with tournament pedigree. Herve Renard is reportedly set to become the new coach of the Tunisian national team, despite the side deleting a post confirming the sacking of Sabri Lamouchi.
Lamouchi Sacked After Heavy Defeat
Tunisia have been widely reported to have parted ways with Lamouchi after a disastrous 5-1 defeat to Sweden in their opening World Cup match. The nation are now planning to turn to former Saudi Arabia boss Renard, who helped mastermind the Middle East team's famous win over Argentina at the 2022 World Cup, according to beIN. It remains to be seen when the Tunisian Football Federation will confirm their actions.
On Monday, they posted a statement on ex-Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City head coach Lamouchi's departure before appearing to backtrack. On Instagram, they said in Arabic: "An agreement has been officially reached to dismiss coach Sabri Lamouchi. Plans are underway to appoint Mondher Kebaier as the national team coach (on an interim basis) to complete the World Cup qualifying matches."
Formal terms over the exit seemingly were not reached, but plans appear to have changed with Renard reportedly being lined up to take charge of Tunisia. The 57-year-old Frenchman has extensive experience in international football.
Renard's Coaching Pedigree
Renard was sacked by Saudi Arabia ahead of this summer's World Cup but has led the team twice, in addition to spells with France women, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Zambia and Angola. He has won the Africa Cup of Nations twice. The veteran coach has also seen time in charge of Cambridge United, Sochaux and Lille. Renard first served at Cambridge under Claude Le Roy as a coach before taking the manager's role for a brief spell.
Lamouchi's Brief Tenure
Lamouchi, 54, was only appointed as Tunisia boss in January following the side's last-16 exit in the Africa Cup of Nations. He has only recorded one win in charge of the nation since being appointed. "It's a difficult loss. It's painful," Lamouchi said after the defeat to Sweden. "Starting the competition with this bad of a loss is indeed difficult. With world-class players that we have in the two Swedish forwards (Gyokeres and Isak), it's something that you don't recover from. We made way too many mistakes. We have our pride. We need to react. We need to give a better image."
Only three managers have ever been sacked during a World Cup. Carlos Alberto Parreira from Saudi Arabia, Cha Bum-kun from South Korea and Henryk Kasperczak from Tunisia were all handed their marching orders after two games of the 1998 World Cup.
