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With 2018 almost over, it’s time to take a look back at the year in the football world, and what an eventful year it was. 2017/18 was a tremendous season for clubs with some classic games in the Premier League, LaLiga and the UEFA Champions League; the summer saw a phenomenal World Cup in Russia, and the autumn saw the exciting beginning of 2018/19 as well as the inaugural phase of the UEFA Nations League.
Despite some excellent action up and down the year, some teams have managed to let their fans down hugely, and while all of these teams might rebuild themselves in 2019, it’ll be hard for them to look back at 2018 as anything but a disappointment.
Here is a look at 4 teams who were big letdowns in 2018.
#4: Chelsea
Chelsea came into 2017/18 as defending Premier League champions, and despite everyone knowing that it’s become hard to defend that title these days, Antonio Conte’s Blues started the season pretty brightly. By the turn of the year, they sat in 3rd place in the Premier League and had only lost 4 games and drawn 3.
Then 2018 came along and well, it’s almost tricky to work out exactly what went wrong. They lost in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup to London rivals Arsenal, and Barcelona easily swatted them aside in the Champions League, winning 4-1 on aggregate after a comfortable 3-0 victory in the second leg in the Nou Camp.
The Premier League meanwhile saw them win just 7 of their final 17 games, and they were beaten on 6 occasions, including embarrassing losses to Bournemouth, Watford and Newcastle. It appeared that Conte had lost the dressing room completely and when he was fired in July despite winning the FA Cup in probably the one positive of the season, it came as a relief.
The Blues have since improved under new boss Maurizio Sarri during the first half of 2018/19, but issues still remain; they’re still struggling to identify a reliable striker, they still lean on the talents of Eden Hazard too much, and while their league form has been solid, recent losses to Tottenham, Wolves and Leicester have brought Sarri’s tactics and choice of personnel into question.
Overall, 2018 has been a year to forget for Chelsea fans.
#3: Spain
Spain went into the summer’s World Cup with high hopes after qualifying comfortably with 9 wins and 1 draw, including a victory over Italy. But despite many analysts considering them one of the favourites to win the tournament, it’s hard to look back on their time in Russia as anything other than an absolute disaster.
Manager Julen Lopetegui was fired on the eve of the tournament after it was revealed that he’d be leaving to manage Real Madrid after the World Cup was over, and Spain legend Fernando Hierro was quickly parachuted in to replace him.
Spain’s first game was a barnburner – a 3-3 draw against Portugal that was considered as one of the best of the tournament –but that was about as good as it got for the 2010 winners. They stuttered to a dull 1-0 win over Iran in their next group game, and then relied on a last-minute equaliser to secure a draw with Morocco in their third fixture.
In the round of 16, faced with hosts Russia, Spain bossed proceedings with 79% possession, but they just couldn’t do enough with it – passing for the sake of it – and ended up losing a penalty shoot-out in a massive upset. Unsurprisingly, Hierro then resigned.
If Spanish fans thought things would get better in the autumn, they were sorely mistaken. Former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique seemed to have righted the ship with UEFA Nations League wins over England and Croatia, but losses to both sides in the return fixtures – including a devastating 2-3 loss to England in Seville – meant they were only able to finish second in their group, missing out on 2019’s finals in Portugal.
Overall, 2018 was a poor year for Spain, with the World Cup disaster suggesting major changes need to be made for them to succeed again as they did a decade ago.
#2: Manchester United
On the face of it, 2017/18 looked like a relatively decent season for Manchester United; they finished second in the Premier League, their best placing since the departure of Alex Ferguson in 2013, but in reality, Jose Mourinho’s side hadn’t really clicked, and the second part of the season, in particular, was disappointing.
They lost in meek fashion to Sevilla in the Champions League round of 16, and in Premier League action, they suffered disappointing losses to Tottenham, Newcastle, Brighton and West Brom. Their FA Cup Final loss to Chelsea felt like the final insult, as despite their second-place Premier League finish, they finished 19 points behind their bitter rivals Manchester City, who claimed the title.
But if United fans had been slightly disappointed by 2017/18, the start of 2018/19 has been nothing short of a horror show for them. United currently sit in 6th place in the Premier League, but they’ve already lost 5 games, all of which took place at Old Trafford and were worryingly one-sided in the opposition’s favour.
Prior to the firing of manager Jose Mourinho this month, United’s dressing room morale also appeared to be at rock bottom, with key players like Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku apparently frozen out by the Portuguese boss.
Since the departure of ‘The Special One’, it appears that caretaker boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has righted the ship with a pair of wins, but it’ll still likely take a miracle for the Red Devils to make the Champions League again.
2018/19 isn’t a write-off by any means; United could still do well in the Champions League as they have qualified for the last 16, but overall 2018 as a calendar year has been nothing short of a disaster for the Red Devils.
#1: Germany
Perhaps no other side has disappointed in 2018 quite as badly as Germany. Die Mannschaft went into the 2018 World Cup as holders, having defeated Argentina for the famous trophy in Brazil 4 year ago, and they also went in as one of the heavy favourites, after winning the Confederations Cup with what many considered a second-string side in 2017.
Early 2018 had seen some worrying results for Joachim Low’s team – friendly losses to Brazil and Austria – but those games didn’t mean a lot and everyone figured the Germans would turn it on once the World Cup properly started. Except they simply didn’t, falling apart on the biggest stage like they’d never really done before.
A poor performance in their opening game saw them lose 1-0 to Mexico, and another disjointed showing against Sweden was only rescued when Toni Kroos struck with a remarkable 95th-minute free-kick winner. Most still expected Low’s team to come through the group stages, but instead, a shocking 2-0 loss to South Korea sent them home in the opening round for the first time in their history.
If German fans had expected their team to rebound during the inaugural UEFA Nations League, they were quickly proven wrong. Despite younger stars like Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabry being installed as new key players, Low’s side were shockingly relegated to League B after failing to win a game – losing to France and the Netherlands away and only drawing with both at home.
Considering the amazing depth of talent on offer to Low, the historical tendency to find success no matter the odds, and one competitive win in 7 matches in the calendar year, it’s pretty safe to say that no other team was as big of a letdown to its fans as Germany in 2018.
