Just because it ended well, it wasn’t Fradi’s group stage

Ferencváros finished this year's Europa League with great success on Thursday night. However, they probably know well on Üllői út that if Bayer Leverkusen were to play with its key players and was necessary to win on Thursday, even a draw would've been difficult, let alone a 1–0 success.

It is worth learning the lessons of the series quickly because the present and the Europa League appearance from two years ago differed not only in the number of points earned and prestige but also in Ferencváros' playing style.

The previous appearance would've been worth a SEQUEL this year

It would be self-delusion to say that the current group opponents were much stronger than the ones two years ago. There is no doubt that Bayer Leverkusen, Betis and Celtic are strong teams at the European level, but the trio of Espanyol, CSKA Moscow and Ludogorets could not be overlooked either. However, Peter Stöger often said (you can read about this in the head coach's evaluation) that they were in a group too strong...

We think the biggest difference was in Ferencváros' style.

While under Serhiy Rebrov Ferencváros earned seven points (four against CSKA, two against Espanyol and one against Ludogorets), the team now finished with three points collected in the final round. This difference is mainly due to the style of the team, therefore, indirectly linked to the person of the head coach. We are not saying that Peter Stöger is a bad coach, as the Austrian coach also knows his profession well. However, while Serhiy Rebrov assessed what the Hungarian champions' squad was enough for, what it could achieve, his successor stuck to his ideas and tried to achieve football with a (somewhat) more attacking spirit.

To his loss!

Under Rebrov, who has since left for the United Arab Emirates, Fradi lost in a single (!) match, but now, the Hungarian champions were without points five out of six times. Let's remember that the team finished third in the group with seven points at the time. With that performance, FTC would be in European Conference League now...

The two head coaches have different football philosophy

Of course, Peter Stöger is right that, at this level, compared to the opponents in the European group stage, the Ferencváros squad is lacking the quality to be an equal partner for rivals. Let's remember that his predecessor complained several times that he did not have footballers with international experience – yet Ferencváros collected seven points. It cannot even be said that Fradi's lineup has been completely transformed and significantly weakened. Although the separation from Ihor Kharatin, who left for Poland, has greatly affected the team, variations have increased with Ryan Mmaee. Overall, the team from two years ago did not represent a better quality, yet it has collected more than twice as many points in the Europa League as the current one.

And this is clearly due to the difference in perception between the two head coaches.

Statistics also showed that while Stöger was looking for a more open, risk-taking football with Fradi, Serhiy Rebrov was more into pragmatic football. Nothing proves this better than that in the group stage two years ago, the team conceded a goal twice only, while this year, apart from the last game against Leverkusen, the opponents of Ferencváros scored at least two goals.

And without conceding the goals, the team minimized its chances of earning points earlier in the group stages. The lack of concentration in front of the opponent's goal was also evident, as in 2019, the Hungarian champion was much more effective with fewer opportunities. This was mainly due to Serhiy Rebrov's peculiar vision.

The trainer, who now works as a head coach at Al Ain in the UAE, during his time in Hungary, spoke about football being a unity of tasks for him. It is a twenty-two-element game that can be divided into two eleven-person systems, operates in a specific area (on the pitch) and its processes are influenced by certain restrictions (the rules of football). The Ukrainian head coach analyzed the movement of the players in their own positions and, if necessary, he explained to them in training a thousand times why they should be placed there in a given situation, and not five centimeters away from it. This is not to say that Peter Stöger and his staff did not place sufficient emphasis on the analysis of the game, but to see how different the perceptions and philosophy of football are between the two head coaches.

The players' performance fell short of expectations

However, the current underperformance was not only up to the head coaches, but also each and every player's performance was far below that of two years ago. Enough to just mention Tokmac Nguen, who was also replaced against Bayer Leverkusen. The Norwegian winger has not scored a single goal this season, but his game has been qualitatively below his (previous) standard. But in this group stage, it's not just the attackers who didn't show a great performance... Dénes Dibusz should be highlighted again. The goalkeeper was the best on the pitch in Thursday's final round, as he was several times in the group stage. In addition to him, three other players – Myrto Uzuni, Bálint Vécsei and Aïssa Laïdouni – performed reasonably well, while the others were more subdued, with far more individual errors than usual.

Ferencváros can be proud of reaching the group stage, but not so much of the performance. Of course, let's be realistic, we wish we could cheer for the Hungarian champions in the main draw of one of the European Cups next season...