In all fairness to Cotterill he had to deal in the 'here and now' not the future, it was plainly obvious that we needed experienced heads in and a nasty leader type at the back, El Abd fitted the bill perfectly, (Who wouldn't have wanted to sign him after reading the brighton fans glowing recommendations ?) He has done the immediate job requested of him, our future direction remains to be seen. An immediate dilemma We now face is Jet, he was a passenger in midfield on Friday but most sides trying to play without a 3 in midfield get overran, you get the odd 4-4-2 in league one and below, i noticed a lot of criticism of Pack from Friday but with Jet in 'go slow' mode its like playing with 10 men, but as we all know when he's on it, he's sublime.. I don't even know what I would choose myself, so I will spare a thought for SC for now.
Sean O'driscoll followed the strategy set out by City not himself. He also had to follow strict spending guidelines set out by City. Steve Cotterill ditched that strategy as part of taking the job, and has not had to follow the same guidelines on finance. What SOD had to follow got chucked out the window. SC worries me longer term as I sense he doesn't buy-in to the concept of bringing through young talent. Yes. Bryan did well and got dropped, Elliott was allowed to play into form, El Abd can be dreadful and play and even come on when City are losing v Burns. I have a picture of a team in mind under Cotterill and its not a forward thinking one.
We have to face the fact that City up until SC arrived was a club in turmoil..and each manager was given "the brief" applicable to the fad of the board at that moment. At some point in time the team would click and we win a few, should there have been a change before Christmas when after picking up 9 points from 18 following 3 points from the previous 18 ! Each manager seems to have been used to "do something" but suffered at the cold feet of the board! SC right place at right time...... 25 games 10 wins 8 draws 7 losses 38 points (1.52 ) goals for 40 (1.6 ) against (1.36 ) ( SOD 18 games 2 wins 9 draws 7 losses 15 points (.84 points ) goals for 26 (1.45) against 31 (1.73 ) WE MANAGED SO FAR TO DRAW 39% OF OUR GAMES that's a loss of 34 points, Season start target = = = aim to win 15 draw 16 lose 15 would have been 61 points so not far off being an average team!
Five losses and playing like dogs is turmoil. When Steve Cotterill arrived the team in its last five had one defeat, two draws and two wins I think. Right about fads. SOD got ditched for sticking to their fad like a dog with a wet nose to a window.
One thing the fans must realise SOD was shafted big time,and was made the scapegoat when it did not work. My opinion was,and is he was given a brief to follow,cut cut cut and still do the business. The fact is it did not work out he was put out to hang. SC was given a release of the purse strings and it worked out.
How come you can see this for SOD but exactly the same thing happened to Mckinnes but you were blind to that? SOD was awful, worst manager we have had.!
SOD relegated us from the Championship and there isn't a manager worth his salt who would have tried to allow our survival, he did nothing, he is just a miserable failure. Don't let any body believe that the board told him to take us down, he had no idea and we would be heading for the 4th level if he had of stayed, good riddance, christ Millen had more personality and he was as flat as a witches tit.
Others are right you need to move on and get over it. Head coaches are now managers and allowed to blow money on has beens and big squad numbers again.
One thing you can say about Mr SOD is his teams were organised. At the end Derek McCinnes side couldn't keep any shape and even marking at corners had gone. Teams were scoring three and fours in one half.
You call some of the defending I watched at the beginning of this season and the end of last "organised"..?? Well I for one am glad he didn't continue to 'organise' us in the fourth tier, cos thats what was gonna happen.!
Yes getting set out in a shape and generally maintaining it is organised. When SOD get the boot the team was at the point where it did not score two and end up with nada. Individual errors are just that not the team shape or due to lack of training which was the case unless players squabbling on the pitch about who picks up who is part of drills in training. On the teams form last five the team wasn't going down even looked good at times. Gone now. Hope Cotterill doesn't go down the Cotterball route the signs are appearing.
I like that one. I like it so much I will answer. They were passing through. Passing through in the era which allowed a quota of over 30 flotsam and jetsam known as the Pillars!â Both in the end lacked the consistency of El Abh who is a building block of the WAY: Left foot ⦠Rubbish. Right foot ⦠Rubbish. Heading ⦠Rubbish. Pointing ⦠Second rate v Kilkenny. Shouting ⦠Rubbish whatever it was it frightened poor Flint and he got bombed out instead. Cheating and whining ⦠Rubbish gets booked /sent off. Winding up ⦠Rubbish winds himself up and booked / sent off. Girly niggling fouls ⦠Rubbish. If he pulled somebodies hair El Abh would get BOTH hands stuck and end up towed down the pitch in front of the ref. AND it is here for YEARS
Let's give the guy a chance. He's played for one club all his life and has now had to uproot his family etc - players are human beings and this kind of thing can affect them Maybe he just needs time to settle
Haven't seen much longball since SC'S arrived, infact SODS team had much more of a direct play then SC'S.
Mistakes v Swindon and Port Vale could not be called organised defending as no coach instructs any player to do that. I went to a talk held by Brian Ashton who made reference to all team sports, and his view is despite being relentlessly trained the very best make calamitous errors of judgement. Citys players are average. Players of all kinds are big kids who need telling over and over again. Over all Mr O'driscolls team were very organised. It was clear Mr O'driscolls team were being constantly drilled. Possibly organisation was on the side of overt where players would play through two thirds, but not commit to the last stage leaving forwards in isolation.
He should stop the snidey stuff. No need for it anymore, anywhere and a weak link players and teams will exploit.
