Cotterrill has got the best from me at Bristol City, says Greg Cunningham.. Bristol City left-back Greg Cunningham believes he is playing his best football of the season â thanks to new manager Steve Cotterill. Cotterill has brought all of his man management and motivational skills to bear on a parlous situation to inspire a turnaround in fortunes that has seen the Robins take seven points from three games to move off the foot of the table. City are 22nd after yesterday's games having been without a match because the Leyton Orient fixture was called off. Cunningham is probably playing the best football since arriving at Ashton Gate from Manchester City 18 months ago. But then the Irishman was already a convert to the Cotterill way of doing things, having worked under the 49-year-old while on loan at Nottingham Forest two seasons earlier. He revealed: "All managers are different and I worked with Steve before when he was in charge of Nottingham Forest. He took me there on loan for a season and I loved working under him. "It's hard to put a finger on it, but there is a lot more confidence and belief around the place since he came in. In the last couple of games, I feel I've played my best football of the season. That is because the manager has filled me with confidence and belief, which has helped. "Things have not gone too well over the past year and we struggled last season. "But Steve has come in and given the players a bit of belief. Different things motivate different players. Sometimes I need an arm around the shoulder and sometimes I need a kick up the backside. For me, it was the latter. He has come in and given me that and I'd like to repay him by keeping my performance levels as high as possible. "He is a very good man manager and motivator and he has got the lads playing well." Encouraged by back-to-back home wins over Walsall and Stevenage, Cunningham and his team-mates believe they are capable of extending their unbeaten run to four matches when they host Watford in the FA Cup third round at Ashton Gate on Saturday. He added: "We won't be going into the game with any fear. "When you go three games unbeaten, you are always going to feel more confident. We now have to keep that going." Deployed as a left wing-back in recent games, Cunningham is revelling in his new role and scored only his second career goal to help defeat Stevenage 4-1 at the weekend. He added: "The change to 3-5-2 has helped the lads and, so far, things have gone well. The wing-back role means going from box-to-box and, when I'm not defending, I like to try and get in on the back post and notch a goal or two to help the team." Read more: http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/...tory-20390228-detail/story.html#ixzz2pEP5LSWZ
I'll say again that the managers personality is as important as his shoe size. What we see and hear is a fraction of the interaction that the players had with him, and many of our players were happy to praise him when he first joined us. This is a fluff piece, pure and simple. That being said, SC is clearly a man manager above anything else, and I reckon it's the kind of management needed at this level. SOD's tactics were sound, but they do not translate to League 1. You can't play like Barcelona in the third tier. SOD would have been a good appointment if we were a mid-table team in the Championship, but we've been a League 1 quality team for a while now. In the future, I can definitely see Greg Cunningham making the transition up to being a left-sided midfielder. Going forward, he seems very solid, and the 3-5-2 suits him to a tee. If we ever go 4-5-1 I'd love to see him pushed into a winger role, just to see how he'd cope.
