Look who’s talking…

Doncaster Rovers’ manager Sean O’Driscoll, has criticized the style of most of the teams in Coca Cola Championship explaining it as too much “functional”, that is, saying it is only based on the result. Anyway, during his working days, this former Bournemouth manager and a very peaceful and quiet person (his ironic nickname is “Noisy”) has always insisted on passing style and his teams have always had fine technical skills.

He even added that most of the Coca Cola Championship managers had the wrong tactics and that most of them could try adopting his ways. O’Driscol also complains about how it is very difficult to play clean football these days, because, there it is , your opponents “murder” you from set-pieces, when you least expect it. And although your team has a bigger percentage of ball possession and more beautiful performance, it is enough for your players to “switch off” for just a second and you would concede a crucial goal that would decide the entire game. Famous Noisy continues that rivals keep “ripping off” points from Doncaster week in and week out, and that they often use some methods that are anti-football in order to achieve their goal.

O Driscoll

Well, Mr. O’Driscoll, I must say something to you: until your team gets on the top of Coca Cola Championship standings (or at least gets to the upper half), until your boys score more than pitiful 10 goals in 22 rounds, and until you manage to notch up more than ONE win in a row, until you beat someone with more than piteous 1-0, only them will you be completely qualified to give statements like these.

Until it happens, you should do your best to learn something from some more experienced and better managers than yourself. Maybe they could teach you how to make good results with your team. Yes, you did eliminate the great Leeds United in the League One play-off finals last season and got your deserved promotion to Championship, but it seems your insights into the game of football are not reasonable and they don’t bring results in the fierce competition full of strong and experienced managers most of whom have a huge Premiership experience behind them. It was easy for you to promote your philosophy in Bournemouth, but you should face it, your work lacks the essence of making success in strong leagues. That essence is called CONSISTENCY.

In order to achieve it, you need to make your players be constantly focused, always alert and ready, make them use the smallest of the opportunity to score and then to prevent conceding one. In a fierce and highly even competition such as the Championship, where most of the teams have players of similar qualities, only the ones who could make their players get their minds on the next round only, to enter the each game as if it were the last, as if the each next game were the FA Cup finals, only those managers will be ready to make success.

Until then Mr. Noisy, learn from the best. It is possible to make the passing style work fine and bring success, and the right example for that is Roberto Martinez and his  Swansea City, but we will see if it will last long. Swansea are starting to slow down the pace and it is a huge question if Martinez’s tactics (similar to O’Driscoll’s) would survive the enduring 46 rounds in the long season.

Tony Mowbray

There is also another good example and that was West Bromwich Albion and their last season’s campaign. Their manager Tony Mowbray had the passing style players last year (Johnatan Greening, Zoltan Gera, Robert Koren, James Morrison…), but it just can’t start off this season in the Premier League, since they are left without several fine last year’s midfielders who are either injured or went to some new surroundings.

So, you can reach success using the “technical” style, but you need to have players to do so. And Doncater Rovers, with all due respect to their players, are not the players for O’Driscoll’s tactics and for a competition such as the Championship, and that’s where we must look for the reasons of their failure.

Once again, please, stop talking rubbish, result is what matters….

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