Liverpool fans today are scratching their heads at the news of the appointment of assistant manager to Brendan Rodgers, after being linked with men such as the experience of top flight football such as Sami Hyypia, Pako Ayesteran and Rene Meulensteen, and Rodgers admitting he needed some experience alongside him for the hard road ahead, Liverpool have selected 57 year old Sean O’Driscoll, who is the current England under 19 manager.
Who? Sean O’Driscoll people, he has managed at Bournemouth, Doncaster Rovers, Crawley Town and Nottingham Forest with limited success. Has never managed at top flight or coached at top flight. As a player he played for Eire a few times, Fulham and Bournemouth, so has experience of lower level management, is that what we need/want?.
As a player O’Driscoll had the nickname of “Noisy”, Harry Redknapp has elaborated on this saying it was because he never said a word as a player, this worries me, but more about this later. He has a reputation as a manager and a coach for giving players the freedom to express themselves, he likes to play a passing game and liked players to be highly technical. Currently England under 19 team have been playing a 4-3-3 formation under his command, so the passing game and formation seems to fit into Rodgers own ethos of how the game should be played.
Rodgers himself is a fan of O’Driscoll, in 2013, Rodgers had this to say about his new right hand man:
Rodgers on O’Driscoll (October 2013):
“We need to stop blaming the players. The players get the blame in this country. No, it is the coaching. The problem is that the guys who are ’that type’ of coach you never hear of them really.
“Look at Sean O’Driscoll. He is one of the best coaches I have ever come across. He is working at Bristol City. He has never had a chance in the top flight. His teams were expressive, had movement, they were technical, but he will probably never get a chance at a higher level.”
In my opinion I find this appointment very strange, it would be appear to be Rodgers who has requested this appointment, but surely there should be some loyalty to Colin Pascoe, his previous assistant at Swansea and Liverpool, he worked alongside Rodgers since 2010. Rodgers clearly thought Pascoe was good enough at Swansea, and indeed brought him across to Liverpool, so has something happened behind the scenes? Managers and assistant normally travel as a two, Glenn Hoddle and John Gorman, Sam Allardyce and Phil Brown (until Brown was offered a managers job), Harry Redknapp and Joe Jordan, list goes on and on, would not seen any of those when things go wrong discarding their assistant and remaining at the club as manager.
In my opinion, Rodgers has this ideology of how he wants his teams to play, and this is to be applauded, however, you have to adapt your approach at times, and adapt your formations to the players you have at your disposal, and this for me, is where Rodgers struggles. We are not Barcelona we cannot pass teams to death especially against the very best.
I hope O’Driscoll does a great job and he deserves some time to immerse himself in the club and get to know my players, my fear is that Rodgers wanted a highly technical coach to play the way he wants the game to be played, but not a coach who is to big a name to potentially undermine him, O’Driscoll by his own personality does not like the limelight and not one to come out and speak to the media, so a concern is if this is his nature will “noisy” say something to Rodgers if there are things he does not agree with? Only time will tell.
One thing I do know, after their activity in the transfer market to date and now a new appointment which Rodgers had a big say in, then if another disappointing season occurs, then who is to blame then?
Craig Muncey
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