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O'Driscoll Answers Critics (Well Some)


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Great article on www.bcfc.co.uk

I think he's well aware what 'fans' have been saying.

http://mobile.bcfc.co.uk/news/article/20130402-sodeasterreflections-748421.aspx?pd=635004991180000000

I've just read it and I feel much better... he certainly knows what he's talking about.

Sorry I on the mobile so cant paste the article into this thread.

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Absolutely brilliant reading, I get the impression that he's been on here considering he's answered most if not all of the grips we've seen.

Anyone who has the time to post moan after moan on this forum should take 5 minutes to read that article and actually take in what he says. If you're still negative about it all then the spiral towards to suspension bridge might be an inevitability.

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An interesting report by SOD but I find it difficult to agree with his view that position in the League is not important. Like all of us, I enjoy a good competion between two teams but, at the end of the day, the idea is to win the overall competition . Not just the single match.

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An interesting report by SOD but I find it difficult to agree with his view that position in the League is not important. Like all of us, I enjoy a good competion between two teams but, at the end of the day, the idea is to win the overall competition . Not just the single match.

You're missing his point entirely.

The focus is on winning every game, what does the table have to do with that? As he says, would we be doing anything different if we looked at the table that would make it more likely we would win? why aren't we doing that already?

O'Driscoll is completely right, the table is irrelevant in that he is already doing all he can to win the game, regardless of position we would still be doing the same things as it is the way he wants us to play. in that regard looking at the table is pointless. Win every game and the 'competition' looks after itself.

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Like some of the previous posts in this thread, I'm pleased he has finally acknowledged how fans might be viewing our current situation. I completely understand that he only wants to focus on the things he can control, but he needs to be aware that as the lifeblood of the club, us fans will listen very closely to what he says to try and gain some hope & positivity for the future. I think in this piece he finally acknowledges that. I was beginning to wonder before he did this piece whether he actually gave a sh*te about us at all. Glad he does.

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i really hope he is the man to take us forward and behind close doors he has told the players to man up,i hope when this is all done and dusted that he does say what he really thinks of some of the players . i thought del was the right choice as well :(

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More or less confirms what I said yesterday, we play long ball because we haven't the players to play possession football centrally, better to play/lose the ball in their half than ours.

SOD will be good for us long term, he realises the current bunch are poor in possession and will sort that area in the summer.

He also recognises where GJ went wrong after the pray off final defeat, instead on tinkering a little, GJ went for broke and changed our style of play/typo eof player we signed.

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An interesting report by SOD but I find it difficult to agree with his view that position in the League is not important. Like all of us, I enjoy a good competion between two teams but, at the end of the day, the idea is to win the overall competition . Not just the single match.

SOD explicitly states in that article that he wants to win every game - "if you don't think you can win every game what's the point?".

Winning games equals a better league position. Don't look at the league table, look at establishing the level of performance that will win us matches, and then by winning matches the league table takes care of itself.

Think about it. Improving league position is dictated by consistently winning games, which is dictated by a consistent level of performance and playing the right way. That is what he is trying to build. It's cause and effect - you play well, you usually win, your league position improves. If we don't have our own identity and way of playing, we'll never achieve that consistency. THAT is what he is trying to instil. It will take time and our league position is indicative of the last 40 games, over half of which we were a rudderless shambles with no pattern of play and no identity.

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Yes fair play to him he's read whats been said on here and responded to it. I dont think he's been overly criticised - how unfair would that be - but certainly questioned, and he's tried to answer the questions.

Interesting subtle reference to the support at Derby - which was superb for 80 minutes and then the last 10, fans not on the players backs, but in a way worse, taking the piss out of them and the performance.

Overall, I think SOD is a little too deep.

Somewhere he says something like, "its not very helpful to win with a sizzling gung-ho performance if you dont understand what you did well, because how will you know how to repeat it". Is football really that complicated?

Nevertheless, he's here and while I wouldnt see SOD making us successful in the Championship, he does have a track record in Division 3 which is where we are headed, so in that respect you have to say it was a brilliant appointment by the board.

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I realise that he has been with us only a relatively short time but I would have felt better about him had he not written in the way he has.

As I stated earlier, I find the article defensive and self serving.

No one would be more pleased than me, if I am proved to be wrong.

Time will tell.

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Very wise, level-headed article by SO'D. I for one feel a lot happier having him as head coach whatever division we are in next season.

If he can rebuild the confidence and self-belief and get some new talent in - which is clearly part of the plan, reading between the lines - then we will do well next season.

More power to him. I don't think we could have a better coach at this level.

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I am pleased that he communicates with us, and speaks to us as adults with some intelligence . We all want our team to win every match, score lots of goals, keep clean sheets. So does every football fan, but the majority of clubs over the course of a season end up being disappointed in some way. I like his approach about putting round pegs in round holes. Yes get the basics right, keep it simple.

What ever division we end up in next season I am sure I will be very disappointed after some match's But with SOD in charge and all the things going on behind the scenes I feel, as someone once said "Things can only get better."

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I'm highly impressed with SO'D and he's definitely the right appointment to take us forward over the long-term regardless of survival or relegation. I hope the board give him the support and confidence to build an attractive winning team in his mould.

That said, I don't think his stubborn comments about not looking at the league table or being unaware of the points position make sense when we are in this predicament at the business end of the season. Surely, for example, detailed knowledge of the position enables him to set-up appropriately for away fixtures. We have to win matches home and away now rather than set up and make ourselves hard to beat way and get a draw or nick a win against the run of play. So yes, knowing the league table does mean you might do something different now in comparison to how we have set up to play away during his time here.

Just as he needs to know the score in any one match to plan his substitutions and tactics he also needs to know the league table 'score' to choose a starting 11 that is fit for away wins rather than picking draws.

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Also, if you follow SO'D's logic that says it's performance that matters and that points and position shouldn't interfere then there is also an argument for shutting out the away factor. Why should that make a difference either if players are prepared by a sports psychologist. I know that the momentum given by fans does make a difference but I'm just following the logical conclusions of SO'D's thinking. Still, a minor issue and the key thing if we go down will be if he can spot players and bring on the academy within budget just like, as he pointed out, Derby have done. I think he can and he is a good fit for City.

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To be brutely honest, I found his article defensive and self serving.

To be brutally honest, I found that article a fantastic insight into a guy who until he joined us, I thought was overrated, very much so. I was wrong he is one of if not the most thoughtfull managers outside the premier league and I'm amazed that we have him.

You on the other hand I find very short sighted and about as iritating as I find most of the City fans who seem to have a gripe with somthing city related. Even some turning on a man who had pumped millions a year into the club for almost 10 years now.

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Nothing there that we haven't heard or read before, but confirms that O'Driscoll's focus is exactly where McInnes's wasn't - the coaching, getting the basics right.

Despite the negative ninnies on here, I have agree with Sean's assesment that "No one can surely argue we hadn’t been on top before and after the Wednesday opener?"

It was at Derby where he correctly said heads dropped and the gravity of our situation clearly affected the players' performances.

Generally speaking, we have always been going for it for 90+ minutes, even in matches we've lost.

With a whole season of match-by-match focus by O'Driscoll and O'Kelly, the coaching improvement, the promising academy youngsters (and playing in a league where we aren't trying to deal with more than half our competitors having parachute payments) I expect to start to see the real fruits of this approach.

People may well be looking enviously from other clubs at "the Bristol City system".

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interesting points made about GJ team. he says that team worked because it was a group of talented individuals working well as a unit

i respect his opinion, but what i saw was largely average players who worked hard for eachother. i'm not sure if that was a group of individually talented players. we had a solid defence and midfield, noble or russell pulling the strings and a spirit which meant we didn't give up and scored a number of late goals

a lot of the players (some of whom are still here) are league one standard in terms of technical ability, but back then had the work rate and the spirit which is now missing in them, that's something GJ cultivated in my opinion

i also find his observation that we were a team good in posession when he arrived somewhat dubious - no midfield comprising elliott and skuse has ever been good in posession, frankly

quite enlightening stuff and a positive read though for sure

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Since that goal went in at Wembley in the play-off final, the story at BCFC has been of slow, steady, tedious decline, with the occasional brief hiccup of promise before the decline set in again. After GJ, O'Driscoll is the 3rd attempt at stopping this decline. It looks like he will not succeed and the slide down the table continues, drops over the dam and will probably come to rest in the 3rd tier of football. Forget all the stuff about a new stadium, a revamped old stadium, a new manager, a new chairman of the board, a tie up with Bristol Rugby blah, blah, blah. And i'm sorry Sean we don't need a new philosophy about performance versus results, whether to worry about where we are in the table, organisation is the most important thing, blah, blah blah. Football is simply not that complicated, though it is in the interest of highly paid players and managers to make it seem so. What we need are a TEAM of reasonably talented and totally committed professional players, a manager who recognises a good player when he sees one, is tactically savvy, a good man-manager and motivator and is capable of running a silk purse factory as part of a rather impoverished pig farm. Good Luck Sean and KEEP IT SIMPLE!

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