Football: How Effective Will New Assistant Sean O'Driscoll Be For Liverpool?

O'Driscoll had managerial stints at Bournemouth, Doncaster Rovers,
Nottingham Forest, Bristol Rover and England Under 19's before
taking the Liverpool Assistant Manager job in the past few days.

Pako Ayestaran? Sami Hypia? Rene Meulensteen? In addition to Sami Hypia, previous head coach of Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool legend some big, big names in the coaching world were touted following the dismissal of Rodgers long time assistant, Colin Pascoe and ex-Liverpool player Mike Marsh. Ayesteran, Rafael Benitez's right hand man in the period he was at his very best. Meulensteen, pivotal to the way Manchester United played for many years toward the end of the noughties, a period in which United won multiple Premier League titles, a Champions League trophy, and many more. Simply put, the Christopher Nolan's of coaching - coaches who have gathered a huge reputation to go with their awards. 

So obviously when Brendan Rodgers instead picks up a man called Sean O'Driscoll from the England Under 19s job instead, a person can't help but feel a sense of anticlimax. Rodgers was said to need help, following a season in which Liverpool lacked in a variety of areas, from front to back; this is why Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh were let go. They are no longer seen as able assistants and so Rodgers was allowed to find another. And so Rodgers went back to the first coach he faced as a manager; one who has had a very mixed record in recent times. And so the prevailing question is of course, why? And the next question is how effective can he be? 

Well, not too long ago Sean O Driscoll wrote himself into Doncaster folklore. 

'Football is not about statistics no matter what the geeks on whoscored.com would have you believe. Football is about moments and Sean O’Driscoll gave us so many of those during his time at rovers but more than that he built an ethos and a philosophy that was the envy of the entire football league.'

A year after winning the football league trophy, Doncaster
squeaked past Leeds United 1-0 in the playoff final to
get to the championship, where they would stay for the next
three seasons. 

Or, to put it into stone cold fact, in his tenure Doncaster won the Football League Trophy, won promotion to the Championship (By beating Leeds 1-0 in the final) and kept Doncaster comfortably there for the next season and a half. A horrible run of form followed in 2011 that resulted in O'Driscoll losing his job; but his football is remembered; the football that included long passing moves reminiscent of the way braver european teams play, the football that had to paraphrase O'Driscoll, needed bollocks to play.

His philosophy is remembered and cherished especially by Rodgers himself, who called him one of the best coaches he had ever come across. But that of course has been talked about in length elsewhere. His win record has also been glanced at by the Metro, like a supermarket factory might look at a banana bent like an S before rejecting it, or like someone might reject a scruffy looking dog at a pet shop; in a superficial way without additional thought.

None-the-less, his managerial career since Doncaster and Bournemouth before that has not been

a successful one. He was quickly sacked as manager of Nottingham forest, despite being just a point off the top six; following that he had a disastrous stint as Bristol Rovers manager, whom were already bottom of the table when he joined; they were relegated to League One, where O'Driscoll was sacked after 11 games without a win. Where he was a hero at Doncaster, he was vilified in Bristol. 

Ferguson and Meulensteen were partners in crime for many of
Manchester United's more recent successful years.

But then, people with great coaching pedigree can and do fail when it comes to taking that final step; O'Driscoll's troubles with Bristol City are nothing new. Many footballing greats with immense visions have failed at management; Peter Taylor is one of the oldest examples of this. Rene Meulensteen took charge at Fulham following his departure from Manchester United, and went on to win four games in seventeen before being replaced; hardly a record befitting a man of such previous honours. Pako Ayestaran? Won a treble at Maccabi Tel Aviv, with a side that had already won the previous two championships. Good, but not a Champions League trophy, an FA cup or a double in La Liga with Valencia and Benitez. Management apparently, requires something slightly different. Alex Ferguson spoke highly of delegation following his retirement  'I delegated the training to him, and it was the best thing I ever did.' He said in the following season. 'It didn’t take away my control. My presence and ability to supervise were always there, and what you can pick up by watching is incredibly valuable.'

Maybe this is the kind of hands off approach that 'coaches' like Meulensteen, O'Driscoll and Taylor didn't take on. It is an odd thing to not pour your time into a thing you are obsessed with, and instead take a step back from it; the idea is like the idea of Van Gogh letting an art student take over the painting of his great works mid way through. But in Ferguson's case the results speak for themselves. 

So then there is a very limited amount to actually take from O'Driscolls management career, aside from ideas of style and a recommendation from the manager who has just hired him. Which brings us nicely to the real question; is O'Driscoll what Rodgers really needs? 

If a Liverpool fan were to review what went wrong with Liverpool's backwards season of 14-15 they might be inclined to answer with simply three words: Lovren, Balotelli and Sterling. Mario Balotelli because of Liverpool's failure to replicate their goal return from the previous, title challenging season; just 52 goals from 14-15 compared to the 101 goalblitz from 13-14; a difference coincidentally equivalent to the numbers of goals lost from the loss of Suarez and Sturridge (injury); a total of 53 goals between them. Incidentally only one striker was in the top six goal scorers for Liverpool in 14-15; the mostly injured Daniel Sturridge.

Terry rises completely unmarked to score in Chelsea's 1-1 draw
against Liverpool at the end of the 14-15 season. 

Lovren of course, because Liverpool shipped 48 goals in return in the past 14-15 season; a problem that has been prevalent for Liverpool since the latter stages of the title run in 13-14. This is the important factor; a defence that needs to improve following a season of lax defending. But does Sean O'Driscoll really provide this? Without any premier league experience to his name surely the answer to that is no; and Liverpool will need to improve their defencing, or at least their goals conceded stat, if they are to make headway into the Champions League spots next season. Wenger noted this a few seasons ago; the result was bringing in Steve Bould, an icon of the gritty Arsenal of past decades. Since then Arsenal have simply become a more solid all round side and the two FA Cup's they have gathered since is a testament to that, despite occasional lapses. 

Pepijn Lijnders,a second new recruit of a trio of coaches who
prioritise attack. But could Liverpool's defensive problems undo
them again? 

It is not just going to be the Sean O'Driscoll Brendan Rodgers show and it would be hysterical overreaction to suggest that these are the only changes coming to Liverpool's backroom staff this summer. Pepijn Lijnders is also moving up to the backroom, with a quiet but stellar reputation behind him to form a trio of attacking, possession based coaches with their own limited experiences of the highest level; with even Rodgers being far behind the Premier League's other big managers in terms of experience. It feels like bravery and naivety, for good and for worse. It does also show though a measure of faith from  Liverpool's high ups in Rodgers, something that has been missing from English football for quite some time. 

It's all quite nice, in it's own way. But Liverpool need to add grit to their game as well to get back to the heights they scaled a year and a half ago. Sean O'Driscoll, if he does truly make his name here, may well be just one more piece in the ever revolving Liverpool puzzle.