Let us for one moment as Coventry City fans, step away from the seemingly endless debates surrounding our infamous owners, instead turning our attentions to matters on the pitch. We are in the midst of our third season in League One since dropping out of Championship, yet it feels like a lifetime ago. The unadulterated joy and relief that our ‘homecoming’ brought has withered away, being replaced with an undefinable emptiness that only a Coventry City supporter can feel. Inexcusably relegation is becoming more of a reality as each weekend passes, falling into League two would be yet another demoralising blow, which frankly, the club wouldn’t bounce back from.
There is only one man responsible for both the performance and results of the team and that man is Steven Pressley. Some may blame SISU, the Higgs Trust, the Council, Wasps or any number of candidates, and I’m not oblivious to the fact that we as a club are being crippled financially and emotionally by the current ownership. However, the manager cannot hide behind this as an excuse for not producing positive results and performances, he should have known the restraints when he took the job.
When he arrived at the club in March 2013, he came with a reputation for nurturing youth (Something of a myth) and playing a fluent passing game. A month later I watched in awe as his Falkirk side (under the stewardship of current Norwich Academy manager Gary Holt) systematically took apart SPL side Hibernian with sumptuous passing football, which saw them lead 3-0 at half time in the Scottish Cup semi-final. As I waited for the second half to start, I thought to myself if Pressley could induce these traits into our players, then we had acquired a man with great potential. The game ended 4-3 to Hibernian after extra time, the monumental collapse from Falkirk left me somewhat bemused, but I was never going to prejudge Pressley either way.
The 2012/2013 season that had promised so much under Mark Robins (Who is currently getting the best out of a poor squad of players at Scunthorpe), petered out to nothing following his departure and Pressley’s inception. With only Mathieu Manset and Andy Webster coming into the first team squad and several players departing, Pressley’s team basically picked itself. Whether intentionally or not, he ditched his supposed philosophy from Falkirk (Passing football played in a 4-2-3-1 system) and went back to basics with a 4-4-2 pressing game. The team was drilled, organised and every player knew their responsibilities on the pitch, with this the 10 point deduction was eaten up and we headed into January with much promise.
It was at the end of this month that the cracks in Pressley’s managerial armour began to show. Leon Clarke returned home to the ‘delight’ of the Wolves fans, with Nathan Delfouneso signing on loan as a replacement. Clarke was nothing more than a run of the mill League 1 striker who like many over the past few seasons, showed that it doesn’t take much ability to score regularly in this division, replaceable he certainly was. What followed was a pathetic run of 4 wins out of nineteen very winnable games, with Pressley seemingly dumbfounded by how to set up without Clarke.
His tactical implosion led to many laughable decisions which included Jordan Willis playing at left back, loan signing Anton Robinson being deployed on the wing, constant formation changes from 4-5-1 to 4-1-2-1-2 to 5-3-1-1 and a complete removal of the tactics that had worked so well during the first part of the season. The basis behind those tactics was to implement a pressing game from front to back, not allowing the opposition time to build possession. From an offensive point of view, our aim was to thread balls (Both long and short) into the forwards who would link with the midfield and build attacks from there. What we saw in the last 19 games was a complete lack of direction, organisation and reluctance to pass the ball. As a fan it was excruciatingly hard to understand what type of football we were trying to play and what on earth was going through Pressley’s head.
As I left Bramall Lane following a feeble second half capitulation which ended in a 2-1 defeat, it was evident that Pressley had a summer which would define him as manager. A chance to wipe the slate clean from the previous season, no points deduction, more scope for transfers and a potential Ricoh return on the horizon. Despite losing Murphy, Moussa, Christie and Wilson, all of whom were destined to move up a division regardless of the what money the club offered them, a decent selection of signings was made. The likes of Johnson, O’Brien, Pugh, Swanson, Tudgay and Jackson added to the loan signings of Allsop, Coulibaly, McQuoid, Hines and Nouble gave us a squad that at the very least should compete for the play-offs.
Having started pre-season in the the familiar 4-4-2 which appeared to fit in with the signings that were being made, Pressley (Who revealed in an interview with the Daily Mail that he ‘meticulously studies’ the methods of Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho) decided to change to the flavour of the month system 5-3-2. Many had praised the system following Louis Van Gaal’s inspired use of it throughout the Netherlands successful World Cup campaign (I looked at the pros and cons of the system following our away game with MK Dons in August
http://thefootballwriterblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/5-3-2-is-it-all-that-my-post-game.html).
The obvious problems that came with the switch were that we didn’t possess the players to effectively play the system, it is not a system you can just change to overnight, each individual player needs to be aware of the intricacies of their individual role. Pressley’s thought process behind the switch was to sure up our defensive problems, which had plagued us since the start of the 2013/2014 season. Unfortunately rather than playing the system fluently as the likes of Hull, Watford and the two teams at the top of our division Bristol City and Swindon have, we produced performances that tied together a horrifically unbalanced mix of dangerously deep defensive displays and limp, sterile offensive efforts. Even in our first game back at the Ricoh, following Nouble’s opener we were second best for the rest of the game against a distinctly average Gillingham side. It took Pressley 14 league games (Which consisted of three wins, four draws and seven defeats) to realise that the system wasn’t the way forward and in returning to 4-4-2, we defeated play-off hopefuls Peterborough 3-2.
Despite the change (and additional changes to 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1) and slight upturn in form (Four wins, four draws and four defeats from the last 12 league games), we just aren't producing the type of performances expected from this squad of players in a league of such low quality. Turgid displays that lack creativity and direction, as if there is no specific way in which Pressley instructs the team to play in. We don’t consistently try to pass, press or even hoof the ball, we are lacking in a definite structure which leaves us consistently exposed (As was shown on Sky against Swindon). There is no obvious philosophy that Pressley has, which is evident in the countless formation changes throughout his tenure.
So he isn’t a tactically aware manager, but perhaps his man-management skills are on point? Unfortunately this isn’t the case, on more than one occasion this season he has told players they aren’t part of his plans only to name them on the bench the following week. His hilarious outburst in the aftermath of the Worcester game, was ill-judged and mistimed by several months. We’ve had to endure months of the same post-match drivel spew out of his mouth: “The group were magnificent” and “The attitude and effort of the players today was superb”, the same lifeless sentiments win, lose or draw. In addition to this if you’re one for believing rumours, he has been involved in a couple of misdemeanours with Reda Johnson and Jordan Clarke.
He doesn’t possess a positive managerial attribute and despite being a nice wee chap, the club have to act soon in removing him from the club. People will argue that he hasn’t been given money to spend or that the best players have been sold, but every manager up and down the land has to deal with theses problems, of varying degrees obviously.
What makes his complete mis-management and current underachievement even more unforgivable is when you take a look at the League One table. Ignoring Bristol City and Swindon who are playing some extremely impressive football at the moment, which highlights what can be achieved on a budget and without one, especially when you have the right man in charge. The likes of Chesterfield, Rochdale, Fleetwood, Bradford, Notts County, Doncaster, Port Vale, Oldham and Walsall all have either a similar or lesser playing budget than ours and yet they are all competing for the play-offs.
Looking deeper into that group you find teams like Notts County and Port Vale, who had to pick at the scraps left by all the other clubs in terms of signings. Even Walsall, who season in season out sell their best players, our playing attractive passing football under Dean smith which has seen them make it to a Wembley final for the first time in their history. These team’s squads are no better than ours, some are much worse. The managers of these teams aren’t footballing revolutionaries, but they understand the basic principles of the game.
Whichever way you look at it Pressley is severely under performing in his role as manager. There are counter arguments that I would expect to be thrown at me, for example:
“No one in their right mind would come and manage this club”
Yes, yes they would. There will always be managers out there chomping at the bit to get back in, you only have to look at Lee Clark joining Blackpool to realise there is always another man out there.
“We can’t continue sacking managers, he needs more time”
He’s been with us for almost two years now and its fair to say that as a club we are in a much weaker position on the field than we were prior to his arrival.
“Its not Pressley, its the players”
As I alluded to earlier this squad is good enough to compete for a play-off place. Look at the squad Mark Robins inherited, with a couple of shrewd loans he transformed a team bereft of confidence into a play-off chaser.
As a replacement I would love to see either today’s opposition manager Keith Hill or Luton’s John Still come in, having both achieved previously unheard of success with the respective clubs they could do the same here (And play nice football whilst doing so).
To conclude, I’ll reiterate what I said at the start of this article, that I’m fully aware of the constraints this club is operating under. However having considered everything, you just cannot defend the man, whether you think he’s a naive young manager who has a got a few things wrong or a completely clueless imbecile of a man bereft of managerial nous, the bottom line is he isn’t fit to manage this football club.