Roy Hodgson shares many traits with Arsene Wenger, and in recent weeks they’ve articulated remarkably similar footballing world-views.
They both suggest a scholarly erudition, a measured and methodological manner informed, one imagines, by daunting text books and technical seminars. Worldly-wise and reasoned, they could both be distinguished emeritus professors crafting one last thesis.
Wenger is more prone to acidity when wronged, more likely to give rise to the withering rejoinder or wounded retort; Hodgson appears more forgiving.
Nevertheless, it’s fairly easy to imagine either as an owl.
Hodgson’s pledge to the considered, long-term, approach (see previous post), was echoed by Wenger recently:
“We have to rise above the pressure and the expectation levels and be guided more by what we want to achieve and how we want to play football than by people who want perfection immediately. I stick to what I believe is right. You have moments that go well and those that go less well. You are not God when everyone says you are, and you are not miserable when everyone says you are. The truth is somewhere in between."
This Saturday, Hodgson’s worthy purism will compete with the bullish pragmatism and elusive alchemy of Harry Redknapp - peddler of his own indisputable, but more ragged, wisdom. Will the curtain be pulled back to reveal a cardboard conjuror reciting empty spells, or will the Spurs Manager’s messianic aura amplify?
And, if undone, will the Fulham Manager remain tied to his philosophy?
Showing posts with label Roy Hodgson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roy Hodgson. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 November 2008
Friday, 31 October 2008
Modesty Ablaze
When Fulham won three consecutive away games at the end of last season – the first, against Reading, breaking an 18-month run without a victory away from Craven Cottage – it looked as though that particular demon had been exquisitely skewered. However, with 4 away losses out of 4 this season, and an all-too-familiar infirmity being displayed, it was beginning to look as though this ghost of season’s past was dusting itself down for a resumption of haunting duties.
It is in the looming shadow of such a spectre therefore that the point gained at Portsmouth last Sunday should be eagerly grasped, and the ongoing shortcomings nonchalantly shuffled and placed in the “pending” tray to be revisited later. They are, in any case, well known to all, and do not bear reiterating here. For the moment, anyway.
For we must now accept that Mr. Hodgson will not become radicalised overnight. This is the way it is, and the way it will be during his time at Fulham. “You’ve got to remain modest”, he said recently, and shaking our collective fists at his philosophy will not cause it to splinter, and provoke him into a flurry of reckless, reflex tinkering. We must walk the long road with him, or else prepare for a future of fulminating, and festering resentment.
Maturity and experience beget patience, and faith in the long view. Roy’s approach is a season-long one, perhaps even extending beyond that. He is aiming to cultivate a standard of play, and then to achieve a consistency in that standard. Hopefully improvements will arise naturally as inter-player familiarity develops, and tactics and routines become habituated. The intention is that over the course of the season that this will achieve the club’s aims. What they may be beyond mere survival has yet to be made explicit.
He is thus committed to not “turning cartwheels” when the team wins, and not “getting the shroud out” when we lose. This refusal to entertain the extreme reaction may be at variance with the typical supporter’s approach, but then he bears the responsibility of orchestrating an entire campaign, and not just (over) reacting to individual results.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” suggested Ralph Waldo Emerson. But he wasn’t a football manager, and for Roy Hodgson it looks set to be the angel on his shoulder.
It is in the looming shadow of such a spectre therefore that the point gained at Portsmouth last Sunday should be eagerly grasped, and the ongoing shortcomings nonchalantly shuffled and placed in the “pending” tray to be revisited later. They are, in any case, well known to all, and do not bear reiterating here. For the moment, anyway.
For we must now accept that Mr. Hodgson will not become radicalised overnight. This is the way it is, and the way it will be during his time at Fulham. “You’ve got to remain modest”, he said recently, and shaking our collective fists at his philosophy will not cause it to splinter, and provoke him into a flurry of reckless, reflex tinkering. We must walk the long road with him, or else prepare for a future of fulminating, and festering resentment.
Maturity and experience beget patience, and faith in the long view. Roy’s approach is a season-long one, perhaps even extending beyond that. He is aiming to cultivate a standard of play, and then to achieve a consistency in that standard. Hopefully improvements will arise naturally as inter-player familiarity develops, and tactics and routines become habituated. The intention is that over the course of the season that this will achieve the club’s aims. What they may be beyond mere survival has yet to be made explicit.
He is thus committed to not “turning cartwheels” when the team wins, and not “getting the shroud out” when we lose. This refusal to entertain the extreme reaction may be at variance with the typical supporter’s approach, but then he bears the responsibility of orchestrating an entire campaign, and not just (over) reacting to individual results.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” suggested Ralph Waldo Emerson. But he wasn’t a football manager, and for Roy Hodgson it looks set to be the angel on his shoulder.
Friday, 28 December 2007
New Manager Appointed
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