‘One or two in the changing room need to get off the bus’
Waterford FC Head Coach Graham Coughlan dejected after the game against St. Patrick's Athletic. Photos: INPHO
Waterford FC Head Coach Graham Coughlan is under no illusions about how big the task that he has on his hands if he is to keep the Blues in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division after a second-half wipeout against St. Patrick’s Athletic on Friday last.
After getting late FAI clearance to take his position in the Waterford dugout, Coughlan saw the good, the bad, and the ugly in his squad, where he admitted afterwards that a number of players needed to get off the bus after this loss.
Speaking after the game, Coughlan said: “Look, there's no getting away from the fact the mountain is huge. I've never laid down, rolled over and allowed people to tickle my belly, and I don't expect my players to do that either.
“There's no doubt results dictate moods and dressing rooms. The lads are…Jesus, they're obviously not in a great place. We're not winning football matches, so that's natural. There's nothing that I can physically do to help them. They just have to be able to help themselves.
“It's not easy when you're not winning games, so they'll be feeling it. But the one thing they have to understand is that the only way you get through it is with honest, hard work on the training ground.
“It was a tough test for the lads, a tough night, but we've got bigger battles ahead. These crazy moments have got to stop if we're going to climb this mountain.”
Coughlan wasn’t happy with how his side defended moments. “You can't defend the way we defended at those moments and expect to get anything out of this division “I’m really disappointed with the individual errors. St Pat’s were very, very good. A game of football is simple; it's about what happens in both boxes. It was a car crash in our box, and at the other end of the pitch, it wasn't quite there for us.
“If you want an example of clinical, one end, decisive at the other end, they showed us tonight what we need to do – the levels we need to get to.
“The players have probably got to look in the mirror, probably got to roll their sleeves up and most definitely have to buy into what we're asking them. It's OK doing it on the training ground, it's OK doing it in periods, they've shown that this season so far, but they've got to do it now consistently.”
Coughlan added: "I thought that St. Pat’s were very good. I didn't think we quite got our tactical side right. We were a little bit slow to press. We let them come on top of us, and we started going backwards.
“I suppose that's the mindset, that's the mentality when you're not winning, probably a lack of confidence and self-belief. There was a mindset of let's live on the edge of our own box in the first half, and we just couldn't get out. We couldn't get Pat's off us, so fair play to them on that front.
"But yeah, when you take the lead, you go 1-0 up, and we had a great chance to get 2-0... they're the moments that kill you. If the truth be known, we should have probably gone down to 10 men. That was probably a second yellow. But it was crazy. It was bonkers. Unexplainable, really, to be honest.”
There was no mincing of words from the new Blues boss. "We stood off them too far, we gave them too much time, too much space. If you give bad players time and space, they'll hurt you. If you give good players time and space, they'll destroy you.
I just thought we were too far off the pace of it, to be honest. So yeah, that'll take a few weeks, work on that pressing fitness-wise. If we're not going to be able to outplay teams, we have to be able to outfight them and outrun them. So the lads shouldn't be too surprised by what's coming over the next couple of weeks.
"Looking at some of the videos, looking at some of the games, there are far too many occasions we're not getting the basics right. So that's a start. That's where we need to start.
"We need to start on the training ground with our fitness levels. We need to understand what we're trying to do because we went off script in the second half. We tried to make passes, and we showed that we couldn't. We got ourselves into all sorts of predicaments when we're trying to make passes.
"Just stick to the basics. Keep it simple. Be effective. Be strong in both boxes. Be focused. Be concentrated. I'd love to bring in one or two other players to help us as well. There's no doubt one or two in the changing room will have to get off the bus.
“They've gone as far as they can with us. And that's just natural. There are no great secrets there. That's natural, and that's what happens in football. So yeah, a huge mountain to climb."
