Steve Morison

Don't always like some of his responses to the assembled media at press conferences nor his often confrontational stance in interviews. Addressing them "you guys" and telling them they'll find out things when he's ready is hardly rapport building.

Gives the impression he thinks he's always right and doesn't like to be questioned about his managerial decisions if there's any suggestion of critique. Maybe that's just him being defensive, but there's very little humility in his media comments. McCarthy tended that way but Warnock for all his faults never came across to the media in that manner.

Maybe it doesn't matter and perhaps nice blokes don't win prizes, and let's face it, that's what we want. Proof of the pudding and all that, but is it a degree of arrogance in Steve's make up, or is he just a straight talker?

 

Just think he's a straight talker. Also think he's still learning about media interaction. I personally don't care if he takes ages to hone his media skills. As long as he doesn't bully his players and staff, does a good job from a football perspective and is enthusiastic about the club, not much else matters.

 

Happy for him to develop quickly as a manager and more slowly with his media engagement.
I think the media will forgive him in the short term.
Could be a number of reasons behind his approach, much of it around his inexperience in these dealings.
I read his latest 'match day interview' and a few statements surprised me, particularly when speaking about players (generally, not specifically). It may put some off.
Saying that, maybe it will weed out the high maintenance, delicate little flowers.
Through my life and in a number of situations, I preferred straight talkers.
Hopefully he's getting some media coaching, but in the short term I'll judge him on his coaching / management abilities.
I think often, the 'what' that is said is fine, it's the 'how' that needs some moderation.

 

I don't believe he could go about this huge task required at City playing the nice guy - Neil Harris tried that and he came unstuck. His handling of the media shouldn't be the benchmark his success - it's the results of his management that count. However, and as difficult as it is, keeping everyone on side is part of the process.

There's nothing wrong with ruffling a few feathers in the dressing room, but his image to the outside world through the media needs to be worked on. On the player front, his handling of the Isaak Davies and Max Watters hooking off incidents and his comments to the media afterwards were heavy handed to say the least.

We don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but up front I think he's got a lot to learn about management in the broader sense of the word.

 

Some of the above comments broadly reflect the doubts I expressed (only to be shot down) a couple of weeks ago.

I hope his handling of the players in the dressing room is not a reflection of some of his media statements. The playing staff is made up of many different personalities and a one size fits all approach is rarely successful. It can alienate the softer guys and turn the tougher ones against you - all with potentially negative outcomes. Despite his faults I think Warnock was quite an expert in how he worked with his players.

I hope that behind closed doors Morison adopted a much more coaching/caring role with Watters and Davies.

How would Whitts have reacted if criticised publicly in the way those two were?

It's easy to say "man up" but everyone is different and what works for one won't work for all.

He's still learning and hopefully he can get it right.

 

I think that if you've managed and developed a successful U23 operation, you've already thrown out any idea that a "one size fits all" approach is universally effective. That said, as in all things context is king. In some situations a universal approach is good. The art is knowing when to address the individual and when to address the group. Obviously we are not privy to knowing if SM is a master of the art and therefore his past record of success with the U23 is my yardstick for assessing him at the moment. We may never find out about his management style but as I said before, if no-one is being bullied (and let's face it in light of past issues the club would be all over it if there was), he's effective in laying down a new direction and improves our position next season, then that's what matters.
Next season will be pivotal for him I think.

 

Going into the new season shortly, so I thought I'd resurrect this old thread about our manager rather than start a new one.

Watching that post Cheltenham match interview of Morison only confirmed my previous impressions of the guy - he's a man on a mission. He does not like criticism, dislikes being questioned and has a single minded approach that borders on the arrogant - he's almost dismissive.

To the media, he's the complete antithesis of the mild mannered Russell Slade approach and even Warnock's jovial dinosaur impression - there's actually a bit of the insular and opinionated Dave Jones in him. Not a bad thing in my opinion and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes, but the guy is either going to sink or swim, no half measures.

His self belief means it'll either be a top 6 finish (at least), or it'll go badly wrong and he'll struggle at the bottom. I think mid table safety whilst developing this new ideology with what is essentially a brand new squad would be a decent return, but I honestly can't see Morison settling for that. He'll go all out for it - hopefully we can enjoy the ride along with him.

 

I'm guessing he sees us as an onwards and upwards situation. Do well with us and he will be in the unusual position, for us, of being an attractive proposition to higher level clubs, particularly at his young age. When did we last have a manager who left to move on up, and wasn't sacked or retired?

If that is his ultimate aim then his no nonsense approach seems justified, to him at least.

It's going to be an interesting season.

Now about the striker we clearly need........

 

Agree about our previous managers more or less going out to grass rather than onwards and upwards.

At least many of the Jack's choices have been excellent in that regard. Roberto Martinez, Brendan Rodgers, Graham Potter, Steve Cooper have all shown to have been excellent decisions and have moved on to greater things rather than sink into oblivion like ours.

I hope Morison breaks that duck and takes us forwards before moving on as he surely will. I'd like to think he could emulate those Jack managers who have displayed humility and an ability to manage a club and it's players rather than just massage an ego.

 

I think SM needs to emulate just one of the guys that managed our cousins down west. Roberto Martinez changed forever how Swansea played and were perceived by others.

 

Amen to that. Let's hope he's given the time he needs to succeed.

Trollope tried to change our traditional "blood, guts and thunder" approach and failed.

Harris tried to tinker to a lesser degree and failed.

At least with SM he's been backed to bring in pretty much a new squad that he believes will suit his aims.

As for his handling of players and media, I'm happy with his firm, honest approach, so long as he's telling the truth when he says that he says exactly the same kind of things to the players behind closed doors too.

The media can do one... He's probably guarded because they are always so quick to turn on teams at the slightest blip... Get a few sensational, click bait headlines on the go just to ruffle the fans up... Yet when things go well their tongues are so far up the managers butt it's sickening.

 

Brizz - I take your point, but........

The media are the windows on the world for most supporters. You can't blame them for what happens on the pitch nor off it. It's the perogative of the free press (media) to report, provoke and stimulate interest. As in most cases, the mouthpiece is generally the club manager as the players themselves would be severely disciplined if they offered up opinions on club matters to the media.

So there you have it. What the manager says and the way he delivers the message is very important. Being defensive (aggressive?) is an option that a few follow - Nigel Pearson now at the wurzels is the epitome of that. A little humility goes a long way. You'd never have heard Martinez, Rodgers, Potter or even Cooper reply to genuine media interviewers in the irritated manner that Morison often adopts toward anything approaching a criticism.

I'm more than prepared to let his managerial skills with the players on and off the pitch and the results he obtains speak for him. Maybe it's the pressure he feels being given more or less a free hand, but he needs to subdue his spikey interview manner - that's only my opinon of course.

 

Good points well made as always.
However, and I think I've said this before, learning media technique is something that will come in time and I'd rather see his personal development plan aimed at continuing to develop Cardiff City into a good footballing club.
Also, in his defence, I think it's difficult for a manager to have respect for large chunks of the media that distort events and make things up just to sell their product. To mind, while I agree that the media does have a perogative, they also have a duty to report reality and not create their own world. In view of this, it must be difficult to show respect to much if the media when they show none at all.
Diplomacy will come with experience and regrettably will be accompanied by meaningless sound bites. I'm not in any hurry for him to get there if he's improving how we play.

 

Clingo - no problem with your reply.

The most recent interview to which I'm referring was to CCFC's own media, nothing to do with the "press" selling anything.

I think it might have been John Donovan holding the mike behind the camera after the Cheltenhan game. I've always found him very fair and honest with his commentaries on CCFC TV and audio channel although I'm sure his honesty isn't always what Morison wants to hear.

I haven't listend to it since but I think Donovan asked if he thought there were a few unforced errors during the game and Morison quickly cut him off with something like "if you want to focus on that then it's up to you" rather than addressing a genuine question. He could have handled that better - but what do I know.

 

Cheers Sparkey.
Just going to defend my comments by saying that I did qualify it by saying most of the media.
I agree that an in house interview is different. That said, I go back to my point that he clearly isn't media trained and has probably been told to forget the camera and mic. So that's what he's done
Anyway, it holds very little importance to me but acknowledge that others will see it differently.

 

Cling.

Disagree. I believe all footballers and particularly managers are media trained.

I think its just Morisons personality.

 

Yes I saw that. It was a fair question.

Sometimes he does himself no favours and you wonder how he will react if we struggle and the questions do become difficult.

 

Fair enough Hilts but in many ways your disagreement makes my point. If it is purely his personality (and I agree that it is)then more media training might be in order. However, as I said before I'm happy to wait for him to become diplomatic with the media and for him to concentrate on what he does best and that is if more value to the club

 

Now we're a few games in, thought I'd bump this back to the top to have an early reiew on SMs start to the season.
There have been a few comments on him on other threads but he's probably deserving of his own thread.

He's no doubt a confident guy, totally focused with a clear vision of what he wants and how he wants the team to play.
He'd shown signs of this with the 23s, but transferring that to a senior side is a big step up.

After he got us safe last year he seemed to have a wobble, but with hindsight he was trying stuff out and testing players, jettisoning those he already knew wouldnt fit his style.

Talking the talk, which he did, is one thing, walking the walk another.

He said his scouting team were working flat out from january and deals were in the pipeline.
They kept their cards close to their chest and delivered. Other than Bale, no long term speculation. Dont think we mentioned a name more than 3 days before a signing and nearly every name mentioned was signed. Unprecedented.

SM said their scouting was targetted based on the style they wanted to play and how the players would fit the style and in the first few games it shows.

15 signings, £550k spent and the wage bill reduced.
Peering at the Brizzle and Swans boards, you still read 'no funds available, no funds available, no commitment, no aspirations'.
The swans have done well scouting for bargains in the past few years but still want to spend big.
Not sure SM could have assembled a much better squad if Tan had chucked him 10 or 15 million.
Conversion of chances needs to be improved, no doubt. Whether thats a proven goal scorer or working on what we've got I dont know.
As he said in his interview on Saturday, he'd be worried if we weren't creating chances, hes less worried that were not finishing them.
I still think we'll have decent numbers of players scoring 8 to 12 goals this season with no-one hitting big numbers.
3 different scorers in our first 3 league games.

The guy is confident and has the courage of his convictions.
If we keep this upward trajectory, we need to tie him, and his extended backtoom staff, down to a longer contract or ensure our aspirations match his as a minimum.

Glass half full.

 

You should have been a journo Remote.

Not really, your summaries are reasoned, well judged and factual not speculative.

Much too good to be a journo.