Most of the people I talk to love football and like to talk about football. You can't bulls--- them.
- - Carl Robinson
The COVID-19 pandemic brought an abrupt halt to the A-League season and too the rapid progress being made by the Newcastle Jets under new coach Carl Robinson. Herald football writer JAMES GARDINER talks to the former Welsh international about his initial couple of months in charge and the direction he plans to take the club.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
JG: In a best-case scenario, the A-League could be back running in May but the break may also extend for many months. What was your message to the players?
CR: No-one knows what is going to happen. The league has been postponed until April 22, possibly longer, and I know that creates a bit of uncertainty. Everyone naturally thinks about out-of-contract players. It impacts in-contract players, staff, support start, members of the club, everyone associated with the football club. No-one is in a better or worse case scenario. It is just an unfortunate circumstance, based upon where we are. There are other clubs, other sports, there is the general public who have already lost their jobs. Think about other people not just yourself in this scenario. Take a step back, enjoy some time with your family, make sure you follow the procedures and protocols and as soon as we know, we can move forward. Until then there is no point worrying about it.
JG: The club has handed out individual training programs to make sure players are ticking over. In terms of staying in shape physically, is that all you can do?
CR: Again, it is not an ideal scenario, but the boys are fit. There is no way you are going to make them fitter. What's important is maintenance and that is usually about 80 per cent of what they do on a match day. As long as they get to 80 per cent on what Brice Johnson (strength and conditioning coach) has told them, they will be fine. It's down to them. If the league is postponed for four weeks, we have to hit the ground running when it restarts. We have put ourselves in with a right chance (three points outside the top six) if it was to continue but who knows?
JG: You have had your feet under the desk for eight weeks. Was your perception of the league matched in reality?
CR: I came here with an open mind. People said I was taking a risk when I left Major League Soccer (MLS) but that was my decision. I wanted to try something different, I wanted to test myself as a coach. The easy thing to do after being in MLS for 13 years as a player and coach, was to take another job there. That was safe. I want to experience different cultures, different groups of players, different clubs all over the world. Eventually, I want to go back to England. If an opportunity came that I felt was right, I was going to take it. This opportunity came.
Was it what I thought? Yes. I saw the group of players when I flew over two weeks before taking the job. The quality was there. What I needed to do in my eyes, was give some different messages. Sometimes change is good, sometimes change is bad. You say to the players, there were a lot of good things done under the previous manager - these are the good things, I want to add to them, and I want to play this way. The players bought into it from day one. I had 13 months off doing some TV and radio. That wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in among the players, coaching and teaching them. I wanted to get my feet back on the grass. It took me about two hours to get back into it. The messages I wanted to put across came naturally. I am a very hands-on coach and they responded. The players deserve all the credit. I have just been guiding them. As we move forward, the serious work will start. I still think they have a lot more to give. There are a few additions I want to bring in, and then we can have a serious push.
JG: Your wife and son were recently over from Canada for a visit ahead of a permanent move in July. What did they make of Newcastle and have you found somewhere to settle the family?
CR: They enjoyed it. It is different to Vancouver. I lived about 45 minutes away from Vancouver and travelled every day. I had never been to Australia before. You fly into a big city and then you drive up to Newcastle. I didn't know what to expect. I am a very active person. I am out walking around the harbour, by the beach and the lighthouse every day. From day one the people were very friendly. It seems a very laid back place.
What I will say is that most of the people I talk to love football and like to talk about football. In North America, you have North American sports and soccer is playing third or fourth fiddle to the NBA, NHL, NFL and stuff. Here you have the NRL and AFL but soccer is world wide. It is the language spoken by most of the world and I genuinely think people understand what you are doing. You can't bulls--- them. You don't try and bulls--- people who know football.
Where we are going to live? I don't know? I want to live close to training. People have suggested Merewether or Merewether Heights.
JG: Worst-case scenario and you don't play any more games this season, have you had enough time to get a gauge on the squad and where you need to strengthen it?
CR: I said on day one that I would try and give every player an opportunity, whether it was off the bench or starting games. Craig Deans had taken the team for five games and in the last two games the team was settled. I didn't want to make drastic changes.
The way I work is that if you are in the team, it's your opportunity. If you play well, you stay in. A good example of that is Angus Thurgate. That is the way I work. If you do well, you stay in. I don't care if you are 19 or 35. That creates competition.
You also have to instill a mentality in training that if you don't train properly you will not get an opportunity to play. To be fair, every single person trained properly and I picked my squads based on training. I also had to see players like Connor O'Toole and Makis Petratos. There were others who had done well at training but I had not seen them in a game. I had to reward a couple of players that way. Nick Fitzgerald played off the bench in the first game against Wanderers and made a difference. I told him to keep his headh, and he deserved the opportunity to play in the last game. He did well and scored.
I have a gauge on 90 per cent of the squad if we weren't to play again. There were a couple of players who didn't get any time but I had a good view of them at training. I think my head is fairly clear. It is all dependent on what we can and can't do next year with regards to the salary cap.
JG: You have eight players off contract at the end of the season, when are those decisions made?
CR: I haven't had any conversations at this point. I understand the situation that everybody is in. I have been there myself as a player. You can get a bit anxious. The way the world is at the moment, there are other things more important. As soon as the club knows, as soon as the FFAs set out all the rules and we know where we stand, then we will be able to make decisions. At the moment, we are not on a position to make decisions because we don't know. The goalposts might move. It's not fair for me to agree on a deal with a player for X-amount and in two months I say I need them to take a 50 per cent pay cut. They will be pissed with me and I will be unhappy that I have had to do it. We need patience at this point.
JG: Speaking broadly, what are the areas that need strengthening?
CR: When I signed I didn't want to bring in half a dozen players. I said I would bring in one or two which I was able to do with Joe Ledley and Bernie Ibini. The balance of the squad at the moment is ideally three players away from where I want to get to. When you are in a salary-cap league and have a 23-man squad, you have to decide if you go top heavy, whether you balance it out or go with a main group and a younger group. From the experience I have in a salary cap, I know which way I want to go. I will try and bring a little bit of pace to the team.
The system we use suited the players we have, but I do think we need to try and bring one or two wider players in. We have no natural wingers. Modern football allows you to play multiple formations when you have wide players. The only natural winger I have is Makis Petratos. There might be changes due to personnel being out of contract. I need a better balance to the squad. I don't want two players exactly the same and I want younger players coming through. If a younger player on less money can bump out an older player, I'm quite happy to do that. That is the way you keep the salary cap down and are able to be flexible in your system.
JG: Since you have taken the reins, there has been a shift to a possession-based game. Is that the model going forward?
CR: People can complicate the game at times. They talk about systems and formations and how they want to play. Generally when a manager takes a job he says he wants to play high pressing, attacking, fast transition, possession-based football. He names four or five different styles for one team. There are about three teams in the world who have those styles within their team.
I have in my mind how I want to play. I also have in my mind the group of players I have got. I have to mould how I want to play with the group I have got and then make adjustments within that. In years past when I was manager of my last team, I did an analysis of the season. Out of the eight games we lost, seven of them we had over 55 per cent possession and one we had 60 per cent. Sometimes it is not about possession, it might be about transition. We had very fast wingers. You have to pick what you want to implement. Going to Newcastle, I wanted to be a possession-based team. That won't change. I also want to dominate the ball in the opposition half.
When I say that, if you look at the 1-0 loss to Brisbane, we had 60 plus per cent of the ball and were dominant in the first two-thirds of the pitch. In the final third, we had 10 shots but none on target. Simple maths tells you that if you don't put a shot on target, you are not going to score. On that, if Roy scores in the last minute rather than hits the post and if he scores with an early chance where he decides to flick it up rather than shoot. If he scores two goals in that game it is a perfect performance. You have 65 per cent of the ball and your centre-forward scores two goals.
We aren't far away from what I want to do. To get to the next stage is a matter of taking chances. That might take a little bit more quality, different personnel, it might be instilling more confidence in the players. That will be the next stage of development - trying to increase the quality in the way we play and have a bit more killer instinct in the final third.