Duff doing it the Sean Dyche way - Times
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 11:27 pm
Michael Duff brings new hope by doing it the Sean Dyche way at Cheltenham - The Times
Cheltenham Town fans were welcomed back with a thrilling performance at the Jonny Rocks Stadium on Saturday where, after nine long months away, and 2020’s myriad trials, optimism abounds. And so it should after this 5-3 win against third-placed Exeter City extended the best start to a Football League season in the Gloucestershire club’s history and kept Michael Duff’s expertly marshalled side hot on the heels of Sky Bet League Two leaders, Newport County.
The former Burnley captain is fast becoming one of the most highly-regarded young coaches in the lower leagues and, after last season’s curtailment, Duff is determined to use Cheltenham’s bruising defeat against Northampton Town in the play-off semi-final as “fuel” to return to League One for the first time in 12 years. “We’ve got a good group of players who are honest enough to go, ‘Yep, we messed that up; how can we rectify it? By hard work, and remembering it,’ and that’s what they’ve done,” Duff says.
Duff arrived in September 2018, after two years working at close quarters with Sean Dyche as coach of Burnley Under-23, with plans, he admits, to “Burnley-fy the place”. But a chastening ten- game wait for a league win prompted a pivotal formation change and a swift re-evaluation. “I hadn’t won a game, we had Arsenal in the Checkatrade [Trophy] and I was thinking: ‘That’s the last game you want, a load of 18-year-olds turning up who could make you feel stupid,’ ” he says. “So we gave 3-5-2 a go, nothing to lose, and we won 6-2. We drew with Mansfield [Town] in the next game, then beat Notts County 3-0. Dropping Ben Tozer from midfield into the middle of the back three, with his ability on the ball, sort of got us playing.
“One reason why I came to this club was I thought I’d be given a chance. They’re not historically a sacking club. But you go ten games without a win at a lot of clubs, you don’t get to the tenth.”
Patience, however, has been rewarded and since “landing” upon that system Cheltenham have become one of the most well-drilled teams in League Two. Players are now recruited to fit the system. Like Matty Blair, for example, a 31-year-old right wing back who joined from Doncaster Rovers in the summer, and was outstanding on Saturday. Liam Sercombe, who joined from Bristol Rovers and scored two against his former club, was another canny acquisition but, like all recruits, must fit into a mid-table budget.
Cheltenham are pragmatists: they build play from the back, switch the ball to their wing backs quickly, but are not afraid to mix their play. They utilise Tozer’s gargantuan throw-in, from which defender William Boyle scored the fifth on Saturday. They press doggedly but also defend resolutely when necessary. In short, they are well-coached and Tozer, the captain, believes Duff is destined for a bigger things. Tozer leads a “speak-up” session every Monday with the players — a concept taken from a day spent with the former marines Ben Williams and Antony Thompson — inviting discussion about the weekend’s performance.
Duff played almost 250 games for Cheltenham during the club’s rise from the Southern League to League One in 2002 under Steve Cotterill, who signed him for Burnley and remains a major influence. In 12 years at Turf Moor, Duff won three promotions to the Premier League but, having climbed England’s top eight leagues in ascending order as a player, had no qualms about beginning his management career at the bottom of the ladder.
Dyche’s influence, meanwhile, can be seen in the Burnley manager’s notorious “Gaffer’s Day” — two hours of running, no footballs in sight — which is now a fixture of Cheltenham’s pre-season. “In terms of mentality, the way we work, it’s very much Burnley,” Duff says. Such as? “Just trying to de-bulls**t football. Sometimes players forget . . . they get agents, a nice car, they’re picking up half-decent dough, and all of a sudden they’ve forgotten the eight-year-old kid who just wanted to be a footballer. It’s just trying to simplify it: that’s what he’s the best at, in my opinion, Dychey. I learnt loads from him.
“But from the playing side, it’s probably more Steve Cotterill. I pick his brains more on the intricacies of the system. Because it’s a difficult system to play. But if you do it properly, at this level, it’s hard to play against. This is still League Two though. I like two centre forwards on the pitch. For all you want to play, you can still boot it down the pitch, flick it on, and run.”
Interesting to hear the influence both Dyche and Cotterill continue to have on Duff. Certainly going well for him at Cheltenham, and the comments on the article from Cheltenham fans all seem to be enjoying it, but resigned that they'll lose him in a year or two.
Cheltenham Town fans were welcomed back with a thrilling performance at the Jonny Rocks Stadium on Saturday where, after nine long months away, and 2020’s myriad trials, optimism abounds. And so it should after this 5-3 win against third-placed Exeter City extended the best start to a Football League season in the Gloucestershire club’s history and kept Michael Duff’s expertly marshalled side hot on the heels of Sky Bet League Two leaders, Newport County.
The former Burnley captain is fast becoming one of the most highly-regarded young coaches in the lower leagues and, after last season’s curtailment, Duff is determined to use Cheltenham’s bruising defeat against Northampton Town in the play-off semi-final as “fuel” to return to League One for the first time in 12 years. “We’ve got a good group of players who are honest enough to go, ‘Yep, we messed that up; how can we rectify it? By hard work, and remembering it,’ and that’s what they’ve done,” Duff says.
Duff arrived in September 2018, after two years working at close quarters with Sean Dyche as coach of Burnley Under-23, with plans, he admits, to “Burnley-fy the place”. But a chastening ten- game wait for a league win prompted a pivotal formation change and a swift re-evaluation. “I hadn’t won a game, we had Arsenal in the Checkatrade [Trophy] and I was thinking: ‘That’s the last game you want, a load of 18-year-olds turning up who could make you feel stupid,’ ” he says. “So we gave 3-5-2 a go, nothing to lose, and we won 6-2. We drew with Mansfield [Town] in the next game, then beat Notts County 3-0. Dropping Ben Tozer from midfield into the middle of the back three, with his ability on the ball, sort of got us playing.
“One reason why I came to this club was I thought I’d be given a chance. They’re not historically a sacking club. But you go ten games without a win at a lot of clubs, you don’t get to the tenth.”
Patience, however, has been rewarded and since “landing” upon that system Cheltenham have become one of the most well-drilled teams in League Two. Players are now recruited to fit the system. Like Matty Blair, for example, a 31-year-old right wing back who joined from Doncaster Rovers in the summer, and was outstanding on Saturday. Liam Sercombe, who joined from Bristol Rovers and scored two against his former club, was another canny acquisition but, like all recruits, must fit into a mid-table budget.
Cheltenham are pragmatists: they build play from the back, switch the ball to their wing backs quickly, but are not afraid to mix their play. They utilise Tozer’s gargantuan throw-in, from which defender William Boyle scored the fifth on Saturday. They press doggedly but also defend resolutely when necessary. In short, they are well-coached and Tozer, the captain, believes Duff is destined for a bigger things. Tozer leads a “speak-up” session every Monday with the players — a concept taken from a day spent with the former marines Ben Williams and Antony Thompson — inviting discussion about the weekend’s performance.
Duff played almost 250 games for Cheltenham during the club’s rise from the Southern League to League One in 2002 under Steve Cotterill, who signed him for Burnley and remains a major influence. In 12 years at Turf Moor, Duff won three promotions to the Premier League but, having climbed England’s top eight leagues in ascending order as a player, had no qualms about beginning his management career at the bottom of the ladder.
Dyche’s influence, meanwhile, can be seen in the Burnley manager’s notorious “Gaffer’s Day” — two hours of running, no footballs in sight — which is now a fixture of Cheltenham’s pre-season. “In terms of mentality, the way we work, it’s very much Burnley,” Duff says. Such as? “Just trying to de-bulls**t football. Sometimes players forget . . . they get agents, a nice car, they’re picking up half-decent dough, and all of a sudden they’ve forgotten the eight-year-old kid who just wanted to be a footballer. It’s just trying to simplify it: that’s what he’s the best at, in my opinion, Dychey. I learnt loads from him.
“But from the playing side, it’s probably more Steve Cotterill. I pick his brains more on the intricacies of the system. Because it’s a difficult system to play. But if you do it properly, at this level, it’s hard to play against. This is still League Two though. I like two centre forwards on the pitch. For all you want to play, you can still boot it down the pitch, flick it on, and run.”
Interesting to hear the influence both Dyche and Cotterill continue to have on Duff. Certainly going well for him at Cheltenham, and the comments on the article from Cheltenham fans all seem to be enjoying it, but resigned that they'll lose him in a year or two.
