Gratis
Well-Known Member
Paul Okon’s Mariners second from bottom but he’s happy
As Paul Okon approaches the coffee shop, he is walking briskly. There is even a bit of a swagger — and he is clearly smiling.
It is not the look many pundits would have been expecting to see from the coach of the Central Coast at this time of the season.
The Mariners are second from the bottom of the table with 10 points — 23 behind leaders Sydney FC — and haven’t won in their past five games. They are, in many quarters, regarded as the team most likely to end up with the wooden spoon.
None of that seems to bother Okon, who is in his first season as a senior coach in the A-League.
The former Socceroos star prefers to see the positives in the continued development of his players, his growth as a coach and the way forward for a proud club that has fallen on tough times.
At the halfway mark of the season and Okon less than five months into the job, he can take pride that the Mariners are performing much better than expected, though he knows there are going to be more hurdles to negotiate before this season is finished.
“We are, sort of, where I thought we might be ... competitive and looking to improve. The attitude? Good. The work ethic? Good. The feeling? Good,” Okon said.
“We are a little bit inconsistent but every game we have had good moments.”
As much as he knows it is going to take time to put his stamp on the team — he was appointed only five weeks out from the start of the season — winning is still paramount for a man who was used to success as a player both in Australia and during a 15-year career in Europe.
Asked what he had learned as a coach over the past 4½ months, Okon didn’t hesitate — “that I hate losing”.
“I forgot what it felt like to lose, the losses are pretty hard to take,” he says.
“As a player it’s a bit different because you analyse your own performance and if the team loses and you performed well then there is that part of you that says you have done your job.
“As a coach, you feel you have done something wrong, you’ve missed something or there is something you could have done better.
“ You might enjoy a win briefly but the reality is you have to move on quickly because you are only as good as your last game.”
So, has it been tough?
“Tough? Not as much as I thought it would be, but it’s full-on,” Okon said. “The mind never switches off. I am constantly thinking of what can be done better, how to deliver it better, to make little adjustments.
“One positive is that the players understand how I want the team to play. That requires hard work, every training session to be at a high level and I think maybe initially that was a bit of a shock to them. But they have responded and continue to respond.”
As a player, Okon was one of the most talented this country has produced. He had wonderful ball skills, the ability to hold on to possession and then glide past players.
Having spent the majority of his football career overseas, it’s no surprise that his philosophy as a coach is to develop the skills of his players, to keep possession, to preach patience.
Few, however, would have expected him to try this with a Mariners squad that does not have the quality of some of the big clubs in the A-League.
The consensus was that if he wanted to be competitive, he would have to rely on direct football — pumping long balls to the quick men up front. Ugly football.
But Okon has always been single-minded and he was determined not to deviate from his principles. The fact the Mariners started the season with two draws and two losses trying to play possession-based football wasn’t going to worry him.
While he has tinkered with the system a little, the basic principles remain — and he makes no apologies. “It didn’t work last season, so if I was going to take that approach (direct football) then what sort of message, what sort of respect am I giving the players?” he says. “Does that show I believe in them?
“I was clear from start the way I wanted to play. Was it going to take time? Absolutely. But I needed a starting point. To be honest the goals we have given away have not come from our style of play, they are the result of skeletons from last season. I was the wrong man if they thought I would adopt the ugly football philosophy.”
Again, the pundits will be sceptical when Okon suggests his side can still make the finals.
“Every player in our one-on-one chats told me they feel we can make the top six,” Okon said. “Halfway through the season we have 10 points and maybe 31-32 points will get you there.
“We are tracking for a better season than last season. We have two more points than we did this time last year and we are only four points off sixth. The high point for me was last week’s 2-2 draw with Melbourne City and the way we came back.
“If you would have said to me before the game that I could sign for a 2-2 draw and I’d be disappointed with the result, I would have taken it.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...y/news-story/3247955178b78580aa8374d753f9484d
As Paul Okon approaches the coffee shop, he is walking briskly. There is even a bit of a swagger — and he is clearly smiling.
It is not the look many pundits would have been expecting to see from the coach of the Central Coast at this time of the season.
The Mariners are second from the bottom of the table with 10 points — 23 behind leaders Sydney FC — and haven’t won in their past five games. They are, in many quarters, regarded as the team most likely to end up with the wooden spoon.
None of that seems to bother Okon, who is in his first season as a senior coach in the A-League.
The former Socceroos star prefers to see the positives in the continued development of his players, his growth as a coach and the way forward for a proud club that has fallen on tough times.
At the halfway mark of the season and Okon less than five months into the job, he can take pride that the Mariners are performing much better than expected, though he knows there are going to be more hurdles to negotiate before this season is finished.
“We are, sort of, where I thought we might be ... competitive and looking to improve. The attitude? Good. The work ethic? Good. The feeling? Good,” Okon said.
“We are a little bit inconsistent but every game we have had good moments.”
As much as he knows it is going to take time to put his stamp on the team — he was appointed only five weeks out from the start of the season — winning is still paramount for a man who was used to success as a player both in Australia and during a 15-year career in Europe.
Asked what he had learned as a coach over the past 4½ months, Okon didn’t hesitate — “that I hate losing”.
“I forgot what it felt like to lose, the losses are pretty hard to take,” he says.
“As a player it’s a bit different because you analyse your own performance and if the team loses and you performed well then there is that part of you that says you have done your job.
“As a coach, you feel you have done something wrong, you’ve missed something or there is something you could have done better.
“ You might enjoy a win briefly but the reality is you have to move on quickly because you are only as good as your last game.”
So, has it been tough?
“Tough? Not as much as I thought it would be, but it’s full-on,” Okon said. “The mind never switches off. I am constantly thinking of what can be done better, how to deliver it better, to make little adjustments.
“One positive is that the players understand how I want the team to play. That requires hard work, every training session to be at a high level and I think maybe initially that was a bit of a shock to them. But they have responded and continue to respond.”
As a player, Okon was one of the most talented this country has produced. He had wonderful ball skills, the ability to hold on to possession and then glide past players.
Having spent the majority of his football career overseas, it’s no surprise that his philosophy as a coach is to develop the skills of his players, to keep possession, to preach patience.
Few, however, would have expected him to try this with a Mariners squad that does not have the quality of some of the big clubs in the A-League.
The consensus was that if he wanted to be competitive, he would have to rely on direct football — pumping long balls to the quick men up front. Ugly football.
But Okon has always been single-minded and he was determined not to deviate from his principles. The fact the Mariners started the season with two draws and two losses trying to play possession-based football wasn’t going to worry him.
While he has tinkered with the system a little, the basic principles remain — and he makes no apologies. “It didn’t work last season, so if I was going to take that approach (direct football) then what sort of message, what sort of respect am I giving the players?” he says. “Does that show I believe in them?
“I was clear from start the way I wanted to play. Was it going to take time? Absolutely. But I needed a starting point. To be honest the goals we have given away have not come from our style of play, they are the result of skeletons from last season. I was the wrong man if they thought I would adopt the ugly football philosophy.”
Again, the pundits will be sceptical when Okon suggests his side can still make the finals.
“Every player in our one-on-one chats told me they feel we can make the top six,” Okon said. “Halfway through the season we have 10 points and maybe 31-32 points will get you there.
“We are tracking for a better season than last season. We have two more points than we did this time last year and we are only four points off sixth. The high point for me was last week’s 2-2 draw with Melbourne City and the way we came back.
“If you would have said to me before the game that I could sign for a 2-2 draw and I’d be disappointed with the result, I would have taken it.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...y/news-story/3247955178b78580aa8374d753f9484d
