think John quickly realised that we needed a solid foundation to build off, if you’ve got a good defence and we’re going, ‘Right, we’re going to make sure we don’t concede too many and then we’ve got pace and quality going forward’. And that’s what we had, a good balance.
“Wayne [Rooney] came in… the club put out this ‘no fear brand of football’ which I have got no idea what that means and I still don’t. Wayne came in and tried to implement a style of play that was more possession-based, building fromthe back, with the same players. After the second game we played Hull [City] at home and we lost 2-0 and I said in the changing room afterwards, ‘We are not where you [Rooney] need us to be at this moment. I don’t think we’re good enough to play your style of football. If we work at it and you’re coaching it, I have got no doubt we will be’. But it was going to take a lot of work and nailing down specific information and roles for every individual. I don’t think we did enough of it personally.”
