Stuart Lovell gives the Livi supporters his view on the new man in the Livingston dug-out. The Livi skipper spent most of last season injured, so he’ll be chapping at the
bit to impress early on this season.
The day before the players were due to meet the new coach, the chairman, Dominic Keane, called a meeting to explain who would be taking over the running of the team. The first thing that struck me was the obvious concern shown in making sure we were fully informed of why the changes had been made and, in particular, how he came about identifying the right candidate.
In 13 years in professional football, this was my first experience of being "kept in the loop", and I thought it was an important gesture that would go a long way to quelling the rumours about our previous management team, Jim Leishman and David Hay.
I suppose to people outside the club, the current set-up is no less confusing than before. Nevertheless, the players are fully aware of their own responsibilities as well as those of each member of our coaching staff.
The pre-season regime we had been used to for the past two seasons was tinkered with, so that the new coach could begin to introduce his ideas. It’s fair to say our counterparts on the Continent spend more time on the training ground than we do, and there were one or two anxious looks among the players when they discovered our workload was increasing from two sessions a day to three.
Sometimes players find it hard to see things from a manager’s perspective. Football in this country has a lot of catching up to do. The ‘old-school’ mentality of training for only 90 minutes, because that’s how long a match lasts, exists even now, and the difference in footballing cultures and work ethic is far bigger than the public might realise.
Consequently, the success of our new coach may depend more on how well the players adapt to his methods than the method itself.
In the short time I have known Marcio, or "coach" as he likes to be called, the most telling attribute he possesses, which shines through on a daily basis, is his respect for the players. He treats everyone fairly, and is careful with his choice of words, so as not to offend.
We have noticed his meticulous approach to the different formations he believes we must adopt to be successful. His contention is that a good team should be able to change their shape during a match without the performance suffering. Most of his ideas have been simple in practice, but putting them into a game situation is what separates theory from reality.
A week to go, and once again I have high hopes for the season ahead. My main aim is to help Livingston to recover the form, which enabled us to finish third in the SPL just 15 months ago.
I would like to see Celtic and Rangers be competitive in Europe and, perhaps most important, to see Scotland qualify for Euro 2004 in Portugal. We can but dream!