From a new manager Brian Laudrup, that Pools could taken note of;

"The advantage you have as an ex-player at the highest level is that you have been there on the pitch. But now I have to teach people," he said.

"To be a teacher is not the same as being a good student. You have to define very carefully what you can ask your players to do.

"You can't ask players to do things that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are doing, but you can ask the easy things. Sometimes the easiest things in football - a simple pass five or eight yards - can be the most effective. That, everybody can learn and everybody can improve."

This from a man who played at highest level and just starting out as a manager.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19346728

I love him.

Does he know how you feel? Is it reciprocated?

I remember Cyril Knowles saying much the same thing a few years back. He said the problem with lower league players is to try to stop them doing over-ambitious things like 60 yard diagonal passes when they should just concentrate on simple 10 yard passes to a teammate instead.

It filters right through to Sunday league and non league, players (i'm guilty of it myself) try the wonder pass or the wonder shot, where the majority of the time it goes straight to the opposite player or 15 ft above the crossbar. Short simple passing is much more attractive to watch

Cloughie came out with the same statement over forty years ago. He transformed Pools from a laughing stock into a decent outfit using that philosophy.
Play to your strengths and stick to what you're good at was his advice.
He gave that advice to John McGovern who very rarely gave the ball away. It was all down to percentages.
If you watch old footage of McGovern in his heyday with Derby and Forest you will see it perfectly. Short passes, keeping it moving was his game.

Let's just say Nicolai Laudrup might not be his wife's son...

Let's hope actions speak louder than words or he'll be joining the dole queue by Xmas!!

aye, some great talk by Laudrup..