Saunders eyes Liverpool philosophy

Dean Saunders hopes the winning philosophy ingrained in him during a lifetime association with Liverpool can help move Doncaster away from relegation trouble.

Rovers announced they had placed manager Sean O'Driscoll on gardening leave yesterday after taking a solitary point from their first seven league games, leaving them at the foot of the Championship table.

Saunders moves to Yorkshire from Wrexham with the Blue Square Bet Premier outfit level on points with early season pacesetters Luton.

And he hopes to draw on his own and his father Roy's careers at Anfield to help revive fortunes at the Keepmoat Stadium, starting with today's visit of Crystal Palace.

"My dad played for Liverpool for 12 years and I was brought up on my dad telling me what to do," he said.

"Then John Toshack was the manager at Swansea when I started and he signed all those players from Liverpool, so all that Liverpool stuff was drummed into me by the likes of Doug Livermore.

"And then I signed for Liverpool, for Graeme Souness. He and Ronnie Moran were telling me the same things my Dad was telling me.

"So my whole philosophy on football stems from the way Liverpool do things. If you look at what Kenny Dalglish is doing it's all about the team, it's not about individuals.

"The training and everything Liverpool do is where I get most of my thoughts from. They haven't done badly, so if there's someone to follow, it's them."

Saunders also explained that a mantra of hard work and commitment while shunning life's excesses will be vital if his newly inherited squad are to avoid relegation.

"It's a simple game, football," he added. "A manager's job is to get good players working hard. If you've got all the best players and they don't work hard, you haven't got a team.

"I want to win and I've got pride in my performance. When I was playing I had pride in my performance and I expect that from all the players.

"If you've got pride in your performance it overrules everything. You don't have a McDonalds on Friday or go out drinking on Thursday night because it affects how you play. If you've got no pride in your performance then you'll do all those things."

Doncaster chairman John Ryan - who this week offered a full public backing to O'Driscoll - paid tribute to his former manager's five-year spell in charge, but felt something had to be done after a run of form he described as 'cataclysmic'.

Source: Liverpool Echo

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