DI MATTEO HAS REALLY IMPRESSED ME THIS WEEK!.

Roberto Di Matteo gave his first pre match Press Conference yesterday ahead of the Stoke game this afternoon. As you can imagine there was plenty to talk about and discuss but I would like to just concentrate on RDM and his role for now.

We still have to remember that he has only been in the job for less than a week and started off well with a victory over Birmingham that took us into the FA CUP Quarter Finals with Leicester up next.

In such as short space of time, he has really impressed me starting with the press conference. Di Matteo was asked about this past week, getting used to the role and speculation about the position and said:

"How am I going to cope? I will still get up in the morning. Have a coffee. Still have my lunch, my dinner, and get on with my life as normal.

At any club, there's pressure to achieve certain targets. It's always there. Even if you're working at another club. If you can't handle it, don't want it, you shouldn't be in this job.

We are in a results driven business. It's very simple. At any club where you work, you'll have targets and the pressure is there. Everywhere. That's the common aspect for any manager, in League One, League Two, Championship or Premier League.

I feel I have everyone on-side. I have spoken individually to all of them now over the five days. It's a team effort and we needed to get everybody pulling in the right direction.

We've spoken now and everyone is together. They all know what the task is for the last two months of the season. They're all on board. You saw that in the reaction on Tuesday. We have to just carry this on until the end of the season.

It's a collective responsibility when things are not going well. It touches everybody: management, players, everyone who works at the club.

There's a lot of speculation and it's not for me to comment on what's going to happen in the future. I have to win the game against Stoke.

I have enough on my plate thinking about tomorrow. I want to try and keep it as simple as possible, trying to win the next game.

I want to look to the future. I have two months here to achieve our aim and that's what I'm going to put my energy in. We can't change the past.

I have to make sure the players are in the right frame of mind. That's what I have to do. We know we are fifth and we've made mistakes, but we're strong, we have a good team, and we want to show we are better than where we are at the moment."

(Source)

Doesn't he seem grounded!. I have been impressed with RDM this week I have to say. Think about it for a second and put yourself in his shoes with all that has happened. It's important to remember that RDM is a Manager in his own right and agreed to come in as AVB's Assistant and in doing so took maybe a backward step for the time being.

There is no doubt he would have used the time he planned to be here to learn more about the job and managing in this league as he planned for the future. He would never had imagined that HE would take over the role this season even in a temporary basis.

He has to be really excited and over the moon to be given the chance and without question, he will grab it with both hands and so far he has ticked every box. The most important thing he seems to have done is calm everything down. Then he's had to get the players onside with you and your team selection and win the Birmingham game - which he did.

Then, use this week to get everyone together. Some managers in the past have called "team meetings" where players get to view their problems or issues to get things out in the open to hopefully solve them and get past it. RDM has taken this a step further by no doubt having one of these meetings but in addition to that, he has gone round them all one by one and has taken the time to speak to them man to man.

If anything the players will hopefully now respond in a way we all want them to, I said it yesterday in my post about Torres but the same applies to all of them, the hands on and "arm around the shoulder" approach from RDM could be exactly what was missing under Carlo in his last season and AVB in this one.

We keep hearing about how the managers distanced themselves from the players or certain players and how it caused problems. RDM has taken the exact opposite approach and hats off to him for that.

With any walk of life, people respond when they feel appreciated. You do don't you when someone praises you - you feel as though you really want to give more for that person and it's the same with these millionaire footballers believe it or not. The personal approach adopted by RDM this week should lead to hopefully a marked improvement in the performance we will all sit there and witness later today.

It's not only the situation with the players, but it's his demeanour when speaking to the media. He's relaxed, calm and even joking with them. The press respond to it as like they did with Mourinho.

You would imagine that he expects to be asked his opinion on what happened with AVB for the coming weeks and asked about the speculation of people being linked with the job in the summer every week too. He has responded with a simple message to anyone that wants to listen and to those players that are now under his guidance and that it to look forward, taking each game as it comes to achieve his and their objectives.

You have to give Di Matteo huge credit for what he has achieved in 6 days as manager of our club so far. This afternoon is massive for everyone connected with the club and for us supporters all over the world.

For Roberto Di Matteo, it's even bigger than that but if he carries on from day to day as he has been so far, I can only imagine life becoming easier!.

KTBFFH

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