McGrath was the master motivator

Manchester City’s roving reporter writes every week for Chron Sport

IT’S been a disappointing week for Manchester City, with results against Barcelona and Liverpool proving pretty disastrous.

Barca showed their class last Tuesday at the Etihad, and in little Lionel Messi – well, he is just on a different planet sometimes.

What a player he is. It was great to see him play at City again, though I’m sure he’ll have been majorly disappointed with the way he missed the penalty and the headed chance to make it 3-1 at the end.

That penalty save by Joe Hart could prove vital. It gives City a chance and they will go to Spain in a couple of weeks believing they can still get through.

At Anfield on Sunday Liverpool lookd to be back to their very best. They were so fluent in attack and scored two quite brilliant goals. I was impressed with the great desire they showed, and when they play like that they can be a match for any team around.

I’m told Manuel Pellegrini has come in for a bit of stick since then regarding the tactics he used.

I can’t comment on that, but I’ve known many managers down the years.

The best motivator I’ve worked with was John McGrath at Preston in the early 80s.

A little like Brian Clough, John used to make the players want to go out on the pitch and impress him, and it worked for him. His man-management skills were superb.