Adam Johnson asks whether Paolo Di Canio’s continual demands on his players should be abandoned in favour of getting the result.

When Paolo Di Canio delivers a team talk you imagine it being filled with passion, inspiration and of course, animation.

It’s not just in the dressing room that this character shines out but on the touchline with a mixture of delight and urgency shown through his interactions with the bench behind him. Us fans, and even the national press, have a laugh at how he seems to make every pass in his mind.

With all these attributes that fans love to see in Paolo Di Canio comes also a need for decent football. We all love to see pass and move football, much like our third goal versus Hereford on Saturday, but can Di Canio’s expectations of performances be an oversight of the results?

Swindon let slip of a first half lead on Saturday in their 3-3 draw v Hereford and the change came at half time. With Town cruising to another home win with a slick and effective first half performance, seemingly to hit 3 or 4, Di Canio’s men came back out for the second 45 a complacent side struggling for momentum.

Di Canio said after the Hereford match that “In the first half I told my players I don’t like this atmosphere. We were 2-0 up, but we had to be capable of scoring another goal. At the end, one point is good because we didn’t deserve to win.”

The Italian wasn’t happy with the first 45 minutes, even though his side were 2-0 up. Paul Caddis and Simon Ferry also backed up what the Italian said during half time and you wonder if Paolo’s motivational side comes out in the wrong way.

Similar comments have come from the former West Ham striker in previous games such as the 2-1 defeat to Shrewsbury where Swindon let slip of another half time lead and against Dagenham and Redbridge.

Against Shrewsbury Di Canio, frustrated by what he saw after 45 minutes said “The first half we were up 1-0 but I wasn’t really happy. The second half was even worse and we deserved to lose. I didn’t see a group of men I want to see on the field – we went three steps back. I can improve some professionalism, but I can’t give heart.”

Also versus Dagenham and Redbridge, in a 1-0 defeat from the penalty spot, the manager commented “I didn’t expect a first-half like this from my players. We should play much better with more character and I was upset at the break. They showed character in the second half but obviously it was too late and I’m very angry at all of them.”

With all these post match comments, it seems like his passion is misguided at half time, much like his directional sense in the Swindon half marathon. When he strives for the top quality football he played himself it comes across as a must that’s more important than the result.

Take the quotes above and you see a theme develop. The first half of those games saw us either in command or at least level pegging. However the players walk in, seemingly happy with their efforts, to be told in no uncertain terms they need to do better.

Imagine what your reactions to this would be. There’s no doubt a significant contingent of the changing room would be confused, perplexed and angry their efforts, rewarded by goals and a half time lead, had been in vain.

Now against Hereford we weren’t playing ‘sexy football’ but we were 2-0 up. Town looked comfortable and so a similar work rate and performance should have taken us to another league win. The players though get told that it’s not good enough, they must play better. The pressure and challenge is laid down for them to achieve.

We come out in the second half and look a complete different side. No urgency, no chasing down balls and the energy has been left behind in the changing room. These are symptoms of players who don’t feel confident in their ability or are on a slump in morale.

Di Canio has to say if he doesn’t think his team are playing well as well as they could be, that’s his job. Players though work on morale and the Italian seems to motivate through wanting better. He expects his players to go back out and try even harder which has led to disappointing second half performances.

To be fair to Paolo, we’ve had some great results such as the 3-0 win over Crawley and 4-0 v Barnet from positions where we were leading at half time. It would be unfair to say then that this ‘half time syndrome’ is a common occurrence but it’s something that has happened.

Di Canio has an aura around him in football that personifies passion and a desire to be on the winning side but these traits may have to be toned down as he is now a manager. He built a squad with the purpose of matching his personality, but his desire for perfection is one that is asking too much of his players. Surely he should know there’s only one Paolo Di Canio.

Every manager wants to see his team play to their best and Di Canio has said he wants to bring attractive football to the County Ground. It’s a similar promise to the one Brian Clough made when becoming manager of Leeds United, when saying: ‘they’re champions, but they’re not good champions.’’

However, in League Two good performances are a bonus. The real deal is the points on the board come May and the same goes for football across the world. We’d all love Swindon to win in style but in a League that is known for its rough characters, bobbly pitches and benches, not Recaro seats, style will tend to go out of the window.

Paolo has showed us plenty of character, but one sentence summed him up after his half marathon mishap. He said: “I couldn’t stop, there was a challenge.”

We all know the man loves a challenge but his challenge at Swindon is to get the club back into League One this season. To achieve those aims….more like demands, he needs to drop his desire for perfection on the pitch in favour of rigid and effective wins that get points on the table.