Confient Cotterill

Last year we saw new signing David Cotterill getting the most assists for the whole of League 1 with 20 and scoring 10 goals, many of which were wonderful, funny enough the player that finished 2nd in the assist table was Scunthorpe United player Mark Duffy on 15. However, he has been unable to continue this during the current season, we look at why the Welsh International has been struggling. I mentioned this in my article about how this season has been difficult for him, you can read other difficulties the team has faced here.

Firstly let's remind ourselves what Cotterill brought to the team last year......

There is no doubting his brilliance and skill. He can bring a lot to the team and certain help the team win a good number of points over the season. Recently David has had a revival in form, and starting to show he can do it at this Level. We all knew he had the class, but grew frustated with him, many people used him as a scape goat, wrongfully.

He has scored recently against Huddersfield and Leeds, but more importantly, his game has improved. His best assest are his shooting, passing, crossing and dead balls. And according to Paul Dickov, David stays behind at the end of training to work on these. So for those questioning his attitude, should take note.

So why has he had this revival?
In my opinion, it is all due to confidence, David is a confidence player, last season we saw him at high confidence and he was unstoppable, however he lost his confidence mid this season. The reason for this probably lies with Paul Dickov, who has recently gave David a run of games in the team. Another reason could be do to with Billy Sharp, as someone had pointed out on the VSC forum.
Billy's presence does bring out good form in those around him, you only need to look at Cotts and Copps to see the effect of this.

David is out of contract at the end of the season, has he done enough to earn a new one, well providing he isn't after mega bucks, I do believe he has done enough, and still at the age of just 26 has many years ahead of him, I think a 2 year contract would be ideal. And ofcourse there are always those people that believe his good form is a result of his near ending contract, but if you gave these people 5 pound, they would moan that it isn't 10. From watching David all season, you could see he was low on confidence, we witness the same with James Coppinger, he goes through stages where his performances drop due to low confidence, and then when his regains his confidence, he is unstoppable.

I really think David is an important player, people should lay off him and credit him. Thankfully I have seen one or two go back on their word, hold their hands up and admit they made a mistake.