I'm not trying to be difficult Hucks; I just think the debate about CH's brand of football will never progress unless the bases of comparison are made explicit. What I meant about 4:5:1 not defining a style is that it is perfectly compatible with a whole range of different approaches to playing the game, e.g. a long ball style in which the ball is cleared quickly out of defence, or a patient build up style passing the ball more slowly forward out of defence; likewise it is compatible with different approaches when possession is lost, e.g. dropping back to defend in two banks in front of the penalty area, or a pressing style hunting the ball down in the opponent's half to stop them building attacks; some teams get the ball wide early and play up and down the touchline until they've worked a crossing position, others play more through the middle and with a lot more lateral movement of the ball. Although you can expect to see examples of all these from a team over the course of a game, you can usually identify one or other approach which predominates. For example, Barcelona always defend high up the pitch and only drop back and defend deep when the opposition manage to break out; Man Utd in contrast tend to drop back, regain possession at the back and counter-attack at speed; and so on.
Fair enough mate. If I wasn't on my phone I would probably try and explain to you in more detail what I believe our style to be. To be honest though, I reckon you'd be thinking something pretty similar to what I'd write.
One of the best threads in a long time, started by an excellent match summary by Supers. I think too much focus is put on formations when the modern game is so much more subtle than that. IMO, Robbie is right about his explanation of why Olsson was left out. One defender was enough and CH wanted more attacking options according to how the match developed. He isn't defensive minded, he just wants modern footballers who can both attack and defend, and that is very plain in the players he has brought in. I'm amazed at how much work RvW puts in harassing defenders deep in their own area (he even made a joke of it on MotD after the Everton game, saying "yeah, just another lazy striker!"). He isn't, and CH won't put up with anyone who doesn't pull their weight in both areas (Fox, for example, and was this the problem with Butterfield?). Fer is exemplary at this, as is Elmander in a more subtle way. Olsson is an attacking defender who can also play on the wing. Even the exciting Redmond is more than willing to put in his defensive shift when the opposition have the ball and to me that's what this season is all about. Lambert's team was often exciting going forward, but they were also often defensively embarrassing when the opposition had the ball. I suspect Villa fans didn't feel 'entertained' when they lost 8-0 to Chelsea last year. City's development is long-term and it is progressing well.
I now have an image of Lambert walking over to the Villa supporters immediately after the match, dressed as a Roman gladiator, screaming "Are you not entertained??!?" [video]www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs[/video]
