As stated previously stated, I for one would love the legend that is Shaun Maloney to become one of our all time favourite Managers.
I think the problem starts with football in general, whereby it’s “fashionable” to play possession football and Managers follow the herd rather than create their own winning brand / style of exciting football. Anyone remember Kevin Keegan at Newcastle; if they score three, we’ll score four.
I think I posted the following comments 3 or 4 months ago: listening to post match analysis on Radio Lancashire, Kevin Gallagher was decrying the style of Blackburn Rovers and other Championship teams. This Saturday, after watching Blackburn Vs Plymouth he was reiterating the same comments, saying: how a lot of the games are boring because Managers have adopted this possession philosophy, but haven’t got sufficient skill sets within the squad to pull it off. In other words you cannot emulate Liverpool or Man City without the right ingredients.
I do get this thing about “possession” if you are playing Premier League or European football, where the standard of the players are generally World class and if you lose the ball you can be punished at the blink of an eye. However, we are playing in League One where class is replaced by cut & thrust energy & enthusiasm and we must therefore have a more adaptive style of play, but still be able to play the possession game when we need to “shut up shop” to secure the three points to win (and not to protect a draw).
