So many teams play with just one formation. It isn't as easy as you make it out to be to play with different systems.
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Michel Bastos - LW - Olympique Lyonnais (40 Viewers)
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the human version of Pavlov's dog 
... and the EPL getting flooded with players and coaches from the continent changed things for the good old British way of playing the game
... and the EPL getting flooded with players and coaches from the continent changed things for the good old British way of playing the game
As I said, he'd already put teams out to play very disciplined games away in Europe in the early '80s using 4-5-1 and had, even at that stage, recognised the need to play a more possession based game rather than their normal high tempo style.
It's possible that his Aberdeen players were more tactically intelligent than the English players at Man Utd and he couldn't change style with them until he brought in some more foreign players who understood how to play a more controlled tempo, though.
Sides that play with the 4-3-3 also use the 4-5-1 when under pressure. When you play with the straight 4-4-2 you don't have much wiggle room for change and I've come to realize it really just doesn't offer enough movement when managed by Italian coaches. The setup is simply too static.
The best managers can change the system to suit the team, not imposing a system that is not suited for his squad.
The best managers can change the system to suit the team, not imposing a system that is not suited for his squad.
could be but I doubt there had been much diff in the philosophy with which Scotish and English player were brought up at the time. Back then, while at Aberdeen, it's possible that SAF played that defensive scheme out of lack of quality players, especially the games in Europe vs quality opposition - same thing as the "parking the bus" tactics small teams use when they play big team ... they do it 'cause they don't have a choice ... it's not like Aberdeen at the time had super-talent in their ranks.
SAF may have talked about changing the way the Brits play football back then, but the first team he coached that exhibited such an approach, that I remember, was the ManU in the late 90's, which went on to win the CL eventually and even they were not entirely foreign to the good old British footie of long balls into the box and running all they long up and down the wings.
It's possible that he "forced" the ManU youth teams and coaches to change their ways and it took time for the generation of Giggs, Beckham and Scholes to eventually mature with a more modern perspective on the game.
SAF may have talked about changing the way the Brits play football back then, but the first team he coached that exhibited such an approach, that I remember, was the ManU in the late 90's, which went on to win the CL eventually and even they were not entirely foreign to the good old British footie of long balls into the box and running all they long up and down the wings.
It's possible that he "forced" the ManU youth teams and coaches to change their ways and it took time for the generation of Giggs, Beckham and Scholes to eventually mature with a more modern perspective on the game.
Perhaps it wasn't about nouse, but the fact that the Aberdeen team actually had the discipline to play the way they were told.
The squad Man Utd had through the mid to late eighties and early nineties was not exactly know for being a disciplined bunch.
The likes of the game away to Bayern involved Aberdeen putting an extra man into midfield in order to keep possession more and to avoid being put under constant pressure, which they succeeded in doing.
It wasn't a case of 'parking the bus' and desperately hoping to sneak a 0-0.
I didn't think the team that won in '99 played any particularly different style of football to most English teams; it's just that they did it much better than any English team had done in about 15 years.
The squad Man Utd had through the mid to late eighties and early nineties was not exactly know for being a disciplined bunch.
The likes of the game away to Bayern involved Aberdeen putting an extra man into midfield in order to keep possession more and to avoid being put under constant pressure, which they succeeded in doing.
It wasn't a case of 'parking the bus' and desperately hoping to sneak a 0-0.
I didn't think the team that won in '99 played any particularly different style of football to most English teams; it's just that they did it much better than any English team had done in about 15 years.
Capello played a very weird 3-5-2 a handful of times (notably the 3-3 against Fiorentina and the 0-0 against Liverpool). He also used the 4-3-3 for a number of weeks, following Nedved's head injury(We were very good when we played that formation, even with makeshift left central midfielder Pessotto vs madrid).
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