He's full of s**t. Villa and Millwall 'dips' saw the philosophy

of endless slow short passing 70%+ possession-at-all-costs shelved and the rigid 4-1-4-1 template binned, along with blindly picking possession-orientated midfields with absolutely minimal defensive attributes with scant regard for the opposition. Lest we forget the Villa dogs of war of Reed; Murphy, Vrancic, Naismith, Stieperman and my personal favourite, for Millwall away; Reed; Hoolahan, Maddison, Vrancic, Murphy

Shame it took all of pre-season and 5 league games to realise Naismith isn't a midfielder, you can't play just 1 defensive midfielder and have two attacking fullbacks and two attacking wide midfielders, Russell Martin is not and never will be a reliable central defenser, and that counter-attacking with direct passing isn't a sin.

Posted By: MIKEWALKER, Oct 5, 09:05:27