Originally Posted by Stu Monty
I don't think it's simple at all mate. He had a goalscoring machine up front getting on the end of everything, in Van Nistelrooy, and completely overhauled the way they wanted to play to give them more fluidity and movement because he thought tactically it was to easy todefend against; hence moving to the situation where there is no real centre forward just lots of attacking players floating about all over the place. I looked at that and thought "That's fucking clever".
He come to anfield and sits playing a cagey game now, a very cagey game. It's horses for courses and it's not always if you score one we'll score two.
And Benitez used Mourinho's own concept of himself as a tactical manager by challenging him to do something special in our matches; Geremi playing at right back and that bizarre diamond midfield in the FA Cup was a direct result of Mourinho being a manager who liked to make tactical moves that impressed.
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There's nothing especially clever about how they play at Anfield though, really. They just sit back and soak up the pressure and then hit us on the break or score a set piece. I really don't see the tactically mastery of that at all because if I was a manager, i'd do exactly the same at Anfield.
Their back line just starts about twenty yards deeper than usual and they let us beat ourselves.
I agree with Section totally - the key in the Premiership is twatting the average sides by just going out with the belief that you're miles better than them. I'm not saying it's as simple as just turning up and winning, of course it isn't but I think a lot of it is down to motivation and confidence.
If my manager was telling me to watch the late runs that some average player makes in an upcoming game with relegation fodder it would affect me a bit, because why should I have to worry about him when i'm miles better than him?