Us doing well could prompt widescale change in the way we think about football in this country.
Right now we're seeing a lot of Jose Vs Pep talk, and critically for me the divide in punditry opinion (outside of obvious bias) seems to be old school dinosaurs vs progressive thinkers.
Most people who talk about our defence played or managed in football at their peaks prior to 2005 or so. Also known as the year football changed from an offside trap heavyset physical game to a less physical possesion orientated game.
Now whilst we're still obviously vulnerable from counter attacks, that's kinda the point. The idea with our play is that we completely restrict opponents by dominating possession and pinning them deep with pressing (another post 2005 development). So sure we're vulnerable, but we don't concede chances to expose that vulnerability.
Most pundits here are experts in the old two banks of four, kick the shit out of your opponent kind of play. Attrition is the name of the game. That's why they're so OK with the Mane incident. Because that's what they did on the regular (as they like to pretend anyway). And a lot of them did it to great success. That's why our play is alien to them. Because if what they did worked and what we're doing is different, then by default (in their eyes) it's wrong.
It's no coincidence that newer pundits don't tend to hark on about our defence quite as much. Because they tend to get it. Even though most are versed in the pre-2005 football they've been exposed enough to modern football to understand why we do what we do.
Mourinho emerged before modern possession football became a major thing. So he's largely schooled on the old school physical stuff (he's adapted well enough in fairness). So obviously it's easier for pundits to relate to him.
Fortunately journos are changing their tune a bit. They're less naive and a bit less arrogant. They know that if they stay stuck in the past they'll be left there. Too many people watch non-PL football to accept PL virtues as gospel. Especially when it's a journalist peddling the line. People tend to trust pundits more for some reason.
People need to see our football work here before they'll accept it, but people in general are wising to it. If we're successful the bandwagon jumpers will champion us a bit more, which is less than ideal but it's critical for progress. Anyone who cares about the national team will hope so anyway.
As a matter of principle, if a pundit criticises a team for zonal marking then I know he knows nothing about the modern game and I ignore them.
