Now this post might not be popular, but I feel the need to post anyway. Jose's Giants are a force to be reckoned with. Please bear with me whilst I explain.
They have had Moyse's boys playing an old skool style of hoofball, akin to the kick & rush teams Wimbledon used to put out in the 80s.
Then they had a more sophisticated brand of hoofball. Almost a new brand of football. The LVG philosophy on hoofball. This was an improvement on the previous old skool hoofball brand of football. This worked to a degree. It was hoodball into A&E in the MIDDLE of the park.....a CAM who used his head or chest to lay off the ball to a team mate. Proper football brain. A brand new position. A CAM who was shit with his boot, but taller than his opponents, so physically this new position suited a particular type of player. LVG = tactical genius. Unfortunately for Louis, 5th place just isn't good enough for the biggest & besest club in the whole wide world....so even though he has set the blueprint for the future 'United Way' he had to bite the bullet.
Now they have Jose's Giants. He's seen that they need bigger and bigger and bigger players to bully the likes of West Brom into submission. He's bullied is way to titles before with the likes of Ibrahimovic and Drogba as his version of Big Fash The Bash, but he's also added LVG's philosophy of having bigger CAMs too. His huge back four now have the option of hoofing it long into the channels for an athlete like Lukaku to run onto....OR they can play their ace card and hoof it into the CAM position for him to head it down to Mata or the only other under 6ft player they have in Mikatarwhateverhescalled. This is an awesome and almost unplayable brand of hoofball going forwards.
Now this is where it gets a problem for the rest of us. Now he has signed Matic, they now have either 6 or 7 players who have no interest whatsoever in getting infront of the ball. Although they had no pace in the middle of the park, they are very disciplined and find their shape early and don't lose their position so they are unlikely to concede many goals. Against most top teams they will look for and probably get a few 0-0 draws, but against the rest, they will win MOST games 1-0. Make no mistake, we are way better then them, and although I've taken the piss somewhat, I do see them as a challenge to overcome this season.
