how we should play Chamakh and go more direct to avoid the pitch but isn't that just playing the oppositions game? Would Barcelona expect to start pumping balls into the box if they were playing on a poor surface? I am sure they wouldn't because that is not how they play the game. It is different for Barcelona because Spanish teams in general are passing football teams. Even the relegation threatened teams are more Swansea than Stoke City and in the Premier League this is
We have seen what happens when it goes the other way, Mathieu Flamini was deemed as surplus to requirements before his one super charged season where he found his best form. That is the margin the manager has to play with. A player close to joining Birmingham City and not being able to force his way into the team to a player who dominates AC Milan at the San Siro. We could have offered Flamini a large pay rise before he got to the last season of his existing contract and he could