Would This Alternative Foreign Future Have Yielded Anything Different?

As part of our partnership with EA Sports, we’ve had access to Gary Neville to talk about some wider issues in football, primarily discussing the recent move of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to Cardiff City.

As Aston Villa fans will know, Solskjӕr was a target for our own club before Paul Lambert arrived at Villa Park. For some, Solskjӕr was the ideal remedy to Villa’s issues – a foreign manager with a track record of success, not only at player level, but during his time as a manager at Norwegian club Molde.

Of course, the Premier League is a significant step up from the Norwegian Tippeligaen, but many have touted the baby-faced Norwegian as more than capable of handling a top flight role in England, one of the reasons why Cardiff City’s Vincent Tan made efforts to secure him as Malkay Mackay’s replacement.

Like Villa, Cardiff are trying to progress, although many would argue from a far less illustrious history. However, as Villa fans are all too aware, history counts for nothing in terms of achieving results – the fact you have won a European Cup won’t secure you a single goal in the present day.

Getting back to Solskjӕr, Neville said in his recent discussion:

“He was the kind of player that would write down all the training sessions when he was coming towards the end of his career. Even after he had retired and moved up to coaching, I used to see him around the club all the time… I remember one time him playing a game in a reserve team match and him saying he’s playing a 4-2-2-2 system, I was thinking: I’ve never heard of that before! Two midfield players in front of a back four then two in front of that and two in front of that! How’s that going to work? Who is going to move wide?

He was then talking about flexibility of systems and players moving into wide areas. Even in those early stages of his coaching career he wanted to try things that at that time I’d never heard of. At the time I sort of half giggled at him and half laughed but that’s the way his mind thinks, but he does think about things that are outside of the box. Probably in 12 months of him retiring from playing and moving into management, the system of playing through the middle, with the fullbacks providing the width had been employed in Manchester United reserves. He does try things and I think that’s what owners want nowadays. They want a manager who’s going to take them to that next level.

As for Vincent Tan, he’s on his second chance here in terms of Solskjӕr. If he did to Ole what he did to Malky Mackay, it would be more difficult for him to attract a young, progressive football coach in the future. So in terms of that I’m hopeful that Ole gets the length of time that he deserves, and I know full well that he thinks about what he’s doing, he thinks about the game – he’s a thinking man’s person.”

We know at Villa that Lambert is trying to play fairly advanced tactics at Villa Park, though their lack of effectiveness means that the plaudits aren’t exactly forthcoming at present. However, as Solskjӕr – another previous target – is trying to play advanced tactics too, maybe there would have been nothing different had he been employed given the financial limitations would still have been there.

So, as a retired successful professional reflects on whether his former teammate is going to be a success, perhaps there are other things that Villa could learn from who exactly is causing the club’s issues – is it the manager, or is he just a convenient scapegoat that could be any man in the world if Villa’s targets are set to be eternally cheap?

An Extra Bonus

In addition, we’ve also got an additional video from Gary Neville discussing a few wider tactical issues in football, including:

Gary Neville was speaking in his fortnightly column for EA SPORTS FIFA 14 Ultimate Team. Read the full column at (http://bit.ly/1fiBWTl)