It's not really a season until Sam Allardyce criticises the way someone is playing, in a totally unself aware way that David Brent would be proud of, so it's good to see Big Sam has kicked the Premier League season off early.
Sam Allardyce is Dave Bessant England Manager. The fact that the former Bolton Wanderers manager got the top job in the country and would have been due to take the team to Russia last summer feels almost beyond parody.
Big Sam isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea. He plays some very old school football and it pretty much lost him his jobs at both Everton and West Ham.
It's fair to argue that Allardyce doesn't really fit into the modern mould of football manager with the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino and Maurizio Sarri dedicated to high presses and attacking football.
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So it's not really a surprise that seeing new boy Unai Emery getting his team to play out of the back angered the 63 year old. He spoke on talkSPORT about it being a 'stupid' way to play, saying:
"What do Manchester City do? Press press press. So why do you try and play out when they press press press?
"Even the Arsenal crowd cheered when they dropped one in the opposition half. You cannot just force 'the only way to play is this way' in this country.
"We are getting obsessed with this stupid 'let's play out from the back, split the centre halfs, either side of the 18-yard box and go and play from there'... (it's) utter rubbish to play like that all of the time."
Most of the former managers criticism was to do with goalkeeper Petr Cech and how uncomfortable he seemed to look being asked to play the ball out more rather than being direct.
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At one point the former Chelsea number one nearly scored a very embarrassing own goal as his attempted pass to a defender went by the post and out for a corner.
Allardyce's criticism is no surprise but he may have a point as it's no surprise how City will set out before a game. Asked whether Guardiola's side were in the wrong for also playing out the back the former Blackburn Rovers boss said, "When you're the best at it, you can do it."
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester City, Football News, Unai Emery, Sam Allardyce, Premier League, England, Arsenal
