Roberto Martinez

[Samdwich]

Always had a lot of respect for him, was very impressed by the way his Wigan team played the latter half of the season after switching to 3-4-3, just seen this article about it and how it helped them and it's pretty cool:

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/05/16/wigan-stay-up-after-a-switch-to-3-4-3/

Shame it misses out an explanation of the Man Utd game, though I think that game was largely down to the fact that they had wingbacks able to press the wingers and not let them get on the ball, Utd like to play through the wings, their midfield isn't great and aren't able to thread balls through the middle, so stopping the wingers is the key.

Also respect to Pardew for actually changing his side to a shape they've never played in order to try to counter Wigan mid-game. I've been pretty impressed with the tactical acumen of some of the smaller team managers this season in Martinez, Pardew, Rodgers (though he's largely building on Martinez's groundwork at Swansea) and in particular Paul Lambert who has managed to keep a team full of league one and championship level players in the premier league quite comfortably by tweaking his tactics for every game. It really makes the EPL exciting!

Wonder where Martinez will end up, Villa wanted him last season but he's a legend at Wigan and nobody wants to see him go, but he's definitely destined for bigger things. Same with Lambert. In a few years, they'll both be top, top managers imo.

Since I've just ended up babbling about managers and tactics - I can't quite make up my mind on David Moyes tactically. He does very well with Everton considering their resources, and broadly gets his tactics right against big teams (which is why Everton have nicked points off big teams for the past 5+ years), but he's pretty reactive and defensive with the changes. Could be attributed to the tiny resources he has available and doing the best he can with them, only way to tell is if he goes to a bigger club. I've always had a lot of respect for him and wouldn't be adverse to him taking over here.

Anyway, started off as me wanting to share that link and turned into ramblings about managers and sh*t