Better than the Premiership?

The cry has been that defensive pragmatism has stifled attacking flair. The criticism so often levelled at the en-vogue 4-5-1 system, that it leads to negative tactical grinds, has been wheeled out on a daily basis.

It has been said before that the formation need not be defensive. It is ironic that the team at the top of the tree, and so often criticised thus, are Chelsea – who have scored 50% more goals than any other team in the league. Their tally of 18 goals in 8 games may be worthy of little credit, given their resources, but it is certainly not dull.

There is no doubt that more and more managers are eschewing the up-and-at-‘em approach that is allegedly the cornerstone of the English game in favour of a more considered, tactically sophisticated variety which cuts down on reckless attacking abandon. Talk that methodical ball retention is alien to English football will come as a surprise to anyone who has ever watched footage of the teams who used to dominate Europe pre-Heysel, but it is the type of street myth which gains a tabloid credibility.

Tactical football need not be boring. But teams set up purely to deal with the strengths of the opposition, without trying to exploit their own strengths, will be boring. And that is why the tactics employed by Rafael Benitez are mind-numbing, whilst those of Jose Mourinho are not just astute, but actually pleasing to watch. It may also explain why Chelsea demolished Liverpool on Sunday, rather than being engaged in a proper contest.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the real problem with the Premiership. The result is a foregone conclusion. Chelsea are the best, and by some distance. When the fact a team concedes a goal becomes a newsworthy event, you know that, competitively, a league is in dire straits.

Which is really something of a shame, because Manchester United and Arsenal are now closer to the pack than they have ever been for a decade. But for the emergence of Mourinho’s side, this could have been the most open title race of the Premiership era. Yet ironically, the demise of the big two has left only one horse in the field. It is almost certainly over already; the most one-sided contest of them all.

We have no such problems in the Championship. Sure, Sheffield United have gone out hard, but they have never exuded invincibility. No-one does. Wolves are perhaps the most star-studded team in the Championship, what with a world cup-semi finalist, six or seven current internationals, and a striker who was once sold for 6 million quid - yet they were beaten last Friday by a determined team assembled at a fraction of the cost.

Quite frankly, you could barely tell which team was which. And damn fine performance though it was from Burnley, upset though it may have been, it doesn’t really stand out in a league where no team is far enough ahead for beating them to count as a shock.

Ki Hyeon Seol - a World Cup Semi-Finalist at Wolves

The quality might not be quite as high – although you’ll go a long way to find a better free-kick than Gaz O’Connor’s effort the other night – but the product is absorbing. Even last night’s encounter between Palace and QPR had plenty of excitement and incident.

And don’t be fooled into thinking the managers lack the nous of the Premiership counterparts: the two on show at Molineux on Friday, Hoddle and Cotterill, had done their homework down to the last letter. Having dropped Gifton Noel-Williams in favour of a floating three of Branch, Spicer and Garreth, and a 4-2-3-1 line up, Steve Cotterill has hit upon a method which liberates creativity within a strictly disciplined framework, adaptable to playing home or away – surely the ultimate point of any tactical system.

But the point is, in this league there is a point. The teams aren’t simply playing to avoid the drop, or for the purely financial honour of finishing in a European place. They’re playing for the top prize available, the title. Then there’s a decent runners-up prize: promotion.

Contrast that with a league in which all but one side have already given up dreams of winning the prize which dominates the season. All they can hope for is a decent cup run and a place in Europe. Liverpool are already talking about next season – yet they have thirty games to go in this. Thirty games in which to try and give themselves a sniff for next term, by qualifying for the Champions League.

In the Championship, at least ten clubs harbour realistic ambitions of success this season. The rest of us will probably be checking the scores at the bottom until at least the back and of March. There’ll be no telling me that does not make for a more exciting product.