If Villa adopted the Spainish model......

[LeeB]

If by cautious you mean they don't just pointlessly give the ball away, then I'll take cautious any day of the week. My main criticism of Del Bosque is the slightly unnecessary playing of Xabi Alonso AND Sergio Busquets, but I can see that he didn't want to be counter-attacked. Spain were as attacking and direct as they could have been, and in Euro 2008 they approached games with much the same mentality and scored billions. It's the tactics of the opposition that changed, nothing more, and if the same happened to Germany everyone would be unfairly calling them boring.

It's bit highlighted that I was refering to when I said cautious.

Spain have by far the best squad at the competition, bar Brazil, and this is down to years of technical development which is something to be admired. But little men playing tip-tap football is just one aspect of the game to enjoy, not the be-all and end-all.

[LeeB]

you do get the feeling the majority of villa fans prefer the hussle/bussle style of play rather than a measured build-up retaining posession which is probably why mon is so popular.. always been that way unfortunately. me, i'd love us to play like spain but its not going to happen.

I'd like us to take on some aspects of the Spanish game, not all.

[Greg N'Ash]

you do get the feeling the majority of villa fans prefer the hussle/bussle style of play rather than a measured build-up retaining posession which is probably why mon is so popular.. always been that way unfortunately. me, i'd love us to play like spain but its not going to happen.

I'd like us to take on some aspects of the Spanish game, not all.

agreed.

[ktvillan]

I don't think the Spanish played it sideways and backwards that much at all and I don't think they were boring either.  They kept the ball brilliantly and played it forward whenever they could.  The movement up front and in midfield was way better than anything you see with England or Villa.  I'd love to see us try to play a bit more that way.  They were like Arsenal but with a tougher defence.

Germany were more like us, only much better.  They were fantastic on the break but I always thought they might struggle against a deeper lying defence, like they did against Spain.  This is why I think  the disallowed England goal was more important than some think - England had to commit players forward and it allowed the Germans to play to their biggest strength. As did the early goal and half time clean sheet against Argentina.

[H00513R]

I was also impressed with the German passing game. I know England and Argentina were!

[Ads]

I’d like to see us blend some of the ball retention and movement into our play that Spain have in their approach, but retaining our pace and directness at the same time. I think that would essentially lead us to play like Man United at their very best.

Search for Norwich 1-3 Man United on Youtube for an example.

[TimTheVillain]

the biggest irony for me is that if Villa adopted the Spanish model, the first player to sell would be a Spaniard !!

[JUAN PABLO]

the biggest irony for me is that if Villa adopted the Spanish model, the first player to sell would be a Spaniard !!

;-D

[peter w]

The Spain model is based on the Barcelona model which would mean that we would need 10 outfoeld players who were comfortable on the ball.

I don't think we're close to seeing Collins or Dunne do a Pique-esque swivel and goal as seen in the CL semi-final against Inter, or either of them having the ball pinged into their feet and then in one movement pass it to another player. in fact Petrov aside i can't see any of our team having the technique to do that.

[Concrete John]

If we tried to be exactly like them, we'd fail miserably and be a worse side for it.  They play to their strengths and we play to ours.  Although I would like to see us try and adopt their movement in midfield.

[peter w]

To do that John we'd need to be a lot narrower and play with only one wide player, if any at all.

[Concrete John]

Quite possibly, but I still think that elements of their game can be incorporated without losing our strengths, such as the width.  The ability to move off the ball to a space where the man on the ball can pass to you is just as important in wide positions as it is central.

[Monty]

Movement is the most important thing in the Spanish style of football, more important than width, than hard work, even than technique. Without movement you can forget all hopes of fluidity. Spain's remarkable ability to just never lose the ball is something we can't hope to match, but we won't be up against defences as well organised as the Portuguese or the Dutch, nor counter-attacks as potent as the Germans, so we can afford to be less than perfect in our imitation.

[olaftab]

I think we should adopt this Spanish model!

http://www.celebritywonder.com/vids/Esther_Canadas/xIYyLLF7qvs.html

[Dave]

Let's just get Cuellar to teach the rest of the team how to do short, intricate passing then.

Let them learn from the master.