Today’s piece comes from Stephen Goldsmith.

WHEN Gus Poyet first arrived on Wearside, one of the first things asked of him was whether or not he had a “Plan B”.

He stated that he was actually curious about the English obsession with the concept of it, and that you should aim to have a system that works without the need for an alternative.

Immediate concerns that he’d try to get that group of players to keep possession of the ball at length were extinguished when he assured us all it would be crazy to try and make that transition in one go.

He then played two strikers in the home derby and left out players such as Ki and Borini (at least from the start). It was a pragmatic, and ultimately successful, approach that yielded a much-needed and confidence-boosting win.

His dismissal of a Plan B prior to this seemed even more odd from that point, this was clearly no one-trick-pony.

You can read the rest here.