I have a nagging doubt that he won't be able to change the way we play. It's a bit like watching Graham Taylor's Wolves, after his England spell it seemed he wanted to prove he was more than a "wingers and long ball" merchant and got his team trying to play a bit of football as well. The result was he was caught between two stools, long ball football requires the ball played quickly into the channels but by dithering around with a few passes it wasn't and it allowed the opposition to get into position and deal with it.
Nuno has been successful by being cautious, with the emphasis on the shape of the team and every player knowing where they should be in different situations. Attacking threat has been heavily reliant on quick breaks from two or three players. It has been apparent from day one that Nuno does not want lots of players committing themselves forwards as that affects the shape of the team. Transforming from this approach to possession football requires far more movement - passing football needs team mates to make themselves available for a pass most of the time rather than the likes of Scholes or Pirlo threading passes through the eye of a needle. It requires a manager who embraces that and gets his players to commit to it and the problem is movement tends to undermine shape so if we lose the ball we are nowhere near as solid as previously. I'm beginning to believe that is is not in his DNA but perhaps equally important is it needs a lot of different players to those we have. If we're going to stick with him we need to revert to what he knows and understands rather than some half-baked evolution. A full preseason might help but i'm not convinced. Seventh place might be as far as his proven approach will take us but without significant investment it is probably as high as we're going to get irrespective of our style of play.
