There's this false idea that RM has never changed his style though.
Last season we got bogged down with that possession system too much in a lot of league games and it didn't work.
No surprise when we changed it and became more counter-attacking that we started to see better results.
Strangely enough, in Europe, we played with that counter-attacking style all along and benefited from it greatly up until that Kiev second-leg (where it is really one of the few times that RM has got a selection wrong in that he went too attacking from the start).
Now, look at our away form and style this season and compare it to what we did in some of the European games (both home and away) last term. It's near-enough bang on identical, and it shows that RM has learned from last season that we can comfortably beat teams using that way of playing. So there, he has learnt that lesson and he often references Europe last season as the major benefit and it's for that reason.
Ultimately, that style does require a team to come out at us and require us to be strong defensively, so we can then exploit the gaps on the counter. On the road we haven't seemed to find it an issue, and that's probably because there is less pressure for us to come out and attack a team from the off.
It hasn't worked this season at home (obviously), bar the first leg of the league cup vs Man City, and the game against Chelsea in September, and the game vs Sunderland where we hit them on the counter as soon as they got up a head of steam from their equaliser.
I won't count Villa and N'Castle as they were both dreadful and we played around them mostly.
Now, it's plain to me that this system works against teams that come to play at Goodison (e.g. Leicester, Stoke as two examples.) The main issue, for us, in those instances, we failed to score first and so constantly ended up chasing the game. Vs Leicester we conceded two stupid penalties and against Stoke we sat back too deep and they were in great form in fairness to them.
It also requires some semblance of authority and composure from our keeper, which has been sorely lacking in a lot of the instances that Howard has been in net.
It's also partially down to the pressure of the Goodison support as well. Not in a bad way, I might add, but I do think it's a factor.
At home, fans want us to be on the front foot from the off, which is perfectly understandable. However, a lot of teams at Goodison now come to sit deep and do us on the counter (the likes of Swansea, WBA, Watford etc have done this). Vs. Swansea, we sat deep in an attempt to lure them out and open up some gaps for Mirallas and Del. However, the pressure from the crowd meant that we kind of got stuck in between the two, and that is a fault in the players' mentality that they didn't stick to their tactics.
Then, a Stones mistake combined with Howard being Howard, resulted in them taking the lead. We then have to chase the game and even though we equalised, we were playing right into Swansea's hands in that first half. Second half we changed tact to having to dominate possession but couldn't get over the line despite creating loads of chances.
Vs WBA, we went strong from the off and they grabbed their goal due to a mistake from Coleman in conceding the corner trying to let the ball run out of play, and McCarthy and Lukaku both switching off at the back post. Mori could also have done better to win the initial header.
From then on in, how we didn't score will remain 'one of them things'.
Now, I'm actually going into tomorrow's game with a bit of confidence. Not because of how well we played (as we didn't, particularly) vs Villa, but because W.Ham have got a lot of players injured in defence. The likelihood is they'll be starting Kouyate at right back with Oxford next to Ogbonna in the middle. If not, they may go with Antonio at right back with Kouyate and Ogbonna in the middle.
That means that they are going to know that we are capable (and actually, more likely than Spurs) of breaking them down. It's alright coming here if you've got a team of defenders like Pulis, but when you've got half of your defence out it's a different matter all together.
That leads me to believe, and with the form their in I think it's likely, that they may come out and attack us early on.
Our defence is on the whole, looking much better due to the form of players like Oviedo (fingers crossed he's fit), Mori and Joel. It's a big if, but I'm a lot more confident of being able to hold them at bay than I would have been if we had played this fixture two months ago.
That isn't to say we shouldn't look to get on the front foot and solely play on the counter. We need to press and attack them and get at their defence. But our main opportunities - like Barca vs Arsenal - will come from drawing them out of their shape and hitting them on the break.
