In the Premier league maybe, but even some his analysis seems really dodgy when it comes to foreign teams.
Because I watched a Bayern side — playing a classic 4-4-1-1 formation straight out of the old school English coaching manual — dismantle Barcelona. There were no diamond systems, no Christmas trees and it wasn’t a 4-2-3-1. I repeat: it wasn’t a 4-2-3-1.
This wasn’t clever inventive players working in between the lines. This was a conventionally coached team made up of two banks of four, with the second striker dropping into midfield at times and the first striker working hard up top.
Bayern gave as good a performance as you could want to see from a coaching perspective. You would have to say they allied that with some superb skill and excellent technical players. But tactically they were flawless. To get that system to work correctly, the distances between the four defenders have to be exactly right. And the four defenders and the four midfielders have to work in two lines of four, staying close to each other.(...)
The same could be said of Ilkay Gundogan and Sven Bender, the central midfield two, in Borussia Dortmund’s 4-1 win over Real Madrid. And it restored your faith in playing a more conventional 4-4-2 because, if you have good enough players who have experience, intelligence, quality on the ball and can tackle and pass, you can still play brilliant football in that system.