Has modern football adopted the Allardyce playbook? We asked him

The clock is running for five minutes. The ball is at the goalkeeper’s feet. He hits it long rather than pass it to a defender. A flick-on is given to the big striker. On goal, a forward chases it down and makes it happen.

It resembles vintage football.

No, this is not Chelsea versus Manchester United in the Premier League on September 20, 2025.

It seems like we have already been there, especially now that modern coaches are putting more emphasis on set pieces and “going long,” and they have abandoned a possession-based game.

Bolton Wanderers was led by Sam Allardyce from the second tier to Europe before taking over a number of other clubs, including Newcastle, Blackburn, and West Ham, with a style of football that is once again a fixture in the Premier League.

Allardyce tells BBC Sport, “We faced a lot of criticism at the time.” However, many people, especially at the larger clubs, or even the press, were not overly positive about our performance because we were ahead of the game.

He didn’t get suspended; instead, he opted to sit in the stands and watch the game.

The Spaniard claimed, “I’ve been watching rugby coaches analyze matches from above for a long time.” I’m always open to anything that can enhance our performance, he says.

Rewind 25 years and Allardyce was one of the few coaches who preferred the stands over the touchline.

He claims, “You have the bigger, better overview.” You lack emotional ties.

Allardyce saw the value in his assistants, the sports scientist, the physio, and the fitness coach in his interaction with the bench, as well as his walkie-talkie.

“Anything I wanted to show the players I could actually show them directly rather than just talking in the dressing room.”

He states, “I did Blackburn in the stand, Newcastle in the stand, and Bolton in the stand.”

Why, then, did he stop acting?

What is the manager doing in the stand and not yell at the players when I visited West Ham in 2011?

“Why are you doing that?” asked the directors,” not just the fans.

The pressures on his seating arrangements were severe from the outside.

I ultimately gave up on it. I occasionally returned to it, but never as frequently as I did at those three clubs.

You need to give your home fans the right environment to see that you’re doing what you should, even though I didn’t think it was.

A big man was liked by his system, and so did Mark Viduka, Andy Carroll, and Christian Benteke-Allardyce, too.

They played a crucial role in a football tactic that placed an emphasis on the first pass going forward.

Some notable summer signings include those made by Manchester United, Newcastle signed Thierno Barry, and Newcastle signed Ben Sesko (6’5″), while Erling Haaland (6’5″) has continued to excel at Manchester City since joining in 2022.

The choreography of expertly woven passes from the back seems to have lost its relevance as a result.

Allardyce says it’s great to see forwards playing as the frontman for a change.

“For the past three or four years, they have been sat in the middle and said, “When am I going to get a kick?” “

Frontmen will no longer be as bored as they have been in four years. The frontman will understand that because he enjoys being forced to either hold the game up or down the channel.

Are we seeing the end of what Allardyce refers to as a “pandemic” of playing out from the back as Manchester United and Manchester City discard goalkeepers brought in as much as their ability with their hands as their feet?

He claims that “it’s changing once more.” The negative statistics are that giving the ball away in your own half more frequently results in goals for the opposition when they are defending themselves and scoring.

Allardyce led Sunderland to Premier League safety in 2015 after taking over the club that was 19th in October and without wins in eight games.

Although having a striker like Jermain Defoe who scored 15 goals for the Black Cats was undoubtedly helpful, set-pieces were unlikely to be their weapon.

“Corners and free kicks are very important,” said one journalist. Use long throws, of course. You don’t use a player if they don’t feel comfortable. However, Allardyce cautions against doing so.

No team scored more goals than Sunderland in dead-ball situations during the same season, with the exception of penalties. By two points, they managed to avoid being dropped.

According to Allardyce, “in my time, our players’ overall goals would be trying to be greater than the average Premier League stats were.”

We had to be better than the rest of the bottom eight, if not in open play but with set-pieces, to score more.

More than any other Premier League campaign this year, set-pieces have been the cause of 27.7% of non-penalty goals so far this season than any other campaign.

The Premier League team’s most potent scorer in this area over the past two seasons, set-piece coach Nicolas Jover, was even honored with a fan-painted mural close to Emirates Stadium.

Allardyce considers the Frenchman and his fellow dead-ball trainers to be cutting-edge.

The 70-year-old continues, “There are more and more set-play coaches than ever before.”

“Arsenal have done very well on that,” they said. Because everyone had to work hard to stop them against that particular corner, they have slightly changed this year.

However, how can you make the most of a corner?

Who puts the ball in the box is what makes it beautiful. Nearly all of Arsenal’s players “put the ball in the right places,” says Allardyce.

Allardyce never shied away from challenging himself, and his advice to any aspiring coach who is hesitant to test their own tactical innovation is simple: be different.

He claims that the practice of “you can only play this way,” which has been around for a while, has spooked coaches, especially young coaches.

Because of the criticism, not just from the fans, but also from some journalists, coaches are hesitant to use a great tool.

So could teams switching things up, using long throws, or simply throwing the ball straight out of the kickoff, another rugby-inspired tactic, be the new normal?

Everyone else on the pitch is aware of what’s coming after a few weeks. You begin the coaching process in that direction, Allardyce says.

“The surprise factor is enormous, particularly in the first fifteen minutes. When coaches haven’t yet developed our system, I’ve seen them jump and dance on the touchline.

We used that tactic for a number of results before going back to where we felt most at ease.