[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Even Real hit it long when the time is right. Gerrard is a hoofballer, so was Hoddle but the make raking 40 yard passes and are revered by their respective clubs.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, playing an accurate forty-yard ball for a player to run onto isn't "hoofing"; it requires exceptional natural talent above and beyond short one-touch passing. If Stoke had played in that style, I wouldn't have had a bad word to say about them, and wouldn't have the slightest qualm about seeing the same from us; by all means, give us another Bobby Hope who can loft a deadly-accurate ball thirty yards to a winger's feet!

Hoofball as a tactic is specifically the hit-and-hope long ball played up from the back for a target man to knock down and someone to bundle home. Requires little or no talent from the players involved, which is ideal for a club struggling, but tends to become a tactical prison in the long-term when that club wants to push on and do better. All I'm saying.

However, on the evidence of the games so far, I don't think TP is taking us in that direction here and now - fingers crossed he'll be moulding a counter-attacking side - so I look forward to seeing us in a few weeks' time when we'll hopefully have all the pieces of the jigsaw in place.