Very Specific Football Question No.26: Is ‘attractive’ football sustainable in the Premier League?

What do Michael Laudrup, Brendan Rodgers, Steve Clarke, Gianfranco Zola, Owen Coyle, Tim Sherwood, Gus Poyet, Roberto di Matteo and Garry Monk have in common?

Three things, actually. The first is that have been all been hailed as advocates of passing, attacking football. The second is that they have all enjoyed impressive stints where their style has been vindicated with results. The third is that they were all sacked from their last Premier League jobs and haven’t been back since.

One explanation for the demise of these men is that they were all lousy, or at best average, managers. Another explanation is that nobody lasts much longer than a couple of years in a Premier League hotseat these days, even if you’re a good manager like Jose Mourinho.

But there’s a third, more chilling explanation. Namely, that their brand of exciting football was the very thing that proved their undoing, and that devotion to a philosophy of “attractive” football in the modern Premier League is an unsustainable fantasy.

It’s an enticing fantasy, nonetheless. There isn’t a set of fans out there who wouldn’t prefer to see their side knock the ball about on the floor and win 4-3, rather than play a perfect defensive line and triumph 1-0.

That’s why Everton fans so enjoyed Roberto Martinez’s first season at Goodison Park.

The Spaniard managed to match the results of his celebrated predecessor David Moyes while playing with a panache never seen under the Scot. In just one season, Martinez cast an unexpected shadow over Moyes’ 11 campaigns by proving that the best of both worlds was possible.

But last year Martinez suffered a blip. Just as a points tally of 72 in his first campaign eclipsed anything Moyes had achieved, last season’s 47 was Everton’s worst return for a decade. In terms of the manager’s reputation, they cancelled each other out.

This is the season on which Martinez will be judged.

It’s not going great. Despite boasting what many regard as Everton’s best squad in a generation, and possibly one of the most talented in the country, the Toffees are under-achieving.

The attacking zest and dedication to an expansive game is still there - with Martinez’s teams it always is - but results have been undermined by a fragility in defence. Only three teams have scored more than Everton’s 40 league goals this season, but no-one outside the bottom five has conceded more. Martinez has added flair to Everton, but does he have the longevity of Moyes?

It’s too early to consign Martinez to the same category as Laudrup, Zola et al. But it’s clearly not the first time a manager with staunch attacking principles has encountered problems.

Meanwhile, a different brand of manager - one at ease with putting substance over style - has proved more durable. Alan Pardew, Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce and Mark Hughes (by no means a defensive manager but certainly a flexible one) have all endured low points, but they’ve returned stronger for the experience. Their reputations remain intact, not damaged like some of their more romantic peers.

Other bosses currently thriving in the Premier League, Ronald Koeman, Quique Sanchez Flores and Claudio Ranieri, have done so with a pragmatic approach. While all are capable of playing with style, they are unafraid to sacrifice aesthetics for a result. An idealist like Martinez is not.

While managers such as Manuel Pellegrini and Alex Ferguson have been able to call upon world class players to help them maintain an attacking philosophy, mid-ranking teams don’t have that luxury.

Nowhere is “attractive” football deemed more important that at West Ham, where Slaven Bilic has been credited with restoring the “West Ham way” that remained a mystery to Allardyce. But Hammers fans who watched Zola’s team unravel will also be encouraged by the cold efficiency of Bilic’s approach in away matches, such as their early season triumphs at Arsenal and Liverpool.

It leaves Martinez continuing to fly the flag for pure passing principles, along with the likes of Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe. But while all those who yearn to see football played “the right way” should root for their success, recent history suggests that - for anyone outside the elite - it’s virtually impossible to pass your way to Premier League prosperity. Any manager who has demonstrated an unshakeable loyalty to the type of football the fans say they want has come unstuck in the end, while those prepared to get ugly have survived.

It would be depressing, but for one exception. Arsene Wenger is the biggest purist out there, and there is no top flight manager more enduring or consistent. Wenger shows that it is possible to uphold the principles of the beautiful game in the Premier League; you just have to be really good. All Martinez needs to prove is that he is too.

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