It's a classic case of a good manager assessing his squad and deciding what style suits the players at his disposal to yield the best possible results. Val recognised that our ability to pass out from the back was limited so in order to get the most out of what he had here he opted for the long ball no nonsense approach which was very effective.
At WBA he has better quality players to work with, thus his style isn't so cavalier and direct.
Shame our current head coach doesn't grasp the simple things like that. Instead he puts a left back(who Ismael dint rate) in the front 3, a solid and consistent right wing back in midfield, sends a ball playing midfielder on loan to Oxford and ignores the midfield options he currently has at his disposal leaving them on the bench and bringing a central defender on instead.
He's costing himself by making daft decisions. He's managed 272 games. 150 of those in a regional league with Sturm Graz II whose stadium capacity is 1500. He has a 35% win record with them. Athersley Rec are a bigger club
