The assertion is simple. You can accept or not, as you wish. It is that Scots football, having been on a tour, in parts Grand, in parts not, has returned to Britain, if not quite home. As I write four of the managers in the English Premier League are Spanish, three are Portuguese, one is Argentinian and one Chilean, nine of twenty, and that might seem to be enough on its own as a justification. That the Scots game was planted in the Latin countries, there has taken root, grown and ripened, albeit in slightly different forms according to conditions and has now returned with these managerial imports has some legs, But there are caveats. Whether the Scots game ever really reached Chile is questionable and, whereas there is evidence of implantation in Porto, there is near enough none in Lisbon.
However, the prodigal is not a person, nor a country. It is a style, a philosophy even, Old-style Scottish football that can be transferred and carried by anyone. It had five elements - at the back a block four defence, wide-full backs and vertical defensive pairings, in midfield an attacking centre-half, i.e. a semi-forward, semi-first-line-of-defence and in the forwards outside pairings. All but one of the teams currently in the Premier League uses one or more of those elements. That team is Watford, which may explain why to begin with they have prove so hard to play against. None uses more than three with it impossible to have more than four since a block-four defence and wide full backs are mutually exclusive, even if the picture is somewhat confused by wing-backs. Three use just one. There are Huddersfield and Chelsea, although the one used is different. At Huddersfield it is in mid-field. At Chelsea it is in defence. And then there is Spurs, which changes between three and one from game to game. And this ability to change is also shared by Manchester City and Arsenal.
Having said all that there are still overall trends that can be extracted. Fifteen teams use an attacking centre-half, fourteen the block-four defence, the two elements literally at the crux of The Cross. Thirteen use defensive pairing but to be fair not in a Scottish way. They are horizontal not vertical, an innovation introduced via Hungary after the Second World War, when Scottish football was already largely losing its way. Then there are wide full-backs. They are used by just eight, although with a proviso. Wing-backs used elsewhere again cloud the picture. And finally there are forward pairings. They are used by just six but again with a proviso. They are vertical pairings when there are two attacking midfielders and not just one, with horizontal pairing falling out fashion in the 1960s.
So summed up, no Premier League team uses all the Scottish elements but seven use two of four and ten use three, which, considering the style was supposed to be bust about eighty years ago and has been largely ridiculed for forty of those, is nae bad like.
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