Different in what sense?
Our start to last season was terrible. This season is even worse. We were getting outplayed away from home badly and not playing till the 2nd half started. This season, bar the Arsenal match, we have been getting over run (West Brom in midfield at Anfield, Man City away, Man Utd away, Birmingham away) for longer periods than we ever did.
Shall I list the differences again? I'll try and do them in descending order of obviousness:
1) No pressing whatsoever, or very, very little.
2) No adaptation in approach according to the opposition, both in defence and attack.
3) No atttempt to nullify opposition strengths.
4) No attempt to target specific weaknesses.
5) Deep defensive line as basis of our entire approach rather than an option (which, granted, was arguably overused last season - with the caveat that Rafa had tons of injuries to contend with. This is clearly Roy's preferred approach - he's had no real injury issues whatsoever, bar Torres to start the season.
6) Midfield 4 plays in a flat line, basically identical to our defensive line, with very little room between them.
7) We don't use the DM's as a platform from which to build possession anymore. Fulham's 'platform' was Zamora - Torres is, thus far, failing very hard indeed in that role.
'Wingers' were more like AMs under Rafa, more intented to play between the lines, more emphasis on keeping possession and 1-2s rather than running at people/running to get into position. This goes a long way to explaining why Maxi's looked a lot worse this season.
9) Under Rafa there was much more emphasis on the full-backs to provide width.
10) On the whole, the midfield and defense were a LOT more aggressive in looking to win the ball back - even when we played deep we'd only stand off to a certain point. Under Roy we retreat into position and stand off until the opposition reaches us.
11) We now man-mark from set-pieces (that should be higher in the 'obvious' list but I can't be arsed to change it again
)
Anyway - I'm sure I could think of more, and admittedly some of those are variations on the same theme, but the basic ones of pressing, defensive line and especially variation are pretty bloody huge, fundamental and glaring differences.
Our form (away from home) may be similar, but the approach is hugely, hugely different. Roy may well be right - I emphasise this is a horrible run of games, especially in terms of our attack gelling and confidence building - but it'll be the same in the next few games. These games are crucial - if Roy can improve our form against lesser teams then he's probably done exactly the right things tactically. We'll get gifted the ball a lot more in the games to come so we'll see more how effective these tactics can really be, but they ARE very different. To be honest that should be pretty obvious to anyone actually paying close attention, I would have thought.
