Promoted Premier League teams are so much better now - thanks to a simple stylistic tweak
Berlin was drawing on a line attributed to the Ancient Greek poet Archilochus, who observed in the seventh century BC that "a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog knows one big thing. And, on the other side, those [foxes] who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory… their thought [seizes] upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences and objects… without, consciously or unconsciously, seeking to fit them into… any one unchanging, all-embracing, sometimes self-contradictory and incomplete, at times fanatical, unitary inner vision.
In recent seasons, several promoted clubs were led by hedgehogs: managers wedded to a particular style, for whom the prickly business of amassing enough points to stay in the top flight was no reason to deviate from their principles. Sergej Jakirovic ( Hull City ), Gary O'Neil ( Ipswich Town ) and Frank Lampard ( Coventry City ) have all shown a pragmatic streak this term.
It has served their teams well, even after a set of disappointing results at the weekend. After seven games, Hull, Ipswich and Coventry have amassed a combined 24 points, the most for a promoted trio at this stage since 2016/17.
The foxward turn began last season, when Daniel Farke kept Leeds United up and Regis Le Bris took Sunderland into Europe. Both managers adjusted their approach from the Championship, shifting to a more muscular, counter-attacking style.
It worked, allowing two promoted teams to avoid the drop after back-to-back campaigns in which all three went down. The sample size is still small, but the early signs suggest Hull, Ipswich and Coventry intend to follow suit.
The three promoted sides have the lowest average possession in the league. Hull and Coventry have the lowest pass-completion rates, while Hull, Ipswich and Coventry's goalkeepers are in the positional top four for long passes.
Not long ago, it was common to hear promoted managers insist they would not forsake their philosophy upon reaching the Premier League. Adaptation was seen as a dirty word, compromise construed as a character flaw, tactical flexibility tantamount to a betrayal of beliefs.
Even when trailing 3-0 against an elite pressing side, their teams continued to take goal-kicks short and play square passes along the backline, like a hedgehog who responds to every challenge by curling into a ball. The clearest recent examples are Vincent Kompany at Burnley and Russell Martin at Southampton, two coaching careers which have since diverged sharply.
Even as their teams hurtled towards the Championship, Kompany and Martin insisted there was no other way. Kompany's subsequent employment at Bayern Munich, where he has been successful, would appear to vindicate his unwavering faith in his preferred approach, but his ability to speak German and the unavailability of other candidates were more significant factors in him securing that job than his ideological intransigence at Turf Moor."