Laudrup in town

Michael Laudrup was appointed as the new manager of Swansea City. Laudrup had previous managerial stints at Brondby, Getafe, Spartak Moscow and Real Mallorca. What about him?  "He was strongly influenced by Johan Cruyff when he was at Barcelona in the late 1980s, early 90s," former Swansea manager Jan Molby told BBC Sport Wales. Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins wants managers who share his football philosophy. Laudrup follows Roberto Martinez, Paulo Sousa and Brendan Rodgers and his appointment should provide tactical stability. His Mallorca 2010/11 was a very good team. He employed a 4-4-2/4-3-1-2 with Jonathan De Guzman as central midfielder with the duty to push forward to support Pierre Webo and Gonzalo Castro while the other central midfielder, at that time the Brazilian Joao Castro, became the holding midfielder in front of the back four-line. Team played a 78% of short passes: when they tried to build from the back, the defenders usually involved the central midfielders. By the way, Mallorca defenders usually moved the ball directly from their zone to the forwards playing a direct style of football. Aftet this first pass, the goal was to accumulate players on the rival's half to play the ball. The team was 4th in the Liga with an average of 70 long balls per game. It has to be changed with the short sized Swanselona. On the defensive phase, his team was very closed in the middle, with 8-9 men behind the line. The transitions were very quick, both offensively and defensively and much players was involved on the attacking phase. On the defensive transitions, the goal was to lead behind the line as many players as possible.