Yeah. Sam was a gum chewing walrus who enjoyed bullying us. But behind the scenes, he was the first premier league manager to bring in a data scientist. Also had nutritionist, video analyst, and psychometrics well before other managers. This also helped in targeted undervalued (often older) recruits in the market like Okocha, Djorkaeff amd Campo. Internally, this was used for load management , with Big Sam rotating more than his peers.
He worked on corners and long throws, and chased second balls. Even though he was derided as a long ball manager, this was often quite structured, with a view to getting deep possession. A lot of what we see in the game now, Sam embraced in the early 2000s.
