The thing I thought Liverpool did better than any other side to have come down here this season was press us to distraction. They didn't give us a moment's peace all over the pitch and I came out of the game thinking that I'd just seen an example of how watching football in the flesh can show you so much more than the television can because I can't say that I've noticed that part of Liverpool's game as much as I did the Sunday before last. Thinking about it in the context of that article though, I wonder if Liverpool pressed us harder than they normally would because they knew they were playing a side that would present the ball back to them quite easily because they lacked the ball skills and passing ability to beat that press by playing around it?

In some ways, I don't think the article tells us anything new, but it does a good job of crystalising things. For example, I've struggled to understand why some sides seem so hell bent on copying a style of play that can only work against all opposition for the very best - unless, you have the quality of player that could give Man City and Liverpool a really good game while copying their approach, say, seven times out of ten, what is the point in emulating them, surely it would make more sense to try to come up with a way of effectively countering them?

I've mentioned on my blog before that I watch Manchester City play with a sense of respect, but not a great deal of enjoyment - what enjoyment I do get from them comes when there is a moment of individual magic from a Aguerro, Silva(s), DeBruyne, Sterling etc. but the message conveyed by the article almost suggests that such individualism is discouraged.

Turning to City, it was proved last season that, albeit at a lower level, success can be achieved over the course of a long season with a possession rate of, say, 38 to 50 per cent (anyone saying that Leicester did the same in the Premier League would be right up to a point, but I think it's significant that no side has come remotely close to emulating Leicester by using an approach which was happy to see your opponents have 60 per cent of the ball or more). This season, our possession stat has too often dropped to something like 25 to 35 per cent and the fact we are up against better players means that the consequences of not having the ball can be more damaging.

Barring a truly miraculous escape act in our last two games, the "Warnock way" will have, once again, been proven not to work in the top flight and I have must say that the way we go about playing the game has to be seen as a true polar opposite of the way Manchester City, in particular, go about their business.

I've always said that the football Cardiff City played under, to a degree, Malky Mackay and definitely under Russell Slade and Neil Warnock has absolutely nothing to recommend it by or remember it by if it is played poorly - it looks clumsy, agricultural and old fashioned, but that is not to say that I would want us to try to play like Manchester City. Rather than that, I would prefer to see us play in a way that was occasionally capable of giving them a bloody nose in the way that a lot of sides in this league can do if they are really on their game and Peps' team let their standards drop a bit.

Let's face it, we've not laid a glove on Man City and Liverpool in four games this season, nor Manchester United in one game, we competed, but little more than that at Spurs and rolled over against them at home. We gave an erratic Arsenal team a couple of good games and should have beaten a very off colour Chelsea side at home, but, in only game in eleven so far can it be said that the Warnock way seriously inconvenienced one of the top six.

People are talking about Burnley as being the sort of team we should look to emulate, but, having watched them at closer quarters now, they seem a bit too much like us for my tastes and I believe owe a lot to the fact that they have a much more effective talent spotting set up than us - just as was the case in our last season at this level, so many of the sides we should be able to compete with have got mush better value for money than we did with our signings.

Based on this season at least, the team I would look at as someone we should seek to emulate is Watford. They are a big, powerful team that often play in a direct manner, yet they are able to move the ball around crisply and effectively when they want to and have gifted individuals who, while being a little flaky in some cases, give them the game changers and match winners of a type that we have not seen anywhere near enough of at Cardiff this season.

Historically and in terms of potential support, I would argue that Cardiff City are a bigger club than Watford and I honestly can't see any reason why, with the right approach and effective planning we couldn't emulate them - I can remember a time when Watford were very much a Neil Warnock type team and they still retain elements of the old ways to this days, but they've combined the old and the new in a way which we haven't been able to do up to now.