Dick Advocaat’s managerial CV has been known as a broad and, at times, random-scrutinizing patchwork of teams, countries, and short excursions to jobs in Asia. At first, it is arduous to see where and how the man fits in at Sunderland squad when taking into account their current predicament. The Dutchman certainly has no experience, nor does he have fascinating track record during his career in the English Premiere League. To his credit, he has yet to be embroiled in the kind of relegation war he now is about to encounter.

However, while Sunderland fans may be tempted to scratch their heads at his swift appointment on Tuesday, they ought to take positive tone and take encouragement from the fact that it was Advocaat that assembled one of the most attacking as well as underrated sides in the past history of European football milieu. Do you think he should keep Sunderland up? Could he emulate the team he create at Zenit in 2007/2008? That projection, as well as expectation, was overshadowed by Barca’s furiously evolving golden generation, but anyone that followed them in UEFA Competition that season will definitely remember that the standard of the game they accrued was oftentimes right up there with that particularly fascinating performance displayed at the Camp Nou.

It is then relevant to put forward that this Zenit side has not been expensively, or sufficiently, assembled outfit fraught with Brazilians and the other overseas imports in as much as the Russian sides were mostly comprised of homegrown players. Zenit, which was the defending Russion champions, were below the par in the domestic run, finishing only fifth in 2008 season. However, their performances and outcomes in the European Competition, Europa League, has been more than compensated. It is of course relevant to put forward that the homegrown players are given more faith to spark the games that the fans have long been expecting. The regular starting eleven contained only three imports, all of whom are from Eastern European countries.

The manager has been working on the 4-5-1 formation which had still to entirely keep up with the European battles. The full-backs were Aleksandr Anyukow on right side and Czech Republic’s Sirl. The composition was complete with a robust left foot devoted to both crossing and shooting. Without a doubt, there have to be more combinations, potent ones, if the team are to gain exalted position in the Europa League competition.