I think Chiefy did a great job, the tactics were spot on for where we are at right now
The centre backs were excellent individually. They were also assisted by two full backs, who never left the defensive line and defended narrow. The full backs simplified what the centre backs had to do, and man they were excellent. Surman has improved a great deal despite the lack of minutes last season.
The think Rufer was awesome, with and without the ball.
Using the 8's to defend the wide areas was cool. Using 8's in side to side manner (rather than up and down) is something a lot of the top sides in Europe do. It meant that the 'wide' forwards could defend narrow and mess with WSW's play from the middle of midfield.
Of course, if you set up like that, you get less going forward, but Chiefy had a plan for that too and I think the direct angled passes in behind from wide areas was the perfect plan for an attacking setup that was going to lacknumbers. Obviously we were always hoping to hang on and snatch one.
I'm sure this will all evolve. But I'm so delighted with the starting point!
Fortunately, all of this fascination made up for what was actually a pretty terrible game (i didn't care)