This.
Big Sam maintains he played this way because of the clubs he was at and the resources he had at his disposal.
And it was a success.
Didn't work too well at Newcastle though when he did in fact have more talented players....
Blackburn squad not good enough to play football? really? he had Pederson, N'Zonzi, Dunn, Emerton, Kalinic, Olsson, Nelsen, Jones, Hoilett, Samba, Givet ....that's no worse than the likes of Bolton, Fulham etc...
he never should've been sacked by newcastle though, he was very harshly treated by them and they paid the ultimate price
i think you'll find that bolton and fulham have better squads than blackburn, although it is close
Because they hated the football and wanted better than Midtable. With hindsight it was a bad decision... but probably seemed sound at the time.