Monaghan will have learnt a harsh lesson today-there is a subtle but very real difference between adopting your tactics for your opponents and letting them destroy and hamper your own style of play.

Tyrone play a "total" football style of game and are rightly considered one of the best teams of the past 10 years and it takes little research to figure out what you will face when playing them.

However Monaghan clearly got too caught up in being defensive and thought they could limit the damage done by players like Sean cavanagh and Brian Dooher.

Unfortunatly teams are more and more concerned about stopping the opposition playing  instead of doing their own thing.

Certainley too many of their players did not perform but how do you balance the need to recognise a team's strength's and playing your own style.

Ironically Mickey Harte is the master at it,having shut down Kerry and other sides in many classic encounters while never sacrificong the essentail team etchi of Tyrone that all of their players,from numbers 2-15 can play anywhere in the pitch

He and Jose Mourniho have much in common and the special one could learn  much I'm sure from his Northern tactical at least cousin!

Going out and playing your own game is foolish but going out trying to stiop the opposition playing their's to the detriment of your own is even more foolish.

It is this difficult balance that truly seperates the great sides from the pretenders to their thrones,which Monaghan cruelly found out today.