James Horan believes Donegal have "evolved significantly" in the months since Jim McGuinness left the management role.
The ex-Mayo manager was speaking to us on Off The Ball tonight - as he will do every Thursday during the championship - in a week when McGuinness made some criticisms of Mayo and called for an adjustment to their defensive strategy in his Irish Times column.
In his response to those points, James gave his take on Donegal and also feels Mayo joint-managers Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly will be working off their own philosophy.
"Jim has a way of playing and a successful formula, you can't argue with that. That formula won them an All-Ireland for sure. Donegal now have evolved significantly from even Jim's time which is always the fascinating thing about Gaelic football," he said.
"I'm sure Jim has some good points in it but Noel and Pat are very capable managers and they'll be making up their own minds with the players as regards to what's the best way for Mayo to play. When I was manager of Mayo, that's what you do. You look at the players that you've got, you look at the skillset that they've got and you look at where they are as a group, you look at where you can go to and you've a philosophy on how you want the football to be played."
James, who will be part of our commentary team when Roscommon and Sligo lock horns on Saturday, also looked ahead to that match which you can listen to the podcast.
James will be part of Off The Ball's commentary team for the Connacht championship clash between Roscommon and Sligo on Saturday.
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