No, I don't really think they were Stuart. At that stage Coyle would have little idea of how PL's Rovers would have played, style-wise and I do think he was just outlining his philosophy - he said similar things when appointed at Bolton and Wigan if I recall correctly.
Funnily enough that was one of my biggest criticisms of Lambert actually, his classless digs at his predecessor early in his tenure (a couple of which came back to bite him on the arse)