It's easy to make fun of an ergonomic assessment of Madden NFL 11's new "strategy pad" control, but this video from GoMadden does present a reasonable accounting of why there are many hardcore fans who dislike the design change.
To recap, pre-snap adjustments, both offense and defense, will be made differently this year. In the past - and with this year's NCAA Football 11, which many Madden lifers also enjoy - face or bumper buttons dialed up the group of adjustments (for linebackers, hot routes, whatever) and then the right stick or D-pad executed them. Now it's two pushes on the D-pad.
For their part, the Madden team has couched this as an understandable but somewhat overdone reaction to change, and that everyone will eventually pick up a second-nature familiarity with the commands. I understand that community feedback is definitely being noticed and digested, and that the team will be following up on the issue in the official blog.
My reaction, after seeing this video, is maybe both sides are right and if so, and if you have the choice, Madden NFL 11 on the PS3 might be the preferred version this year.
Madden 11 Strategy Pad Criticisms [GoMadden]