  An optimized phonon approach for the numerical diagonalization of interacting
electron-phonon systems is proposed. The variational method is based on an
expansion in coherent states that leads to a dramatic truncation in the phonon
space. The reliability of the approach is demonstrated for the extended
Holstein model showing that different types of lattice distortions are present
at intermediate electron-phonon couplings as observed in strongly correlated
systems. The connection with the density matrix renormalization group is
discussed.
