cityfanlee23

What a strange game, Very rocky first half and could have given away a few more goals if blackburn had a bit more quality, 2nd half was improved, at the 75th minute we are all nailbiting again feeling like we are going to throw it away, scored a penalty and then looked like a top top class team in the final 15 almost taunting them, we went through ever season in 1 game. Flattering result for the most part but can't have any gripes with another 3 points on the board. Faes, Bestergaard, Winks and Wilfred Ndinho the class acts, long may it continue.

Like it, but I think Wilfred Ndinho rolls off the tongue slightly easier

I would be interested in knowing where the Maresca idea came from, apart from my gripes regarding how far back we sit when passing it around the defence, overall Maresca has done a phenomenal job in steadying the ship and turning us around. We could easily have gone for more proven names, Maresca was a big gamble given the job that needed to be done. Rudkin is one of the big reasons we are in this mess, but he's taken a big step in redemption if this was mainly him.

We could easily lose Wilf in Jan to a foreign club, need him signed up!

We really need to get Ndinho tied down to a contract with a big payrise for promotion. If he continues like this he will be gone in January.

Wilf Ndinho has been fantastic today, KDH desperately neded that he's had a very poor game, he's one of the most frustrating players I've seen

Classy finish from KDH

Wilf Ndinho

I'd have another just to make sure to be honest

Again we are heading into the final 15 biting our nails, really wish we could finish games off early

When I saw his face it looked like it was torn but he's walking off with a limp so hopefully it's not too bad

Yeah looking at this season he looks to be becoming one of those "what could have been" players, but hopefully he can find full confidence/form soon

KDH is a central defensive midfielder.

Wilfndinho

We have a lot of hot and cold players at the moment, it's just hit and miss trying to predict which one is going to have a shocker

I've no doubt the system can work in principle, Enzo is not some sort of tactical revolutionary that is paving the way, plenty of teams play this way, plenty of teams utilised the position Ndidi and Ricardo are playing for example. My issue is purely where on the pitch we are doing it. We need huge upgrades to make this work, but even then I think better teams should we get promoted will be able to exploit it even better. It's all good and well improving the squad, but if you improve the opposition that could somewhat then nulify the chances we could theoretically create if they are positioned better. As I've said, i'm fully fine with the principle, I detest how deep we are doing it, and i'm yet to see any evidence that doing it so deep has an advantage over doing it in a safer position.

I think the scoreline does mask over the cracks and gives people a massive barrier to sit behind. This isn’t the premier league, but if this is how Enzo wants to play in the premier league should we get promoted, we are in massive trouble. On the other hand if this is all part of the plan and the only reason we are doing this in our own box is purely because of the way championship teams play (I don’t really buy that) then I could accept it more. But the main problem I have is the vast majority of people defending this style of play, most of them can’t give me any data, statistic or example of where it’s actually benefitted is compared to doing it slightly further up the pitch in a safer position on the pitch. I’ve not seen a single example where playing 10 passes in our own box has led to a goal or a chance created that could not have been created doing it 25 yards infront of goal. So to me it seems unnecessary. The only defence of doing this that I’ve seen so far is “it’s part of the process” “risk and reward” or just “we are winning though” or other equally vague defences.

Yeah I think if we are going to transition into a new blueprint for the club, going down has probably helped us, if we had made these mistakes in the prem we would be in big trouble, every cloud!

That's where I'm at, there is this really odd attitude on this forum atm where people just assume if you disagree with the way we play it's because you don't understand it, or this strange how dare you question Enzo attitude. I'm perfectly happy with the tactical approach, perfectly happy with what we are trying to achieve, I absolutely detest the way in which we are trying to do it, and where on the pitch we are trying to do it. Of all of the best teams in the world that adopt this style of having full backs that shift into midfield, and defenders that pass it around to pull the opponent into pressing to create space, not a single one of them do it in their own box as much as us. There is nothing necessary about this suicide brand of football, all of this can be done further outside of our own box. It's not resulting in tangible statistic that shows it works better than the teams we are aspiring to play similar to. All we are doing is gifting unnecessary chances to the opposition whilst not really producing more for ourselves.

We can only dream of being close to this, but at present we have barely anything in the final third relative to the chances we create, and we are very susceptible to mistakes at the back. 100% agree if it eventually clicks it will be fine, but Pep, Klopp and Arteta also change the way they play. Hopefully it works out and we can stamp out the silly mistakes

It's shite. The principle is fine, where we are doing it is stupid. No team in world football that plays it out from the back does it in such a risky way. There is absolutely no reason to be doing this in our own box.

There's nothing necessary about doing it in our own box, everything we are trying to achieve can be done in a safer position. Every team in the world that plays this way does it further up the pitch.

I mean, I get that, but overall I just think it's stupid really. When we find better teams than Blackburn we will also be playing teams positioned better than them and have less passing options potentially. I just don't see how a manager with such a dynamic philosophy in terms of modern formations etc can have such a hardline approach to suicide ball. Plenty of teams pass it around at the back, none of them do it in their own box and make the same tired mistake 5+ times a match

Within minutes we are making the same tired mistakes from Mads being forced to play it out.

Wilf with the assist, Fatawu passed it through to wilf