StriderHiryu

Live at 19:00 to talk about what went wrong in the match from a tactical point view, but also looking at some of the things Ruud has improved over the last few games.

I think there are still some things to learn: Newcastle’s intense high press pinned us back and stopped us from getting going. We were poor at playing the ball out under pressure and retaining it to force Newcastle back into their own defensive block. Kicked it long way too often. Ndidi and Soumare missing meant that we lost the midfield battle. A complete lack of physicality and winning battles meant the Newcastle midfield overrun us. Ontop of this, passing by the double pivot was not good enough and prevented us from creating a foundation to build on. Isak and Gordon up front were superb not only with their goals, but in leading the press. They won so many ground duels. Leicester were poor, but the way Newcastle play, they made us look poor. Defensively we were poor and capitulated badly. What's a shame is that against Brighton, the second point was the area we improved the most in. And that's why missing all 3 of Ndidi, Winks and Soumare was so painful.

Live show tomorrow about it. It's basically going to consist of 30 minutes of me explaining how crap we were throughout.

Panic over it's Bobby Amartey https://www.flashscore.co.uk/player/amartey-bobby/6ZUGOHjc/

What!!!?! I see he's currently without a club...

Yep more than anything this team reminds me of many great teams from the past that were clearly past their sell by date. The last Man United team that won the league, Arsenal when Man United beat them 8-2, Man United a few seasons after they won the treble, etc, etc. But I think the difference this time is that I'm not sure they will be back to being as dominant as they were. Chelsea were a clown show for a long time, but it's hard not to see them becoming the dominant force for a few seasons. Caiceido and Palmer are world class, a few more might hit that category, especially given they've got the most promising Brazillian youngster in many years joining next season. At the same time, it's hard to bet against Pep. The guy has fundamentally changed football forever, and you'd write him off at your peril!

Keen to get the opinions of others on here, but it is possible that the Premier League has "caught up to Guardiola"? When he first came arrived, teams were quite basic from a tactical point of view, so a team with a fixed structure AND world class players was a huge revolution. But in recent seasons, almost every team has a very tactically astute manager; Iraola, Glasner, Emery, etc. This is why Cooper and O'Neil struggled, these are managers that are from an older era and not used to the way the game has headed in. Man City's squad has definitely passed it's sell by date and needs refreshing. But once it has been, will they be so dominant over the other teams? Chelsea have built a great young squad that plays a fixed structure with a great coach. So in games in the future between Man City and Chelsea, it probably comes down to who has the better squad, and this could be an area that other teams overtake Pep in. For me this season the story of Man City isn't just about the decline of some players and key injuries, but also that other teams have identified clear weaknesses in their line up and exploited them.

Wouldn't be surprised if he's been told by Ruud that he's a squad player, not a starter, whereas the opposite was true under Cooper. Because I agree that his body language was totally different against Brighton thatn it was earlier in the season where he genuinely was putting his body on the line.

The game would have looked more like the Bournemouth one where they laid siege to our goal and we were fortunate to get the win. Against Brighton we were much better setup defensively, though I felt that we didn't carry as much of a threat as we did against West Ham. I think Buonanotte's abscence was telling and Ayew had a stinker. We looked much better when Mavididi and Reid came on at the end. In general in Ruud's short spell we've been way better structurally defensively but also carry a threat going the other way.

This! We conceded 31 shots and 3 big chances against West Ham, it was 16 shots and 0 big chances for Brighton today. Their first goal was a worldie, the second one we maybe could have done better, but Minteh does brilliantly for it. Evan Ferguson, Mitoma, Rutter and Joao Pedro were all relatively quiet. The structure is night and day better than under Cooper, and Ruud has only been here for 8 days. With a whole week before Newcastle, there's so much more to come. He's doing an excellent job.

Comes across as a very likable guy!

I have been really impressed. I think he got the starting lineup wrong and should have made changes at half time, but he read the game state well and made changes that swung the game. We also came out for the second half way more aggressively, it's clear they listen to the manager. You also see him on the touchline screaming instructions at the players and getting the message across. If we had Ruud in charge from game one we would have 100% have stayed up. We might still do it, this guy is very good!

We had this funny moment on the stream today Any player who was poor under Cooper deserves a clean slate. Bobby wasn't too good when he first came on today but ends with a goal and an assist. He got himself into good positions and the pick out for Vardy was good. He always looked good for Fulham when he played there, and there was a reason why they are big fans of his. His age and wages may prove to be issues, but seeing an impact player that can come off the bench and do something is what we should expect and today was the first time he delivered!

This season's Vestergaard, highly enjoying the redemption arc.

In this video, we go through all of the MANY changes Ruud made to fix the systemic issues we have seen plague our season. There's a lot to go through, but Ruud really impressed me by achieving so much in such a short space of time. There was also plenty to improve and we cover that in the video too. No images of GIFs this time round, it's a LOT of work to make the GIFs and post them here, but hope you appreciate the new manager we have and enjoy the analysis.

Going live at 19:00 with analysis of Ruud's first win, his tactical setup, and what he needs to improve!

Hermansen has to be one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe. So sadly could see us lining up a potential replacement for the summer...

Vardy confirmed to score the first goal in the 28/29 season when he is our Player / Manager.

If I have time, I will try to do this on Blue Tinted Glasses on Thursday night. Despite only having a few training sessions, Ruud made a few tweaks that had a big effect. Essentially he tried to protect both of our fullbacks, which is why he started McAteer and El Khannouss, and this strategy worked. We have been defending in a 442 under Mareca and Cooper, but it was notable how much more compact the 442 was last night. This has pros and cons, pros, it makes you more defensively resolute, cons, there's more space for the opposition to pick up the ball aand maintain possession and control. But overall this was a good change to make, which made us a lot more defensively stable. Vestergaard and Coady as a back 2 sounded awful on paper, but both looked good. Justin for once was not ruthlessly exposed as he had been all season long. ^ Kristinansen stepped up at times to support the attack, especially in the first half. El Khannouss really put a shift in defensively to support him on transition and in the defensive phase, and I feel like Ruud started him over Mavididi, because Mavididi hasn't been getting back as quickly / often as he did under Maresca. We stopped doing this in the second half and Ruud moved BEK into the centre and moved McAteer wide to the left. The game was wull of interesting tweaks to the wings, Lopetgui moved Bowen into a false 9, and Wan-Bissaka started as left back but moved to become a right back. For me this was the best VK had been all season long. Biggest differences were that he tried to carry and play the ball down the line as his first instinct rather than trying to turn back and play it centrally, which he stuggled to do and slowed down our attack. That forward progressive pass he played to Daka was sensational, and he looked more like the exciting teenager that impressed in the Champions League. Finally it was notable that when we attacked on transition, we didn't attack with as many players. Generally it was with 3, and sometimes a late arriving 4, which is different to attacking with 5 last season. Even Maresca this season has switched to attacking with 4, because the brutal nature of the Premier League means that attacking with too many players leaves you too open if you lose it. Overall Ruud made some sensible changes that looked to make the team defensively more stable, but still carry a threat on transition. Even if we ended up losing, he recognised clear faults we saw all season long and tried to fix them. This is in stark contrast to Cooper who after shipping five goals in the cup to Man United, used the same exact tactic to lose 3-0 to them in the league. Night and day difference in the setup and tactical nous on show.

Every time I've seen Brighton play this season, they have looked seriously good. I think the amount of shots we give up every game means a likely defeat, especially given the quality of their attacking players and patterns of play. There's probably not enough time to improve in this area, but my big concern against West Ham was that we weren't able to control the game enough. Whilst it's going to be much harder to do in the Premier League, if you keep giving the ball away you are always going to be on the back foot. We need to retain it better, with Ndidi and Justin being the worst culprits in terms of losing the ball against West Ham. All that said, with what I saw against West Ham, I have hope that we could get something here, even though it's unlikely. And that is a much better place to be in than just a few games ago.

Listen to his post-match interview, he actually knows what he's talking about. What his ceiling is I don't know, but it's night and day compared to Cooper. The tactics and game state changed multiple times during this match, but Ruud responded every time and was proactive to fix structural fauls. Post match he even addressed the high amount of shots against and the lack of keeping the ball in the middle leading us to get out pressed. If he gets backed in January, we stay up.

Went through the tactics and player ratings here. I was very impressed with RVN, he tried to shore up the fullbacks and started El Khannouss and McAteer for their work rate to do that. It worked! Shows you that a MANAGER and not a PE Teacher would recognise the obvious problems the team had and would try to do something to fix those issues. Changing BEK to the 10, moving McAteer to left wing and Facundo to right wing in the second half was also a master stroke. If Top backs Ruud in the transfer window, I think we stay up. West Ham did have a crazy number of shots, and on another day could have won the game. But our manager had 2 training sessions and already implemented a clear defensive structure and a far more compact 442 rest defence, whilst maintaining a threat on transition throughout the game. LEICESTER CITY ARE BACK!!!

And one who has experience putting that plan into action. You see many managers try to replicate the style / tactics of other managers and fail badly. 3 I can think of are Cooper, Gerrard and Lampard, which is a damning indictment of managers in England and ultimately why having Tuchel as England boss was by far the best appointment possible.