StriderHiryu

That is the rational way to look at the game. The counter point is that whilst luck and fine lines play a big part of football, you do make your own luck. We gave away the points because we had no outlet, as our attacking players were knackered and we didn't replace them with players that had enough workrate and by changing the shape by playing Coady on, it meant we invited pressure onto us rather than keeping the gamestate as it was. That said, they scored in the 92nd minute, meaning that if Coady doesn't have a brainfart (he made two mistakes in the same sequence for the penalty), we come away with all 3 points. If Edouard was avaialble, he would have come on for Vardy. For me, the mistake in the game was Mavididi off for Coady. Not just because Coady gave away the penalty, but because we changed our shape. Wheareas if we put on McAteer or even BDR, we'd have retained the balance, and thoseplayers work hard. We didn't need quality then, we needed the wingers who came on for Mavididi and Ayew to continue to do what they had done. Ah well that one is hard to take. Unlucky not to get the win, but probably a fair result given the last 20 minutes.

Insane performance from WIlf today. You can be creative by winning the ball back high up the pitch! I would like to see him paired with either El Khanouss or Buonanotte like the shape Enzo used last season, but fair play to Wilf, he was brilliant today, and I think we ended up losing because he was withdrawn and replaced with someone that was nowhere near as good at doing the job he was doing, which in this case was Choudhury. I think El Khanouss should have come on instead!

Will be going live here soon.

Ndidi has actually been the best player on the pitch by a mile

At this point I feel like he’s actively trying to get sacked. These team selections will rile up both the players and fans.

kenny has outted me as Junior Lewis...

I think there will be more to it than that. I once had a fairly demanding boss. However, the same boss was actually very good, shared success with the team and pushed people to become better versions of themselves and earn their own rewards. He wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but all respected him. Eventually this boss left for greater things and a replacement came in. The new boss was way more easy going and didn't push people. For the first month, the staff loved the new approach as they weren't so stressed. But after 3 months, it was very clear that things were starting to go to pot, and that the easy-going nature was more like winging it and vibes rather than a decisive leadership style. In such cases it comes down to the indiviudals, but I remember a lot of us weren't happy with the new person because it felt like everyone was going backwards. That was almost inevitably going to happen at LCFC, and I suspect it might have happened regardless of who was brought in. Maresca worked next to Pep, so he knows first hand the way that arguably the best tactical manager in history does things. His level of detail is probably unmatched other than by the other Pep disciples.

Potter still free and the England job is clearly going to Carsley...

Chat GPT: Leicester City manager Steve Cooper is reportedly facing unrest from senior players due to his relaxed leadership style, which includes seeking input from the squad on tactics and potential signings. This approach contrasts sharply with his predecessor, Enzo Maresca's, authoritative management style. Leicester’s players are reportedly struggling to adapt, and Cooper may face mounting pressure if results don’t improve soon. His team currently sits 15th in the Premier League table, and a crucial match against Crystal Palace looms.

Unsurpising. Whoever came in was going to find it difficult, and one reason I bet is down to the level of detail. Albrighton was on a podcast recently where he said there were tons of meetings, and whilst he may have felt there were too many, if you are a player it will be clear after just a few training sessions that standards have slipped, and it will concern you. I will also put money on most senior players looking at the Ricardo and Mavididi situations and being as baffled as the fanbase is.

Sad but true

That seemed to be the approach that West Ham took against them and they ran out winners. But for me Palace were the better team in the game, despite the scoreline. The Premier League these days is very German like, in a good way. Both teams take turns having a real go, and often times it's in the chaotic moments that the goals happen, from transitions and counter-transitions. I think Glasner should take a lot of credit for having more of a go than most, yet ironically this may his biggest weakness as it can leave Palace open. I can see why Bayern Munich were after him though, as they would be thinking that his style will be even more effective when you have better players.

Time for the pre-match preview! The video above shows the best examples, but here's some of the takeaways. Palace used to be a solid but dour team under Hodgson, but are now a vibrant and exciting proposition under Glasner. ^ Palace build in a similar way to how we played under Enzo, with Henderson stepping up to act as another centre back as they try to play out from the back. WIth a double pivot of Hughes and Wharton, this gives them a box midfield to play out of pressure. ^ Here's an example of that in-game. ^ When Palace get further up the pitch they are very attacking. Both of their wing backs (circled) support the attack to give them 5 attacking players. Additionally with the double pivot and technical players who drift inside, this gives them an attacking box midfield to generate overloads and 2v1's. ^ That same setup *could* be something that makes them come undone though. If the ball is won back on transition, there are gaps in those wide areas that can be taken advantage of. ^ Here in an example of that against West Ham. Eze is robbed of the ball and Bowen and Wan-Bissaka have acres of space to work with on transition. This is one reason why Cooper is pragmatic, as these days in the Premier League, you are at your most vulnerable as soon as you lose the ball. ^ Eze and Kamada will drift between the lines and spaces to pick up the ball. ^ This means the wing back can support the attack, meaning that either the wing back or attacking midfielder can overlap, underlap, cut in or cross. It causes a lot of problems! ^ If Palace do get back into shape, the wing backs retreat to make a block of 5 across the back. This is not that common in the league this season, as most teams defend in a 442. This means that even if we attack with a 5, we won't have a spare man easily available. ^ Palace play a high line like Villa. I don't think their defenders are as good defensively as Villa's, BUT they are more mobile. A ball over the top could work though as Henderson, though a good keeper, is for me not on the same level as Martinez at Villa. ^ When we attack, Palace will look to win the ball back by pressing to create transition opportunities for themselves. ^ And under Glasner, they are deadly with those transitions as their technical attacking midfielders can do damage. Olise has gone, but Nketiah may play, giving them additional options. ^ For me the key to this game is which of the two double pivots for each team gets control of the game. Against Villa, Ndidi and Vardy looked to block the passing lanes into Onana and Tielemans. This was effective, so expect to see the same again. Overall, Glasner plays a very Bundesliga style of football, which should make for an exciting game. I'm expecting El Khanouss to come into the team for this one ahead of Ndidi, to slide those key passes into our wingers and forwards. For the same reason I could see Mavididi start, as on transition he is deadly. I'm going for a 2-1 win. Palace on paper have the better manager, team and players, but I think PSR could boost our morale and we might fancy it more. We shall see!

For me that's part of the appeal of the club! It's rarely boring! It feels like our C-level staff are somewhat autistic in that they are capable of both brilliance and stupidity in equal measure. Like Rainman who can multiply two 5 digit numbers in his head in 2 seconds, but can't tie his own shoelaces.

If Cooper goes on a bad run and we are in the bottom 3 around Christmas time (or even before that), the club will give him the boot. After dodging PSR it's all to play for with more signings in January possible, or even likely. The real question then is if the current squad is strong enough to get 40 points, and from what I've seen so far it is. Maybe it's one player short, a better striker, but it's pretty competitive. Here are the next 8 fixtures. If we are bottom 3 after this lot, he'll be in trouble, and rightly so. That said I don't think we will be bottom 3 and wouldn't be suprised if we beat Palace. Morale at the club should be good, the monkey is off our back and it's all to play for. Our underlying data so far isn't too bad, though as we all know the chance creation stats are a bit lacking. We only just signed El Khanouss though, and he is likely the key to staying up this season, regardless of who is in charge.

Someone else posted this tonight, apologies I forget who but it had me in stiches: 🎶 "Nick De Marco's magic He wears a magic hat They said a points deduction He wasn't having that He found there was a loophole A problem with the rules While Everton and Forest Both got played for fools! " 🎶

We have got off on a technicality. However, you could make the argument that we already suffered a huge penalty because we got relegated. If the points deduction was applied to the season Everton failed it first, they would have gone down instead of us. All that said if the shoe was on the other foot, I'd be fuming!

"Today will be the day that you forever remember as the day that you almost caught Leicester City!" (Pirates of the Carribean theme tune plays) Will be live here at 20:30

For the record, I would start Ricardo over Kristiansen in Cooper's system. However, Kristiansen does aid our attack, even if his initial cross doesn't find a target: ^ In both these examples he's supporting the attack and asking the question. And because we pick up the pieces, we get a goal indirectly from his play. ^ But what he's not going to do is what Mavididi does here, though Kristiansen is the one that plays the ball to him. Overall I would say that Kristiansen has been quite good this season. But the problem is that "quite good" might not be good enough when you have a player as good as Ricardo on the bench, who is a better crosser and striker of the ball and can even beat his man at times. Riccy P also has amazing tackling stats despite not being the biggest guy. Another thing we could do is swap JJ for Ricardo and take it turns to provide the auxilary full back / winger, rather than it always being Kristiansen.

That's my assumption, just like there is no way Facundo will be playing against Brighton.

It was Jacob Ramsey, who looked pissed off because he got the assist for the Onana goal. However, it was the right move. And that's part of the analysis. Given that Emery made his subs at 60, the first set were probably planned, but after Bogarde got carded, Emerey immediately made changes to both sides of the pitch to deal with Buonanotte and Mavididi that came on, and I think that protected all 3 points for Villa. That's why he's a top class manager, he's got a great understanding of the current gamestate. I don't think Cooper was poor at subs in this game, but suspect that one of the creative 10's at 45, or making changes at 60 along with Emery would have been better for us.

Is that a change of manager or a change of approach? Cooper was not my first choice for manager, but speaking objectively from a coaching perspective, I see quite clear structures and patterns of play. The team is generally much better on set pieces, with the goal in this game being very creative. He could definitely be braver, though he did finally take Cordova-Reid out of the team. I see similarities to the 14/15 season where we were competitve in many games, but didn't win many. What changed in that season is when we attacked and went physical, and weren't scared to lose any more. That's what I think we must do in the next few games, as we are probably going to need 12 or 13 wins to stay up. Regardless of who is in charge, the quality of our squad will always be an issue. Spurs best player was Maddison.. who used to play for us. You could argue Villa's best player was Tielemans... who used to play for us. This is one reason why such teams are so much better, whereas we are a shadow of our former selves.

Extremely relevant to many of the thoughts in this thread!

Here's my latest video breakdown and tactical analysis of the Leicester City vs Aston Villa game. The video is the best way to go through my analysis, but this thread has extended examples and video / gifs to make the examples and talking points a bit clearer. Lineup Steve Cooper opted for a defensive looking lineup with 3 physical midfielders and Jordan Ayew in the team. Whilst this lacked creativity it did provide an aggressive foundation to build upon and meant that Leicester had the most possession of any Premier League they have been involved in so far and did a decent job in knocking Villa out of their stride. Aggressive Pressing ^ Between the 3CDMs and Ayew, we were better at making the most of 50/50s and second contacts. In this sequence, Winks, Skipp and Ayew all do well to recover the ball and get us back on our way. Ayew is pressed by 5 players but wins the free kick and gets Onana carded. ^ Some more examples of pushing up high, being aggressive and either stopping Villa from playing out or forcing them into a mistake. Overall for the first time this season in the league, this gave us a solid foundation to build on and made the game extremely competitve. But all of a sudden Villa had a bit of momentum and took the lead. What happened? Unforced Errors ^ The Premier League is brutal. Unlike the Championship, mistakes are punished heavily. Ollie Watkins should perhaps already have put Villa ahead, but after starting to take over in the game, we started making unforced errors to give Villa chances and momentum. Here Fatawu recieves the ball with plenty of time and space on the ball, and an easy, uncontested pass to Winks available if he wants it. But then he dwells on the ball, gets robbed and all of a sudden it's panic stations for Leicester. ^ Just a few minutes later, here's an even worse example. Faes has plenty of time on the ball to make a pass, but takes too long and is robbed by Rogers. Hermansen again bails out his team after a totally unforced error. Villa Goal These unforced errors compound themselves with the first Villa goal. Skipp has an easy pass back to Faes or Hermansen but gets caught on it. He runs back to retrive the ball and gives away a free kick. I don't think it should have been a free kick, but it was a mistake prior to the challenge that led to the situation in the first place. Fair play to Villa here, it's a clever set piece that catches us by surprise. I don't have much to say about the defending here, my issue is that if we cut out the unforced errors, this goal doesn't happen, and it's Leicester in the driving seat. Substitutions in the Premier League Change Games ^ Despite being a goal down, Leicester started the second half well, with an even higher and more aggressive press. Whilst these subs were probably planned, Emery seemed to sense the danger and replaced Onana who was on a yellow and replaced Watkins who had a bit of an off day. On paper losing these two players was good for Leicester, but it felt like the sign of a great manager sensing the state of the game. ^ And just two minutes later, both subs, Barkley and Duran are involved in the second Villa goal. This felt against the run of play, but shows the importance of subs. Could Okoli or even Faes do better? In this instance I think it's a brilliant header by Duran. Cooper Shuffles the Pack ^ After going two down, Cooper had to make changes and go for broke. On came the attacking trio of Mavididi, Buonanotte and El Khannouss. ^ Once the creative players came on, Leicester looked like a different animal. Mavididi had Bogarde on toast and Buonanaotte is capable of quality. However, I also want to point out that Ndidi who was still on the pitch here is able to use his physicality to keep the ball for Leicester for Facundo to score. Being able to bully opponents in the top flight is important. ^ El Khanouss linking with Kristiansen. BEK has that Maddison like quality of drifting into the right spaces and playing the right weight of pass at the right time. Bogarde got carded and Emery immediately hauled him off as the impressive left hand side of Leicester's attack, reinforced by Stephy Mavididi started to take over. ^ A great move late on from Leicester. Debutant El Khanouss finding some great spaces and pulling the strings. Buonanotte manages to find space and turn in a brilliant area, but sadly overhits his pass. This and some other examples maybe felt a bit like "trying too hard" rather than keeping our cool and being patient. There's a lot to like about this play though, the aggression to win the ball back, the movement and quick passing, etc. Final Thoughts Leicester improved a lot in this game compared to the Fulham game, with more possesion and control than our previous league games. However, we didn't test Villa enough and their quality shone through when needed. To win games we need more creativity, but also need to cut out our unforced errors. This next run of games is huge. Other than the Arsenal game, we need to take points to have any chance to survive, and even draws against some teams might not be enough. We've been competitive, and not look overawed. But we need to put it all together and grind out some results!