StriderHiryu

These stats are alarming but they do need a bit of context around them. Mart changed the system recently to a midblock (though we still conceded our goal by having a stupidly high line), and that system deliberately does not press as high up the pitch so should involve less running around overall. That said, a mid block should still engage the opposition once they are in the middle of the park, and the sprinting stats are damning there. However, here are even more stats that back-up what the eye test already tells us: But just for reference, during the season we won the Premier League: Sky Sports shows that no Leicester players were in the top 10 for total distance at that stage of the season. Marc Albrighton was Leicester’s top distance runner at that point: 254.19 km (19th overall). Here are the distance run per 90 stats and you can see that though we did run a lot more that season, we weren't top of the league for it. But it does show you that when we defended, the work rate of Okazaki, Albrighton and Kante was something to behold and on the break the searing pace of Vardy and Mahrez meant we covered the hard yards. So overall even though we might not be playing a high pressing system, we aren't working hard enough to engage in the areas we choose to do so, and it's no reason we are unable to boss a game as a result.

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It surprised me he was so bad last season because he was good for Fulham, even in the Premier League. He should have been one of the better players at this level and to be fair to him, now he’s showing it.

The manager has found the best system for the team, sit in a mid-block and hit the opposition on the counter attack. That's the good news. The bad news is that he is really struggling to find an out ball and a way to relieve the pressure when teams go for it against us. The lethargic start to the second half was one thing, but that can happen to anyone. After that is where I was most disapointed. I would expect a competent manager to be way more animated and demand that some of this players keep the ball in the middle of the park to restore some control. JJ might have had a knock, but bringing on Daka so we ended up with a midfield duo of Skipp and Reid was honking. I think this manager points the finger way too often and doesn't look at himself. "The players don't listen to me"... mate you are the MANAGER and managing players is what you are there to do. Communication with your team and getting them to understand what you want from them IS the art of management. Rodgers and Maresca were able to get their ideas across within weeks, this guy can't. He can still save himself, but he's got to work on better transitions when we are under the kosh, and also needs to be able to coach the team to be proactive in those situations, IE to step up and play higher and have the confidence to play with the ball to calm the game down and ride the storm.

We weren't even good in that game. We scored with our first effort on goal and then didn't make any chances till right at the end. We had an xG of 0.67 in that game and Ricardo was lucky not to be sent off. We haven't been good for 90 minutes against anyone. Even in preseason we were great for 60 minutes against Fiorentina, before they put on their actual best XI and then were the better team.

Mid-block into counter attacks is the way! Taken Marti almost 20 games to get there, but he's cracked the code.

I agree with this, but this is something that should be a lot more fixable than in his previous tactical setup. Fatawu made a lot of braindead decisions in this game on the break but if the coaching team practice specific setups and instructions, this can be addressed quickly. The reason I thought the manager should go is that he was tied to a possession dominant, slow build-up style that just doesn't work anymore. Whilst I do think another manager can get the mid-block into fast transition style to be even more effective than it was today, there now isn't something obvious that a new manager could do to realistically get us moving up the league. One swallow doesn't make a summer, but if we can go on an unbeaten run we can still move the table. It will come down to if he can improve our play in this system for the rest of the season.

I was hoping Faes would be out so that Marti would be forced to pick Aluko as a CB. I suppose this means that Nelson could come into the team instead, but it's going to be Faes and Vestergaard again isn't it? Will be interesting to see if Winks plays. If Soumare was available, I think that him and Skipp would be in, but I imagine Marti will be cautious instead.

Imagine spending hours creating a "Marti Cifuentes style of play" video then presenting it on stream and then see us make the most amount of short passes in the league between CBs instead. You'd look like a right idiot

There's been a lot of talk in the BTG chat this monring about the manager. Sacking yet another manager does feel like the definition of insanity, but he's sacking himself. Any manager that is this low in the table after 17 games played is going to be on the chopping block. There are many different opinions on the topic, however! Marti played right into Southampton's hands yesterday with his tactical approach. It should be noted that even possession loving Enzo let Southampton have more of the ball in both our games against them to hit them on transition. This time round, we let them do it to us and we got punished for it. I think Marti can save himself, and I would look closely at what Southampton are doing... moved away from heavy possession and concentrating on hitting teams hard and fast on transition. Replace Scizenza, Azaz, Fellows and Armstrong with Mavididi, Ramsey / BDR, Fatawu, Daka and Ramsey. This team is never going to be world beaters, but IMO you could get a much better tune out of them than what we are seeing.

I think he does, his body language is quite telling. He looked like a dead man walking on the touch line against Norwich till JJ saved him. I think he’s expecting to be called into Top’s office any day now.

For me the issue is we seem to try it every single time. It would be way more effective if instead of trying it 8 times out of 10, we tried it 2 times out of 10 instead.

Ha ha love those 3p’s you put there! I am stealing that! 😂

I will do some analysis of our lack of chance creation this Tuesday on Blue Tinted Glasses. Marti loves a line-breaking pass from Vestergaard or Winks to bypass the opposition midfield into the False 9 or 10 into a bounce pass to turn the opposition lines and create a 4 on 4. But this has barely worked all season, and when the opposition snuff out these passes it leads to massively dangerous turnovers, or worse, a direct goal attempt as for the Norwich goal. I also think it's massively telling that when we go direct, espeically down the wings, that we look much more dangerous. Not just for JJ's goal, but JJ put in a great cross for Daka, and even the Reid goal came from the ball bouncing in the opposition area and Daka chesting the ball. Admittedly that was atrocious defending from the Canaries, but still, it shows that we have the superior quality to capitalise on such situations. We can only hope Marti learns some of these lessons for the next game, but I will hold my breath on that one.

We covered some of the points discussed recently in the analysis show yesterday.

You'll have to tune into next week's show to find out! Against Swansea, JJ was on average the furthest player forward. In general the team has been playing a bit higher up, but it depends on the opposition as Wrexham parked the bus.

Next week on the Blue Tinted Glasses tactics show, we are going to talk about the various tweaks Marti has made during the season. The change you are refering to was a direct result of the one league loss we had this season against Preston. Both goals and multiple more chances came from a turnover leaving the high line ruthlessly exposed. Predominantly Vestergaard, but Thomas, Faes and Soumare hardly covered themselves in glory either. The Championship itself has changed since last time we were here, with more teams going man for man themselves, which also makes a high press a lot riskier. Consider the following: The Championship is a 46 game season We were restricted to just 3 signings, all 3 were loans Our defensive options include Vestergaard, Thomas, Faes and Kristiansen We sold Kasey McAteer Ricardo is ageing and Hamza lacks refinement (penalty vs Huddersfield for example) Our CDM options include Soumare and Skipp Would you play a high pressing system with such a squad? On paper if you could get Okoli and Nelson into the team, and Skipp and Soumare (possibly Page) were capable of being Henderson / Milner style shuttlers, you could get it to work. But when these players have been given a chance, they have not taken it. Maybe if you line up with Winks, Ramsey, JJ, Ricardo, Faes you could do it, but you need a deep squad to continue to press, which I don't think we have. ^ Here's the difference in pitch posiitons between Preston and Charlton games. Notice also how in this game Skipp and Soumare acted as double pivots too. Marti decided to not have the team play as high and had more players back on transition. That will stifle the attack, but it also protects the defensive line too. Here was part one of the season review so far. In the second half of the show we look at the starting 11 and show some stats. It's hard to argue that Vestergaard and Winks haven't been among our best players this season, hence the stylistic change from Marti.

Attacking down the wings would be fine... if our wingers weren't being double and trebled up on. On occassion either Jordan James or Ricardo / Hamza makes in the underlap run for the wingers, and whenever they do, all of a sudden space opens up for them. In this system though, it does not happen as much as it did under Enzo. As a result we are ssing both Mavididi and Fatawu struggle compared to two years ago.

This is the biggest underlying issue to me. But we have a squad bereft of quality attacking players, even at this level. He’s got to have players near the wingers when attacking to draw men away from them. All teams double up on our wingers and shut us down.

I think this is what Marti will do but Monda and Mavididi will start in opposite games to what you've put here. Wrexham are the most long ball / lump it teams in the division so a bit of physicality especially to start the game is probably the way to go. Page might not start against Wrexham for similar reasons. The pleasing thing is that despite Ramsey being unavailable the squad seems quite strong at the moment, which is neccessary when the games come thick and fast. I could also see VK playing one of these games given Thomas has played in all of them so far.

Rather than reply to everyone in this thread, I though a better way to do things would be to cover it in the weekly analysis show on Blue Tinted Glasses. I compared all of our striking options, which ones are better for which purposes, their pros and their cons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_LysR4sPfQ&t=1837s We compared the types of runs and the problems our various options can pose the opposition and what we could do to improve our goal scoring in general.

Going to be covering Mavididi a bit in tomorrow's Tuesday Night Tactics show on Blue Tinted Glasses. Here are how his stats compare to his last Championship season to this. One thing you have to say is that in terms of the hard yards and defensive aspect of the game, he's doing his part for the team. But overall we see a player that seems devoid of confidence, no longer as willing to get involved, take his man on and have a shot. He was actually much better in all 3 aspects against Coventry... and yet was rightly hauled off by the manager for Monga. This time round he doesn't have a KDH playing next to him in the attacking phase and I think it's been detrimental to his performances.

Sorry but this just has "old man yelling at cloud" vibes all over it. Spain beat Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 finals with Fabregas playing as a false 9. Man City won the Premier League twice with KDB playing as a false 9. Via your logic, both of these players would get pelters because they are "not interested in the core element of being a striker." Marti has said his system is heavily influenced by the Barcelona team managed by Johan Cruyff. That system had Michael Laudrup as the false 9 who was one of the best at that role in history. Over 4 seasons where Barcelona won La Liga 4 times as well as the Champions League, he scored 41 goals from 160 appearances. Roberto Firmino for Liverpool scored 82 goals from 256 appearances as they won the league and Champions League. Both great players, but the stats show they were not prolific finishers due to their role. A false 9 drags players around and makes spaces for wingers, attacking midfielders and other players free from rotations to score from. Like how he combined with Mavididi and put a pass on a plate for Mavididi to score from. You can dislike the system and the manager's tactics, that's entirely fair. But he's performing the role he's been asked to do pretty well overall. But if Marti wants to persevere playing this way, then both wingers and midfielders need to box crash away more often to give us more goal threat. I think the signs are there though, Jordan James got into good positions several times, and Ricardo has been on the score sheet a few times already for a reason. Carranza might well end up being the better player for the system given that he's faster and better in the air. But Ayew is getting hated on for the wrong reasons. Blame the manager for picking him, not the player for doing what he's been asked to do.