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.

1 hour ago, Loxm said:

Louis Page is excellent man… has to start the next game. A class act on the ball. 
 

👀

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. 

4 hours ago, Stuntman_Mike said:

We'll lose this with both teams to score, our league record will be won 7, drew 7 lost 7 and that pretty much sums up our inconsistency. 

 

We've played 20 games now and apart from Brum at home, I can't remember one solid full game performance. 

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.

5 hours ago, DoveValleyFox said:

No, I don't think that he has it tactically. It should have been more comfortable second half playing on the counter. Most coaches have this in the bank. 

 

His bosses may be telling him to make something of the players who are being paid so much and they might have a point. Either way he should be getting more out of the squad.

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. 

8 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Nelson, Stolarczyk, and Faes are fit to play

 

Soumare is a doubt

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. 

5 hours ago, Parker Pen said:

I hope you are right! Individual performances and moments of quality have kept him n the job so far!

it’s the tactics and shape that a decent manager instills that gives the players confidence . At the moment we have none of the above.
 

Let’s also not forget that was an interim manager promoted from the under 21s that schooled us last night, not someone who had managed 100 championship games.

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. 

5 hours ago, EastAnglianFox said:

Do you think he knows he’s shit and out of his depth?

 

Face starting to look more like a rabbit in the headlights week on week so I actually think he’s fully aware

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. 

1 hour ago, Collymore said:

These have been really noticeable. You do see some of the tops teams doing it and it's so quick and effective.

 

With us it just looks like we do it for doing it sake sometimes. 

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. 

9 hours ago, lcfc_forever said:

Football has moved on - physicality, stamina and transitions are you rightly say regularly are as key as possession. 

 

Rather than the 3Ps, a lot of our football is plodding, pedestrian and passive as we struggle especially with the team pressing us in the middle of the pitch. The likes of Winks and Thomas have technical ability but lack physique so can get bullied. Get more direct, work on set pieces and sort the players' stamina, we should not get bullied. 

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

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

44 minutes ago, kingfox said:

I think it comes down to personnel, especially with Ayew starting and the certain options we have in central midfield. Central midfielders are so important in high pressing intense systems, all you need to do is look at Bournemouth under Iraola as the prime example, they are currently the masters of it. 
 

The signing of Jordan James has clearly added a bit more engine to our midfield, but of course he’s had Harry Winks alongside him who is known for his midfield controlling rather than defensive work. 
 

@StriderHiryu what’s our average positions been like since the Winks & James combo against Wrexham and Swansea? 
 

A chunk of our fanbase may not like it, but this squad is more suited to be possession based and control games, which also shows up in our statistics so far. We rank 2nd for 10+ pass sequences and 1st for build up attacks. 
 

Our issue is, who on earth is going to be on the end of our build up play? 

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. 

1 hour ago, Ian Nacho said:

I'm by no means a tactical expert but to me it feels like we're attacking far too much down the wings and not enough through the centre which is limiting us to hopeful crosses into the box meaning we're hardly testing goalkeepers. 

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. 

2 hours ago, HankMarvin said:

Marti continues his record of barely breaking 1xG per game

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. 

On 23/09/2025 at 14:45, Foxes96 said:

Fair point. Expect we might see a bit of rotation over the next three games. Away at WBA looks to be the harder of the 3 fixtures, so wouldn’t surprise me to see Marti stick with the same XI, with more changes midweek at home to Wrexham.

Vs WBA (a)
Stolarczyk; Ricardo, Faes, Vestergaard, Thomas; Winks, Soumaré; Fatawu, James, Mavididi; Ayew

 

Vs Wrexham (h)

Stolarczyk; Hamza, Okoli, Vestergaard, Thomas; Winks, James; BDCR, Page, Monga; Carranza 

 

 

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.