StriderHiryu

MARTI OUT

Current mood:

Do we need to get him, Mavididi and Fatawu into the same team at once? And if so who goes where? I think in a few years time Monga will be a 10, a bit like Cole Palmer for Chelsea. But that's a tough position to play at his age, you need a few years match experience... usually.

This should be the big difference between Marti and Enzo. Enzo did not want to take risks, Marti will. He absolutely will be annoyed about giving it away cheaply, but we've looked better in this half and whilst Koln made subs, it's because we have been more direct IMO. But you are right to say we've forced it too much. All part of the learning process!

Gotta remember this is a preseason friendly. This opposition is very good, they are very weill drilled and setup. A number of our players have been poor, but in terms of our setup and structure, there's a clear plan and identity. If we were weeks away from playing in the Premier League, I would be shitting myself, but not for the Championship, because teams won't have the speed and execution on transition that this opposition have. It is frustrating to see the slow paced walking football at the back return when Vestergaard and Coady have it, but that has led to good moves when we play it through the lines after inviting on the press. That's what we are trying to do, and when it works, it cuts open the opposition. At the same time when we push a lot of players forwards, when we turn over the ball, we are at sixes and sevens. The worst players have been Coady, Vestergaard and Winks. Winks actually is the one that annoys me the most, because this style should suit him and he just looks like he can't be bothered. Skipp actually hasn't been too bad and it's interesting he is playing at the base of the midfield 3 in possession. Monga is absolutely incredible, the other youngsters have done themselves no harm at all either. It's a really interesting match tactically and the manager will learn a lot from a game like this. The result is irrelevant really. It's been said already but Ayew has to stop looking for the foul every time and just keep playing the ball on.

He's also saying that because Daka passed it backwards. I can only passively watch the game but I can see that he's got a bit of a job on to coach out of the players their nature to dwell on the ball and take it slowly, he wants them to get it forwards much faster. So yeah Daka was shit here, but the manager wanted him to take more of a risk going the other way too.

£23M

@Trav Le Bleu Joking aside about the false goalkeeper, a number of teams across Europe are experimenting with the GK position. Even Mourihno has said that one day soon he expects a manager will take off his goalkeeper and replace them with an outfield player, win the game and will be called a genius. Man City U21's are playing their GK pushed right up to the halfway line at times! I saw this at the end of last season and wished I could have seen the game. Sounds amazingly fun to watch if nothing else! https://www.soccerodd.com/news/paderborn-goalkeeper-plays-as-right-winger-in-frantic-final-push

Top is currently doing his best to position Leicester as a false football club, so anything is possible. We tried the false goalkeeper idea before, with Danny Ward in that position. We were relegated.

Yep and that aged like Milk. I don't think any manager was keeping our squad up last season, but RVN gave up after just a few games. He then fell out with some players, and the whole think was a funeral march. This season because of the quality of the squad relative to the league, we should be getting results regardless of who is in charge. So then it comes down to if the players buy into the system or not. I suspect that they will do, but we still have no idea who wants to be at the club and who can be bothered, and that could show on the pitch if we are not careful. All the more reason really to play the young guns.

Here is the breakdown from the first friendly. Initial thougts are that we are very encouraged by what we saw!

It can happen on both sides. There were times where both Hamza and Luke Thomas were inverting into an attacking midfield position at the same time! But Marti is no idiot, I don't think he will invert both players like that against teams with fast wingers. He beat Leeds 4-0 at home when they had Summerville, Gnoto, James, etc so he understands the game well. That said, I do think we will concede quite a few goals similar to the way Spurs conceded under Ange by being reckless. But remember that in Scotland, Ange crushed it, because his squad was so superior to everyone else's, and as we saw 2 seasons ago, our squad is by and large too good for this division. You are right about having fast and mobile CB's (and fullbacks) though. That's why Ange signed Micky van de Ven and utilised Romero, because both are super quick. So when Vestergaard plays, that will be a vulnerability we have. I don't think Vestergaard will be the starting CB, but in a 46 game season he will get games, and I think you can still use him against teams that sit back and don't have too many fast players. Coady was used in the first half, Vestergaard in the second. Nelson was doing it against OHL and Faes was effective doing it to find Mavididi under Enzo. With the QPR players, that came about because Marti was telling them to pass the ball long.

It varies depending on which side we attack down. And whichever one went, the other would usually fill in a little further behind, or as part of a back 3. Tune in on Tuesday! There was a lot to study from this game alone, and it's the sort of thing that will vary across the season!

Show Tacticar some love!

I'll do some analysis on the gam eon Tuesday. @Aleksz has already covered some points, for me the most interesting thing was the use of "the free man" who in the first half was Hamza Choudhury. At times he found himself next to Daka as a striker, at others as a spare number 8, at times a 6 next to Winks and sometimes even as a CB next to Coady! That facillitated other players to move around and swap positions to make chances. This type of football takes many hours to perfect on the training ground, so give this manager time. But I think we will be pleasantly suprised with the results and performances

I was very encouraged. Yes it was against farmers, and yes the passing broke down a lot. But you could see a clear identity throughout the game and what we were trying to do. This is a bit like making your sunday roast. You need to leave in the oven for a while before that delicious taste comes through! I am keen to see what happens after around 10 games in. I think we will be very exciting to watch!

I'll be doing the analysis on BTG on Tuesday, but I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. This game is about trying players in different positions, and getting the basic ideas of patterns of play. I already see a clear identity and the game is going by quickly because it's exciting.

@Stadt that's a really good point. It depends on how the team as a whole functions though, as if the press is effective enough you can compensate for a lack of physicality, in this division at least. In the Premier League, there's a reason why CDM's have gone for so much money. Players like Caicedo, Rodri and Rice (even if Arteta changed his position) are worth so much is because they are cool and composed on the ball, but also physically dominant and can put in those tackles.

Given we are in the Championship, sometimes the physical approach is better than the technical one. As you'll see in the video, QPR used Jimmy Dunne effectively, and used his physicality to find him for headers frequently. Hamza has the engine and aggression to get into good positions, so it's possible. Let's keep an eye on the preseason matches to see how exactly Marti sets up and who is used where. We should see quite a few players used in different roles. Even in the Dream Team there were a number of subtle tweaks made over the years, which gave them different dimensions to their attack.

Bang on. You can check out the stream we did tonight, but it was a history lesson on that Cruyff Dream Team and how Cifuentes has taken elements from it and applied it to QPR, and hopefully Leicester. "The Dream Team" was one of the most exciting teams I ever saw play, and was massively influential to me growing up. At the time we had Graham Taylor playing 442 hoof ball in England, and you had 3133 on the continent with false 9's, rotating players and full backs running 60 yards to make it 5-0 against Real Madrid. Chalk and cheese to put it mildly! My expectations are for this to be a more exciting brand of football, but I also expect more than our fair share of "bozo moments" where we are 4 on 2 after a turnover. But I think his style will work. In the Premier League it would require a bit of adaptation, but let's worry about that when we get there! Roll on the Marti Party!

Going live at 7PM!

MARTI PARTY!

BEND THE KNEE

That’s where our team needs an overhaul. If you want to aggressively press, play a high line and attack the opposition we need much faster players. This manager used a really young team in Sweden to facilitate that. If the opposition is faster and stronger, this style won’t work. If the manager plays Okoli, Nelson, Fatawu, Monga, Mavididi, etc his style should work. Players like Reid and Ayew did do their defensive work but they lack the speed to play regularly in a 433 / 343. That said it’s horses for courses. If the opposition themselves lack pace, then slower players aren’t such an issue. Reid under Marco Silva was effective as either an attacking midfielder or winger when making the rotations we’ll probably see under Cifuentes. Vestergaard was too slow and immobile for the Premier League but against bus parkers he can still do a job. I hope and expect those players to be squad options instead of first team though. Hansi Flick at Barcelona transformed that team by relying on the young players for similar reasons.

More suitable. IF we get back to the Premier League, I have some reservations about the style working there. But if you haven't seen, it, check out the highlights when they beat Leeds 4-0 when we were promoted. He has shown he isn't averse to playing without the ball and hitting teams on the break. That is different to Enzo who I think would be overly stubborn. His style is the classic Dutch / Barcelona 433 / 343 and it's variants. If you have technical players, that style will always be effective. When you are up against players who are more technical than yours, it can be an issue.