StriderHiryu

Footage from the game came up on my feed today. Josh King has a bit of Vardy to his game! For me it's really interesting seeing how open games in youth football are. It's clear to me that at youth level there is way more focus on systematic football and positional play. Whether that's a good thing or not is an interesting debate.

Here's more of the move for that incredible second goal. This needs to be shown to all the dinosaurs in our fan base that want it kicked forward as soon as possible. Winks stands on the ball at the start of the move doing... nothing. He's trying to provoke the Watford player to come and press him. He plays a bounce pass with Ricardo, then Winks plays it... backwards. Mads plays a cool, measured ball with his instep into KDH KDH has come deep to receive the ball to drag his marker with him, and lays it off to Winks. Winks, who is now facing towards the opposition goal can make a first time forward pass through the lines to Ricardo, who is now totally free because his marker jumped to try and follow Winks, because Winks' marker is trying to press the goalkeeper. Passing backwards has taken Watford players out of the game. Ricardo spins and drives forwards with the ball. KDH sprints from his deep position to support the attack. It's now 5 v 4 in our favour and Ricardo can pick his pass. He lays it off to Fatawu with a simple pass. Fatawu could have cut in and lashed a shot at goal. But instead he waits a split second to commit his man, then plays a simple return pass. Ricardo can then just pass it into the back of the net for an incredible team goal. Why pass it sideways? Backwards? Do nothing at all? You've got to see the bigger picture. Don't force the game, make the opposition come to you. Manoeuvre them around and create the space that way, then exploit it ruthlessly. This is peak Enzo-ball. You won't see many, if any, team goals better than this across Europe. Incredible.

Here's more of the move for that incredible second goal. This needs to be shown to all the dinosaurs in our fan base that want it kicked forward as soon as possible. Winks stands on the ball at the start of the move doing... nothing. He's trying to provoke the Watford player to come and press him. He plays a bounce pass with Ricardo, then Winks plays it... backwards. BOOOO! GET IT FORWARDS! Mads plays a cool, measured ball with his instep into KDH. BOOO! Just smash it long! **** tippy tappy BS. KDH has come deep to receive the ball to drag his marker with him, and lays it off to Winks. WHY IS HE DROPPING DEEP!? He should be further up the field! Winks, who is now facing towards the opposition goal can make a first time forward pass through the lines to Ricardo, who is now totally free because his marker jumped to try and follow Winks, because Winks' marker is trying to press the goalkeeper. Passing backwards has taken Watford players out of the game. BUT WHY DOESN'T WINKS JUST SMASH IT FORWARDS!? Ricardo spins and drives forwards with the ball. KDH sprints from his deep position to support the attack. It's now 5 v 4 in our favour and Ricardo can pick his pass. He lays it off to Fatawu with a simple pass. Fatawu could have cut in and lashed a shot at goal. But instead he waits a split second to commit his man, then plays a simple return pass. Ricardo can then just pass it into the back of the net for an incredible team goal. Why pass it sideways? Backwards? Do nothing at all? You've got to see the bigger picture. Don't force the game, make the opposition come to you. Manoeuvre them around and create the space that way, then exploit it ruthlessly. This is peak Enzo-ball. You won't see many, if any, team goals better than this across Europe. Incredible. And yes Winks having a brainfart and gifting them a goal is the downside of such play. But over the course of a season, a great team will create and score many more goals playing this way than they concede.

Let me present you with some evidence: Exhibit A: ^ The ball is loose after a scramble in the middle of the park, Patson works hard, gets there first and then immediately knows who to play it to and with a great weight of pass. Praet checks onto his left foot and it's a penalty for Leicester. Exhibit B: ^ Drops deep, uses his pace to spin the marker that is man-marking him, accelerates into the space that's been vacated and then picks out KDH with a great pass. Too bad KDH didn't pass to Fatawu! There are many examples that can be used across recent games. Enzo is doing a great job with him. Sometimes football is an incredibly simple game. Enzo's system makes it easy to know what to do and when, after rehearsing team moves and patterns of play with one another. Daka's got the raw ingredients to get to the top level, in this system, Enzo is polishing him into a gem!

The biggest element of Daka's game that has been improved this season? LINK-UP PLAY. Let me present you with some evidence. Exhibit A: ^ The ball is loose after a scramble in the middle of the park, Patson works hard, gets there first and then immediately knows who to play it to and with a great weight of pass. Praet checks onto his left foot and it's a penalty for Leicester. Exhibit B: ^ Drops deep, uses his pace to spin the marker that is man-marking him, accelerates into the space that's been vacated and then picks out KDH with a great pass. Too bad KDH didn't pass to Fatawu!

Off-topic but relevant to tactics, Xabi Alonso turning the Bundesliga on it's head! Not a single highlight of Bayern Munich in this highlights reel. Some of the stuff Alonso has his team playing is pure swagger. Nathan Tella who ripped up the Championship with Burnley last season is in their team by the way! For me it's why having an exciting and upcoming new manager is the way to go. Yes it can go wrong, but the ceiling is so high for what can be achieved. I look forwards to the Leverkusen vs Leicester Champions League final in 2 years time

Maybe they are salty because they didn't get him in the summer! He was at Coventry last season, but can't say I know too many Cov fans. Two of my mates are Blades fans who saw him in action last season and said this, but would be better to have the opinions of Coventry fans on him for sure. To be fair, he probably wants cover in that department. Being naturally left-footed means you have the ability to play the ball first time when it comes to play out of pressure. It will be interesting to see if he's still here next season though.

No one really mentions him for the player of the season award, but he's been incredibly consistent throughout. Goals, assists, tempo setter, can play through traffic. An incredible talent!

We've been trying to play this way the entire season, it's just that the team is getting better and better at it with every week that passes. The team has a 5-5 structure, 5 to defend, 5 to attack. For that glorious second goal, we had 5 men in the box. But what you've said is true, that's why the attack looks so much more incisive. I would say one of the biggest reasons has been Patson Daka. His pace and workrate makes the high press a LOT more deadly. Take his goals / misses out of the equation and look at everything else he is doing. He's making the attack click. Let's all admire peak Enzoball in action. What a team goal!

I've heard from Blades and Man City fans that Doyle struggles defensively. The more I see him play, the more I think that is true. I think it stems from a lack of pace, that leaves his susceptible in the system we play. The team looks way more stable with JJ in it. He is good on the ball, but think he will need a lot of adjustment in the Premier League.

I'd consider the run-in to have started now, given there's 46 games to play in this division instead of 38 in the Premier League. It's all about those 3 points, not matter how we get them. I'd expect quite a few more games like this between now and the end of the season. That second goal was amazing. The clip going round doesn't do it justice, because we played it out from the back to engineer that chance despite Watford pressing us high.

Loving the new found delight with Daka. I think it says a lot about a coach when they can admit they got things wrong and / or can be won over by players that perform.Patson often gets pelters on here, but he improved his link-up play massively in the last few months. In fact Enzo has clearly improved a lot of players: - Vestergaard is a calming influence that can control the game from the CB role. - Ricardo is calm and composed on the ball, even when he has two players pressing him in tight spaces. He makes intelligent forward runs, but also covers when needed. - Choudhury looks way more composed. In some games he's been very assured on the ball. - Kasey McAteer has come from nowhere to be a valued squad member. Exceptional off the ball work, but clearly at home in the system. Knows where to stand and at what time. - Fatawu arrived with a reputation as being selfish and a frustrating player to watch. But is remarkably consistent for a young player. - Mavididi often went missing in games at the start of the season. From Christmas onwards he proved to be the difference maker but also does his defensive work. - Cannon proving to be a promising player already after learning the system behind closed doors. - Ndidi reinvented himself to such an extent that we really missed him being out of the team. - KDH is the best player in the division. Goals, Assists, key passes, progressive carries, high pressing. That's an extremely impressive achievement. Bad coaches throw their players under the bus. Good ones work with them to develop them and improve them. Maybe at the very highest level you can throw them under on occasion like Mourinho would often do. But at our level, improving those players is the way to make sure the sum is more than the total of the parts. The only miss you might say is Iheanacho, who I thought would tear the division a new one. Even then I see what he's been asked to do, but he was rather inconsistent in doing it.

For some reason, even though it's the extended highlights, they missed out the full footage of that goal. You can see it here: Otherwise the extended highlights are good. We made a lot of chances and looked like the complete package.

I doubt Winks will play an easier game all season. Stoke left such a big gap between defence and attack that he had all the time and space in the world. But you still have to have the quality to make it count if you are afforded such luxuries, and luckily he does. Here's fantastic play from him for our 4th goal. I showed this clip to a Spurs supporting mate who found it hard to believe it was the same Winks he saw play! Poch tried to make him play as a more standard double pivot, whereas Maresca has unleashed him. I suspect that both Caceido and Fernandez at Chelsea are being equally wasted, as we've seen both be much better players for Brighton, Benfica and Argentina. With 10 goals and assists, KDH is our player of the season, but Winks is the glue that holds it all together. Spurs fans used to say he was their Xavi, but if anything he's more like a Busquets. He's an unbelievable player though, that is for certain. It will be interesting to see if Sensi arrives in the summer after the January transfer collapse, because I feel like Maresca will be able to unlock him just he's done with Winks, even if it's in a different role.

Stoke 0 - 5 Leicester City This was a ruthless demolition of Stoke and the type of result that has "Champions" written all over Leicester. That said it must be said this was a naive tactical setup from Stephen Schumacher of Stoke who decided to go man-to-man and press a team that was far superior to his in every single department. Here is my artist's rendition of Stoke trying to take on Leicester at their own game, showcasing the expected result such an approach would have: Schumacher plays an attacking style of football, which has a lot to like about it. In the offensive phase, they committed a lot of men forwards, often having a numerical superiority in the attacking phase. Here's a still shot of one of their better chances, where we see that they have 7 players in shot and a 4 on 4 situation when getting into our box. However, this comes at a cost, and that cost is that to work around the lack of pace and athleticism in the Stoke line-up, they have two blocks that are often too far away from one another. Here we see their centre back trying to play a pass forwards. The distance required is way too great and means the pass is susceptible to being intercepted. In this move, Mavididi gets to the ball first, and the move ends with Kase McAteer netting for Leicester. The problem with Stoke's setup is that they lack a good way to play back-to-front other than smashing the ball downfield, which they attempted over 30 times. In this shot we see that they have only one central midfielder to find, and it was too easy for us to block the passing lanes to this player. Compare this to our setup that has both Harry Winks and Ricardo in the double pivot in the offensive phase, meaning we are able to play smoothly from back to front with both control and threat. ^ Here's our fourth goal, which actually starts with a Stoke attack. Their press actually works here as they rob the ball from Faes, but we are able to quickly recover the ball, then play out and find Winks, who is in acres of space. He has the freedom of the Potteries, meaning he can turn, drive and pick out a fantastic pass to James Justin. Here we see serious work from Ricardo who drops from the double pivot into defence to help win the ball back, before finding his midfield partner in crime Winks to do serious damage. That was the biggest difference in this game. Leicester were able to connect attacks from back-to-front, whereas there was way too much space in behind the attacking block from Stoke, which Leicester were only too happy to exploit. Interestingly, Man United under Ten Hag have a similar sort of problem. Though Stoke's setup made it easy for us, this was a complete performance from Leicester. From minute one to minute 95, it only ever looked like a battering being handed out. Probably for the first time this season, we maintained our rhythm and momentum throughout the entire match. Subs didn't break our flow and neither did putting players in positions they weren't so familiar with like McAteer as an 8 or Justin as a wide winger. Usually Leicester also score most of our goals from our attacking 8's or our wingers, but today neither Mavididi or KDH scored, despite scoring 5. Today we were able to find our strikers through clever attacking play, and they made the difference. We were likely to hand out a tonking to someone this season, and if teams dare setup in as naive a manner as this against us, it won't be the last time!

Stoke 0 - 5 Leicester City This was a ruthless demolition of Stoke and the type of result that has "Champions" written all over Leicester. That said it must be said this was a naive tactical setup from Stephen Schumacher of Stoke who decided to go man-to-man and press a team that was far superior to his in every single department. Here is my artist's rendition of Stoke trying to take on Leicester at their own game, showcasing the expected result such an approach would have: Schumacher plays an attacking style of football, which has a lot to like about it. In the offensive phase, they committed a lot of men forwards, often having a numerical superiority in the attacking phase. Here's a still shot of one of thier better chances where we see that they have 7 players in shot and a 4 on 4 situation when getting into our box. However, this comes at a cost, and that cost is that to work around the lack of pace and athleticism in the Stoke line-up, they have two blocks that are often too far away from one another. Here we see their centre back trying to play a pass forwards. The distance required is way too great and means the pass is susceptible to being intercepted. In this move, Mavididi gets to the ball first, and the move ends with Kase McAteer netting for Leicester. The problem with Stoke's setup is that they lack a good way to play back-to-front other than smashing the ball downfield, which they attempted over 30 times. In this shot we see that they have only one central midfielder to find, and it was too easy for us to block the passing lanes to this player. Compare this to our setup that has both Harry Winks and Ricardo in the double pivot in the offensive phase, meaning we are able to play smoothly from back to front with both control and threat. ^ Here's our fourth goal, which actually starts with a Stoke attack. Their press actually works here as they rob the ball from Faes, but we are able to quickly recover the ball, then play out and find Winks, who is in acres of space. He has the freedom of the Potteries, meaning he can turn, drive and pick out a fantastic pass to James Justin. Here we see serious work from Ricardo who drops from the double pivot into defence to help win the ball back, before finding his midfield partner in crime Winks to do serious damage. That was the biggest difference in this game. Leicester were able to connect attacks from back-to-front, whereas there was way too much space in behind the attacking block from Stoke, which Leicester were only too happy to exploit. Interestingly, Man United under Ten Hag have a similar sort of problem. Though Stoke's setup made it easy for us, this was a complete performance from Leicester. From minute one to minute 95, it only ever looked like a battering being handed out. Probably for the first time this season, we maintained our rhythm and momentum throughout the entire match. Subs didn't break our flow and neither did putting players in positions they weren't so familiar with like McAteer as an 8 or Justin as a wide winger. Usually Leicester also score most of our goals from our attacking 8's or our wingers, but today neither Mavididi or KDH scored, despite scoring 5. Today we were able to find our strikers through clever attacking play, and they made the difference. We were likely to hand out a tonking to someone this season, and if teams dare setup in as naive a manner as this against us, it won't be the last time!

This is from Pep Lijnders, Klopp's assistant. One thing I really want to note from this is that they coached the same style of play and principles since day one till this match, which was on their way to winning the Champions League. "We have one way to play and we only play that way" "We practised these principles for 4 YEARS, that's why we got so good at it" Stoke were laughably bad today, and will write-up why we slaughtered them in just a bit. But look at the progression of the team from game 1 to game 30. From minute 1 to minute 95 that game was under complete and utter control, and at no time did it look like we would leave with anything other than 3 points and a hatful of goals. One striker scored 2 goals, we put another one on, and that striker scored 2 goals. McAteer played "out of position" and scored, JJ came on as a winger and assisted. Practice makes perfect!

He does kind of have a point. The previous game Stoke didn't lay a glove on us but "only" lost 2-0. In this game they could have scored a couple, Mads made a great double save and they had a decent few attempts in the first half. At the same time, we could have scored more goals ourselves. Would a 2-8 home result be any better? They are in danger, only 4 points off the relegation zone and in horrendous form. A defeat like that massively damages morale. If they were more midtable, then having a go is worth it. In this kind of situation, I think you have to be more pragmatic. During the Covid year, Rodgers got that 5-2 win against Man City by setting up for the counter-attack. This was the first time we scored so many goals against a team setup like this. In the Premier League, most teams setup this way. But of course, they also have way more quality. I think we will surprise results both for and against under Enzo as a result. I really think it's worth committing to long-term though. If you get good at this style it can make you really consistent. If the club coach it through the academy to first-team, which they seem to be doing, that could have fantastic results. In yesteryear teams like Barcelona, Ajax, Benfica and Dortmund were able to produce a conveyor belt of talent because players could seamlessly fit into the first team when one was sold. That would make us a team capable of pushing for Europe every season without having the finances the top teams do, which makes it an exciting strategy to see.

Excellent game today. He looks good every time he comes on at the moment. It will be interesting to see what happens to him next season. Does he stay with the first team or go out on loan to the Championship? If Ipswich don't go up, I think a season long loan there would be very good, as he would be first team every week for a team that plays out from the back. He's ahead of Coady now, and rightly so in my opinion. He's faster, better on the ball and more physical. And he's only going to improve! But when we go up he won't play every week, and I think he could do with that to take him up the final level. It looks likely that he will be a mainstay of the defence in his 20's though for sure.

My analysis can be summarised by a picture of Stoke manager Stephen Schumacher: This expression can be roughly translated to "maybe I shouldn't have tried to go man for man, one on one, against a team that has the highest wage budget of any team in Championship history." He's faced us twice this season, once with Plymouth, once with stoke. The aggregate score was 9-0 to Leicester. I actually really like Schumacher and think he's one to watch in the Championship. But in both games he has been massively naive. Stoke's front 6 pressed high, but their defenders sat back. On paper that means they have cover if they lose the ball in the attacking phase, but in reality it means that there were huge holes in the team between those two groups, which the attacking 8's could exploit all day long. Their press wasn't good enough, and every time we played our way through it, it resulted in a good opportunity. We were very good today, but honestly, I think we have been better than that in many games this season. As a coach, if you give players that are far superior to yours time and space on the ball, you're going to get a tonking. I think Schumacher is in the Russel Martin space of managers. If you gave him a good team, he'd probably be super effective. That Stoke team is a shadow of teams they've had in the past, and I don't think his style suits their squad at all. Will they back him to change the squad? Not likely after results like this one...

Only scored 5? Enzo’s got to go. This football is crap

One thing I’ll say is that Stoke will probably go man for man. Yunus is not the most physical so he may prefer McAteer’s work rate and pressing. IMO he’s the best presser we have in the squad. But I’m sad he’s not starting also. Casadei got way more chances and never looked as good as Yunus.

Stoke changed manager to Schumacher, who took charge of Plymouth when we beat them. He had them play man-to-man marking across the pitch and push up high, and one of our goals came from Daka spinning in behind using his pace from a direct goal kick from Hermansen. Schumacher is known to be stubborn, so I think he will play the same way, so also expect Daka to start. If Alex Neil was still in charge, he would probably play Cannon. They parked the bus against us at the King Power you may recall. Enzo said all this in the pre-match, so whilst he didn't confirm who he would pick, it sounds pretty obvious. He also defended Daka and said that whilst he missed chances, his overall contribution, especially off the ball, was very good. And it was!

Exactly! The plot thickens...

Interesting to see Enzo's body language here. "I love Sensi, Sensi not here, Stoke tomorrow!"