StriderHiryu

If I have time, I will try to do this on Blue Tinted Glasses on Thursday night. Despite only having a few training sessions, Ruud made a few tweaks that had a big effect. Essentially he tried to protect both of our fullbacks, which is why he started McAteer and El Khannouss, and this strategy worked. We have been defending in a 442 under Mareca and Cooper, but it was notable how much more compact the 442 was last night. This has pros and cons, pros, it makes you more defensively resolute, cons, there's more space for the opposition to pick up the ball aand maintain possession and control. But overall this was a good change to make, which made us a lot more defensively stable. Vestergaard and Coady as a back 2 sounded awful on paper, but both looked good. Justin for once was not ruthlessly exposed as he had been all season long. ^ Kristinansen stepped up at times to support the attack, especially in the first half. El Khannouss really put a shift in defensively to support him on transition and in the defensive phase, and I feel like Ruud started him over Mavididi, because Mavididi hasn't been getting back as quickly / often as he did under Maresca. We stopped doing this in the second half and Ruud moved BEK into the centre and moved McAteer wide to the left. The game was wull of interesting tweaks to the wings, Lopetgui moved Bowen into a false 9, and Wan-Bissaka started as left back but moved to become a right back. For me this was the best VK had been all season long. Biggest differences were that he tried to carry and play the ball down the line as his first instinct rather than trying to turn back and play it centrally, which he stuggled to do and slowed down our attack. That forward progressive pass he played to Daka was sensational, and he looked more like the exciting teenager that impressed in the Champions League. Finally it was notable that when we attacked on transition, we didn't attack with as many players. Generally it was with 3, and sometimes a late arriving 4, which is different to attacking with 5 last season. Even Maresca this season has switched to attacking with 4, because the brutal nature of the Premier League means that attacking with too many players leaves you too open if you lose it. Overall Ruud made some sensible changes that looked to make the team defensively more stable, but still carry a threat on transition. Even if we ended up losing, he recognised clear faults we saw all season long and tried to fix them. This is in stark contrast to Cooper who after shipping five goals in the cup to Man United, used the same exact tactic to lose 3-0 to them in the league. Night and day difference in the setup and tactical nous on show.

Every time I've seen Brighton play this season, they have looked seriously good. I think the amount of shots we give up every game means a likely defeat, especially given the quality of their attacking players and patterns of play. There's probably not enough time to improve in this area, but my big concern against West Ham was that we weren't able to control the game enough. Whilst it's going to be much harder to do in the Premier League, if you keep giving the ball away you are always going to be on the back foot. We need to retain it better, with Ndidi and Justin being the worst culprits in terms of losing the ball against West Ham. All that said, with what I saw against West Ham, I have hope that we could get something here, even though it's unlikely. And that is a much better place to be in than just a few games ago.

Listen to his post-match interview, he actually knows what he's talking about. What his ceiling is I don't know, but it's night and day compared to Cooper. The tactics and game state changed multiple times during this match, but Ruud responded every time and was proactive to fix structural fauls. Post match he even addressed the high amount of shots against and the lack of keeping the ball in the middle leading us to get out pressed. If he gets backed in January, we stay up.

Went through the tactics and player ratings here. I was very impressed with RVN, he tried to shore up the fullbacks and started El Khannouss and McAteer for their work rate to do that. It worked! Shows you that a MANAGER and not a PE Teacher would recognise the obvious problems the team had and would try to do something to fix those issues. Changing BEK to the 10, moving McAteer to left wing and Facundo to right wing in the second half was also a master stroke. If Top backs Ruud in the transfer window, I think we stay up. West Ham did have a crazy number of shots, and on another day could have won the game. But our manager had 2 training sessions and already implemented a clear defensive structure and a far more compact 442 rest defence, whilst maintaining a threat on transition throughout the game. LEICESTER CITY ARE BACK!!!

And one who has experience putting that plan into action. You see many managers try to replicate the style / tactics of other managers and fail badly. 3 I can think of are Cooper, Gerrard and Lampard, which is a damning indictment of managers in England and ultimately why having Tuchel as England boss was by far the best appointment possible.

He did this against Ajax in the league game he beat them in, but went a different way when Gakpo left with van Aanholt joining the attack and Xavi Simmons moving in centrally in the cup. These were things that made me come round on Ruud - he's doing some sophisticated things and getting results doing it. Cooper said he tried to replicate the way Villa play under Emery, but did it without understanding how he achieved it, hence looking all at sea. The elephant in the room is if the squad is good enough though. There's an argument to just keep things simple but stable given the team we have. Lining up with Faes, Thomas and Soumare ended about as predictably as it sounds on paper.

That is definitely true, but at PSV, they often built up with a 3 man shape. That's why sometimes even the Dutch refer to their own 433 as a 3133 in certain phases: The system is all about creating triangles, which as you say is the Johan Cruyff 433 DNA that the dutch are famous for: ^ In this case you can see that one CDM came in deep to help the build up, whereas the other drifted to the right to create a possible passing triangle on the other wide of the pitch. Ruud exploited our full backs pushing up against Man United and we got hit hard again by Brentford on the weekend. I think this will be the number one thing he addresses as he has already taked about bringing some ideas defensively to the way we play. This could involve restricting the full backs from raiding, or defending in such a way to force the opposition down the opposite side on our counter press if we lose the ball, to give the full back more time to get back. Or it could involve better cover through adjusting the positioning of the CDMs. I am sure he will come up with something! In general though, you are bang on that it will be a 433. He could get El Khanouss and Buonanotte into the team that way, whilst also keeping us defensively stable, but I am not sure if he will go that way in game one.

Going live at 10:00, where we will try to analyse what went wrong against Brentford.

Faes was awful today, but once again the system we used didn't do either him or Justin any favours. Despite setting up with 5 at the back, we kept pushing up and leaving gaps between the outside CBs and our wing backs. ^ The idea was that if one of the full backs pushed up, we'd still have a "psuedo" back four to defend with. ^ The problem is that due to the positions taken up by that pseduo back four, there were corridors of space that could be exploited. Now in the above example, it doesn't look bad, but the warning signs were there... ^ And Thomas Frank figured this out pretty quickly. Justin has stepped up, there was a huge gap behind him and the ball gets played to Damsgard here. Faes is going across to cover, which will mean Schade is free, Wissa has got goal side of Okoli and Mbeumo is going to be totally free on the back post. Brentford didn't score here, but they already showed they knew how to beat the 343 system. ^ This is what I mean about the system being poor. Thomas is going out to pick up Mbeumo, we have a pseudo back 4, but there's a huge gap in between Koli and Thomas here. By adjusting instructions to his players, Frank could get players exploiting these spaces. ^ But there's not defending Faes in this game, he was awful and for me has has dropped back to back 1/10 performances. This for me sums him up. It's a great through ball played to Schade for his hat trick, but Faes could have stuck a foot out here to play it to Hermansen IMO. But a poor starting position, reading of the game and being lazy mean it found it's way through. I'll be doing a mini analysis of the game on the Good Morning Foxes show on Blue Tinted glasses tomrrow if you want to see more.

He needs to come out of the squad altogether for a period of games at minimum. I can't think of a player in recent history that I have hated more than Faes. Amartey was awful, but at least he didn't think he was the next Beckenbauer.

Bang on. When the teams were announced it seemed like we were going to be playing defensively and try to hit the opposition on the break, but in reality, we tried to play Ruben Amorim's 3-4-3 system with players like Wout Faes, Luke Thomas, Bouba Soumare and Jordan Ayew, and it ended up working out about as effectively as you would expect.

I've been doing some more research for tonight's show and there's a lot to like about Ruud. That said, it must be said that the season after he left, Den Bosch came in and smashed the league with a fantastic style, changing the team to be a much higher pressing and front footed one. But it seems like Ruud laid the foundation work for that success. Ruud does a lot of "Dutch" things, IE the use of a 433, groups of 3's and passing triangles, all of which is a joy to watch. He likes fast transitions, but doesn't seem as suicidal as Ten Hag was. My gut feeling is he will play a bit of a "diet coke" version of Maresca's system, which I think will suit all parties down to the ground. It also seems like he was very good at improving certain players, especially on the finishing side, which coudl really benefit Mavididi, Fatawu (when back) and Daka.

I did a piece on him in this live stream: He adjusted his tactics at PSV based on who he had available. To give him credit, he changed his system and was still effective when Gakpo and Madueke were sold. In general he liked to allow Xavi Simmons to drift inside and have van Aanholt join him, but also had games where he inverted a full back into a CDM role. I'm not going to profress to be an expert on RVN, it will be a learning experience for us all, but the more I looked into him, the more excited I got for him. I think he's got a good ideology, but is also routed in reality to avoid being humbled by playing in too expansive a manner. I will also be doing a live preview of the Brentford game tonight at 19:00 here:

Will be doing this live tomorrow:

This is my take on it too. I can understand why many would scoff at it, but in the last week it feels like he's acted way more like his dad than at any other time in his tenure, and I think that's a good thing.

That’s my take too, but the more I learn about RVN, the more I like about him. Tactically he’s levels above Solksjaer if we’re comparing former Man United managers.

My nan is a tactical step-up from Cooper! I was very impressed with Corberan last season. Many will point out that his WBA team is rather defensive and doesn't score many goals, but if you look at the transfer budgets Corberan has worked with, he's over performed every season. He is a gamble, but I think he has a high ceiling. Likes to use a 32 build up shape at times, changes formations during the match. Defensively excellent at setting up a 442 compact block. I think he'd make us much harder to beat and would get goals out of us. But don't expect to see champagne football from him right away, and maybe not ever. Though I think he does have good ideas for attacking patterns of play that better players will facillitate.

We just finished this live show. Carlos Coberan came from nowhere to smash it, so many people wanted him appointed! That really surprised me I've got to say. I think he's an excellent coach that deserves a chance, but given some of the other names linked, was shocked so many wanted him. But if he is appointed... in King Carlos I trust!

Are you an Ostrich? He would strangle anyone who didn't sign on the dot.

This would be amazing. He basically rebuilt the club after we got relegated anyway, and the departments he setup were paramount to our title success.

They sold Gakpo and Madueke in the same window, and he fell out with the board, asking where his replacements were! (Spoilers: there weren't any)

Yeah most likely. But Ricardo is out for months, so we won't see him till March at the earliest. Moyes does not play attractive football, but a 4231 that is defensively robust and good on the break probably keeps us up. Moyes has developed players like Bowen and Rice over the years too and improved them. I think Moyes would improve a number of players in the team actually, simplifiying their jobs and making them strong at core principles. I think he'd improve Kristiansen, Okoli, Justin, Ndidi, maybe even Mavididi, who would probably be our Bowen. He's the type I can see dropping Faes due to his antics. Winks probably won't like him, but as with Rice and even Arteta (as a player) back at Everton, he's managed to get creative players doing OK under him. But just so everyone is clear, I am not a fan of the turgid stuff he plays. It's boring. But right now if we were a boring midtable team, that would be a massive upgrade on where we are.

Not a Moyes fan, but there is no way he will be telling James Justin to move up field leaving us totally exposed behind him. I am secretly hoping our sources are wrong, but hearing it from multiple people now.

Moyes doesn’t excite me either but is a very sensible and totally understandable appointment. You appoint him to stay up.

Moyes. Same source that said Fatawu had done his ACL.