StriderHiryu

Stephy Mavididi.... ****ing hell! @Mark surely even you have to be a fan of his performance tonight! He's been frustrating for a lot of the season, but the last few games... wow. This has been the complete performance, the shit-housing just makes it even better!

I think we are doing that to some extent... controlling the game, making them come to us, and then just hit them on the break. We should have wrapped it up as a result. The thing with this super modern football that De Zerbi and now Maresca are playing is that all of your attacks look like counter-attacks... but you are still dominating the game with most of the possession. IF you can get your team to be good at the style it's really, really difficult to stop. We still haven't reached halfway in this season yet. Give Enzo more transfer windows and back him with the players he wants, and give him the time to coach the style... the next few years should be really enjoyable. This kind of style when you get good at it can beat anyone. You can go away to teams like Liverpool or Man City and cause them serious problems, but still have the answer against deep blocks.

Patson should have scored, but you have to say that we've looked so much more lethal in the last 3 games, and he has been involved in all of those games. I think it's because when he drops deep, when we play the incisive ball, he's so fast that it means the gaps between the offensive and defensive blocks are much larger, meaning that there's more space for us to exploit. In this division how do you stop a front 3 of Mavididi, Fatawu and Daka? You have to park the bus to prevent their pace being a weapon, but then you are chasing the ball for 90 minutes. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

That's the most fluid I've seen our attack since beating Southampton 9-0. We look like scoring with every attack! The only negative is that we aren't putting them away, and there's still just a one goal lead. I'm surprised the xG isn't a lot higher than this, we've been one pass away on at least 3 occasions.

From a coaching point of view I am gushing so much tonight. To see Leicester play like this is a joy to behold. Only the finishing has let us down, and that's despite two great counter attacking goals. The control, the fluidity, the drifting between the spaces, the playing between the lines, the chance creation... Unreal football!

We should have wrapped this up by now. The attacking patterns of play today are INCREDIBLE. Time on the training ground starting to pay dividends...

Hopefully you see the "picture" Maresca is trying to paint. Play out from the back.. suck the opposition in... then BANG, hit them on the break with slick passing through the gaps. MAGNIFICO ENZO!

These counter-attacks are PHENOMENAL!

Sloppy in transition there, we gave the ball away after winning it back.

This game is on Monday?! My Saturday is totally ruined now

He did it against Preston, because they had been playing 5 at the back in their previous 10 games. What did they do against us? Played 4 at the back So he moved Ricardo BACK from an attacking midfield role in the second half and we slapped them.

Regarding Plan B... there isn't one really. It's just that the team is getting better at executing our style of play. Whilst in general it tends to be very patient, we have been trying certain patterns like crosses from the touch line, long passes into space, etc. Be the protagonist in the game Control the tempo of the game by having the majority of possession Generate numerical superiorities across the pitch Find the free man who is available because of our superiorities Play the ball into the spaces left by players vacating their positions to deal with the free man That's our style of play. We can play a long ball over the top, because when we did that for Patson Daka against Plymouth, he lured his defender into our third, meaning we had a 2 on 1 with Fatawu and Daka when Hermansesn played the ball over the top. For Daka's goal against Millwall, Ndidi is the free man, who finds space in the pockets (half-space), Winks plays him in, and the execution of the cross was superb. Even against QPR which is the only time we have put two strikers on the pitch, we did that because they defended with 5 at the back when their man was sent off. So Enzo put another striker on briefly to go 6 v 5 against their defence. You could say that was Plan B, but it wasn't really!

Only cost us 70M to get a good one! We might end up selling him for more than that though!

We went on for a while today! But I think this was a good one. Put it on to help you get to sleep, or if you are bored at work! Either way it will do something for you!

Bingo. On top of that, he also reads the game state superbly. IE when to quicken up the pace, when to slow it down. Yes, sometimes slowing it down is necessary, even though with us most of the time it's the other way round. You can tell he started as a CDM. He would have got moved out of that position because he's not mobile, and I bet not that good with his back to goal in the midfield area. But in this position, the game is always ahead of him, and he can see everything. He will be able to do this in the Premier League against teams where we have more possession, and we will do against teams in the bottom 10. Teams that play on the transition he may struggle against, but it won't just be him that struggles, we will struggle as a team. This is why Man City make cynical challenges high up the field, then use Kyle Walker to bail them out of trouble on the break, and worst case scenario, tell Ederson to charge out of goal and slide tackle players. Even if you put a much faster player that Vestergaard, the way we play, we will still be vulnerable. Millwall did threaten on the break, but that's why Maresca changed Coady not Vestergaard. Those threats are almost always from the wide players and not from the central striker. Haaland will murder him, but news flash, he murders most defenders.

Personally, he was my MOTM, though if you gave it to Fatawu I wouldn't hold it against you. In recent weeks, he's made that sublime cross with both left and right foot. Tonight he dropped in deep at times to help the build up play. Tirelessly makes the half-space run into the pocket, combining with Fatawu almost telepathically. Wins the ball high up the field consistently. Arrives in the box frequently Works the keeper often Scores, assists and gets involved. My only criticism tonight is I think he should have bagged at least a goal. But if you don't make the runs, you won't score a goal, and Wilf made those runs all night long. Superb stuff

SMUG MODE ACTIVATED

Ha ha thank you for the kind words. I have definitely activated smug mode, because Enzo himself confirmed some of this stuff post-match! But in reality, football is actually a surprisingly simple game. That's why it's so good, it's simple, but has a level of mastery to it that few other games match. Not just other sports, but even video games like Battle Royale's, MOBAs, Brawlers, First Person Shooters, if FIFA wasn't a football game, designing a game that required teamwork but allowed for individual skill would make for a great game, and football is a great game! It's also simple to pick up and play ("jumpers for goalposts!") but hard to master. Here's Romario age 57, still destroying people. Not only does he have the skill, but mentally is still playing the game 20 seconds ahead of everyone else! Enzo's core philosophies are: - Create situations where we have numerical superiorities - Find the spare man who is in space - Disrupt their defensive shape as they scramble to pick up the spare man - Exploit the spaces that have now appeared It's quite simple if you think about it, but a TON of work goes into making it all work on the pitch. Trust me when I say he's truly a fantastic coach! Being a manager is more than just being a coach, but at that side of the job... he is 10/10.

Changes at half-time: - Pushed Ricardo forwards because Millwall were playing a back 5. So he wants a superiority against their defensive block, hence making it 6 v 5. This is why we blew them away so quickly. - Changed the 8's round because Millwall brought on a sub because one of their players got booked, and they change the preferred foot of their outside CB's in the defensive 3. - Changed the pressing trigger to target the players booked, so they were more likely to give the ball away. Means they have to more rash in their passing, meaning we win the ball more often. Will write-up more later, but those changes murdered them.

Talking about this on Beyond the 90 now. Changes at half-time: - Pushed Ricardo forwards because Millwall were playing a back 5. So he wants a superiority against their defensive block, hence making it 6 v 5. This is why we blew them away so quickly. - Changed the 8's round because Millwall brought on a sub because one of their players got booked, and they change the preferred foot of their outside CB's in the defensive 3. - Changed the pressing trigger to target the players booked, so they were more likely to give the ball away. Means they have to more rash in their passing, meaning we win the ball more often. Will write-up more later, but those changes murdered them.

MARESCA HAS GOT LEICESTER INTO GEAR!

This guy is absolutely incredible! Riyad Mahrez won the Premier League with Leicester age 24. Abdul Fatwu is 19... Who remembers Mahrez's debut season? Immediately showed exciting flashes in a team that was going up. But still not the finished article. When he became the finished article... well I forget what happened. I assume we had a decent season?