StriderHiryu

I could see Wolves sacking O'Neil and bringing in Robins. They gave O'Neil a large contract but I'd assume that Robins salary demands would be a lot more reasonable compared to Potter, Moyes, etc. Robins was amazing for Coventry, but they have an expensive squad. When you are at any organisation for 8 years, things are going to get stale. Robins can be both a good manager and it could be time for a change. A bit similar to Rodgers here in that respect. Many on here detest Rodgers, but he was very good for a few seasons and is doing well again in Scotland. He's a good manager, but during our relegation season, it was time for a change.

Here's my match preview of the game on Sunday.

Exactly! Even worse. You see a continued narrative of "people today don't want to work." But if you see the world we are leaving young people, why would you... A bleak outlook for many.

Both sad but true. IMO in our elections it was exactly the same thing. For all of the outrage about Partygate, lieing cabinet ministers and misappropriation of public funds, the biggest reason people were upset is because of the cost of living crisis. And it is 100% understandable why that would be the case. Voting for something that makes the biggest difference to your every day makes perfect sense. All that aside I feel sick in the stomach today. I don't have kids, but for those of you who do, how do you explain to them that a man who is so corrupt, detestible and a proven criminal is above the law!?

It's a lot more simple than that. People in the US felt better off financially 4 years ago then they do today, so they are voting with their wallet. The Economy was polled as the number one issue in the US Election throughout the run-up period, just as it was over here. Can anyone who comes into power fix a global economic problem? In some ways it doesn't matter. The voting might be more of a dissatisifaction with the current incumbents than belief in the new / returning ones.

This might not be a lack of enthusiasm but more of a deliberate choice not to vote. IE Democrats who did not want to vote for Trump / Republican, but also did not want to for Harris. So it's almost like a protest vote. Something very similar happened in our elections, even though Labour won by a landslide.

A classic case of N'golo Kante never being picked in any FPL team ever, despite being one of the best players in the Premier League whilst he was in it.

Yep shows you how misleading they can be at times. I think it was only low because he had a chance to score and missed. Otherwise he had quite the cameo appearance.

It's actually in the video, so this is how I know you guys don't watch it! ^ Here is the timestamp of me talking about it. How's that for service!

I largely agree, but in this case rather than making tactical tweaks, can he tell Mads to stop kicking it long? To tell the team to just keep possession for 2 minutes without letting the other team touch the ball? Those were the things Enzo would do, because he had a better understanding of the game state. When the other team goes a man down, Cooper has been pretty quick to bring on the attackers and go for it, so it's not like he's totally clueless.

Better late than never, it's time for the post match analysis of yet another huge six pointer at the bottom of the table. We came away with a point, but were lucky to do so. ^ Here was our lineup. Quite an interesting selection, with Vestergaard and Kristiansen returning go the team, and Okoli and Justin dropping to the bench. Despite injury worries with Fatawu, he was fit to play the entire match. ^ Some of Ipswich Town's injury problems eased up, so Delap and Hutchinson were fit to start from the begining of the match, and Morsy was fit to play in midfield. THe first half began and Leicester started very well. From the very start, Jannik Vestergaard really stood out, with his range of passing on show, leading to the Mavididi chance. I've broken down a nice sequence into two gifs because of the length of the attack. Vestergaard finds long diagonal passes, as well as showing composure and control to dictate the game like a CDM but from the CB position. ^ This allows us to drag Ipswich from left to right, compact them down one side and then play out and interchange to unleash Vardy and Mavididi. ^ This is Vestergaard at his best. Sitting on the halfway line, controlling the tempo, shifting the opposition block. ^ A chance for Fatawu. A good example of dragging Ipswich around the pitch, finding a free man, advancing up the pitch as a collective and then creating a shooting opportunity at the end of the sequence. ^ And here is a great chance for Buonanotte. This time Ipswich deal with a diagonal switch pass, but only in the first phase of play. Ndidi picks up the scraps to play in Facundo. I think he was a little greedy and should have passed to Mavididi, but given that he beat so many men by himself and Mavididi missed a chance earlier, you can't blame him for trying. ^ So what really stood out to me in this first 15 minutes was our ability to bait Ipswich into trying to press us, and then playing in the spaces those players vacated. And it was working beautifully. ^ But then over time we started to lose control of the half? Why There were two reasons, one Ipswich started to be more succesful in pressing us high up the pitch, and our response was a bit panicked, we kicked it long too often rather than trying to control the game and be brave in our build-up. ^ Ipswich start pressing higher up the pitch and win the ball from Vestergaard high up the pitch. This is the risk when playing out from the back. They don't score, but it was notable that after this we started going long from goal kick more and more often. ^ I could find MANY examples, but I got very frustated as the first half went on. We kept pumping the ball long, allowing Ipswich to easily win the ball back and start their own attacks. Here I feel winks or Vestergaard needed to have a word with Hermansen and tell him to calm down and start playing it out on the ground. However, I fear it might have been a coaching instruction to go long. ^ And this is represented in the match momentum. After it being all Leicester for the first 15 minutes, the rest of the half belonged to the Tractor Boys. ^ A chance for Omari Hutchinson. At this point in the game, Ipswich are getting control of it. They are playing out from the back, which we've stopped doing. Faes seemingly frustrated, tries to win the ball back high up against Delap but loses out and puts the team in trouble. Kristiansen does well here defensively and whilst I don't think he should be in the team, he overall handled Omari Hutchinson well throughout the game. ^ A chance for Connor Chaplin. Again this one stems from kicking the ball long and losing an aerial duel, giving Ipswich initiative. So we go into the second half and how would we respond? ^ Sadly it was a bit more of the same, with a real lack of threat, and looking like we had run out of ideas. But why? ^ Here's how our system works. When we defend, we defend in a 442 shape. Ricardo moves to right back, and Ndidi sits next to Winks. A lot of fans were confused ast to Ndidi's position in the game, but this is the reason why. We were changing between these shapes far too often, because we were guilty of trying to go back to front too quickly. ^ Once we get the ball, our players start moving to form a new shape... ^ And this is that shape. Now we are in a 3421, with Ricardo joining Winks as a double pivot, and having five men forwards. This is where our best moves come from, as our wingers stretch play, creating room for the 8's and Vardy. ^ You can see the video at the top of the post, but the biggest difference between Enzo and Cooper is that under Cooper we try to go forwards with the ball too quickly. This means we can't settle into our 3421 shape for long enough. Ipswich to their credit turned the game into a basketball match, going end to end and this suited them more than it did us. What we needed to do is to try and take control of the game by just keeping the ball for a few minutes, allowing Vestergaard to get on the ball and move up to the halfway line. It's from there that we can start being more aggressive. Otherwise this leads to players often being out of position or getting tired covering a lot of ground, and this meant there was room for one of Ipswich's star players... ^ Leif Davis has been a revelation for Ipswich. It's hard to believe he was playing in league one for them! He scored an absolutely incredible goal we must say: ^ Leif Davis' sensational goal. Marco van Basten eat your heart out! ^ Here's an alternate angle. Could we have done better defensively? Given that Davis has hit it first time, I think it's harsh to say so. Ricardo is in a good defensive position, Fatawu perhaps could get back faster, but 95% of the time Davis either hits that wide, ot has to take a touch to do something with the ball, which would mean Fatawu and Ricardo were 2 on 1 against him. So for me this is just a top finish. But as per my poitn above, because we could not control the game, we see that Fatawu is slightly out of position as he is two minds about attacking or defending. ^ After that Ipswich goal we looked out of ideas and it seemed inevitable Ipswich would win the game, but the game swung on a wild 30 seconds where so much happened, with the referee taking centre stage. ^ Ipswich should have had a penalty and could have been 2-0 up, but instead get a man sent off and hand Leicester a lifeline in the match. ^ A close up of the penalty incident. Very lucky to get away with this one. The refereen said it was a collision rahter than a bad challenge, which might have some merit, but I think if this was at the other end of the pitch, I would be fuming. ^ And here's a replay of Phillip's second yellow card. Pretty clear cut this one. A high boot that is late on Ricardo. I think Phillips reaction shows you that he knows it's a booking, and a pointless challenge to make when on a yellow. So with just 13 minutes left of regular time, Cooper started making some changes. To be fair to him in recent games he has been making more subs and making them sooner. Honestly I think at 11 v 11 he was out of ideas and it would have ended in defeat for the Foxes, but he smelt blood and took off both Kristiansen and Ricardo to commit more attacking players who changed the game. Soumare has been the butt of many jokes between fans for years, but you have to say in this game, he was brilliant. ^ But for me despite only being on for 12 minutes, my man of the match was Jordan Ayew. For the price paid, I think he's already proved to be worth the money. ^ Ayew almost scores just seconds after coming on. Soumare plays a great sliding line-breaking pass, Buonaotte drives with the ball, even riding a challenge. Only a great block on the line stops a sure fire goal. ^ But Ayew does score in stoppage tine. I've got the whole move here, where we see brilliant play from Soumare who runs back, wins the ball, drives up the line and feeds Ayew. Are we sure that's really Soumare!? ^ And we almost won it again with Ayew right at the death. If the game went another 5 minutes I think we would have won it. But let's be honest we were lucky to get a point! ^ So here are my overall thoughts. After a wonderful first 15 minutes, we lost control of the game. Something similar happened against Forest too. Does Cooper understand what is going on, and if so can he tweak the team to stop it from happening? For me we have to be brave on the ball and play out more often. Kristiansen playing at LCB gives you a natural left footer, but he's poor at playing out under pressure and often gives the ball away. We really should have signed a left footed centre back in the summer, but failing that, I would try Okoli there, who in previous analysis videos has not been too bad playing out under pressure, Man United cup game aside. Vestergaard whould keep his place for me, his control and ability to dictate the tempo is really good and improves the team. I think the big question still remains not just around the manager but the system. I believe Enzo Maresca with this group of players would have sorted it out and got us playing with the same fluency but more control. Control is the key word that we are lacking, and have been lacking all season long. It is very hard to maintain it in the Premier League, as even the top teams struggle with it. But for me it appears that once we lose control, we can never get it back again. I accept there will be passages of play where we are on the back foot, but I want to see us try and more proactive when under the kosh to give us some breathing room. I think we have shown we are good enough to do it, if we keep our concentration.

He started his career as a CDM but got moved back. His range of passing was on show from early on against Ipswich, leading to the Mavididi goal. I've broken down a nice sequence into two gifs because of the length of the attack. Vestergaard finds long diagonal passes, as well as showing composure and control to dictate the game like a CDM but from the CB position. ^ This allows us to drag Ipswich from left to right, compact them down one side and then play out and interchange to unleash Vardy and Mavididi. ^ And finally this might not look all that much, but this is Vestergaard at his best. Sitting on the halfway line, controlling the tempo, shifting the opposition block. We did this for the first 12-15 minutes but then made a concious change to start hitting it long from our goalkeeper, I believe because Ipswich won a few balls high up the pitch and Cooper panicked. Too bad, because this is when we looked at our best.

He looked good against a team that were down to 10 men and he didn't have to get back. So playing him further forward might help in that capacity. In an old interview with Rodgers, he mentioned that Soumare started his career as a 10 at youth level. For me, I don't think he will ever be the answer, though I will admit that he has had decent cameo performances in the last two games.

Actually a fantastic signing, a bit unlucky not to have had two at the end there. He's better as a substitute, but he's been worth the money paid already if you ask me. Hard working, nice guy, has decent quality and knows the league. The sort of player that Ipswich and Southampton needed.

We just covered this in our Instant Match Reaction. The problem is that the table says that we are 5 points clear of the relegation zone after 10 games and ahead of Everton and Palace. That sounds amazing! But we have been so lucky, we really have. These lucky breaks will catch up to us eventually. From a tactical standpoint we are an absolute mess, players don't know if they are coming or going. The only positive I can really say is that Jordan Ayew is actually a good signing. He's got us 4 points already and if he does nothing else this season, he probably already paid for himself.

Someone else suggested that to me too. I think Okoli would be on the left, but yes I could see it. I think Justin having a game or two out of the team could do him good. No Fatawu is a huge shame. The way that Ipswich play, Leif Davis leaves a lot of room behind him when they attack...

If Fatawu is out I'd like to see Buonanotte on the wing and El Khanouss at an attacking 8.

Both these teams have the worst expected goals stats in the league. The issue both teams have is they give away too many shots on goal. As others on the forum have pointed out, the hammering we got at Old Trafford was long overdue. Here's my match preview. We've got the better team and squad, but expect this to be a chaotic game where Ipswich give absolutely everything.

Erm...

I agree with you here, it's been proven that the slower system doesn't get the crowd bouncing as much. However, after going 3-1 down we started putting in way more crosses and going direct and it was all too easy for Forest to deal with. Admittedly at this point the atmosephere was already flat, but my point is that against their defence and mid block, to break them down it was going to require a lot more finesse than trying to win headers.

It’s a GREAT question. Honestly I don’t know! If it was me I would have started the season with it and reviewed it after 5-10 games. We’ve seen big tweaks before; Ranieri changing his fullbacks and Pearson going to 352. In this match we shot ourselves in the foot big time so it’s hard to say. But I would say that simple yet effective 4231 Nuno plays would probably work for us. Our CBs aren’t as good but or keeper is better. So I think we could play a version that would keep us up.

System good, individual errors bad. Please send £5 to [email protected] for this cutting edge summary.

The first Steve Cooper Classic of the season finished with his former team winning the game pretty comfortably after some awful individual errors cost us dearly. There was a lot to talk about in this game given a surprise team selection and lineup from Leicester City, that led to a really interesting tactical battle. ^ Despite a good first half, ultimatley Leicester despite having a lot more possession struggled to create many chances, with Forest capitalising on the opportunities we carelessly gave them. ^ A huge shock that got fans excited pre-match. Ricardo got his first minutes in the Premier League this season, with the injured Kristiansen dropping out. Both wingers started after a brilliant display from Abdul Fatawu against Southampton, with Winks restored to the first team instead of Oliver Skipp. ^ Despite playing on Monday and only have a 4 day turnaround, Forest named an unchanged lineup. ^ With the lineup Cooper named, this mean that at it's core this was a battle of possession against counter attacking. Leicester were going to have more of the ball, but Forest were going to try and hit us fast on the break. And as we saw, ultimately it was counter attacking that came out on top in this one. ^ Despite the overall result, there was a lot to admire in the first half, with some of our fluid attacking patterns of play from last season back on show. ^ We saw early on the positions Ricardo would take up, playing alongside Harry Winks when we attacked to create a box midfield and give us an additional player in midfield to find. ^ But when we were defending, Ricardo played at right back, meaning we could defend as a 442 shape, but attack in a 325. ^ Pre-match, we knew Callum Hudson-Odoi was a key player for Forest and his battle with Fatawu would be one to watch out for... ^ But in the early stages, it looked like the inverted fullback would offer Fatawu additional protection in the defensive phase, compared to James Justin being exposed 2v1 in many of the games we've played this season. ^ Last season under Enzo, playing out from the back was key to our play. The idea was to bait the opposition into moving out of their defensive positions so we could play in the spaces they left behind. ^ I had to break this sequence out into two clips. This first part shows us playing out from the back, with Okoli doing well here to bait the press and using his weaker foot in tight spaces to play the ball to Justin. There is a more aggressive pass that Winks could play, but given it's early in the game, he wisely decides to help the team advance up the pitch collectively as a unit whilst retaining control of the game. ^ And as a result from playing out from the back, we use the power of the inverted full back to find a spare man and spring an attack. This sequence ends in disapointment, but it was a clear demonstration of the attacking patterns of play we saw all season, and Vardy playing as a false 9 to link play from back to front. ^ If you're going to attack with 5 men, then you've got to work hard when you lose the ball. Here's an example of a high / mid press with Okoli stepping up after the team loses the ball high up the pitch. This creates a counter-transition where if Buonanotte was a little less selfish, he could play in Fatawu. ^ Despite a good start, we conceded the first goal due to some awful defensive errors. ^ Forest's first goal. Failure from both Buonanotte and Justin to clear their lines creats a chance out of nothing for Yates, who punishes us with a good strike. So frustrating to give a goal like this away, because it should never have happened and otherwise we had control of the game. ^ We knew Forest were going to try and take advantage of transitional moments to spring counter attacks with their fast wingers. And now they were one up, this would play into their hands. ^ Here's the first warning sign of Forest's threat on the counter attack. They play the ball quickly to Elanga. Overall we deal with the threat well, but this was a sign of things to come. ^ 9 games played, 4 goals scored. Pretty impressive for a 37 year old! Vardy got on the scoresheet thanks to an exceptional team goal. ^ Our scintilating goal and a brilliant example of what can happen when the system works. As Alan Patridge would say "that was liquid football!" ^ If there's a better goalkeeper in the Premier League than this man, then I want to see him. The dashing dane has been in incredible form this season, and continues to go from strength to strength. ^ A world class save from Dominguez keeps the score at 1-1. This save was as good as scoring a goal. Look at the reaction from the players around him to see how good a save this was. ^ I get bored of writing this every week. One great half, one that is awful. And it was the same story this week too. ^ I've got to say I think this half was the worst we've played all season. Truly awful in just about every way possible. ^ Chris Wood's first goal. A careless pass from Harry Winks to Fatawu puts us in some trouble, but there is time to remedy the situation. However, Okoli doesn't get tight enough to his man, and after a truly brilliant turn and finish from the Kiwi, it's 2-1 just a few minutes into the second half and a terrible start. ^ A recurring theme in the second half was Forest attacking our build up players and robbing the ball from them to start off a fast break. Callum Hudson-Odoi almost makes us pay on this occasion, and it must be said that he won the battle between him and Fatawu / Ricardo over the 90. ^ Forest make it 3-1 with an awful goal for Leicester to give away. Route one, Faes totally misjudges the flight of the ball and his pathetic header plays Wood in, who lofts it over Hermansen. Wout Faes has generally been in good form for Leicester for a while, but we all know he's got a clanger in him, and sadly this was one to add to his collection. ^ I was really disapointed with the players in the second half and think the game was over at 3-1. Cooper tried to make changes, but they had little to no effect. He removed Ricardo, who being on a booking was understandable, but we abandoned our double pivot and looked rather clueless as to how we would go about getting back into it. Meanwhile Nuno put on another CDM and saw out the game comfortably. ^ After the subs we lined up like this, without an inverted player. ^ Forest have two of the most aerially dominant centre backs in the league, and we had taken off our best aerial player in Ndidi. So surely this would mean a more nuanced approach and trying to attack via clever one-twos and cutbacks? ^ But no. 3-1 down and we are out of ideas. Justin with a pointless cross into the box for one of the best defenders aerially in the league to gobble up. ^ An even worse move. An aimless forward lofted pass straight to Sels from Ayew. You can see from Ayew that he's confused as to what the team is trying to do here, not a surprise given he didn't play under Enzo and I doubt Cooper worked much on the attacking patterns of play with some of the newer players. ^ So the game ends 3-1 to Forest and after what looked like a promising display at half time leaves us feeling rather despondent! Personally I was OK losing if it meant we went back to the system from last season, which is the one I believe we should have used since game 1 this time round. The system may end up getting us into trouble after a while, and we want to avoid doing what Burnley did last season where their style in the Championship just didn't carry over to the top flight. However, I believe we have the players to make it work and if we hadn't have given away such stupid goals would have seen a much closer battle. I think Forest may ultimately have still come out on top, but the patterns of play worked, despite some players putting in stinkers such as Mavididi and Buoanotte. The bigger question for me is if Cooper can adjust it to tighten it up and improve things. Specifically some players aren't standing in the right positions at the right time, and occasionally Enzo would have made changes for certain games. For example, sometimes Ricardo would invert from left full back, and this is something he may have done against Forest given Hudson-Odoi is the better of their two wingers. The Ipswich game is absolutely huge now and it will be interesting to see which way we go!