ian__marshall

It does feel like the football gods have been against us for the last few years. Even worse they keep luring us into a state of euphoria before bringing us back down to earth with a bang. Almost like a sick version of the video game 'The Sims' being controlled by a Forest fan.

G'Nonto going full Nigel Pearson mode there 😂

Thought Jannick up front in the closing stages was very un-Enzo like. The Birch must have bought him copies of both MON and Brian Little's autobiographies 😂

The VAR replay showed he made contact with his knee and didn't play the ball. As last man you're always getting a red in that situation.

It was a clear red to be fair. Can't really have many complaints about that.

Awful defending

Can see why Burnley are struggling this season with a similar shape to us. It gets massively exposed down the flanks. On a separate note, not sure where Doyle is supposed to be playing but he's certainly not taking his defensive duties very seriously.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68543677 Really interesting concept. Hope this takes off as it's quite a logical solution really. Biggest challenge seems to be scaling up to expand usage. Hope the manufacturer is willing to licence the technology to others to take some of the burden off themselves.

I like Enzo and think any talk of him leaving is premature. It's very early days still and time will tell whether he and the club can align their ideas. That said I am a bit miffed by his decision making and in recent months he's gone full BR in not trusting his squad. The latter is the biggest concern for me. He's openly talked about his philosophy of wearing down the opposition to capitalise in the final 20 minutes as they tire but I don't think he makes the most of the situation. For me he needs to place more faith in the likes of Yunus, McAteer, Marcal, Praet, Cannon, etc. and start with these player's. They're more than capable of taking a lead or keeping the game level to the allow us to inject some serious energy and quality in the likes of KDH, N'didi, Mavididi, Fatawu's, Vardy/Daka to turn the screw in the last 30 minutes of a game and finish strongly when the opponent is at their weakest. Leeds and Ipswich both seem really good at this. Leeds are blessed with an abundance of quick tricky forwards so are fortunate in that regard, Ipswich though seem to be incredibly good at managing a game. The amount of times Hutchinson has come on late in a game and helped them get something out of it suggests this is a tactical plan rather than plain luck. Whilst I get the system is largely based on Pep's Man City formula, I've felt for a while now that we play the system too deep and invite pressure on ourselves as any mistakes subsequently end up around our box which gives little room for recovery. Contrast that to Man City who play this style much higher up the pitch meaning there's plenty of room to get back or commit the tactical foul should the play be turned over. I understand Enzo's idea but for me the execution is wrong. Finally, whilst not so much a conscious decision as it fundamentally comes down to his philosophy I do agree with those saying that the shape of the system isn't particularly best suited in getting the best out of the current personnel. Whether that's on him or the board I'm unsure, although I do think Leeds system is a) our nemesis, and b) better suited to the Championship, c) the system would accommodate our squad better with the resources we have at our disposal. This opinion isn't a knee jerk reaction to the fact we are stumbling and Leeds are in a good run of form, as I think they'll struggle with that system in the PL as Farke found numerous times with Norwich, however for me it's more a case of horses for courses in order to extract the best out of the squad at any particular moment in time. I do think we'll go up. Leeds and Ipswich run-in until the end of the season is a lot harder than I'd anticipated as suddenly many of their opponents are either fighting survival or challenging for the play offs so I think we'll do what's needed to come through this blip. Whether Enzo will be our manager next season given the off field shenanigans I'm not so sure. It feels like there's certainly cracks appearing in the relationship.

Wow

Just watching that replay of their 2nd. What the hell is Faes doing?!? If he faces up and takes one for the team that never goes in. Instead he wimps out and turns which gives Hermansen no chance.

Another double deflection. To be fair we should have been out of sight. Has Enzo been taking lessons from BR?!?

I agree that they won't setup in the same system, but I'm fully expecting them to double up on the wingers, draw us in then counter. Problem for us is that their attackers are a heck of lot quicker than Boro's. For sure there's no way we'll play such a high line but we need to try and get control of the midfield. Can see this being a cagey affair similar to the game at the KP.

It was quite a good game plan from Carrick yesterday. Unfortunately it provides a blueprint for Leeds who I think have the players to deploy that even more effectively. They packed the middle to make it congested, doubled up on the wingers to nullify the threat and were patient in waiting for us to play the high line in order to match their numerical advantage to then exploit our lack of pace at the back. We needed to drop another player into the attack line to prevent them doubling up on the wingers, so I kind of saw why he brought on Cannon, but instead of pulling Mavididi I thought we needed to pull Praet, switch to a single pivot and push Ricardo into the Praet role. As others have highlighted instead Cannon just looked a bit lost and we really struggled to play through them especially as they reverted to parking the bus to see out the closing stages. We've had an amazing season so far and I'm not overly concerned about achieving promotion, however one theme I have noticed throughout the season is that whenever a team deploys an ultra low block against us our movement in the final third to disrupt their organisation and drag players out of position is non-existent. It makes it very difficult for the midfield to find passing options as there are absolutely no runners or space to play the ball into which forces us to slow the play down and the opponent is able to get more numbers behind the ball. Anyway onto Leeds, hopefully yesterday's result gives the team a bit of a nudge to take it up a gear on Friday.

This Bristol City press tonight is fantastic. They're hunting in numbers and closing Southampton so quickly. Look a completely different side to the one that visited the KP.

McAteer has got away with that. Really lucky he hasn't seen red there.

Thanks @AKCJ, that's perfect! 👍🏼

Good bit of work @AKCJ. Just a thought but could you add a points differential column between us and all the other teams so you can quickly see how many points off each team is before they run out of points vs available points?

I like Yunus, he reminds me a lot of Bernardo Silva in the way that he gets into pockets to exploit the space. He has great footwork too. He's one of those players that kind of goes a bit unnoticed but can positively influence the game when they're on top form. Only thing that did concern me on Saturday despite the wonderful goal was I felt he looked a bit greedy at times which brought back memories of Under. Felt like he was desperate to stake a claim for a starting spot but often held on to the ball a bit too long when better options were on and his good play came to nothing. There's definitely a player in there, but like everyone else I'm not sure which position brings out his best attributes.

Wouldn't surprise me that Villa need to move players on given their spending over the past few years though the links to Newcastle seem odd as there's been plenty of noise suggesting they themselves need to move players on for exactly the same reasons.

Took my little one to their first game yesterday. Sat in the family stand. Apart from getting in which took forever and led to us missing kick off I was generally impressed with the setup for families. Facilities seemed decent and stewards were very friendly. Much different to SK1 where my ST is located. Had a great time, and it was nice to introduce the little one to the LCFC family.

Was going to post last night but was too frustrated and felt it would have come across as reactionary but having slept on it that frustration has intensified. Let's be straight, they were awful and scored a fortuitous goal from one of the very few attempts they had. However equally, we were poor. They were fitter than us and the subs compounded the situation as they added fresh energy whilst we persisted with players who seemed to be flagging. Enzo needs to make changes much sooner both to manage the load but also to allow those coming on enough time to pick up the rhythm of the game. You can't be giving players 10 minutes and expect them to slot in seamlessly. It takes time to get up to the tempo and flow which those coming on don't have if you're bringing them on around the 80 minute mark. Another bugbear I have is that if you're going to play possession football to see out the game then do so as far away from your own box as possible. Many times this season we have sat back in our own half with no outlet and played the ball around the back line. I understand the idea is to utilise the goalkeeper as an extra man thereby giving you numerical advantage and more passing options but it allows the opponent to press aggressively which in turn forces errors. Finally, one thing that is starting to concern me is that for all the possession we have (particularly first half last night) we don't really seem to create a lot of high quality chances. In fact, when we get in dangerous areas and need to be incisive we'll often overplay our way out of the situation, e.g. first half last night we break with Ricardo on the left, he got to the edge of the box with acres of space to cut inside and bring it onto his right foot (stronger one) centre of goal and shoot, but instead played an awful ball to KDH that came to nothing. It's these situation where we just need to be more clinical and punish teams. We may well get promoted and do deserve to do so, but I'd have serious concerns for next season as we simply aren't ruthless enough and even the worst PL teams have that cutting edge where they are capable of converting half chances to goals. This isn't a dig at Enzo as he's been a breath of fresh air this season, but rather some observations where I feel both he and the coaching staff need to work on to move us forwards. I will add that my observations are somewhat biased and tainted by his predecessor. Had we not had multiple years of similar decision making and stubbornness I may feel very different right now.

Unreal. Preston didn't deserve that.

Been like that for years. Can remember Doncaster away the year Schmeichel dropped a clanger. Concourse was buzzing thought we'd be in for a treat as soon as we got inside the stadium. Turned out to be one of the worst away ends I've ever been in, so quiet. It's like everyone expends all their energy in the hour leading up to the game then are completely knackered for kick off. Very odd!

Been incredible all season so won't be too harsh on him but thought the subs today weren't the best. Personally thought he should have pulled Cannon for McAteer once Fatawu got the red. For me our 9 is a bit of a luxury in this system as our wide players offer a lot on the counter and are pretty decent in front of goal so I'd have like us to keep our shape and sacrifice the striker given we were one up. It would have meant them needing to swap out a CB to gain any benefit which would have opened up more space on the turnover. I'd also have subbed Casadei for Hamza at half time to sure up the middle of the park and provide more protection when they pushed more players into midfield. It's frustrating given the game and the bragging rights at stake but Enzo has got way more right than he's got wrong this season so it'd be incredibly unfair to criticise too much.