Lillehamring

Good point - and i think Cannon would have made more sense - he seems to have that vardyesque wish to go chase players and would have also offered more height to target.

It's probably the hardest thing for a manager to balance - that's why it such a 'dangerous' score - you don't want to risk conceding but you know getting a second will kill off the game. Ipswich certainly stepped up a few gears in the last half hour, but equally we had some phases where they simply couldn't get the ball off us. I think ideally maresca would have us sustaining those phases indefinitely and if a goal presents itself - just so - and there have been many games like that. Ipswich have such a good press that it wasn't possible for us to play this way - the option then was to defend and try to hit them in transition, and we did create a lot of these countering actions, sadly the impression is that we did nothing, simply because pretty much every time we countered it broke down.

Just a guess, but it might have been because ipswich's defenders were shocking at trying to play out from defence, but their forwards were dangerous sniffing around our defenders in possession - maybe he just figured we'd win the ball in their final third, which we did, but failed to take advantage of?

I think you also have to factor in the opposition when considering the difference between ndidi and casadei. Ipswich started the game clearly quite nervous, lots of mistakes trying to pass out and a lack of fluency going forward; as such we controlled the game and ndidi was basically just part of a very good press from us; by the time casadei came on, ipswich had found some belief and were dominant, we weren't pressing nearly as high, and casadei was defending deep and as such much more involved in our transitions to counter attack (which i thought he did very well) even though they broke down (but others were more guilty in that respect than him).

But they've been doing that since pre-season? I think it's just more noticeable now because we've started to relax/become more confident in the final third, so now those passes aren't wasted and forgotten.

I think it is more the case that early on the tactics were limited rather than rigid. the players couldn't learn everything at once, but they had to start playing with the basics. Half a season in, players are more comfortable and the original plan can be developed and expanded.

If only there was some way the official could have a second look at this and, you know, review it; like with some kind of video aided system of making sure decisions don't rob teams?

To be fair, we changed tactics against them - we opted to play rubbish.

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No you're right, in 2015 they were all effectively championship players, having a go at stepping up to the prem (i was giving mahrez and kante the benefit of the doubt having never played in the championship and clearly far too good to ever play there). I'm not going to sit and research it but how many of them had actual PL experience before joining us - Simpson, Kasper maybe....? Part of the magic of us winning it was that we did it with players that had played most of their careers in leagues below the level of the prem.

Well how many of that squad were essentially championship (or equivalent) players? - don't read it as a criticism, it's part of what makes the achievement so remarkable.

Better in what sense? - that they conceded an early goal and spent 70 minutes huffing and puffing and coming nowhere near an equaliser?

I think we got the balance right with killing time and taking a chance to counter - the issue wasn't a lack of willingness it was a lack of quality - we had numerous overloads even after casadei came on, only for nacho and mavididi (primarily) to balls it up.

That's super harsh to say when we were 2 minutes away from seeing out a win - no amount of tactics can account for a goal that takes two deflections!

Not sure what is more frustrating, the nature and timing of their goal, or that we didn't have them buried by half time. They really are a limited side, and hopeless at defending, the amount of times we caught them in possession was ridiculous, unfortunately the old 'shit in the final third' issue rose it's ugly head again. I disagree about casadei i thought he worked really hard and linked up play nicely going forward, certainly more useful than nacho and yunus (did he touch the ball?) Definitely two points dropped, but if that was the 'hardest' game we'll play all season, then i can't see us dropping many points.

Yeah - let's blame casadei for a goal from a shot going nowhere that took two deflections

I wouldn't have thought so - once he perceives us to have 'taken advantage' he can't go back. If daka couldn't get to the ball then there's no advantage, but he takes a goal bound shot - that's advantage over, surely? The real problem is daka should have buried it - ref's probably thinking, ' jeez, how the føkk has he not scored that!'

Very much so, no one near him.

They had a few phases of possession and held the ball at the back quite a bit - just didn't get much into our half with it.

One was an attempt to lob the keeper that was closer to lobbing the corner flag....

Could be due to JJ having a stinker against brum, but probably just tactical - either way, it seemed to do the trick, Faes was less scary and justin was...well he played ok

That was horrible. And he had soooo much time and space.

I thought it was outside the box but happy with the pen. I think, though, that the comment was in reference to how he really should have had a second yellow for time wasting.