Lillehamring

Funny thing is, i suspect most of us have no idea how most teams actually play - i watched the second half of the watford norwich game and watford were relentless, nothing like how they played against us. Which also sort of emphasises how hard it is for enzo - he must watch video of teams playing a certain way only for 95% of them to come to the KP and park the bus.

Learning how to mulitquote?

I think the problem is that it's hard to discuss the tactics for next year when almost everything about that situation remains unknown - it's really just guess work. sure there's a time and place for such discussion, but this thread really deserves to remain focussed on Maresca's known tactics, ie what is happening on the pitch.

Yeah, this is what i've been trying to say - there's no guarantee upping the tempo early on will generate more chances, let alone goals - and given the potential downside it seems worthless taking the risk. Just because we can up the tempo doesn't mean we should - especially if it's just to satisfy some whiners who can't appreciate the patient philosophy we've adopted. At bottom: enzo likes the style of play, the players like it, many fans like it - it ain't going to change just because certain fans are bored. I feel like we need an auto response for every time some one complains that the tempo is slow;

to be honest it wasn't worth it, it was just a clarification of another posters comment - it would have just got messy.

I agree, i didn't like the comparison either.

That's not the case at all, you've completely missed the point. There's plenty of tactical discussion in this thread that has a negative slant - this is not the problem. What is the problem is people just posting "i don't like it", "i'm bored" etc - without even mentioning tactics, there are other threads to declare this disenchantment. This is a thread about tactics - If someone posts "i don't like it because..." and then explains what they don't like from a tactical perspective that's fair enough, but just coming on here to say 'it's rubbish' is not.

I think his implication was that we were pretty pedestrian last year and had lots of injuries.

Like being bothered by you spelling 'too' wrong

Sure, but that doesn't seem viable over a whole season and, frankly, doesn't, as i say, seem necessary. I think there have been games where we certainly could have pushed a bit more - stoke for example, when they had like one recognised centre back? - but we still won that comfortably. And there have definitely been games where we've looked a bit lethargic, but again the only time that's been a problem was the leeds game. So it seems that the old 'if it ain't broke...' logic seems to apply to our current situation pretty well.

whilst it's not absolute, It certainly is not nonsense - i'm not saying that playing conservative football doesn't bring risks, but spurs have only played 13 games and have 11 players out injured - so that's quite a significant issue. I don't think the injury issues we had over the last couple of seasons were as a result of playing possession football, but some intrinsic issues with the health management at the club and from a lack of rotation/rest. Anyway, last season there were 8 teams with more injuries than us - top of the list liverpool - a high tempo team, then, chelsea and newcastle, again high tempo teams.. fewest injuries last season: man city and brighton- The fact is, at our level we play more games against more physical teams, it makes sense to play in a way that is less likely to sustain injuries - enzo has said that he doesn't need the players running about, but to let the ball do the work, and that means less impact on bodies and less likelihood of sustaining some injury.

That seems to be the approach he took v QPR with leeds looming, and it didn't exactly work out - a full strength XI were unconvincing in the easier game and woeful in the harder one - this time will be an even shorter turnaround, plus he has players that really need some game time so i can't see him not making some changes, even if it's just giving souttar and coady a run out.

Another reason why it's not always smart to play intense football: unavailable spurs players (injured or suspended)

Boring, boring Leicester

What is interesting to note is that we still passed the ball around the back, stood on the ball, did all those 'boring' things we were doing in the first half - that didn't change (other than perhaps how often we did it and where on the pitch we did it) - but there remained periods where nothing seemed to happen - the intensity boost was when we found the gaps and launched the attacks from the slow build ups. essentially, it wasn't just panicky chaos, it was still the same considered patient formula only when we went for it we really went for it. and that's, i suppose what we're really talking about, what it is we really want to see.

Also worth noting they got booed at the final whistle of the villa game -

An excellent tactical observation

because going all in early on is no guarantee that we'll 'put teams away by half time'. Also most of these teams sitting deep have a game plan to go on the attack last 20-minutes or so if they're still in the game - if we don't get the goals we leave ourselves vulnerable. the way we're playing still gives us the chance to finish games off by half time, anyway - we had more than enough chances to have got a few goals first half against watford, so why bust a gut just to leave yourself shattered for the last half hour, when alternatively you can play it easy, still get some early goals and then see out the game. You can't go all in for 90 minutes, so there's going to be a phase of the game where we have to control the ball - logic suggests it's better to do that early, given that it doesn't necessarily influence the likelihood of us scoring or not. Those complaining need to realise that playing with more intensity/speed/urgency DOES NOT GUARANTEE that we will score more goals. playing the way we do has still seen us score 12 1st half goals, only 6 teams have scored more (13, 15, 16, 16, 17 & 19) But equally it's worth noting what impact this has on their defensive capabilities - those teams have conceded 11,17,11.12,13 & 11, respectively, we've conceded 6. And the benefits in the 2nd half are clear - those teams 2nd half are 15-6, 15-15, 11-8, 13-15, 11-14, 17-12 - we are 19-4.

Although, let's face it, none of these 'we suck' 'i'm bored' posts belong in this thread. There'd be less animosity if we stuck to the topic and got back to tactics!

Progressive Passing Distance 1. Viktor Johansson • Rotherham Utd 12808 2. Jannik Vestergaard • Leicester City 10934 3. Mads Hermansen • Leicester City 10212

I'd rather watch us how we're playing this season than the dross we served up (CL aside) in the two seasons after we won the league, or last season. The only three seasons we were actually a consistently good watch in the PL was 15/16 and the two years when rodgers was good - the rest was at best average. Whatever you may feel about our current style, the quality is there, the goals are there and the times when we really click have been fabulous - i assume you've seen enough highlights to have caught the 33-pass goal, for example - yes, we've become a much more acquired taste under enzo, but learn how to appreciate it and it tastes really good. And just wait until it matures!

I've just looked at albrighton's activity this season and he's started all three of the league cup games as the right wing attacker: on those occasions he played alongside praet, casadei and yunus - and all three are probably due a game. So maybe it's not so unlikely after all.

Hmm, i see what you mean, but it's highly likely that we aren't going to be doing much in the way pf defending, so another game of faes and vesty playing as a back 2 just inside their half is on the cards, as such we'll probably be playing something like a 2-3-5 - i know that sounds mental, but it's not far off how we've been in some games this season - so we could play a kind of 2-1-4-3 with the 8s dropping deeper between justin and albrighton, with them having freedom to push out to rotate with the wide forwards. But, no, i can't see it happening. I think he'll have hamza and winks in the pivot, and yunus and mcateer as the wide men.

If we end up with casadei and ndidi as the 8s, there's at least some height for him to aim at for the first time since ulloa.