sbfox

Still another 40 games and 9 months to go, let's not be silly

Argggggh

This thread makes me despair sometimes. Bossing the league, so far, conceding only a handful of goals and all we can talk about is not getting out of second gear, or needing a different plan? I'll take top of the league and second gear thanks.

Like some of us were suggesting, Rovers couldn't keep that up all second half and we've scored two more goals. Tough but manageable result. Job done.

Hope the bedwetters realise you can't press like this for 90 mins. They'll tire, we'll score at least two more, chill

Interesting thread. I prefer watching football more now than I did 20 years ago. It's easier on the eye and skill levels are generally higher. It's also a lot safer for fans to attend and more accessible for those who aren't white men. Supporting Leicester has nothing to do with my love for the game. Someone else said it, but I'll always love the club and follow however I can, however old I am and wherever I am. Football as a game? More indifferent.

Yessssss. Bring out the moaners. Thank you Enzo!!

I guess just so we don't all lose our heads, the thing that most of the 'pro-Maresca' people are trying to say is that we're simply not going to be playing balls in behind, whipping in 20 crosses a game, or countering at pace. Talking tactics is fine. Pretending that we won't be playing this way for the next 2+ years is just silly. It's not how we're set up to play and we don't have the players anyway, so you're just going to do yourselves a mischief by pining after the 15/16 glory days.

But why would you expect to see sequences finished in 15 passes, when Maresca's style mimics Pep's tactics, which is keep the ball all game? The whole idea of this style is to hold the ball for as long as possible. Again, the question asked to lots of others - what would your alternative be? Counter attacking? Long balls in behind? Big man up top?

Where are the overloads coming from if the RB is staying with the back four and both central midfielders are playing holding roles?

Right, so you're basically agreeing with me. We don't need one single playmaker, we need several players who can comfortably interchange out of positions in order to unlock defence.

Which teams are going to dominate possession against us? We won't play counter attacking football for most of this year, because we don't have the quality of opposition playing against us. Unless you want us to sit back and let Rotherham dominate us for 90 minutes?

We don't play the same way as last season.

So what would your plan B system be?

I mean you're ignoring objective reality. The system Maresca plays isn't just 'tucking in a full back', or knocking it sideways like Rogers.

Like I said, I can't help you

Yeah, but it's not similar to whatever Rogers and Puel (are we still banging on about Puel...) dished up. If you can't see it, I can't help you. I don't think Maresca's tactics can be blamed for his players failing to put away at least one of the many chances we carved out.

This just isn't true though. We haven't played this way for two seasons - this is all brand new for us. There are very few teams in this league that will play 442. Hull didn't do anything on Saturday. We couldn't finish our chances and we dominated the match.

Yeah, exactly? So we don't need A playmaker. We need 3/4 creative, attacking midfielders. Which we seem to have.

Soft at the back? We've conceded very few goals full stop and even fewer preventable ones. Once Coady comes back, we should have one of the best back 5s in the league.

This system doesn't need a 'playmaker', so no, we're not.

We're not going to be able to play on the counter, because teams won't press us high enough. We won't win the league by a mile because this is the most competitive league in Europe. We don't have a standout striker and though we have a good squad, years of neglect have meant that Maresca is in rebuild mode.

I guess the frustration is - and look, I know none of our opinions matter here - that some of you are setting Maresca up to fail by insisting on two up top, overlapping wing backs or a direct style. That way of football isn't coming back, for us, or most other teams. Modern football is patterns, it's styles, it's knowing where you need to be in 10 passes time. Knocking it down to your strike partner isn't a viable strategy anymore.

But every team that plays us will play a low block. That's a fact. You can't play 'direct' against a low block. Also don't know why we should be tanking teams? Not only is the gap between the bottom half of the Prem and the Championship smaller than ever, but we're here on merit with the players we have. For fun, who would you replace Maresca with?

Is this sarcasm? When has Vardy ever worked well with a strike partner? Neither Kels or Vardy should be starting and I expect Cannon to be starting as our sole striker very soon. 442 is so rigid and inflexible and not something that you really see anymore. You can't high press with that system, you can't pass around teams with it and most managers nowadays will overload the midfield once they see two CMs there.