"Plan B"

[fuchsntf]

                     Kasper

 Hernandez     Huth     Fuchs

                    Amartey

Drinkwater   Mendy   Gray

     Mahrez    Slimani  Vardy/Musa

 

Get our new boys and stand out new found young talent  in now.!!!

Use our better technical ball players, our pace players driving forward.

 

Get both Vardy and Musa  Vying for that position.But give Musa the nod, Vardy needs time to sort out the new challenge hes facing, a few games from the bench will help him

Give Morgan a 4 -5 game rest. We need him mentally fit from end of November through to the end of the season , even if we find a top CB who automatically gets the nod from January.

Still have him on the bench or in the team for CL games.I want him to get that rest, no thought of kicking him out. Be tempted to tell him to getaway for 2 weeks, still  keep fit.

Albrighton same situ as Vardy, needs to tweek his game, and improve his % s on crosses.

Our main guys have lost that intensivity in their individual rolls for the team.

I want and hope Mendy can find his role for Leicester, his short time success, would enable us

to give DD  also the odd game from the bench. We cant afford to see him burn out.

 

Plan B is USE the newboys more, meaning also for me Bench time for Kapu, find out what hes got, what positions can he fill.

Use the bench as part of the team, means ALL our top players can be rotated, rested and recognise they have to earn their pay rises.Not to be seen as negative moves, but developement of the squad, and their own developement within that squad.

 

I fully believe that our vets are PL title tired.That Escape thrown on top, no player is to blame,

Everybody gave their every thing and more.They are not as equipped as the Man.citys,

The past teams of manu, Chelsea, Arsenal or even Spurs.Plus our core of heroes are older,

exception Mahrez.

 

We were never going to build eras like Bayern, Barca, Juve, Manu.

Dortmund , Athletico Madrid struggle to hold consistency but they are still higher and bigger clubs than city. WOLFSBURG of Germany are probably our level, since their top season

they have struggled and have more funds than ourselves.

Claudio did have  a list of players/or type he wanted, he doesnt do the chasing thats other peoples jobs, but like the past the possibles with quality are still difficult to entice, even

now with that title.

Lets keep perspective, and accept that title not only gave alot but took and sqeezed hell of alot

out of our players, giving their all, left them half empty this season.Its not their approach is different, its just that little extra bite and intensity has drawn out more than expected.

Thst timing, quick on thought, reaction and pace, is not quite there.Probably for the same reason as Chelsea.The core of last season, might need until the turn of the year to get that

hidden tick going again, thats why for me Claudio need to get his new boys more involved

and take that stress away from the history makers.We need more definite 1st teamers within

the 1st 15, not maybes, or fill ins.

 

Only  Then  can  he work out his new plans

A and B. even a C. Not forgetting he is 3 quality players short because of the addition of Champions league.Thats where the club was slow in supporting Ranieri.

[Dan]

Donut's point about tactical tweaking is right, but a few points for me...

 

- Ball retention. We have mocked the Arsenal & Spurs fans for their "we deserved to win because we had more possession" nonsense, we were right to do so, HOWEVER, ours at the minute is absolutely appalling. I'd love to know how many passes we made in the final third. I wouldn't be shocked if it was single figures.

 

- We were built last year around being brilliant off the ball and we had you know who doing all the dog work, you take that away, you've got to find a way around it. We haven't at all. Amartey's a tidy player but he isn't the finished article. Far from it. We are putting that kind of pressure on someone who isn't really up to it yet. Amartey isn't actually that mobile in my eyes, quite slow on the turn, quick over a longer distance but doesn't have that same jolt of pace you know who had. He's getting exposed, and it's leading to our defence getting pulled all over the place.

 

- I'm not actually sold on Slimani & Vardy as a partnership. For all Vardy was excellent last year and Slimani looks like he could get us 20 goals this year, I think they like to occupy the same space. Okazaki missing completely changes the shape. He's an infuriating player because you expect more from him on the ball, but he made it very hard for teams to settle. Slimani's looking great and I really like him, but Vardy looks completely lost to me at the minute. I'd consider playing Okazaki & Slimani at Chelsea if we go for two forwards although I'm not sure I'd actually go ahead with it as I think we need to drop one. Right now that forward is Vardy.

 

- The defence, as stated, struggles a lot more because Amartey isn't doing what you know who does, although their lack of technical ability (Fuchs excepted) doesn't exactly help our ball retention.

 

I think we got it wrong with our recruitment in the summer. It's mental how we've got a £16mil attacking player and a £7mil winger not even making the squad yet there we are struggling to play a 4-3-3 because of our lack of options.

 

We haven't replaced you know who at all yet we're still trying to play a system that was made tick because of him. It's suicidal.

 

I've not watched Nice regularly, but I did watch an eight minute video of Mendy's highlights for them (yes, I've gone there), he seems to be the sort of player who sits behind a midfield two and keeps things ticking over. A good reader of the game, a decent passer, a bit like what Leon Britton was for Swansea. I think Mendy's struggled when we've used him so far but yet again I think that's because we're asking him to do the Kante role.

 

Assuming Mendy's fit, I would play this at Chelsea...

 

Schmeichel

 

Simpson - Morgan - Huth - Fuchs

 

Mendy

 

Drinkwater - Amartey

 

Mahrez --------------------- Gray

 

Slimani

 

I think Gray deserves a start and I think we'd be a bit less reliant on Albrighton's defensive work if we had three central midfielders. Amartey and Drinkwater have a proper shield, allowing Drinkwater to attack more and Amartey to be covered should he make a mistake (which he is unfortunately prone to but it's about working around that).

 

I'm intrigued to see what he has up his sleeve. I can tell he's a bit pissed off, and I'm quite glad about that, I'd rather him admit to being pissed off about it than sugar coating it.

[Tuna]

5 hours ago, Larry_LCFC said:

 

So come on, what is your "Plan B"?

 

[lee7]

It's blatently obvious to all that our plan A is to simply catch teams on the break or with balls over the top for Vardy to run on to but as teams are now finding defending against this easier surely we have to start keeping the ball a lot better? 

 

Against Porto in particular it was painful to watch how comfortable they were in possession in comparison to us who treated the ball like a hot potato! Ranieri admitted after the match that we do not have the quality to keep the ball like they did for long spells, so for me that's something that he needs to change. 

[sl27]

- we must improve the organization of the defence the CB cooperation and the DM
- the game at the front must be more creative ,  action DD / Gray / Kapustka 

[sl27]

offensive and creative team

 

 

Schmeichel

 

Simpson - Morgan - Huth - Fuchs

 

Mendy

 

Drinkwater - Kapustka 

 

Mahrez  --------------------------------------------Gray 

 

 

 

Slimani

 

[shade]

every other team just lets their defence sit 15 feet further back than normal now, negating the ball over the top and meaning we've instantly become an ineffective long ball team, they just head out aimless punts away. we need to try and play between the expanded gap between the defence and midfield, slipping balls into okazaki perhaps and allowing him to turn and run at the defence or look for vardy.

[foxy boxing]

maybe a change of formation, not just 4 4 2 in every game, possibly 4 2 3 1, we can't just rely on the well known counter attack we also need good build up play and get the ball moving from defence to midfield to attack

[Fox92]

We have no plan B.

 

Our players look jaded from too many games/playing in Europe. Ranieri brought in Musa at £16million, yesterday was the perfect opportunity to rotate the team. But no. It's the same team minus one change and that's at full back. Kapuska nowhere to be seen again either and Gray probably should have started.

 

As for our style of play wtf. Just playing it long all the game, and against two giant centre backs. It's sunday league stuff. We're supposed to be Champions of England ffs. No wonder Vardy couldn't get into the team and no wonder the media just portray us as a 'direct' side.

[NotTheMarketLeader]

13 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

A team that could string 5 passes together would be a good start. The high pressing, counter attacking style served us brilliantly last season but we have become so one dimensional it's bordering on a joke now. Vardy just isn't making those same runs this season

The high pressing, counter attacking is Plan A. 

 

We won the league doing it. 

 

My arguament is that we have stopped using Plan A this season, and are looking shit.

 

Surely, at least until we have a change in personnel we ought to be attempting to get that part of our game right again? 

 

To my mind we are negating a lot of our strengths in trying to our change style when we don't have the players capable of playing intricate passing football, and the ones we know are capable are totally out of form eg Albrighton.

 

Look at yesterday, of the back 4 Fuchs is decent on the ball. The only other two who can operate with it at their feet are Mahrez (ran up blind alleys for 70 mins and was legless after that) and Drinky who cannot do the job of three men in midfield.

 

"All the teams have sussed us out" I'm reading as a counter to this theory but by January last year everyone knew our game but it made no difference whatsoever, we still carried on winning. 

 

As as you said above Vardy is not making those runs now, in fact for the first half he was playing behind Slimani a lot of the time. 

 

That makes no sense at all to me. 

[Koke]

Our inability to pass the ball out from the back + our lack of ball carrying CMs is hurting us.  Huth and Morgan are not gonna be anything other two bouncers so we need to look at our CMs to carry the ball and pass it forwards. Amartey can't or doesn't want to do that. Hernandez reads the game well and can passout from the back so maybe a 352 would suit us.

 

Vardy and Slimani also won't work cos neither drops deep. I like Slimani and atm he's our first choice striker on merit. Vardy is looking like a lost child out there. 

 

It's a shame Mendy is injured and King is not good enough. Because a 352 with 3 CMs might be worth a try but we just don't have any central midfielders. 

[Dan]

I wouldn't throw Kapustka in at central midfield yet. None of us really know how good he is. He's a promising sounding player and he's been unlucky to have had such little time so far, but I'd trust Amartey there more than him at the minute.

 

He'll have something up his sleeve. I can tell he's unhappy.

[cityfanlee23]

16 hours ago, Donut said:

I dont believe in plan A and plan B etc

 

I believe in having an appropriate strategy for the opponent and match situation, not a couple of pre meditated plans.

I get that but the point is we only have one style of play, counter attack, which is more often than not over the top. 

 

The Plan B phrase was actually coined by ranieri. 

Whatever it is, we are not very good at it. 

[Captain...]

Plan B:

 

Kasper

Hernandez Huth Morgan

Albrighton ----------------- LWB

Mendy Amartey

Drinkwater

Mahrez Slimani Vardy

 

My favourite formation, it utilises Albrighton's energy and his ability to ping them in on his right foot, as well as do a shift defensively, it frees up  Mahrez and Vardy to pick the weak point and attack and Slimani to be the focal point and not occupy the same space as Vardy. It gets Drinkwater a bit further up the field to pull the strings, whilst Amartey and Mendy do the donkey work replacing "you know who" with 2 players. You get the extra height and ball playing ability of Hernandez. The difficult position is LWB, I would probably go with Schlupp as it needs someone with an engine and might be a bit too much for Fuchs and Chilwell isn't experienced enough yet.

 

It gives us width it gives us an extra man in midfield, it closes the gap between Midfield and Defense so we are not pinging long balls all the time. It gives us balance and it frees up our most creative and dangerous players, but it also lends itself to incorporating Gray, Musa, Kaputska and even King and Ulloa comfortably without the rigidity of our 442. 

 

The Key position is the wing back, Albrighton did it for the great escape with Schlupp, can Fuchs/Simpson/Chilwell play that role if needed?

[Strokes]

I think we are already seeing plan b in action, its just become very effective yet.  Slimani has been bought in to cope with the deeper defensive lines we now face. Instead of balls over the top for Vardy to run onto, we are looking for Slimani to flick it on for a similar effect. The trouble is, he hasnt won enough of these balls and Vardy is the victim. So whats Plan C?

[Larry_LCFC]

1 minute ago, Strokes said:

 So whats Plan C?

PANIC!!!

[fuchsntf]

All of us including me....will calm down, and come down from high blood pressure scale when we get positive results out of  , Chelsea and the Spurs, throw in a win against the Eagles.

Then by December Caudio sees his 1st manager of the month for max pts in November....

 

I really dont know what we are worrying about, we have spent 132 yrs balancing on various

tight ropes, this year is just set higher, and the hight is making us somewhat dizzy....

even the safety net feels a long drop.  Say I looking from behind the sofa......

[Strokes]

11 minutes ago, Captain... said:

Plan B:

 

Kasper

Hernandez Huth Morgan

Albrighton ----------------- LWB

Mendy Amartey

Drinkwater

Mahrez Slimani Vardy

 

My favourite formation, it utilises Albrighton's energy and his ability to ping them in on his right foot, as well as do a shift defensively, it frees up  Mahrez and Vardy to pick the weak point and attack and Slimani to be the focal point and not occupy the same space as Vardy. It gets Drinkwater a bit further up the field to pull the strings, whilst Amartey and Mendy do the donkey work replacing "you know who" with 2 players. You get the extra height and ball playing ability of Hernandez. The difficult position is LWB, I would probably go with Schlupp as it needs someone with an engine and might be a bit too much for Fuchs and Chilwell isn't experienced enough yet.

 

It gives us width it gives us an extra man in midfield, it closes the gap between Midfield and Defense so we are not pinging long balls all the time. It gives us balance and it frees up our most creative and dangerous players, but it also lends itself to incorporating Gray, Musa, Kaputska and even King and Ulloa comfortably without the rigidity of our 442. 

 

The Key position is the wing back, Albrighton did it for the great escape with Schlupp, can Fuchs/Simpson/Chilwell play that role if needed?

It would be nice to have a 12 man formation but after last season comments cheating im not sure we would get away with it

[psychonaut]

14 hours ago, Wookie said:

If we start making too many changes we'll lose sight of what we're trying to do, it's hard to identify which change is doing what when you make too many. Vardy and Slimani aren't working with how they're playing at the moment - against Brugge Slimani was effectively playing the Okazaki role, dropping deep linking midfield and attack as well as dropping in without the ball and we looked so much better as a result. Today both strikers were pushing up against their backline looking to get in behind but they sat deep denying the necessary space, without a striker linking the play it forces players to go long because of a dearth of options so it wasn't surpassing when we looked better with Shinji on.

 

Another issue is our total inability to play out of the back, obviously we're not going to transition into a Barcelona 2011 overnight but our buildup play is just so poor at times, Drinky comes deep to receive the ball but when he does it leaves Amartey central where he's heavily marked and we really struggle to progress the ball up the pitch. 

 

This happened a few times which triggered Southampton's press, it wouldn't happen if Huth and Morgan weren't so uncomfortable on the ball. 

 

 

 

Great post. I'm glad you picked this up as it's not often mentioned if ever. Having two CB's that lack composure and the ability to play with the ball at this level will at times will completely nullify our game. As you so rightly outlined - with the lack of a striker dropping deep to give a forward outlet from midfield our CM's have two banks of players to try and pass/run through to gain any momentum going forward and create an attack. Add to this a young and inexperienced CM who seems frightened to death of making the simplest of passes and it only compounds the situation. No way forward - frustration ensures and the big lump forward is an inevitable outcome.

 

Having CB's that are able to play with the ball and bring it forwards would cut out the first few pressers and allow our CM's to advance and find space in that hole and then try and link play with our wingers/forwards.

 

It really is like looking at a machine with a part removed. The missing part creates a knock on effect and highlights other weaknesses within other area's that then malfunction and the whole machine starts to break down.

 

 

 

 

[Dan]

49 minutes ago, Captain... said:

Plan B:

 

Kasper

Hernandez Huth Morgan

Albrighton ----------------- LWB

Mendy Amartey

Drinkwater

Mahrez Slimani Vardy

 

My favourite formation, it utilises Albrighton's energy and his ability to ping them in on his right foot, as well as do a shift defensively, it frees up  Mahrez and Vardy to pick the weak point and attack and Slimani to be the focal point and not occupy the same space as Vardy. It gets Drinkwater a bit further up the field to pull the strings, whilst Amartey and Mendy do the donkey work replacing "you know who" with 2 players. You get the extra height and ball playing ability of Hernandez. The difficult position is LWB, I would probably go with Schlupp as it needs someone with an engine and might be a bit too much for Fuchs and Chilwell isn't experienced enough yet.

 

It gives us width it gives us an extra man in midfield, it closes the gap between Midfield and Defense so we are not pinging long balls all the time. It gives us balance and it frees up our most creative and dangerous players, but it also lends itself to incorporating Gray, Musa, Kaputska and even King and Ulloa comfortably without the rigidity of our 442. 

 

The Key position is the wing back, Albrighton did it for the great escape with Schlupp, can Fuchs/Simpson/Chilwell play that role if needed?

I've always been big on the 3-5-3 as well.

[Captain...]

42 minutes ago, Strokes said:

It would be nice to have a 12 man formation but after last season comments cheating im not sure we would get away with it

I did say we needed to replace "you know who" with 2 players...

[foxes21]

I think rotation is just as important as having a plan b. No point in a plan b, if the players are too tired to execute plan a.

 

pl games, 4-3-3, build from midfield. Not our best team on paper, but we need to rotate, & CL is obviously the priority. Slimani probably better suited to the lone striker role than Vardy, so probs swap them but not until vardys back to his usual self.

 

zieler

simpson-hernandez-huth-chilwell

king-amartey-kaputska

gray-vardy-musa

 

cl games, 4-4-1-1/4-5-1. Our direct approach seems better suited to the cl. id like to see okazaki/slimani high press given a try. Also Albrighton/Mahrez need to rotate wings more often.

 

kasper

hernandez-morgan-huth-fuchs

mahrez-drinkwater-mendy-albrighton

okazaki

slimani

[Strokes]

37 minutes ago, Captain... said:

I did say we needed to replace "you know who" with 2 players...

 

[NotTheMarketLeader]

1 hour ago, foxes21 said:

I think rotation is just as important as having a plan b. No point in a plan b, if the players are too tired to execute plan a.

 

pl games, 4-3-3, build from midfield. Not our best team on paper, but we need to rotate, & CL is obviously the priority. Slimani probably better suited to the lone striker role than Vardy, so probs swap them but not until vardys back to his usual self.

 

zieler

simpson-hernandez-huth-chilwell

king-amartey-kaputska

gray-vardy-musa

 

cl games, 4-4-1-1/4-5-1. Our direct approach seems better suited to the cl. id like to see okazaki/slimani high press given a try. Also Albrighton/Mahrez need to rotate wings more often.

 

kasper

hernandez-morgan-huth-fuchs

mahrez-drinkwater-mendy-albrighton

okazaki

slimani

You say "the CL is obviously the priority."

 

Is it? 

 

If so, I don't think it should be.

 

Get knocked out in the next knockout stage and what have we gained, if it means we finish 12th or lower, as seems definitely possible given our start?

 

It does seem as though it is one or the other with our threadbare squad. 

 

Another season with a top 6 finish, and to be consistanly up there is what would build our standing in the game rather than a flash in the pan type affair we could be in the midst of.

[Staffs Fox]

Its not about plan A or plan b its about managing the squad better,

 

Yes that's right we have a Squad.

 

We are competing on two main fronts playing 3 games in a week sometimes and yet the same 11 invariably start,

 

Look at the below;

 

                        Zieler

 

Hernandez  Morgan  Huth   Chilwell

 

Kasputska   King   Mendy   Gray

 

               Musa    Okazaki

 

Apart from the CB's for which we have zero proper cover, that's is a very decent side who hardly get any minutes whilst our usual 11 get 180 mins a week,

 

I'm a big fan of Albrighton but he's been off the boil since Brugge and needs to be benched for a few games. Vardy needs to be benched from the start for his own good,

 

As for Musa and Kapustka............ we obviously don't know whats going on behind the scenes but that's over £20m not even getting on the bench. Something isn't right,

 

Mendy coming back and hopefully the aforementioned duo getting a few minutes should give the squad a fresher feel,

 

I think we'll stumble onto Jan and get through the CL group stages then we'll get the CB and CM we needed in the summer