For 2017/18 we need to evolve into a more possesion based side.

[WigstonWanderer]

Don't need to be a possession based side, but a bit more confidence on the ball and the ability to pass and if necessary retain possession if the situation demands, would go a long way. I do get tired of seeing a hoof up field simply because we don't have the quality or imagination to do anything else.

 

Need to evolve in the direction of Atletico. They aren't a possession based side but are quite confident of stroking it around when they want to. Hell, even we've played some wonderful passing football in the last few seasons and when we do so it tends to be direct, one touch, attacking stuff, not possession for its own sake. More of that please.

[ian_marshall]

I'd love to see us play a more possession based game and think long term that's where we need to be as it gives you more control over the game, and ultimately the opposition can't score if they don't have the ball. 

 

However, I think that come the end of the season we'll arrive at a crossroads and it'll take some massive decisions and strong leadership to take us in the right direction as I think we'll have to take a step back (to clarify I dont mean relegation) before we're able to take two steps forward.

 

I don't think with the current personnel that we're in a position to change our style of play drastically as it was evident under Claudio that this group of players clearly don't have the technical ability or more importantly the intelligence to be able to play a more complex style of football. Therefore any changes will require a slow transition as we set ourselves on a new path.

 

My concern is that the brand of football that we currently play is very much the embodiment of the group of player's we've had in the squad since we started this journey in the Championship. They've made this style of football their own. They started out as a young group who had a plan with ambitions of success, living the ups and downs together and they made their way to the top of the footballing pyramid. Unfortunately, behind the scenes and off the field of play we've been complacent in terms of succession planning and haven't brought in enough younger players each season to embrace the ethos and style of play with a view to eventually succeeding this group.

 

The issue we have now is that because we don't have enough players coming through, we're either having to rely on the current player's many of which are starting to show signs of decline in terms of their performance, or we make wholesale changes bringing in players who we believe are younger versions of the what we have, however risk the inbound players not fully embracing the current team's attitudes and values which ultimately will make our system less effective. 

 

As mentioned any changes will take time, but it's vital for the long term success of the club that we make the right decisions this summer as these will define our future.

[Babylon]

2 hours ago, sylofox said:

Now your comments I don't get. If teams were sitting deeper on us at the start of the season why have they stopped all of a sudden.

 

Everyone could beat us but since we sacked CR teams have reverted back to last season as we have. The only mystery in this is why CR tried to change what was not broke.

 

The sad thing is we could have challenged again this season. A top four place was possible. Something I believe we will do next season. What changed the most this season was us and it's cost us.

Why? Because we're no longer seen as the threat we were and not getting the respect we were. The same as last season. 

 

This started before he went but by then we were in a downward spiral. 

 

You're trying to make it black and white, there were other issues as well. His defensive football worked well as a balance to

the gung ho style we started with, but as it took more of a hold it started to stifle our attacking play. 

 

Player motivation and needing to find the fire again, I think the press coverage before Liverpool was actually a huge thing for us as it reignited everyone.

 

I stand by what I said, I saw no effort to make us into a more passing team, he's said he was just using the same tactics. We've actually played better passing football since he's been gone if anything, but our style is difficult to implement on a couple of days rest. So until we're playing Saturday / Saturday again we're going to see some games like Palace and West Ham where we struggled to get any control.

 

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

Our best striker is most affective when we release him early and the oppo are high up the pitch. We do need  to be more comfortable on the ball, but if we fundamentally change our style JV will be less affective.

[Beliall]

We don't need to make drastic changes.  Just get in one or two hard working premier league players who are calm and skilled on the ball so when we win the ball back we aren't restricted to lumping it forward or giving it away

[Babylon]

2 minutes ago, Marshall Cockney Fox said:

Our best striker is most affective when we release him early and the oppo are high up the pitch. We do need  to be more comfortable on the ball, but if we fundamentally change our style JV will be less affective.

Not sure many would want fundamental chance, evolution not revolution. You can still play this style, but be more comfortable in controlling the ball.

[Oxfordfox83]

2 hours ago, davieG said:

It's not a case of trying to emulate Arsenal or the likes but it would certainly help if we we improved significantly our passing ability, a lot of our lack of possession is down to giving the ball away for no apparent reason or attempt to attack the opposition.

 

So rather than talk about an increased possession game we should be looking to improve our pass completion which will increase our possession rates but more importantly improve our defensive and the number of attacks, attempts, shots on target and goals! 

I think this is the great misapprehension. It's not about having players who 'can pass better', because we've seen that all our players are capable of a confident, direct passing game on their day. 

 

What would actually need to change is the position of the receivers, the runs we make and decreasing the 'acceptability' of a pass going awry. The problem with that is that it would slow us down, bring us narrower, inhibit our directness and reduce that ability we have on our day of hitting teams on the break and scoring before they've drawn breath. 

 

The style we play brings with it the need for lower percentage risky balls, even starting from defence. When those passes work we look sensational, and when they don't we have to know as a team how we recover the ball and manage their greater possession.

 

What you cannot do is play a medium game of great swift counter, short accurate possession play, because unless you're playing against under 10s it doesn't work. You choose a style and you accept the pros and cons.

 

The coda is that if you're very wealthy, you can afford to have different styles of play for different games (see SAF's European teams), but that either requires the best players in the world or a whole second team of quality players. We can't do that. 

 

The side-effect of our exciting play is that when it's not working we look clueless. That cluelessness happens a lot less when we commit to our high risk, low possession game than it did when we went in half cocked under Claudio this season. I'd much rather play like us than Arsenal.

[fuchsntf]

27 minutes ago, Beliall said:

We don't need to make drastic changes.  Just get in one or two hard working premier league players who are calm and skilled on the ball so when we win the ball back we aren't restricted to lumping it forward or giving it away

It really is that simple.  We dont need to go overboard..

[davieG]

36 minutes ago, Oxfordfox83 said:

I think this is the great misapprehension. It's not about having players who 'can pass better', because we've seen that all our players are capable of a confident, direct passing game on their day. 

 

What would actually need to change is the position of the receivers, the runs we make and decreasing the 'acceptability' of a pass going awry. The problem with that is that it would slow us down, bring us narrower, inhibit our directness and reduce that ability we have on our day of hitting teams on the break and scoring before they've drawn breath. 

 

The style we play brings with it the need for lower percentage risky balls, even starting from defence. When those passes work we look sensational, and when they don't we have to know as a team how we recover the ball and manage their greater possession.

 

What you cannot do is play a medium game of great swift counter, short accurate possession play, because unless you're playing against under 10s it doesn't work. You choose a style and you accept the pros and cons.

 

The coda is that if you're very wealthy, you can afford to have different styles of play for different games (see SAF's European teams), but that either requires the best players in the world or a whole second team of quality players. We can't do that. 

 

The side-effect of our exciting play is that when it's not working we look clueless. That cluelessness happens a lot less when we commit to our high risk, low possession game than it did when we went in half cocked under Claudio this season. I'd much rather play like us than Arsenal.

I think it's both there are so many times that I see players misplace just a simple pass either under or over hit or simply misdirected often through sheer  panic. And it's not just our passing where we lose possession our throw-ins are and have been awful for as long as I can remember I sit there in despair seeing them go to the opposition, then there's Kasper's kicks?

 

We seem to be afraid to pass the ball to a player unless he's 15 to 20 yards clear of the opposition.

 

Sure we need people to make themselves available and move into space but with today's teams closing down people so quickly we need players that can comfortably receive and pass the ball under pressure

 

There are so many ways we can improve our game just by upping the quality of our general play and ability.

[Foxhateram]

No we don't! Possession based football is dying out. It's not the in thing in management these days. Being clinical with pace and high pressure is the rage.

 

We've been playing like that for years and it's won us 3 trophies and champs league quarter final. 

 

We don't need to change our game at all,  we need to perfect it and fine tune it to make it even better. 

 

A solid ball playing centre back, with a top class cdm to allow N'didi to push on and Drinky to play the number 10 role will see us good for next season. 

[Mease]

Buy better technical players to fit our current system.

[AmarteyAndChill]

7 minutes ago, foxhateram said:

No we don't! Possession based football is dying out. It's not the in thing in management these days. Being clinical with pace and high pressure is the rage.

 

We've been playing like that for years and it's won us 3 trophies and champs league quarter final. 

 

We don't need to change our game at all,  we need to perfect it and fine tune it to make it even better. 

 

A solid ball playing centre back, with a top class cdm to allow N'didi to push on and Drinky to play the number 10 role will see us good for next season. 

Drinky can't play the number 10 role at all. And we need to be able to keep the ball better rather than just hoofing it all the time.

[davieG]

10 minutes ago, foxhateram said:

No we don't! Possession based football is dying out. It's not the in thing in management these days. Being clinical with pace and high pressure is the rage.

 

We've been playing like that for years and it's won us 3 trophies and champs league quarter final. 

 

We don't need to change our game at all,  we need to perfect it and fine tune it to make it even better. 

 

A solid ball playing centre back, with a top class cdm to allow N'didi to push on and Drinky to play the number 10 role will see us good for next season. 

Isn't  that evolving us into a more possession based team?

[foxes21]

We shouldn't move away from what's made us successful.

 

Yes we can improve on keeping possession, but it shouldn't be our main style of play.

[bluesbrothers]

We won the league playing raw, counter-attacking, no nonsense football. Ranieri trying to turn us into a more patient, possession-based side was a contributing factor to our decline and almost cost us our League position. Now we've returned to that high-press, straightforward style, we're scoring goals and winning games again.

 

We're not a possession-based side and shouldn't strive to be. It's boring to watch and, I'm afraid to say, our squad simply isn't very good at it.

 

I'm not against having it in our locker for when we're ahead and want to hold onto leads, and passing drills could certainly improve, but the day we try to make it our Plan A is the day our Premier League adventure will come to an end, just as it was on-course to be this year before Shakey took charge.

 

And besides, I had far too much fun seeing Spurs fans getting wound up at us winning games last year with 30% possession to ever want us to become stats snobs carping on about the "Leicester way".

[Foxhateram]

1 hour ago, AmarteyAndChill said:

Drinky can't play the number 10 role at all. And we need to be able to keep the ball better rather than just hoofing it all the time.

 

1 hour ago, davieG said:

Isn't  that evolving us into a more possession based team?

Not really. The original poster is alluding to us becoming a keep possesion team. These changes just help us to be more clinical on the counter. Fast and direct. 

 

Drinky has proved his technical ability, with freedom I feel he can unlock defences, with his passing in that role. 

 

Insert Okazaki, Mahrez, Gray etc instead. All would hugely benefit from the freedom a quality CDM would allow. 

 

When we're on form there is very little aimless hoofing in our game. A long ball is not necessarily a hoof ball.

 

 

[AmarteyAndChill]

4 minutes ago, foxhateram said:

 

Not really. The original poster is alluding to us becoming a keep possesion team. These changes just help us to be more clinical on the counter. Fast and direct. 

 

Drinky has proved his technical ability, with freedom I feel he can unlock defences, with his passing in that role. 

 

Insert Okazaki, Mahrez, Gray etc instead. All would hugely benefit from the freedom a quality CDM would allow. 

 

When we're on form there is very little aimless hoofing in our game. A long ball is not necessarily a hoof ball.

 

 

Not a chance Drinky can play as a 10 imo. Can't see Drinkwater get 5-10 goals a season along with the assists required to excel in that position. 

[Raw Dykes]

We were the best club in the country doing what we do, so why change it? If we try to become a passing side, we'll only ever be a poor man's version of the big clubs, even if we spent a fortune and replaced the whole squad.

 

I want to see us continue to improve at what we did last season, as I'm sure it's the best way forward for us. I'm sure we can continue to be successful as a high-pressing, energetic, counter-attacking side. Others may copy us, but we can be one step ahead.

 

We should aim to be better at retaining possession and being comfortable on the ball, sure, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to change the style of play entirely.

 

Evolution, not revolution.

[Foxhateram]

48 minutes ago, Raw Dykes said:

We were the best club in the country doing what we do, so why change it? If we try to become a passing side, we'll only ever be a poor man's version of the big clubs, even if we spent a fortune and replaced the whole squad.

 

I want to see us continue to improve at what we did last season, as I'm sure it's the best way forward for us. I'm sure we can continue to be successful as a high-pressing, energetic, counter-attacking side. Others may copy us, but we can be one step ahead.

 

We should aim to be better at retaining possession and being comfortable on the ball, sure, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to change the style of play entirely.

 

Evolution, not revolution.

This is basically what I was trying to say. 

[Foxhateram]

58 minutes ago, AmarteyAndChill said:

Not a chance Drinky can play as a 10 imo. Can't see Drinkwater get 5-10 goals a season along with the assists required to excel in that position. 

Fair enough. We will agree to disagree. I stand by my statement about a quality cdm offering freedom to our more creative players though. 

 

Love our style of play. It's so exciting to watch. We just need to be a bit more solud at the back over a consistent amount of time. That is the evolution of our club, not possesion based play.

[lcfcdamo]

1 hour ago, AmarteyAndChill said:

Not a chance Drinky can play as a 10 imo. Can't see Drinkwater get 5-10 goals a season along with the assists required to excel in that position. 

Sigurdsson is the dream if Swansea go down for that role

[BenTheFox]

Being fair to @Koke, this thread started at a time when we couldn't string three passes together and looked completely rudderless. Many of us were thinking the same thing at the time. I echo what's been said on this thread in that we shouldn't move away from what we're best at, but we should invest in players who are more comfortable on the ball. That would relieve pressure when we're ahead but also should enable to counter attack with more accuracy! 

[Alan lcfc]

Barring a miracle, fingers crossed, we will have less games next year, 10 currently in champions league, our current style will be perfect, with fresher legs each week and hopefully a couple of additions to strengthen squad. A full pre season and the ability to bed in any new signings, and no major international tournaments allowing us to start fast. Our form this year has been shocking at times, but with notable results draw at spurs beaten city and Liverpool.

Also i don't believe we have the money to challenge the clubs playing possession football , we need to do something different, something they aren't comfortable with.

 

In reality it will come down to who wants out, transfer budget,  who wants to join, plus the big one who's in charge.

[Carl the Llama]

3 minutes ago, Alan lcfc said:

Barring a miracle, fingers crossed, we will have less games next year, 10 currently in champions league, our current style will be perfect, with fresher legs each week and hopefully a couple of additions to strengthen squad. A full pre season and the ability to bed in any new signings, and no major international tournaments allowing us to start fast. Our form this year has been shocking at times, but with notable results draw at spurs beaten city and Liverpool.

Also i don't believe we have the money to challenge the clubs playing possession football , we need to do something different, something they aren't comfortable with.

 

In reality it will come down to who wants out, transfer budget,  who wants to join, plus the big one who's in charge.

Just out of interest... where did you get your name from? 

[Thracian]

Our objectives are clear - to evolve the style which has made us so successful and which is not easily overcome when played accurately and remorselessly but also to increase our threat and improve out ability to attack in other ways.

 

At this stage it's impossible to know who will remain at the club and who might depart but we shouldn't be transferring any assets without having comparable or even better replacements in place.

 

For all that we won the Premiership last season, the current squad can be improved considerably - and that despite our success in the Champions League and in (almost certainly) avoiding relegation.    

 

Most obviously we could score more goals through more players. We could also be a lot meaner in defence over an entire season and both these things could be achieved without changing the essence of our style but by simply making the same style even more potent.

 

In terms of passing it's not just about being accurate, it's about passing the ball quickly as well as accurately even when under pressure. Watching Villa today - the only Championship game I've watched this season - I was shocked at how ponderous they seemed on the ball. Everyone wanted at least a touch too many and often two or three. We need a touch less rather than more and everything we do needs to be purposeful. 

 

 

We also need to sustain the pressure of our style for 90 minutes instead of wilting towards the end and this means recruiting people who fit seamlessly into our methods and have the toughness nececessary to sustain the sort of high-pressure seasons that are typical in successful/compete-in-everything clubs.  

 

Finally there's the extras such as a genuinely quick, clever but resilient central midfielder, the option of a right wing back.

and a fast, accurate, goalscoring/goal creating winger who has the appetite and awareness to be useful even when we've lost the ball.