What do you want?

[Captain...]

So we are half way through another uninspiring international break. Lets have a question, it is quite simple, what do you want from a Leicester side. There are some givens, commitment, desire, passion, success. I'm talking more about footballing identity and philosophy. This isn't a Puel bashing thread but partly inspired by those and the fact we are lacking a bit of identity and the apparent disconnect between what Puel is doing and what the fans want to see. So the question is you are the new DoF, Rudkin has been sacked for gross incompetence, you are tasked with forging a footballing identity, so what do you want from Leicester?

 

Option 1 a passing possession based side, probably the most conventional approach and one used by Man City, Spurs and Arsenal. It does mean that there are more sideways passes, and probably some passing for the sake of passing.

 

Option 2 is a team that is hard to beat, priority is not losing, stifling the opposition and killing off games, this would be the Man United option, despite all their criticism this season they are still second and in the semi final of the FA Cup, it isn't the most attractive football but it is effective.

 

Option 3 is a side that prioritises attack over defence and plays exciting football. Lets call this Liverpool, they are great to watch but you feel they will never win anything without sorting out the problems at the back and despite everything are still behind the pragmatic Mourinho.

 

Option 4 is a counter attacking side that plays high risk high reward counter attacking football, breaking up the play and quickly launching an attack at the cost of possession and finesse, lets call this the Leicester City 2016.

 

Option 5 is one that is in there as a bit of a counter to option 4, our success in 2016 wasn't necessarily that we played counter attacking football and going back to it would not mean success, a big factor in our win and in the great escape was the surprise factor and the fact we played in a way that no other team did and teams couldn't handle it.

 

Obviously no particular style guarantees any success, but what you want from a team does affect how you view their performance and I am curious as to what the fans want and why.

Edited 26 March 2018 by Captain...

[davieG]

Can we be ! and 3.

Keep possession, pass and attack whenever we have the ball, oh and throw in a bit of innovative footy from 5.

 

Just to add we're very unlikely to win the league again so I've voted for 3.

[Captain...]

Just now, davieG said:

Can we be ! and 3.

Keep possession, pass and attack whenever we have the ball, oh and throw in a bit of innovative footy from 5.

NO! Football, like polls, needs boundaries.

 

It's not about what we can be, but what you want us to be. I could have simplified it, to possession, defence, attack, counter, something else, but I wanted to give a bit more context and kill a few more minutes at work.

[Babylon]

[Al-aLondon-Foxile]

I want excitement, preferring goals and high tempo football to the pragmatic sideways movement of boring 'keep ball' if the ambition is simply to do just that, keep it.  I'd be happy with more possession if there was also a desire to be positive and move forward more swiftly, i'm not advocating hoof ball/kick and chase, but when CP first came along i thought we were lovely to watch, a nice mix. We seem to have become stale and more cautious of late.

[foxy boxing]

We all would like the team to be able to keep possession and pass the ball around more and be exciting to watch when we are on the attack and be able to try different things and take calculated risks.

[Muzzy_no7]

Should be a lump-it Hard Brexit option on here for all the Wayne Brown's left peg to Steve Howard fans.

[Captain...]

8 minutes ago, foxy boxing said:

We all would like the team to be able to keep possession and pass the ball around more and be exciting to watch when we are on the attack and be able to try different things and take calculated risks.

There is always a trade off though, you can't prioritise possession and pick players that will keep the ball and expect them to also be able to switch defence into attack, and switch their mentality collectively. You can't have some players playing a possession game and others going all out, or playing counter attacking football, it doesn't work. You do need a philosophy and the problem with some of our recent performances is that whilst they haven't been bad they have lacked a cohesive approach and we have been neither a possession side, nor an attacking side and make too many stupid errors at the back to concede at least one goal.

[Donut]

In the long term, i believe the most successful basic premise to start any game will be to pass the ball and use possession as an attacking AND a defensive tactic.

 

Many people would like to see a proactive pressing style, and for me pressing the opposition and possession go hand in hand, rather than looking to sit deep and narrow and looking to pick teams off opportunistically.

 

Id like us in the long term, to be a team that plays at lower tempo but with the ability to control the tempo in games where the two teams are evenly matched, and to aim for 55-60% possession (which is a big ask).

 

I think its far better to be attempting to do this, rather than letting the opponent have 60% or even more possession in a game, and requiring levels of huge concentration, rigid team shape, and a little luck so they waste their opporunities and we can pick them off.

 

[Strokes]

I just want to win, I don’t care if we shithouse a win or dominate a side. I get similar enjoyment from both.

[RumbleFox]

I'd love some friends.  X

[RumbleFox]

Just now, Strokes said:

I just want to win, I don’t care if we shithouse a win or dominate a side. I get similar enjoyment from both.

Aye, I particularly like a shitty, 1-0, undeserved, 3% possession, no shots on target, shin in own goal win against a team I hate.  X

[Strokes]

Just now, RumbleFox said:

Aye, I particularly like a shitty, 1-0, undeserved, 3% possession, no shots on target, shin in own goal win against a team I hate.  X

Absolutely, it’s one of the best ways to win.

[RumbleFox]

To answer the question seriously for a second.... I would like us to play a game balanced perfectly between controlled passing and possession and quick, unstoppable attacks.  X

[ZeGuy]

[Suzie the Fox]

For me its the excitement of the actual game, regardless of how we set up. Ofc we all want to win, EVERY game, but if the game has been exciting a draw/loss is not so much of a biggie. The same as a drab win is just abit meh.

 

Hence why i chose option 3 (although options 4 & 5 would suit too.) 

[VLC86]

One that wins.

[Stadt]

They're not mutually exclusively, Manchester United only play that way in difficult games, they're a 'possession' side too. Possession is a means to an end and not a means in itself. 

 

We're in a difficult position currently because our squad has been managed by three managers since the beginning of the 15/16 season but 6 or 7 regular starters were bought by Pearson which gies to show the inconsistency with our recruitment. There hasn't been any guiding principles on which we've built a squad; we've just signed what (what we thought anyway) decent players and hoping they'll be hits. For quite a while it's been clear that Vardy is arguably our best and most important player who plays as a line leading number 9, it's not his game to drop deep or link play - for quite a while we've known that but we've since signed two other players that play the same role and spent c. £60m on them when there were concerns about how they'd link with Vardy.

 

Puel is a long term manager throughout most of his spells, hopefully he's here for some time and builds a constructive relationship with the recruitment team and we begin having a consistent approach to signings rather than the haphazard mess we've had over the past few years.

[urban.spaceman]

Leicester City of 2015/16 was utter perfection.

 

It took us a while to get our first clean sheet but after that Claudio had us defensively strong than I can remember in my lifetime. 

 

Two lines of four, in perfect alignment and synchronised movement, happy to sit back, sacrifice possession and absorb all the pressure, with a wizard in the middle intercepting and tackling everything, and a breathtaking attacking force that can turn a defence to attack in 3 seconds.

 

That's the Leicester City the whole world fell in love with, and I'd like us to retain as much of that identity as possible.

 

Our problem was failing to upgrade on the personnel, losing the crucial component to that machine, and an all-round malaise around the squad which led to a drop in performance and consistency and a failure to evolved which ultimately led to the loss of Claudio and Shakey.

 

I really like Puel, I think we can really develop under him. I hope he can grow us over the next few seasons, especially with the new training ground coming (he has a history of this at previous clubs).

 

I hope he's ambitious in the summer - hopefully the owners will back him with the Mahrez money and he's able to buy a replacement for him and upgrades on others.

[Captain...]

2 minutes ago, Wookie said:

They're not mutually exclusively, Manchester United only play that way in difficult games, they're a 'possession' side too. Possession is a means to an end and not a means in itself. 

 

We're in a difficult position currently because our squad has been managed by three managers since the beginning of the 15/16 season but 6 or 7 regular starters were bought by Pearson which gies to show the inconsistency with our recruitment. There hasn't been any guiding principles on which we've built a squad; we've just signed what (what we thought anyway) decent players and hoping they'll be hits. For quite a while it's been clear that Vardy is arguably our best and most important player who plays as a line leading number 9, it's not his game to drop deep or link play - for quite a while we've known that but we've since signed two other players that play the same role and spent c. £60m on them when there were concerns about how they'd link with Vardy.

 

Puel is a long term manager throughout most of his spells, hopefully he's here for some time and builds a constructive relationship with the recruitment team and we begin having a consistent approach to signings rather than the haphazard mess we've had over the past few years.

Well that part comes next, who you sign, first you need a philosophy and at the moment we don't really have one, or not one that we are executing well. Certainly not one we are recruiting for. That is a separate thread. Really this thread is about what you want to see from your team and how that affects the fans perception of a performance and how that translates to atmosphere and criticism.

[sacreblueits442]

.... I chose option 3 as this was closer to what I am looking for. Your description of option 3 however is not what I imagined. 

The 2013/14 season is what i would want to emulate. High tempo high press. Your description of option 5 is not what we did. At the end of the 2014/15 season we went to a 3 at the back with wing backs. We started the next season with a press, it gradually became a counter attacking style which Claudio implemented.

 High tempo, high press does not mean or lead to hoof ball. If teams chose to sit back we had the ball around their box with greater support from midfield. Having won the ball higher up the pitch, we were much more potent.

  Take 2015/16 out of the equation and the last season in the Championship style is what I would like to emulate.

[MPH]

can ' a team that wins' be an option?

[AKCJ]

Whichever one wins football matches the most often please.

[Captain...]

5 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

.... I chose option 3 as this was closer to what I am looking for. Your description of option 3 however is not what I imagined. 

The 2013/14 season is what i would want to emulate. High tempo high press. Your description of option 5 is not what we did. At the end of the 2014/15 season we went to a 3 at the back with wing backs. We started the next season with a press, it gradually became a counter attacking style which Claudio implemented.

 High tempo, high press does not mean or lead to hoof ball. If teams chose to sit back we had the ball around their box with greater support from midfield. Having won the ball higher up the pitch, we were much more potent.

  Take 2015/16 out of the equation and the last season in the Championship style is what I would like to emulate.

I'm not saying we played hoofball, option 4 is probably first half of the 2015/16 and when Shakespeare first took over, we were fast dynamic, had little possession but played high risk high reward football. When we did have the ball we would attack and it would either be a fabulous counter or we would see the ball sail through to the keeper or out of play as we got the timings out by a fraction. I loved watching that team and one of my favourites games was the 5-2 defeat to Arsenal, it was just end to end madness, but the reaction from the crowd meant that it didn't feel like a thrashing. It wasn't hoofing, but it required inch perfect passes and played instantly, and if the missed the attack broke down. As opposed to the more possession based football, which is low risk passing, but low reward as we don't create the same number of chances.

 

Option 5 was about us doing something different, the problem with possession based football, or attacking football or any of the standard philosophies is that there are already teams out there doing it, and doing it better than we could. We could never beat Man City playing their game, we can cause a few small upsets, but nothing on the scale of 2015/16. We won the league because we played in a way that no other team did, or could low possession was the sign of a poor side and not a successful one, until we came along. That also goes for the great escape, we were basically playing a 343 which wasn't a common formation then. Other teams were not playing that way and they couldn't cope with a fluid front 3, pacy attacking wing backs and and solid back 3, but Chelsea won the league playing in the very same way last season, but are now struggling. The reward of being an innovator means you get the jump on everyone else and before they have worked out how to combat it, you change the way you play. The risk is it doesn't work and you end playing some turgid football where nobody knows what they are doing (think Pearson's diamond).

 

You also make an excellent point about the style of football when we won the championship, it was great to watch, but we were playing inferior teams. 

[Fox92]

Football on the floor and not hoofing.