Time for a Puel in thread.

[Deebhoy]

Read on the BBC Cluade has two games to save his job - how utterly ridiculous.  I think we have make great signings this summer and are moving forward. 

[Redouane]

5 minutes ago, Deebhoy said:

Read on the BBC Cluade has two games to save his job - how utterly ridiculous.  I think we have make great signings this summer and are moving forward. 

Don't believe everything you read. How could that be the case if the chairmen invested 100s of millions into his team

[Col city fan]

Have to be honest, today I think I started to see what Puel is trying to do.

I’m not too surprised at how we started. Wolves are buoyed by promotion and look a good side. Ricardo was playing his first game at home, Jonny Evans didn’t look fully fit and we were overwhelmed.

But when we calmed ourselves, we took control mostly. 

The team passes more than any City side I’ve seen for years and in Maddison, we look to have found a proper number 10.

Ricardo looks superb going forward and Chilwell has improved defensively.

You could tell they all wanted to win too. Mendy and Wilf were chasing everything down and Vardy’s moment of madness at least implies determination....!

We must give Puel time to see whether HIS squad can continue along the same vein.

That was a good win today. Wolves will be strong at home.

[orangecity23]

Think he made a good tactical call to change the shape to 3-4-3/3-5-2 when he brought Amartey on. Plenty of fans round me were whinging about Amartey, but the change of shape helped us keep the clean sheet. Traore had been finding plenty of space in behind Albrighton and Ricardo, but putting Amartey in there cut off some of the space, and Traore soon switched wings and didn't have so much influence in the end.

[StriderHiryu]

The manager has to get some credit today for a number of things.

 

- The Starting Lineup

Namaplys Mendy last played for us in 16/17 and was inured in preseason yet started today. Had a really good game and totally vindicated the trust the manager put in him. Albrighton came in and it was his cross that got us the first goal. Swapped Morgan for Evans, even if Evans had a poor game he showed that he isn't afraid to drop our club captain.

 

- Subs

Traore was starting to get in down the right so he he swapped Albrighton for Amartey and changed the shape of the team. The threat down that side was neutralised and it forced Wolves to swap the wing he was playing on. Nacho came on and looked lively, almost getting in with an excellent solo run and Silva provided energy in the final 10 minutes. Good subs at good times I felt.

 

- Tactics

Started with his 4-2-3-1 which got us a two goal lead. Then adapted to three at the back with wing backs when Vardy got sent off which Wolves never looked like getting through. Kept a clean sheet despite us being a man down.

 

- Getting the best out of young players

Gray and Chilwell have started these first two games like totally different people. Gray is chasing everything when he loses the ball and is looking to play others in rather than shoot on sight. Chilwell was marauding down the wing all game long and dealt with the offensive pressure thrown his way. You could argue that our most mature players today were the youngsters and some of the older guard (Evans, Vardy) were the ones that looked rattled.

 

- Style of play

As Col said above, this team passes more than probably any City team ever, but this season it's passing with a purpose and not just keeping the ball but moving side to side. Some of the one-twos and give and go's were great to see, and many of the chances we engineered came from playing our way out of trouble from the back and moving it around. A far cry from hoofing it to Vardy no matter how successful that tactic was for us.

 

Puel will have games where he gets it completely wrong and has a stinker just like all managers, but I've been impressed with these first two games. Based on what I've seen so far I'd be very surprised if we are not in the top half and honestly I think it's between Everton and us for 7th assuming Europe takes it out of Burnley. We will see of course, but we look like a team with quality and today showed that despite a sloppy start and a sending off, we can still get a comfortable win.

 

 

 

[Sharpe's Fox]

I don’t like the turd. He’s unengaging, boring, ugly and I hate how he has nullified our best player out of games completely. 

 

But after we we got a spawny goal Puel did well so fair play.

[Wymsey]

Surely I'm not the only one that thinks Puel's voice is like Mr. Burns' off The Simpson's.

Edited 18 August 2018 by Wymeswold fox

[foxfanazer]

2 minutes ago, Wymeswold fox said:

Surely I'm not the only one that thinks Puel's voice is like Mr. Burns' off The Simpson's.

 

Simpson eh?

[urban.spaceman]

On 17/08/2018 at 14:16, sphericalfox said:

The main problem is if the fans wanted to sing him a song, the syllables of his first and last name don't roll easily into ready made song fodder, and he doesn't  (and unlikely will ever) have a nickname to make up for it.

Obviously, we should be working out what lyrics work in French.

[Pete from the USA]

I like that Leicester are putting in good performances under Puel despite the new-manager bounce having worn off, particularly if you include Arsenal and Tottenham from last season. This never happened under Shakespeare. 

[Babylon]

One of my gripes at the moment is that far too often we don't look to break their lines by making forward runs. Most of it was played with our players having their backs to theirs. We'd get ourselves in the position to overlap and break, but far too often the run wasn't made. We'd have been far more dangerous if we took a few more chances.

[gurru991]

i don't think there is any doubt that Puel has a real understanding of the game of football. He has identified the weaknesses in our club and attempted to rectify them. We now have a modern football team that can play passing, attractive football. Obviously there is a lot more work to do but now we have a young, exciting team after only one window. i was one of the doubters last season but can see that our club is now heading in a positive direction. He may not have the personality that some fans require but if he can make us into a young vibrant football team he has my vote.

[Gwyn]

1 hour ago, Pete from the USA said:

I like that Leicester are putting in good performances under Puel despite the new-manager bounce having worn off, particularly if you include Arsenal and Tottenham from last season. This never happened under Shakespeare. 

Because he is streets ahead of Shakespeare in terms of managerial experience and technical,tactitional knowledge.

In Puel we trust

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, Babylon said:

One of my gripes at the moment is that far too often we don't look to break their lines by making forward runs. Most of it was played with our players having their backs to theirs. We'd get ourselves in the position to overlap and break, but far too often the run wasn't made. We'd have been far more dangerous if we took a few more chances.

I’ve pointed this out to my Dad yesterday. With the midfield formarion, neither Wilf or Mendy will break from poisition. Therefore if Maddison becomes well marked, the movement becomes very static. 

 

Over the course of two games, we are playing well in patches for sure. Seemingly yet to perform a complete 45 minutes of quality play, let alone 90.

[Col city fan]

2 hours ago, Babylon said:

One of my gripes at the moment is that far too often we don't look to break their lines by making forward runs. Most of it was played with our players having their backs to theirs. We'd get ourselves in the position to overlap and break, but far too often the run wasn't made. We'd have been far more dangerous if we took a few more chances.

I getcha, but isn’t that what the full backs are doing?

And I’m sure I saw Mendy break forward a few times yesterday?

[Chico1958]

Lets keep it positive people

 

It makes for enjoyable reading.

 

Today Puel deserves the plaudits as for getting Mendy on the pitch.....masterstroke.

[LestaAl]

Feeling strangely frustrated after the Wolves win. Yes there were real positives to take but but we were poor for much of the first half and rode our luck.

 

The win just felt a bit undeserved I guess.

 

Still, 3 points is welcome and hopefully Claude’s language practice will continue.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Col city fan said:

I getcha, but isn’t that what the full backs are doing?

And I’m sure I saw Mendy break forward a few times yesterday?

I'm not saying it doesn't happen at all, I'm saying they didn't take the opportunity enough when it was there. Too often both the full back and winger were in a position to overlap and break and they didn't take it.

[st albans fox]

He is right when he says ‘whoever is the manager will have a very good squad’ ...........  for the time being, that’s him! Unless things change (ie Benitez is available) ...... can’t see the owners making a change whilst the players remain committed....... Benitez aside .......

[BKLFox]

2 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

I’ve pointed this out to my Dad yesterday. With the midfield formarion, neither Wilf or Mendy will break from poisition. Therefore if Maddison becomes well marked, the movement becomes very static. 

 

Over the course of two games, we are playing well in patches for sure. Seemingly yet to perform a complete 45 minutes of quality play, let alone 90.

Possibly a case of Horse for courses. Maybe those 2 were partnered to nullify the creative wolves midfield, I wouldn't be surprised if Silva was back next week v Southampton as they don't have such creativity in midfield and it will be down to us to break a more defensive setup. Every game is different and Puel realises this, a lot of fans see aimless changes he sees tactical tweaks and uses his squad to best counter what's in front of his team.

[l444ry]

Grateful for the points. Liked Puel's five at the back tactical change. But play like that again in the first twenty minutes, which is common for us, and we may no be so lucky again.

[Vince Vega]

Work in progress for me. We needed to change our style of football from our title win. We know that. Like many, I'm beginning to see what Puel is trying to do and he should be given time to develop the formation and line-up without looking over his shoulder - ie at the sack race.

 

 

 

 

 

[StriderHiryu]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

I'm not saying it doesn't happen at all, I'm saying they didn't take the opportunity enough when it was there. Too often both the full back and winger were in a position to overlap and break and they didn't take it.

Get used to seeing the midfield two being static because that’s their role in their team. They might go forwards on occasion but because Puel’s system relies on fullbacks bombing on those midfield two have to sit to give us some shape if we lose the ball. One of the reasons why Madders will have licence to drift around will be because the two in midfield sit. 

 

But as for the winger / fullback situation you are quite right and I noticed that too particularly with Gray and Chilwell. What was really odd is they were doing it seamlessly at Old Trafford but seemed a bit hesitant versus Wolves. Not really sure why that was (perhaps they were instructed to do it less) but I’d assume that as the season develops this will improve on both flanks. Before it felt like we didn’t even have the players to do it but now we do and it’s just the relationships that need work. 

 

On the official website Puel said that during the drinks break after Neves went down at around the 20 minute mark that he had the time to correct some of the mistakes we made and after that point we had control of the game. So I think it’s fair to say the players still need to get used to the system. 

[Ric Flair]

There's a kind of predictability to our play in the opening two games, and it was present last season at times. Very rare do our 3 attacking midfielders and striker get the ball in space to run forward, it's back to goal and having to then work openings which invariably result in the ball going out wide and crosses coming in to the box. The issue with that is, we don't have a striker who's prowess is attacking crosses, Vardy is average at best at finding space to meet crosses. Where he has been dangerous from this sort of play is the early low cross from deep from Albrighton where he can sometimes catch the defence on the edge of the box, it nearly came off at one point in the 1st half.

 

We barely got Maddison involved for the opening half an hour or more yesterday and he's going to have to learn to feed off scraps if we continue to play like this, to find time and space in the Prem is difficult but as a team we seem to isolate our central attacking players by how static we are and seldom do we take risks at breaking lines. Vardys goal return last season was very good but in terms of how involved he was in games was the worst we've seen from him. Goals win matches but the man has so much to offer and it's a shame he's not given more licence to impose himself under Puel. Defenders hate having to deal with him but generally it's quite easy to keep him quiet.

 

I watched the highlights of the Spurs game yesterday and Kane gets so much of the ball in space in the final third and is in the box with it, something he doesn't get for England nor does Vardy. We used to proudly say that Vardy was better off playing for us and not England as they don't play to his strengths but I don't think we do either now. He's just become very clinical thankfully so takes the very little he gets.

 

This post is fairly negative but it's more an awareness post of what we need to do to progress. There's promising signs of improvement with Ricardo, Maddison and Ndidi and Mendy as a duo but I think we're still nowhere near what we could be as a team. 

 

I'm intrigued to see how Iheanacho does in these next 3 league games, he may be better at attacking crosses so without changing too much he could make an impact and that will surely give Puel a problem. I'd advocate him and Vardy should both play with Maddison and Iheanacho drifting in behind Vardy but that's another request for 3-4-1-2 which I'm even boring myself by keep saying it. 

 

 

[Foxes1]

On 18/08/2018 at 17:26, Deebhoy said:

Read on the BBC Cluade has two games to save his job - how utterly ridiculous.  I think we have make great signings this summer and are moving forward. 

Also read Martinez / Thierry Henry are in line for the job. Hit that one on tbe head Henry lòoks like hes off to Marseille. Puel must be given a chance