Claude Puel reveals his plan for Leicester City, involving Youri Tielemans and James Maddison

[StriderHiryu]

From the Mercury:

 

Claude Puel believes his young Leicester City side have completed the first step in their transformation under his management, and is urging them to move to step two and become more clinical.

The Frenchman has been pleased with the performance of his new-look City side in recent games, against Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, and believes they are now starting to play how he wants them to.

With Youri Tielemans coming into a midfield three alongside the holding midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and James Maddison, who was given more attacking licence, and Harvey Barnes impressing on the left of the attack, Puel believes there have been encouraging signs, despite the fact his side have picked up just one point in their last five games.

 

However, he said the next step was to develop a more clinical edge in the final third and start taking the chances they have been creating, and start picking up the points he believes their efforts deserve.

“The first step is to have the opportunity to hurt the opponent and to play good football and create chances,” Puel said after the 3-1 defeat to Spurs at Wembley.

“We have taken the first step. Now we have to find the second step with a clinical edge, the composure and calm in the final third of the pitch.

 

 

“Sometimes we need more conviction but we have a close feeling I think because we wasted some good performances recently against Liverpool. I was not completely happy because we had the best chances I think to win this game.

 

“Of course the difference against the big teams is they don’t have a lot of chances against us but they score. Today we conceded three goals.

“We have had plenty of chances ourselves today without the good precision. It will be our next step.”

Puel was particularly pleased with the performance of Tielemans on debut and believes the combination of the Belgium international and Maddison will give City extra attacking potency.

“I was happy with his first game,” he added.

“His composure on the ball and his good quality passes, and he can bring his quality to the team.

“It was another system, 4-3-3, with Maddison working in midfield, away from home it was interesting.

“There was good solidity but also good possibility to play to have good situations, good moves and a good start with the ball.

 

 

“I hope now there will be a little more clinical to finish in the final third. I think Maddie and Tielemans, Gray, Barnes and Ghezzal can have this good clinical edge with a little more freedom in our play, composure and calm to finish and compete a little more.

“About our level against a big team it was very interesting but without the good result. Now we need a result of course to give benefit and reward for our hard work on the pitch.”

A big improvement for City was the fact they didn’t concede in the first 15 minutes of the game. They had fallen behind in the first 15 of the previous five games, but Puel was still left frustrated.

 

 

“For the first time in a long time we did not concede a goal in the first 15 minutes. That was a positive,” he added.

From the kick-off we showed a lot of quality and it was very interesting.

“I have had some frustrations in the first half because with a little more conviction and precision we should have led this game.

“It is a big shame for my players and fans because it was hard work today, a good performance without the good reward”

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/claude-puel-reveals-plan-leicester-2532476

 

-------------------------------

 

Many of us commented on how much further forward Tielemans was getting compared to Mendy / Ndidi and it's because the system was to have just one sitting midfielder instead of two. I thought it worked brilliantly and offensively we have not looked better in years.

 

As a result I am going to take this opportunity to spam some of my gifs to show off the 433 in action! Key thing to look out for is the positioning of Youri Tielemans and James Maddison in relation to one another. Hopefully it's the start of something beautiful!
 

 

 

 

 

What do you think? Are you a fan of having just one holding midfielder? (I feel like this is asking if you would say yes to Rachel Riley asking you out on a date!).

[Beechey]

Ball winning midfielder, deep lying playmaker and box-to-box midfielder is always the middle three I use on Football Manager. It's a yes from me.

[chapero82]

The problem is the tele man is only here for 3 months  

[La-li-lu-le-lo]

I think it’s clear that we want Tielemans here permanently. I guess Monaco just want to ensure they can replace him. 

[Collymore]

32 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Puel believes there have been encouraging signs, despite the fact his side have picked up just one point in their last five games.

"For the first time in a long time we did not concede a goal in the first 15 minutes. That was a positive,” he added.

 

 

 

 

 

Inspirational words by Puel  

[Tuna]

14 minutes ago, chapero82 said:

The problem is the tele man is only here for 3 months  

So is Claude 

 

 

 

 

 

only joking.

[urban.spaceman]

Generic sarcastic anti-Puel joke. 

[The whole world smiles]

14 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Generic sarcastic anti-Puel joke. 

Qualatee intensiteee

[Collymore]

@StriderHiryu your gifs are crashing my PC 

[StriderHiryu]

1 minute ago, Collymore said:

@StriderHiryu your gifs are crashing my PC 

Sorry! You don't even want to know what happens on a mobile phone!

 

But those gifs are pretty good I reckon!

[psychonaut]

Looks like Tielemans is going to get a good crack at it. Just what the doctor ordered. Weirdly enough I’ve felt quite positeeeve about Leicester since yesterday’s game even though we lost again. I think it was just so refreshing to see us dominate the spuds with ease. I desperately want to see more of this! 

 

So much more movement off the ball, I lost count of how many times we carved them open. 

[foxes21]

Brilliant post 

 

This 4-3-3 system with one holding midfielder mopping up behind Tielemans / Maddison in theory will also help us to break teams down.

 

Ndidi needs to stop running all over the place though, in this system his job is to 1) recycle possession with simple passes to our attack minded players, 2) sit and hold to protect us against the counter. Basically the same role as Fernandinho / Henderson / Matic who all play in the exact same system.

 

Tielemans has already had a positive effect on Maddison and I think he will do the same for Vardy with his through balls and ability to spot runs. 

 

The key to all of this though, is Puel. He says he has found a system.. Ok great. Now stick to it! Stop chopping and changing the system, the formation, the personnel. Stick to the same side and formation and build on it! No more 4-2-3-1, no more Gray upfront. One team, week in week out, barring injury/suspensions. Time for some consistency. 

[john ridley]

2 minutes ago, psychonaut said:

Looks like Tielemans is going to get a good crack at it. Just what the doctor ordered. Weirdly enough I’ve felt quite positeeeve about Leicester since yesterday’s game even though we lost again. I think it was just so refreshing to see us dominate the spuds with ease. I desperately want to see more of this! 

 

So much more movement off the ball, I lost count of how many times we carved them open. 

I must admit I feel the same .Don't want to keep changing managers for changes sake.For me, the goal changed it,spurs were chasing shadows ,if we can do more of the same for the remainder of the season he may have a chance of still being here next season .

 

[vanity]

1 hour ago, chapero82 said:

The problem is the tele man is only here for 3 months  

That is a problem for sure, though seeing what Puel's system looks like with personnel capable of playing it helps calm many who were wondering if this could work. Yes, it can work. We are one player away -- someone with a skill set similar to Tiel's -- from being formidable. We probably need a striker in the summer as well to be consistently dangerous. But what we have is enough to pick up 20 more points or thereabouts this season, and to finish top half.

 

If we play like yesterday, but the youngstera gain some confidence, our longest unbeaten run of the season may be on its way.

[vanity]

11 minutes ago, psychonaut said:

Looks like Tielemans is going to get a good crack at it. Just what the doctor ordered. Weirdly enough I’ve felt quite positeeeve about Leicester since yesterday’s game even though we lost again. I think it was just so refreshing to see us dominate the spuds with ease. I desperately want to see more of this! 

 

So much more movement off the ball, I lost count of how many times we carved them open. 

Probably bc that was light-years better than that plodding crap with Ndidi and Mendy paired together. We are starting to see it CAN work here. Plus our lads are so young, we can expect year over year improvement the next few seasons. We clearly need either Tiel or a similar player in the summer, and We

[Deeg67]

9 minutes ago, foxes21 said:

Brilliant post 

 

This 4-3-3 system with one holding midfielder mopping up behind Tielemans / Maddison in theory will also help us to break teams down.

 

Ndidi needs to stop running all over the place though, in this system his job is to 1) recycle possession with simple passes to our attack minded players, 2) sit and hold to protect us against the counter. Basically the same role as Fernandinho / Henderson / Matic who all play in the exact same system.

 

Tielemans has already had a positive effect on Maddison and I think he will do the same for Vardy with his through balls and ability to spot runs. 

 

The key to all of this though, is Puel. He says he has found a system.. Ok great. Now stick to it! Stop chopping and changing the system, the formation, the personnel. Stick to the same side and formation and build on it! No more 4-2-3-1, no more Gray upfront. One team, week in week out, barring injury/suspensions. Time for some consistency. 

Or he’s kept tweaking the system because he knew that before Tielemans, he didn’t have the personnel to make this one work the way he wanted it to.

[foxes21]

9 minutes ago, Deeg67 said:

Or he’s kept tweaking the system because he knew that before Tielemans, he didn’t have the personnel to make this one work the way he wanted it to.

Hopefully so! This system has great potential 

[chapero82]

22 minutes ago, vanity said:

That is a problem for sure, though seeing what Puel's system looks like with personnel capable of playing it helps calm many who were wondering if this could work. Yes, it can work. We are one player away -- someone with a skill set similar to Tiel's -- from being formidable. We probably need a striker in the summer as well to be consistently dangerous. But what we have is enough to pick up 20 more points or thereabouts this season, and to finish top half.

 

If we play like yesterday, but the youngstera gain some confidence, our longest unbeaten run of the season may be on its way.

Tbf it’s me game let’s not get to hasty just yet, we have a much more better run in now to judge 

[Collymore]

I really think the build up to the goal highlights the importance of Evans in the team over Morgan. Yes, Morgan has been a club legend and will still have a part to play as a squad player, but the way Evans was spraying that ball around was a breath of fresh air. 

[Keiriel]

I want to point out a couple of things that I noticed from the last game. Firstly, the entire team seemed a lot more motivated to make things happen, and it was nice to see everyone pulling their weight. Secondly, Maddison and Tielemans rotated nicely, with the former sometimes dropping deep as the latter pushed forward. Also, we should keep in mind that Ndidi wasn't supposed to play against Spurs; Mendy was Claude's holding midfielder of choice. For all we know, Ndidi needs more time to get the hang of this new role.

[jayfox26]

Yesterday i thought we were excellent other than the finishing. If we can play like that over the next few games, with madders and Tielemans creating chances, im confident we will give someone a good hiding. Barnes will learn from his missed chances yesterday and hopefully Vardy can put his differences to one side and show us he still is a top premier league striker. I know Iheancho has looked useless for months but if we create as many chances as we did yesterday, id fancy him to start getting a few goals as well. He is a very good finisher,  he just needs a confidence boost. 

[StriderHiryu]

2 hours ago, chapero82 said:

The problem is the tele man is only here for 3 months  

A problem for sure but if he’s given a starting role and feels the coach trusts him then stranger things have happened. He’s a player that I would be surprised if he doesn’t end up at one of the elite clubs but given he’s 21 he’s got plenty of time to do it and a stepping stone club is a good way to make that happen. Lukaku signed permanently for Everton after a loan spell for them as an example of a similar situation and there was no agreement to sign as part of the loan. Obviously he impressed so much that a club record fee was acceptable and he was excellent for them and netted them 200% profit on top. Leicester would definitely spend big on the right player given we’ve spent big on plenty of crud ones!

[Dan]

4-3-3 is a far better formation than 4-2-3-1 for me. It's a more solid structure and it's a bit less predictable where you're likely to attack from. I think it's likely to suit both Maddison and Tielemans.

 

I've been Puel out and remain so until I've seen further evidence of progress, but if we can replicate that performance regularly in this last third of the season then he may well just save his arse. I want him to persist with a side similar to that one at the weekend, obviously with Vardy back in and we'll go from there.

 

I think there's a case to say in terms of our general play Sunday was the best we've played all season. It was streets ahead of the Everton away performance for example. When the finishing is genuinely dog shit it's hard to blame the manager (although it isn't when he leaves out our best finisher) but too often we've failed to be able to create chances.

 

Time will tell if it was Tottenham on a rare off day or if it was the fact it was a bigger club giving us more space to be dangerous.

[Lesta blue]

It will be interesting to see who will play in that 1 DM role when Mendy is fit. I can only suspect that Hamza will be surplus to requirement is Wilf and Mendy were to rotate/ cover in that role. 

I can see the possibility of Hamza moving on in the summer. 

[justfoxes]

3 hours ago, chapero82 said:

The problem is the tele man is only here for 3 months  

Let’s hope he likes it here and we can make him a permanent player for us in the summer, trouble is tho if he had a decent last third of season type big boys might come in and snatch him away from us ??