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

[Babylon]

1 minute ago, Dan LCFC said:

I've never claimed he's in as good form this year as before and have accepted many a time he's not had as good a season, although despite this he remains considerably our best striker option and for me should still be playing until we have genuine alternatives. Iheanacho's been a huge disappointment and Gray isn't really much of an option either I don't think certainly not as a striker.

 

I thought him getting 20 last year was extraordinary. He over-performed last year in a side that created little.

 

We have a lot of shots but I don't feel like many of them are clear cut chances. Shots that are likely to be blocked rather than clear cut chances. The supply answer makes sense to me, there haven't been enough instances of Maddison putting him through (or Gray, or Albrighton). He's in poorer form but I just can't agree with people claiming he's finished or his pace has gone. You still see bursts of pace from him that show me he hasn't lost it, he just isn't in enough situations to properly utilise it.

Sorry, just finishing lunch so can't go into much detail, but he's missed the second most clear cut chances in the league.

 

I don't think he's finished or that his pace has gone, I think he's adapting his game quite well actually and has proven to be an effective poacher last season. His pace is going though, not gone, just going, he's still quicker than plenty out there. But those instances of him getting to a ball first or going away from defenders aren't as regular IMO. His pace used to catch people out so much you just knew what was coming, now I'm not seeing him go away from players like he did, and he'll now look for a pass rather than trusting his stamina and pace.

[Dan LCFC]

4 minutes ago, ttfn said:

This is what xG is for. And it tells us that Vardy has had enough decent opportunities that he should have about 4 more goals than he has.

 

3 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Sorry, just finishing lunch so can't go into much detail, but he's missed the second most clear cut chances in the league.

 

I don't think he's finished or that his pace has gone, I think he's adapting his game quite well actually and has proven to be an effective poacher last season. His pace is going though, not gone, just going, he's still quicker than plenty out there. But those instances of him getting to a ball first or going away from defenders aren't as regular IMO. His pace used to catch people out so much you just knew what was coming, now I'm not seeing him go away from players like he did, and he'll now look for a pass rather than trusting his stamina and pace.

Fair enough if that's the case, I find that quite surprising, I'd be interested however to know the following:

 

- How many did xG dictate he should've scored last season?

- How do Iheanacho and Gray compare against their own xG?

- Who has missed more than him?

 

The main points for me are that I still think he's comfortably our best striker option, and given Puel's had him on within the hour every time without fail he's dropped him I think he deep down realises this too.

 

We are a striker short. We were last season and we went and did the same thing again this summer.

Edited 12 February 2019 by Dan LCFC

[Attywolf]

23 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

 

Fair enough if that's the case, I find that quite surprising, I'd be interested however to know the following:

 

- How many did xG dictate he should've scored last season?

- How do Iheanacho and Gray compare against their own xG?

- Who has missed more than him?

 

The main points for me are that I still think he's comfortably our best striker option, and given Puel's had him on within the hour every time without fail he's dropped him I think he deep down realises this too.

 

We are a striker short. We were last season and we went and did the same thing again this summer.

Gray is even 

Iheanacho is 1 below xg

And vardy was plus 4 xg last season

[Ric Flair]

How many assists were from Mahrez last season as well though, those pair were like something you'd see on the Discovery channel together.

[Gerard]

2 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

1 point out of a possible 9 in our last 3 games against Spurs, Manchester United and Liverpool. In each game the bookies, being dispassionate about these things had us down to lose. You don't see many bookies on a bike. We played well as you say, but we didn't underachieve, the result merely went to hugely expected form. Only ardent Leicester fans, some of whom have now got an unrealistic view or bizarre sense of entitlement and lack of grip on reality would see it any other way. We are positioned in the table roughly, give or take a place, precisely where we could reasonably expect to be with this bunch of players, I thought we'd end up 10th at the start of the season for example. Logic dictates that 'usually', teams with better players beat teams with lesser one's. We should 'reasonably' for example be expected to beat the Cardiff's of this world but not beat Manchester City! The arguments and problems about deep sitting teams like Cardiff are protracted and done to death, but are nevertheless true and predate the current manager.

 

If Puel, after losing games, sticks to the same team he's accused of being intransigent and picking his favourites when there are supposed better options available. With the benefit of hindsight, many punters on here offer forward the team they would have picked which would have undoubtedly proved to be the clincher, however, as about a dozen different people offer about a dozen different teams, they can't all possibly be right. If he does try and change things, either tactically or personnel wise, he's then accused of meddling with the same ensuing offer of help regarding team selections, all twenty to the dozen of them! It could just be, that at this precise moment in time, no matter how we shuffle the pack, until we get certain other players in, not much will change, even with Guadiola as manager. We saw glimpses of what could be possible with the introduction of Tielemans on his debut. We were all calling for a particular type of midfielder, are we that stupid to think that Puel doesn't recognise this also? But, you can only get at any particular time, who's available, who you can afford and who wants to come in preference to any other club and it will be precisely the same in the summer transfer market also and always has been. But for two costly errors we could have won on Sunday and on another day, could have put the game to bed even before the introduction of Vardy who missed a penalty with his first kick. BUT ... sorry, we didn't underachieve, what happened over certainly the last 3 games was reasonably what we should expect, but also reasonably as football fans, we go to cheer our team on in the hope of the unexpected.

 

We won the goal expectation stats in all three of those games, it's just bad variance that we only managed one point. 

[The Horse's Mouth]

If he wants to be better in the final third don't play a winger up top would be an idea

[Dan LCFC]

7 minutes ago, Attywolf said:

Gray is even 

Iheanacho is 1 below xg

And vardy was plus 4 xg last season

Interesting. I do wonder though what Iheanacho's actually is at all. His problem for me isn't so much his finishing, more his all-round game and failure to ever actually get near chances. There've been numerous times where he hasn't been switched on enough to get himself a chance.

[Farrington fox]

14 hours ago, La-li-lu-le-lo said:

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

They have, Silva 

[The Horse's Mouth]

Nice to see after a defeat people are turning on Vardy

[That_Dude]

6 hours ago, foxinsox said:

It is bizarre, but I am it seems not the only one who is more positive about Puel after the last three matches despite just one point from 9. Apart from a few defensive errors, these were great performances against the best teams in the League.

 

I feel that we are evolving like the team of 14-15 into a team capable of something special. No doubt with such a young team there will be further errors, but we have seen the bones of a very capable side.

 

Being mid table does give time and space for the team to develop. Now let's demolish Palace, we owe them one.

 

And cut out the booing, this is a team that is playing for Puel.

 

 

We played the possible Champions away and two teams of the top 4 and we deserved at least a draw in the last two. You're right they play for the coach, bar maybe Vardy.

 

Yet you'll still find moaners, you'll always find them moving the goal posts. 

- If we win, they'd prefer losing and have an entertaining game

- If we lose, they'd prefer a shit game but win.

 

Palace will be the real test. For the first time I think we'll be able to break a deep sitting team at home.

Edited 12 February 2019 by That_Dude

[volpeazzurro]

32 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

We won the goal expectation stats in all three of those games, it's just bad variance that we only managed one point. 

I suppose a win is a win ?

[Dan LCFC]

32 minutes ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

Nice to see after a defeat people are turning on Vardy

Scored our goal and created our next best chance as well.

[HankMarvin]

He was going to Play Mendy over Ndidi, Mendy isnt a ball winning midfielder 

[That_Dude]

1 hour ago, Clarkey123 said:

Pfftt if he thinks we will be better by dropping vardy and playing gray up front he has to go for me

Do you even read the articles or just come here to rant?

[foxes21]

19 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

He was going to Play Mendy over Ndidi, Mendy isnt a ball winning midfielder 

Which is quite worrying because this system definitely needs a ball winning midfielder! 

[MC Prussian]

So I'm looking at the upcoming nine league fixtures:

 

Crystal Palace (h)

Brighton & Hove Albion (h)

Watford (a)

Fulham (h)

Burnley (a)

Bournemouth (h)

Huddersfield (a)

Newcastle (h)

West Ham (a)

 

All of these matches are rather favourable, I'd like us to pursue the course with the formation that we used against Spurs, but would put Vardy up front instead from the start. The guy's far from being past it, our best striker, arguably slower than before, but still good for 15+ goals a season if given the appropriate service. But I also see how wasteful he's been, so there's this mental issue (maybe down to the interactions with/relation to the manager, waddya know).

Gray up front is not the answer, he's not prolific enough to play as a striker.

 

As long as Albrighton is out, use Barnes on the left and Gray on the right or vice versa - I'm still not sold on Ghezzal. Midfield three would be Choudhury/Ndidi - Tielemans - Maddison, with them swapping positions on the pitch on a regular basis.

 

We need to get some positive results, because otherwise, the season will end in a disaster. I'm all for integrating young and promising players, and we do have a solid defensive spine, but it finally has to start clicking up front. The goal against Spurs is somewhat indicative of the direction we should aim for.

Our attacking threat has been very underwhelming so far, and this kind of notoriously cautious approach to games has to stop.

Ditch that god-awful 4-2-3-1 which we don't have the players for, stop using two defensive central midfielders for good (I'd take Ndidi over Mendy, but only just - otherwise, use Hamza) and tell the players to stop overthinking things in the opening ten, fifteen minutes. More focüs, please.

 

We need more agility, more impetus, a more dynamic and positive approach to matches, also in terms of strategy and formation, so I'm all for a 4-3-3. A diamond formation would be my wet dream, but we know that's never going to happen under Puel.

 

Anyway, better get the wins in, especially at home. Show that you've learnt from your mistakes and make a lot of LCFC fans happy again.

[Babylon]

2 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

The main points for me are that I still think he's comfortably our best striker option, and given Puel's had him on within the hour every time without fail he's dropped him I think he deep down realises this too.

I beleive Puel has said numerous times that he is, but unless he's told otherwise he will continue to look at things with a longer term view.  I'd have played Vardy, but Puel has shown he's not scared to plan for the long term. Vardy cannot play every game, every week for ever, we need to review our options with a view to what we do in the summer.

 

Gray has played up top for the U21's I believe, perhaps he's also been tried there in training and done well. So we are looking to see whether he's up to being used in that position at this level. Perhaps we are searching for options to know what to do when Vardy is "finished". I don't know, perhaps he was punished for something else. I'm just playing devils advocate. Management is easy for us lot sat here, we say do x or y and rarely think of the man management side of it, the consequences or the look long term.

 

2 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

We are a striker short. We were last season and we went and did the same thing again this summer.

We aren't, we are light on quality in that area... he inherited Okazaki (finished), Musa (looked out of his depth), Slimani (Injury prone, inconsistent), Ulloa (Past it), Iheanacho (not showing enough). Just as he's done with CM's, you'll see him move for a striker when we've cleared the decks (if he's still here). Lets not forget Maddison has taken a strikers position often this season.

[KingsX]

So much debate over how Puel’s plan is working … well, are we in a better place?   Some would have it no, but they forget where we were just 16 months ago.  Consider this, from a piece published a few days before his appointment:

 

Shakespeare won his first six games in charge. The story after that was less pretty. Leicester won five of the next 20 games, two in the league.  A bigger name can now be sought.

They can seek all they like: will one of those bigger names actually want the job? Ancelotti has already ruled himself out, and why wouldn’t he? Allardyce will probably be back at some point, but for something better than Leicester. Dyche has a job for life at Burnley, and if he decides to leave that job it will almost certainly be for an upwards move, rather than at best a sideways one.

You have to ask: why would anyone already in a job risk leaving it for Leicester at the moment? This is a club with a confused line of thinking who, even by the standards of football today, make ruthless decisions when it comes to their managerial situation. The more realistic candidates are the out of work or the questionably ambitious: Alan Pardew and Chris Coleman.

Leicester might think that their title win will allow them to attract a higher calibre of manager. But it won’t: that season was such an anomaly that is has absolutely no bearing on anything to do with their future. You can’t call it a miracle and then expect the after-effects to last. After that one magnificent season, Leicester have essentially reverted to type, a club whose best realistic hope is to establish themselves as a lower-mid table Premier League side.

 

Well, how many today think Allardyce or Dyche could do as well as us (or that we would settle for them)?  Or that “lower mid-table” is our “best realistic hope”?  The youth movement, the clearing of old trees, and most of all the recruiting of Maddison, Ricardo et al have utterly changed our forward look.  In remarkably short order.

 

Puel is the man we needed.  He (probably?) has the rest of this season as a last, best trial of his man management and tactics.  Pass or fail that test, I’m bloody glad he got the job.

 

 

source https://www.tifofootball.com/features/leicester-city-arent-currently-an-attractive-proposition-for-first-class-managers/

 

 

Edited 12 February 2019 by KingsX

[Strokes]

24 minutes ago, KingsX said:

So much debate over how Puel’s plan is working … well, are we in a better place?   Some would have it no, but they forget where we were just 16 months ago.  Consider this, from a piece published a few days before his appointment:

 

Shakespeare won his first six games in charge. The story after that was less pretty. Leicester won five of the next 20 games, two in the league.  A bigger name can now be sought.

They can seek all they like: will one of those bigger names actually want the job? Ancelotti has already ruled himself out, and why wouldn’t he? Allardyce will probably be back at some point, but for something better than Leicester. Dyche has a job for life at Burnley, and if he decides to leave that job it will almost certainly be for an upwards move, rather than at best a sideways one.

You have to ask: why would anyone already in a job risk leaving it for Leicester at the moment? This is a club with a confused line of thinking who, even by the standards of football today, make ruthless decisions when it comes to their managerial situation. The more realistic candidates are the out of work or the questionably ambitious: Alan Pardew and Chris Coleman.

Leicester might think that their title win will allow them to attract a higher calibre of manager. But it won’t: that season was such an anomaly that is has absolutely no bearing on anything to do with their future. You can’t call it a miracle and then expect the after-effects to last. After that one magnificent season, Leicester have essentially reverted to type, a club whose best realistic hope is to establish themselves as a lower-mid table Premier League side.

 

Well, how many today think Allardyce or Dyche could do as well as us (or that we would settle for them)?  Or that “lower mid-table” is our “best realistic hope”?  The youth movement, the clearing of old trees, and most of all the recruiting of Maddison, Ricardo et al have utterly changed our forward look.  In remarkably short order.

 

Puel is the man we needed.  He (probably?) has the rest of this season as a last, best trial of his man management and tactics.  Pass or fail that test, I’m bloody glad he got the job.

 

 

source https://www.tifofootball.com/features/leicester-city-arent-currently-an-attractive-proposition-for-first-class-managers/

 

 

Perfectly summed up 

[StriderHiryu]

2 hours ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

If he wants to be better in the final third don't play a winger up top would be an idea

Not defending Puel's decision to start Gray because I think Vardy is by far our best striker and also my favourite player, but Wenger converted Thiery Henry from a winger into a striker. He was pretty gash in first 10 or so games, in fact he didn't score for the first seven games and he asked Wenger to put him back out on the wing because the fans were on his back, but the rest as they say is history. 

 

Gray is no Henry, but you never know perhaps he is a decent option to play as a back up? He has height which allowed him to get to that header against Spurs, and i think he linked play with Barnes and Ghezall quite well. At the same time I feel he drifted wide too often and forgot he's supposed to be in the box as the focal point!

 

When Arsenal signed Henry from Juventus in 1999, he was a winger who had struggled to make an impact in Serie A.

But Arsene Wenger had other ideas.

“At a certain point, I wanted to go to Wenger and tell him to put me back out wide,” Henry once said, reflecting on a period when he failed to score in his first seven Premier League appearances.

“Then, I said to myself that I had to react, that I couldn’t fail a second time, only a few months after a negative experience in Turin.”

The perfect lesson in perseverance, Henry went on to score 228 goals in 376 games for the Gunners. Wenger can feel pretty smug about this one.

 

https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/13-players-who-thrived-after-changing-positions-henry-bale-pirlo/

 

 

[volpeazzurro]

3 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

How many assists were from Mahrez last season as well though, those pair were like something you'd see on the Discovery channel together.

And I think you're spot on there Ric, the type of assists and quality were different from Marhez and in more general terms,  you can't lose the quality of a player like Marhez, for all the stick I gave him for his antics and not miss him. Before, the opposition had two top quality threats to worry about and now there's only one. 

[Clarkey123]

3 hours ago, That_Dude said:

Do you even read the articles or just come here to rant?

I read the articles and rant. How about you?

Edited 12 February 2019 by Clarkey123

[AjcW]

Two home games in a row in a very short space of time is going to be interesting for Puel.

 

As others have said hope he sticks with formation from last game! 

 

I think lose to Palace and things will be incredibly uncomfortable against Brighton if he remains in charge (still a fair few tickets left as well)

[UPinCarolina]

Hamza will take Mendy's position on the bench, and he gives us some options as well. Future is bright.

[TaggertvsWise]

10 hours ago, Lesta blue said:

Think about it. There is little chance of him making another start this season with this formation. Even if Tielermans is not signed in the summer we will get a replacement. Puell's preference for Mendy and Ndidi means game time for Hamza is very remote. 

He's already 21 and 1 or 2 seasons in the wilderness will mean he will be a forgotten player like many others before him. 

Not a chance in hell. It won’t be Puel’s call, his place in the squad is in line with club policy. He has been nurtured carefully over 3/4 seasons and has finally broken into the first team to plaudits across all fans. As things stand he is the next Chilwell and will be here for a long time.