Tactics not going to plan

[Bazly]

BR seems to be having some problems deciding what to do at the moment with the players available. Maybe its the players that aren't doing it, like Perez and Tielemans or maybe its the tactics?

 

Against Norwich, we seemed to underestimate their capabilities and were forced into making 2 subs early on to change the formation and struggled in the end to secure a draw. 

 

Against Citeh we operated a back 5 with Ndidi as a roving cover, which meant mainly helping Chilwell out for most of the day. The wing backs were very much rooted to their own area so must have been cautioned against going rampaging up the wings. On a good many occasions, with the defence rooted firmly in defence within 18 yards of our goal there was 30 yards between the defence and the nearest midfield player. Evans displayed his miffed face on a few occasions having to punt out all the time as no midfielder was available to pass to. We all know Citeh love the professional foul in the middle of the park to ensure teams can never build quick possession so long lumps are only going to end up in coming back at you with then 30 yards of green space for the light blues to run into unopposed. I was wide eyed at the massive expanse unattended between the midfield and defence. You either park the bus or you don't. This was more park the back line and everyone else may as well go and sit in the stands.

 

It seems from our last two games the players are pretty knackered and the tactics have been easily exploited by the opposition. At least against Norwich the tactics were changed when they were clearly not working, yesterday the disconnect between defence and midfield just grew wider as the game went on. If there ever was a moment to throw on Choudhury to foul in front of defence as good as they foul it was yesterday evening. It seems that we are still three players off a top side but the winter break may provide a much needed r&r period for the players and staff to recoup.

 

We will find out on Boxing day if the BR instilled panic freeze against the 'big' teams continues. It could turn into a horror show.

[yorkie1999]

If the players are knackered with a few extra games now, how they gonna cope if we were also in Europe?

[Dirkster the Fox]

1 minute ago, yorkie1999 said:

If the players are knackered with a few extra games now, how they gonna cope if we were also in Europe?

Exactly, check out how many more games Wolves, Liverpool and Chelsea have played than us so far this season. In fact add the rest involved in Europe as well.  They've all played plenty more than us to date.

 

I get Vardy needs to be rested (age etc), but the rest of the team have had a full week off nearly all season so far.

[Farrington fox]

4 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

If the players are knackered with a few extra games now, how they gonna cope if we were also in Europe?

This is exactly my concern. 

[DerbyshireFox]

Norwich we set up wrong with the diamond. It allowed Cantwell, Buendia and Pukki time and space. I think yesterday we were just outclassed. I don’t think for a minute the plan was to stop the full backs pushing up, but Man City pinned us back, and De Bruyne pushed up on Chilwell’s side so often, that it left Mahrez free. Chilwell didn’t know who to pick up. The wingers ended up deep, not offering enough protection, leaving Vardy isolated as the only outlet with no help near him. We could’ve had a tactical masterclass yesterday and still lost, Man City were just to hot to handle unfortunately 

[lcfcbally]

2nd in the league and League cup semi final at Christmas what more did you expect?🙈

 

Everything going to plan in my eyes.

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

1 hour ago, Bazly said:

BR seems to be having some problems deciding what to do at the moment with the players available. Maybe its the players that aren't doing it, like Perez and Tielemans or maybe its the tactics?

 

Against Norwich, we seemed to underestimate their capabilities and were forced into making 2 subs early on to change the formation and struggled in the end to secure a draw. 

 

Against Citeh we operated a back 5 with Ndidi as a roving cover, which meant mainly helping Chilwell out for most of the day. The wing backs were very much rooted to their own area so must have been cautioned against going rampaging up the wings. On a good many occasions, with the defence rooted firmly in defence within 18 yards of our goal there was 30 yards between the defence and the nearest midfield player. Evans displayed his miffed face on a few occasions having to punt out all the time as no midfielder was available to pass to. We all know Citeh love the professional foul in the middle of the park to ensure teams can never build quick possession so long lumps are only going to end up in coming back at you with then 30 yards of green space for the light blues to run into unopposed. I was wide eyed at the massive expanse unattended between the midfield and defence. You either park the bus or you don't. This was more park the back line and everyone else may as well go and sit in the stands.

 

It seems from our last two games the players are pretty knackered and the tactics have been easily exploited by the opposition. At least against Norwich the tactics were changed when they were clearly not working, yesterday the disconnect between defence and midfield just grew wider as the game went on. If there ever was a moment to throw on Choudhury to foul in front of defence as good as they foul it was yesterday evening. It seems that we are still three players off a top side but the winter break may provide a much needed r&r period for the players and staff to recoup.

 

We will find out on Boxing day if the BR instilled panic freeze against the 'big' teams continues. It could turn into a horror show.

Have no more rep to give at the moment. But an excellent post. We did indeed seem rooted at the back and that didn't just emanate fully from Man City's press, it was almost like we decided to play football in our own third at times. Maybe it was a ploy to bring them onto us to then play through. But the passing was awful mostly and the gap between the midfield and the defence was a chasm at times and that exposed Chilwell badly. Only Johnny Evans seemed to realise we had to try to go upfield with the ball. 

 

Also we needed someone like Hamza to bully Mahrez early on. They had no compunction about cynically fouling to stop any momentum as is usual for them and also Liverpool. We were far too nice. 

Edited 22 December 2019 by Cadno'r Cymoedd

[Jonezy]

Man City was in masterclass mode yesterday and the only way to stop that is to go into them hard and hope the ref has a soft day. You have to go full Mourinho and also hope for a slice of luck. We needed some Hamza tackles to rattle them, but we were standing off and let them run riot. I think Rodgers expected better from our players and they just got overwhelmed by a superb playing Man City team. Actually going to be interesting to see if we have learned anything come Boxing Day.

[EastNeukFox]

I thought yesterday was crying out for a 4-2-3-1, with the other one alongside Ndidi in the two, being able to play out wider, or even man mark Mahrez, to free up Wilf to protect the rest of the back four. I don’t know if BR was taken by surprise by the MC line up, but I felt we were a bit short on central/defensive midfield options from the bench.

[The boy Linacre]

19 minutes ago, lcfcbally said:

2nd in the league and League cup semi final at Christmas what more did you expect?🙈

 

Everything going to plan in my eyes.

Absolutely, lets see where we are!!! Halfway to probably our 2nd best season ever.

Champions League and possibly a trophy, probably a final.  We have a big enough gap if we beat most of the teams below 6th/8th to finish in the top 4.

[Pliskin]

We’re currently superseding all expectations. We were never going to win every game, we will occasionally draw and lose games to teams we shouldn’t, and also beat teams considered bigger than ourselves. We’re doing amazingly well, and with a good signing in January we will maintain this and finish in the top four. 

[Stadt]

We’ve conceded a penalty in every game we’ve lost. 2 of those games were against the best 2 teams on the planet - it’s to be expected 

[Lako42]

I was surprised we persisted with the formation. 

 

Its clear that it doesn't work unless you actually have the ball. 

 

We had wingers who were offering no cover and then 2 midfielders who were constantly bypassed. 

 

It was crying out for another DM to actually track KDB so that Chilwell didn't have to. 

 

 

[Tielemans63]

Sometimes managers get the tactics wrong in games - fact. Even the best managers get it wrong sometimes, Guardiola on more than one occasion this season. Don't think we should be digging Brendan out too much as he's got it right a lot more often than he's got it wrong. Remember we don't have the squad depth that the teams around us do.

[ithuriel]

The progress of Leicester City has been astounding, when you look at other clubs in this division and the many years they have spent in the top flight  and the massive amounts of money poured into some of them, this season so far is another dream like season.

I still say, a Champions league spot and a cup would make this a brilliant season and something to continue building upon.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, lcfcbally said:

2nd in the league and League cup semi final at Christmas what more did you expect?🙈

 

Everything going to plan in my eyes.

Posts like this drive me nuts. So long as people don’t go over the top (subjective), then we should be all free to discuss where things might have gone wrong at times.

 

If things had “gone to plan” we wouldn’t have needed to change our shape and players to counteract a team in the bottom three ripping us a new one out wide.

 

It has been a brilliant season but I doubt for one second Rodgers isn’t analysing things and wanting to improve.

[Gerard]

2 hours ago, EastNeukFox said:

I thought yesterday was crying out for a 4-2-3-1, with the other one alongside Ndidi in the two, being able to play out wider, or even man mark Mahrez, to free up Wilf to protect the rest of the back four. I don’t know if BR was taken by surprise by the MC line up, but I felt we were a bit short on central/defensive midfield options from the bench.

 

I'm sure if BR could go back in time for 24 hours we'd have started with Choudhury in a 4-2-3-1 but we all have 20/20 hindsight vision.

 

After going to Man Utd with a passive 4-2-3-1 it was a mistake to give them too much respect. Man City have been struggling defensively this season and I think BR decided to expose their weakness and go toe to toe with them probably with the Man Utd game in the back of his mind.

 

FWIW I was in agreement with the team selection and strategy before kick off but Man City played way above expectation, c'est la vie. 

[Foxes1]

13 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

I'm sure if BR could go back in time for 24 hours we'd have started with Choudhury in a 4-2-3-1 but we all have 20/20 hindsight vision.

 

After going to Man Utd with a passive 4-2-3-1 it was a mistake to give them too much respect. Man City have been struggling defensively this season and I think BR decided to expose their weakness and go toe to toe with them probably with the Man Utd game in the back of his mind.

 

FWIW I was in agreement with the team selection and strategy before kick off but Man City played way above expectation, c'est la vie. 

I said this to those who sat next to me at the game yesterday I would have played Hamza to get some tackles in earlier on in the game particularly De Bruyne / Mahrez. Remember à game at Bmth à few years ago Gradel tackled Mahrez early on in the game and he didn't want to know after that 

 

[Guest An Sionnach]

2 minutes ago, Foxes1 said:

I said this to those who sat next to me at the game yesterday I would have played Hamza to get some tackles in earlier on in the game particularly De Bruyne / Mahrez. Remember à game at Bmth à few years ago Gradel tackled Mahrez early on in the game and he didn't want to know after that 

 

That is so blindingly obvious how did Rodgers miss it , if Fuchs and Hamza had gone in against him Riyad would have gone home crying for his mummy.

[worthosoriginals]

2 hours ago, The boy Linacre said:

Absolutely, lets see where we are!!! Halfway to probably our 2nd best season ever.

Champions League and possibly a trophy, probably a final.  We have a big enough gap if we beat most of the teams below 6th/8th to finish in the top 4.

Yes, but to the never satisfied doom merchants, this is a disaster. 

[Paninistickers]

3 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

If the players are knackered with a few extra games now, how they gonna cope if we were also in Europe?

Dunno. Deal with that when we're there

[Fox92]

2 minutes ago, worthosoriginals said:

Yes, but to the never satisfied doom merchants, this is a disaster. 

That's just not true though. Everything is up for discussion, hence the point of a forum.

 

Some people do go over the top on here, and at matches, but just because there's decent constructive criticism it doesn't make people "doom merchants".

 

I get more annoyed that when I say we were shit yesterday, I get called "negative" and a "doom merchant". We all remember where we were, we all know how this season is going but neither of those points take away from a terrible performance yesterday.

[Spicer]

One of the main worries I've had for a while is the lack of rotation that may lead to fatigue later in the season. Youri I believe has looked a little bit off for a while for example. Just in the odd game I think we should switch out somebody for Praet, Choudary, Justin etc. Becoming totally reliant on your starting XI I see as a problem. Both Liverpool and Manchester City both do quite a bit of mild rotation to keep their key players from fatiguing. I think long term it would help us. Especially if we get into Europe next year, it will be essential.

[Clever Fox]

The real problem is we are too one dimensional. It's fine when you are playing lesser teams but against the best you need more options.

When we can take the game to the opposition it's fine have 2 wingers and two ball playing midfielders, But yesterday we were overrun it was a back 6 against Man City and the rest were missing with the exception of Vardy and at least Madison tried. Yes you could say that Barnes made the pass to Vardy but that's all he done. Perez made none.

You can't play in big games when 4 players don't turn up and expect to get a result.

We need players who can adapt and quickly to how the game evolves. Players who will add a physical presence when needed.

This is now the problem BR has, How does he get the players up to the next level. I believe he can do it but it may include the inclusion of some new different personnel.

 

The bis plus is the team is young and so has time to both grow physically and develop further. Given the time I'm sure BR can deliver.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

22 minutes ago, Clever Fox said:

The real problem is we are too one dimensional.

One dimensional won us the Premier League.