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StriderHiryu

5-4-1: Brendan Rodgers' Tactical Masterclass

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2 hours ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Great post and agree with it completely. The only issue I do have with those tactics is that it’s all well and good if we get on top of the game but it requires a lot of luck to get the first hurdle.

We were well and truly second best at first and they had a few great chances for 2-0 then what? It’s game over without really trying.

It takes a bit of luck and a freak to knick the equaliser. It wasn’t a great chance and Walker has given us a pen where as if he is smart and let’s Vardy go, there’s no chance he will score from the angle he was.

1-0 down at HT and Fernandinho doesn’t come off, it’s a whole different game. City would squeeze us and then we’d have to take risks.

 

It also would be a lot less likely to work vs a team with a stronger defence. This was a weak city without Laporte and Fernandinho was off at 1-1 , up until that point we wernt as threatening.

Against a Liverpool this would probably be harder to do seeing as With AA, Robertson and Van Dijk and Gomez, there not going to be as willing to hand out gifts.

 

It was a good performance by the boys, it helped that they didn’t have their best defender, Peps strange decision to take off their ball winner, a striker who takes 3/3 chances and raw pace of our wing backs giving options all over the place.

These tactics arnt something to be seen as the way to beat a top 6 team in the future, the whole situation worked due to Citys depleted squad.

Our team is so much better when on the front foot, the first 25 mins we could of given too much of a mountain to climb and was very fortunate in a few ways how it panned out.
 

Great win, good overall gameplan for this city team but in general I don’t want BR thinking he’s cracked the code and do this an Anfield and Old Trafford etc because it won’t work

Well that’s tactics in a nutshell right? Get them right and you look like a genius, get them wrong and you look like an idiot. Cast your mind back to Leicester leading Bournemouth 1-0 at Dean Court last season and playing them off the park. Rodgers swapped Nacho for Praet to try to pick them off on the break and instead we capitulated and lost 4-1!

 

But the story here is that we found another way to play. Personally I only see us trying this versus Man City and maybe a variation against Liverpool. Klopp’s team plays wide rather than centrally though and has midfielders that can win aerial duels so this system as it stands would not do well against them. 
 

Anyway let’s see what we do when that game comes around. 

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7 hours ago, Vardinio'sCat said:

 

Whatever it quite was, it was shockingly direct for a BR team. I think Brendan matured a bit, as a manager, in that game.

 

Finally, I wonder if the senior players made a difference in his thinking, because that was a totally committed performance, more so than previous games with Man City. Piper said he could tell they meant business before the game.

 

 

In addition to Rodgers' new tactical flexibility I hope this is a sign of our young players maturing. Sticking diligently to their managers instruction despite it being counter to their normal tactics.

 

Good signs.

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Seems appropriate to add this to the thread.

 

https://www.football365.com/news/brendan-rodgers-leicester-manager-of-the-season-so-far

 

Brendan Rodgers is manager of the season so far…

 

Date published: Wednesday 30th September 2020 8:44

 

Leicester's excellent start owes much to the innovative thinking of Brendan Rodgers.

 

The last time Brendan Rodgers was named Premier League Manager of the Month, it was March 2014 and Liverpool had won five consecutive games – ending with a 4-0 shellacking of Tottenham – that left the Reds two points clear of Chelsea and four clear of Manchester City at the top of the table. After the showers of April and May, being reminded of the highs of March was likely not ideal; in 2020, that particular award might well be hidden behind a trillion trinkets from Scotland.

Should Rodgers win again – as is likely with Leicester atop the nascent Premier League table – this award will not be so easily tarnished; this has been an astonishing start from the Foxes in the context of their limited transfer business, their defensive injuries and last season’s late collapse. This has been a triumph of man-management and innovative thinking. “The problem with being a manager is it’s like trying to build an aircraft while it is flying,” is a quote that Rodgers might have contrived to describe such a summer and such a season.

Leicester began this campaign without three-quarters of the back four that had taken them to within a whisker of the Champions League, with Ben Chilwell sold, Ricardo Pereira a long-term absentee and Johnny Evans initially unavailable. Rodgers had to find solutions: James Justin was switched to left-back to accommodate impressive new signing Timothy Castagne and Wilfred Ndidi came into central defence as an unlikely stop-gap. That necessitated a recall for midfielder Nampalys Mendy, initially released but then re-signed this summer; this weekend he will pass last season’s total of Premier League minutes.

With Evans fit again but the excellent Ndidi now sidelined, Rodgers had to find another solution for a daunting trip to Manchester City. Nobody – and especially not Pep Guardiola – saw a back five coming, with Daniel Amartey playing his first Premier League game in almost two years. At centre-half. The last time Amartey played for Leicester in the top flight (at right-back), Claude Puel was embarking on his ill-fated attempt to phase out Jamie Vardy, which now seems particularly silly.

Rodgers’ tactics might have infuriated Guardiola but they were perfect, using the smart runs of Vardy (see Daniel Storey’s effusive and detailed praise here) and the incisive passing of his midfield to find him, all while keeping the back gate locked. This is also a Leicester side easing James Maddison back, but Harvey Barnes, Dennis Praet and Youri Tielemans have started the season in extraordinary form. Considering that these players ended last season – just two months ago – so obviously tired and emotionally drained, Rodgers has somehow pulled them back off the floor to go again.

Now there is a real possibility that Leicester could be the first team since Everton – under David Moyes and then Roberto Martinez – to break up the Big Six in consecutive seasons. For all the talk of a Champions League place being the glass ceiling, it’s actually joining the party for more than an hour that is the real measure. To go from gate-crasher to invited guest. Under Rodgers, Leicester are better placed than ever to get their feet under the table.

While Everton’s early-season excellence owes much to summer business which has transformed their midfield, Leicester’s start feels like the best of Rodgers, his man-management rescuing fringe players and his tactical acumen finding innovative answers. If this is the curious season which is going to reward box-defying coaches with ideas to combat fatigue and a lack of energy from supporters – and it seems like it might be – then Rodgers could thrive. The early signs are excellent.

 

 

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Just now, coolhandfox said:

Good read @StriderHiryu, some nice observations! 

 

Do you do any acutal coaching or have done or are you just into tactical analysis?

 

Just interested.

I have an FA Level 2, which is pretty timid stuff, FA Level 3 / UEFA B is where it gets serious. You have to spend a year coaching to get that one though, so not going to happen for a while. 

 

If I did the FA Level 3, I would probably write to the club and point them in the direction of these threads and see if I can convince them to let me watch a training session or two at the brand new facility they've just built! Reckon I might have a chance! :whistle:

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1 hour ago, StriderHiryu said:

I have an FA Level 2, which is pretty timid stuff, FA Level 3 / UEFA B is where it gets serious. You have to spend a year coaching to get that one though, so not going to happen for a while. 

 

If I did the FA Level 3, I would probably write to the club and point them in the direction of these threads and see if I can convince them to let me watch a training session or two at the brand new facility they've just built! Reckon I might have a chance! :whistle:

That's good, it would be a shame if you weren't sharing your knowledge on a training pitch, as there is a lack of good coaching at grassroots level especially in children's football. 

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8 hours ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Great post and agree with it completely. The only issue I do have with those tactics is that it’s all well and good if we get on top of the game but it requires a lot of luck to get the first hurdle.

We were well and truly second best at first and they had a few great chances for 2-0 then what? It’s game over without really trying.

It takes a bit of luck and a freak to knick the equaliser. It wasn’t a great chance and Walker has given us a pen where as if he is smart and let’s Vardy go, there’s no chance he will score from the angle he was.

1-0 down at HT and Fernandinho doesn’t come off, it’s a whole different game. City would squeeze us and then we’d have to take risks.

 

It also would be a lot less likely to work vs a team with a stronger defence. This was a weak city without Laporte and Fernandinho was off at 1-1 , up until that point we wernt as threatening.

Against a Liverpool this would probably be harder to do seeing as With AA, Robertson and Van Dijk and Gomez, there not going to be as willing to hand out gifts.

 

It was a good performance by the boys, it helped that they didn’t have their best defender, Peps strange decision to take off their ball winner, a striker who takes 3/3 chances and raw pace of our wing backs giving options all over the place.

These tactics arnt something to be seen as the way to beat a top 6 team in the future, the whole situation worked due to Citys depleted squad.

Our team is so much better when on the front foot, the first 25 mins we could of given too much of a mountain to climb and was very fortunate in a few ways how it panned out.
 

Great win, good overall gameplan for this city team but in general I don’t want BR thinking he’s cracked the code and do this an Anfield and Old Trafford etc because it won’t work

...there is a lot of ifs and buts in your post!!!

All games you can say the same thing, we have been stifled last season for many games and the outcome is the other team becomes more confident and press you more.

  As I have said before, it has taken him 14 years to ditch his philosophy, it is great to have a plan B.

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I think it turned out very well. But for 40 mins I was chuntering about our lack of ambition. We have some bloody good players, and I wouldn't want us conceding the initiative so freely in many games said. If they had scored the 2nd despite our parked bus. The game would have gone and we would have appeared clueless. But the football god's shined on Sunday. 

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42 minutes ago, Marshall Cockney Fox said:

If they had scored the 2nd despite our parked bus. The game would have gone and we would have appeared clueless. But the football gods shone on Sunday. 

This is interesting, because it was probably felt that the game was gone having gone behind in the first place. 

 

Don't get me wrong, you're probably right, but it didn't happen, so the argument is essentially nebulous. We can only guess at outcomes after the fact. 

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I really want to think that it's a turning point for Rodgers' career. It's one game where Man City were ridiculously bad defensively, which is important to remember, but I do wonder if he's been studying the opponents a bit harder for these games. I mean how he could watch the way Liverpool outplayed us at Anfield last year and think that setting up the exact same XI at home to them was a good idea was a mystery. I don't expect him to go and win every big game but the fact he's openly swallowed his pride on this game is quite promising for me. Time will tell.

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I have to admit I didn't see it. I was wondering wtf is Vardy doing 10 years in front of the D. I never twigged he was shadowing Robry, of the we was robbed variety. Rodgers should sell the blieprint to all Citeh opponents as it clearly doesn't fit Guardiolas game plan. That was the funniest moment of Sunday, when Pep was complaining the LC were negative and didn't play to his plan.

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3 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

I really want to think that it's a turning point for Rodgers' career. It's one game where Man City were ridiculously bad defensively, which is important to remember, but I do wonder if he's been studying the opponents a bit harder for these games. I mean how he could watch the way Liverpool outplayed us at Anfield last year and think that setting up the exact same XI at home to them was a good idea was a mystery. I don't expect him to go and win every big game but the fact he's openly swallowed his pride on this game is quite promising for me. Time will tell.

One would hope that if can do it once, he can do it again with more confidence. 

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21 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

I really want to think that it's a turning point for Rodgers' career. It's one game where Man City were ridiculously bad defensively, which is important to remember, but I do wonder if he's been studying the opponents a bit harder for these games. I mean how he could watch the way Liverpool outplayed us at Anfield last year and think that setting up the exact same XI at home to them was a good idea was a mystery. I don't expect him to go and win every big game but the fact he's openly swallowed his pride on this game is quite promising for me. Time will tell.

I agree. I'm sure Rodgers must have been very aware of how poor his record was against the big clubs, and finally decided that he had to change his approach.

 

I'm just so glad we won, and not least because I think that makes it far more likely that he will see that the benefits of planning for the opposition can outweigh those of sticking by a philosophy through thick and thin - even when the thin is so thin it's more or less non-existant.

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