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jim5000

Vardy and the low block

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Vardy is an absolute legend. Arguably the best center forward Leicester have ever had.

 

However, he is now approaching the twilight of his career, and while his game intelligence is immense and way above where anyone believed he would be 5 years ago (he is genuinely considered an all time Premier League great), there is a real problem playing him against teams that play a low block against us.

 

When we play teams that come at us, Vardy is in his element and will score or assist 1-2 goals a match guaranteed. However 15 of the the Premier League teams do not try to come at us, and will try to sneak the odd goal and then sit back and watch our impotent midfiield try to find a killer ball and fail for 90 minutes. This is not all Vardy's fault, we have been hit with a string of significant injuries, but here's the thing, so have most other Premier League clubs. We will get Söyüncü, Richardo, Castagne back, but no doubt in the the mean time will pickup other suspensions or injuries in this compressed season. We can't rely on hopefully at some point getting a fully fit and sharp squad that can see us through a full PL season and a (hopefully) Europa League Champions run.

 

What is the answer to teams that refuse to come at us, play a low block, prevent Vardy having an impact, and steal a goal? This is undoubibly how Spurs will play this weekend, and we can pretty much guarantee they will get a goal early on and deploy the low block against us.....

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11 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

Vardy is an absolute legend. Arguably the best center forward Leicester have ever had.

 

However, he is now approaching the twilight of his career, and while his game intelligence is immense and way above where anyone believed he would be 5 years ago (he is genuinely considered an all time Premier League great), there is a real problem playing him against teams that play a low block against us.

 

When we play teams that come at us, Vardy is in his element and will score or assist 1-2 goals a match guaranteed. However 15 of the the Premier League teams do not try to come at us, and will try to sneak the odd goal and then sit back and watch our impotent midfiield try to find a killer ball and fail for 90 minutes. This is not all Vardy's fault, we have been hit with a string of significant injuries, but here's the thing, so have most other Premier League clubs. We will get Söyüncü, Richardo, Castagne back, but no doubt in the the mean time will pickup other suspensions or injuries in this compressed season. We can't rely on hopefully at some point getting a fully fit and sharp squad that can see us through a full PL season and a (hopefully) Europa League Champions run.

 

What is the answer to teams that refuse to come at us, play a low block, prevent Vardy having an impact, and steal a goal? This is undoubibly how Spurs will play this weekend, and we can pretty much guarantee they will get a goal early on and deploy the low block against us.....

He just that player, that can create or convert regularly  that minimal 1-2 chances, that does come along, against "All" Oppo Team tactics...

Until that drastically changes, we still haven got that reliable 2nd Goal scorer...

Though I Too would be tempted, to give either, Barnes or Perez,  or Maybe Nacho that occasional no9 striker chance,

but not has a replacement,but with a Plan B Tactical Set up,  then have Vardy on the Bench...

 

We have to prove with slowly injury-returnees, we have The team, to Beat & disrupt 'any' opposition...

Spurs & Manutd  Next Two games have to be seen has exciting challenges & tests, Not fan " hide behind the sofa'  moments.

 

Yes, lose These Two games our after festive-season period will see us having to Recover from Position 8-10th...

But for since along Time if Not our very  first Time ever !! , our fully fit ( or 98%) squad,  has the potential to have a Good Crack at again chasing down/back

those lost Early season high positions...

Having a solid "without" Vardy plan-B, will Need to be seriously looked at,Maybe with all Mitigating, Covid/Injury/Finding our rythm issues,

it just might not yet be the right Call for Rodgers.

 

unlike many fans,I am giving Rodgers and team a more a free (carte-blanche), for this weird unusual season...

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42 minutes ago, fuchsntf said:

He just that player, that can create or convert regularly  that minimal 1-2 chances, that does come along, against "All" Oppo Team tactics...

Until that drastically changes, we still haven got that reliable 2nd Goal scorer...

Though I Too would be tempted, to give either, Barnes or Perez,  or Maybe Nacho that occasional no9 striker chance,

but not has a replacement,but with a Plan B Tactical Set up,  then have Vardy on the Bench...

 

We have to prove with slowly injury-returnees, we have The team, to Beat & disrupt 'any' opposition...

Spurs & Manutd  Next Two games have to be seen has exciting challenges & tests, Not fan " hide behind the sofa'  moments.

 

Yes, lose These Two games our after festive-season period will see us having to Recover from Position 8-10th...

But for since along Time if Not our very  first Time ever !! , our fully fit ( or 98%) squad,  has the potential to have a Good Crack at again chasing down/back

those lost Early season high positions...

Having a solid "without" Vardy plan-B, will Need to be seriously looked at,Maybe with all Mitigating, Covid/Injury/Finding our rythm issues,

it just might not yet be the right Call for Rodgers.

 

unlike many fans,I am giving Rodgers and team a more a free (carte-blanche), for this weird unusual season...

Not a particularly constructive comment I know but the only real way to find a present alternative and 'prolific' striker arrangement would be to drop Vardy for a few games (which wouldn't do at all of course!)....like Puel did that time towards the tail end of his tenure after their fall out - and a week or so later he was sacked of course!! The trouble is from a long term stance for the club is that Vardy won't be able to do now what he has been doing at an amazingly consistent rate for the past five-six years in another five-six years unless he's bionic!! Vardy's brilliant form once again this season has put all the other strikers like Nacho and Barnes in the shade.....awkward!

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2 hours ago, jim5000 said:

Vardy is an absolute legend. Arguably the best center forward Leicester have ever had.

 

However, he is now approaching the twilight of his career, and while his game intelligence is immense and way above where anyone believed he would be 5 years ago (he is genuinely considered an all time Premier League great), there is a real problem playing him against teams that play a low block against us.

 

When we play teams that come at us, Vardy is in his element and will score or assist 1-2 goals a match guaranteed. However 15 of the the Premier League teams do not try to come at us, and will try to sneak the odd goal and then sit back and watch our impotent midfiield try to find a killer ball and fail for 90 minutes. This is not all Vardy's fault, we have been hit with a string of significant injuries, but here's the thing, so have most other Premier League clubs. We will get Söyüncü, Richardo, Castagne back, but no doubt in the the mean time will pickup other suspensions or injuries in this compressed season. We can't rely on hopefully at some point getting a fully fit and sharp squad that can see us through a full PL season and a (hopefully) Europa League Champions run.

 

What is the answer to teams that refuse to come at us, play a low block, prevent Vardy having an impact, and steal a goal? This is undoubibly how Spurs will play this weekend, and we can pretty much guarantee they will get a goal early on and deploy the low block against us.....

When you play a low block you leave space in midfield. Simple answer is to play with high tempo and play one-twos to try and draw players out of position. Also play as wide as possible to stretch their defense and quickly switching from going out wide to the center to again catch them off guard. Since these low block type teams usually Man mark Tielemans play Perez behind the Vardy against these teams to cause trouble with his quick feet and get Tielemans to drop deep to pull his marker away from the area in front of their defense. Also having wingers that cuts inside paired with an overlapping fullback causes trouble like Under and Justin did against Everton. Problem on Wednesday was that Fuchs wouldn't overlap effectively allowing Everton to double up on Barnes or Vardy and since Tielemans was marked all the midfield play went through Maddison who had a bad game and kept slowing the play by turning his back to goal and trying to play his way out of the press rather than pass whenever we had a good chance to attack.

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5 hours ago, jim5000 said:

Vardy is an absolute legend. Arguably the best center forward Leicester have ever had.

 

However, he is now approaching the twilight of his career, and while his game intelligence is immense and way above where anyone believed he would be 5 years ago (he is genuinely considered an all time Premier League great), there is a real problem playing him against teams that play a low block against us.

 

When we play teams that come at us, Vardy is in his element and will score or assist 1-2 goals a match guaranteed. However 15 of the the Premier League teams do not try to come at us, and will try to sneak the odd goal and then sit back and watch our impotent midfiield try to find a killer ball and fail for 90 minutes. This is not all Vardy's fault, we have been hit with a string of significant injuries, but here's the thing, so have most other Premier League clubs. We will get Söyüncü, Richardo, Castagne back, but no doubt in the the mean time will pickup other suspensions or injuries in this compressed season. We can't rely on hopefully at some point getting a fully fit and sharp squad that can see us through a full PL season and a (hopefully) Europa League Champions run.

 

What is the answer to teams that refuse to come at us, play a low block, prevent Vardy having an impact, and steal a goal? This is undoubibly how Spurs will play this weekend, and we can pretty much guarantee they will get a goal early on and deploy the low block against us.....

I think it’s more of a problem of our midfield not controlling games both at 0-0 and when we are losing. As proved vs Sheffield Utd, even games where they sit deep, 1 moment of quality from our midfield and he’s in and he can score.

Brighton we’re not playing particularly expansive but we controlled midfield and were on top.

The key is to get Wilf Praet and Youri in a midfield 3 and that allows us to control games.

Also using 2 up top with Vards when chasing games would get us more bodies around the higher end of the pitch.

Spurs are probably the best team in the league  at keeping shape so it will be a very tough game for Vards if we can’t control the middle. We need Praet Tielemens and Wilf as a 3 to win the battle vs Hoijburg, Ndomble and Sissoko and get Nacho up with Vards.

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I disagree. Whilst he's more effective against teams that press us and leave space behind, his game intelligence is fantastic that he brings others into play. It's one thing I've noticed about Vardy under Rodgers is that he's a very good link player and his touches tend to keep the tempo high and creates for others. 

 

If teams want to sit off us than Vardy is comfortable dropping deep and bringing others into play and this is where the likes of Barnes, Maddison, Perez are in their element. Everyone talks about how good Vardy's partnerships have been - Vardy&Nugent, Vardy&Okazaki, Vardy&Mahrez, Vardy&Maddison, Vardy&Barnes, etc. There's only one common denominator there and that is Vardy - he's so adaptable in his game to make the partnerships around him work. 

 

The last factor is the fear factor he brings. Teams can't leave space in behind as we all know what's likely to happen, but you can't have a full pelting Jamie Vardy running at you either, so you've got to commit at some point. It's a horrible problem for the opposition and its why we need him in every team we send out. 

 

 

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One thing that surprised me against Everton was the lack of attempts from distance. Maddison, Tielemans and Under are good strikers of the ball and think it’s something we should do more of.

 

Im not saying that it would directly result in a number of long range screamers flying in but keepers can spill, shots can deflect or ricochet and it might draw defences out enabling a cute through ball. We are very predictable so need to do more to get defences thinking.

 

The return of Ricardo and Castagne will make a huge difference as not had much in the way of overlapping 

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5 hours ago, Fightforever said:

When you play a low block you leave space in midfield. Simple answer is to play with high tempo and play one-twos to try and draw players out of position. Also play as wide as possible to stretch their defense and quickly switching from going out wide to the center to again catch them off guard. Since these low block type teams usually Man mark Tielemans play Perez behind the Vardy against these teams to cause trouble with his quick feet and get Tielemans to drop deep to pull his marker away from the area in front of their defense. Also having wingers that cuts inside paired with an overlapping fullback causes trouble like Under and Justin did against Everton. Problem on Wednesday was that Fuchs wouldn't overlap effectively allowing Everton to double up on Barnes or Vardy and since Tielemans was marked all the midfield play went through Maddison who had a bad game and kept slowing the play by turning his back to goal and trying to play his way out of the press rather than pass whenever we had a good chance to attack.

This is a complicated question, but cant disagree much with this. There is also a question of team selection. But echoing above comment, we need to play fast and stretch the defence including also having good movements. This is why some of us like Praet who is an intelligent team player who makes good runs to stretch defence. I like Fuchs but you are right that his lack of overlapping runs was annoying.

 

In short, don’t play slow build up posession football. Show urgency. Play fast. Don’t pass back all the way to our own half as Tielemans did when taking a freekick in the opposition half with our CBs up near the box.

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37 minutes ago, shailen said:

I disagree. Whilst he's more effective against teams that press us and leave space behind, his game intelligence is fantastic that he brings others into play. It's one thing I've noticed about Vardy under Rodgers is that he's a very good link player and his touches tend to keep the tempo high and creates for others. 

 

If teams want to sit off us than Vardy is comfortable dropping deep and bringing others into play and this is where the likes of Barnes, Maddison, Perez are in their element. Everyone talks about how good Vardy's partnerships have been - Vardy&Nugent, Vardy&Okazaki, Vardy&Mahrez, Vardy&Maddison, Vardy&Barnes, etc. There's only one common denominator there and that is Vardy - he's so adaptable in his game to make the partnerships around him work. 

 

The last factor is the fear factor he brings. Teams can't leave space in behind as we all know what's likely to happen, but you can't have a full pelting Jamie Vardy running at you either, so you've got to commit at some point. It's a horrible problem for the opposition and its why we need him in every team we send out. 

 

 

Agree with Vardy being not only a legend but an extremely intelligent player who knows how to bring others into the game too. Vardy God is absolutely not our problem. Our slow midfield / buildup is.

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The one thing that has remained a constant throughout our PL tenure thus far has been Vardy. He has scores goals, goals and goals. I think he also still carries a genuine fear factor too, opponents still fear him. But above all, his movement is supreme, and his desire to score goals, like Kane, he believes he has a chance right up until the last whistle, even if he has been out of a game for 90 minutes you can bet your bottom dollar a chance arises in the 93 he will be busting a gut to get it.

 

Players like Kane and Vardy are standouts to younger generations, they weren’t delivered on a golden platter like Rooney, they had to scrap to get there they are, and they don’t take it for granted. 
 

Vardy will continue to score goals and terrorise defenders for as long as his body lets him. I think 36 will be the age he probably starts to feel it, but he is as lean as a greyhound, sharper than a stanly knife and quicker than a hiccup. The lads got legs in him yet, the deep blocks can’t even stop him. 
 

For me, even without my blue tinted specs on, he’s one of the best premier league strikers in history, he is up there with Henry. 

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7 hours ago, jim5000 said:

Vardy is an absolute legend. Arguably the best center forward Leicester have ever had.

 

However, he is now approaching the twilight of his career, and while his game intelligence is immense and way above where anyone believed he would be 5 years ago (he is genuinely considered an all time Premier League great), there is a real problem playing him against teams that play a low block against us.

 

When we play teams that come at us, Vardy is in his element and will score or assist 1-2 goals a match guaranteed. However 15 of the the Premier League teams do not try to come at us, and will try to sneak the odd goal and then sit back and watch our impotent midfiield try to find a killer ball and fail for 90 minutes. This is not all Vardy's fault, we have been hit with a string of significant injuries, but here's the thing, so have most other Premier League clubs. We will get Söyüncü, Richardo, Castagne back, but no doubt in the the mean time will pickup other suspensions or injuries in this compressed season. We can't rely on hopefully at some point getting a fully fit and sharp squad that can see us through a full PL season and a (hopefully) Europa League Champions run.

 

What is the answer to teams that refuse to come at us, play a low block, prevent Vardy having an impact, and steal a goal? This is undoubibly how Spurs will play this weekend, and we can pretty much guarantee they will get a goal early on and deploy the low block against us.....

Vardy's record vs crap teams up to this season has been very good even though parts of what you say are very true but he still often managed to grab a goal. This season we are having some really poor results against the perceived bottom half teams but he's also missed some good chances vs all of them. 

 

I just think as a team, we are so delicate. Get thst 1st goal and we are in the top 3 sides in the league but concede that 1st goal and we are one of the worst. That sums up Vardy's involvement and influence too, if we get our noses in front (often by him) then get comes alive even more as teams then seem to play on to our hands but we have to get more resilient at turning games that don't go our way or when we concede 1st.

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26 minutes ago, Tom12345 said:

Agree with Vardy being not only a legend but an extremely intelligent player who knows how to bring others into the game too. Vardy God is absolutely not our problem. Our slow midfield / buildup is.

Exactly. Whether it's the way Brendan wants us to play or not, our build up at times is too slow and we keep the ball at times for possession sake and just spray it side to side. This is good against teams that want to sit back as they can get into shape and make it difficult to break them down. We need to be more direct when we face these sort of teams and need midfield runners going the other way. 

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3 minutes ago, davieG said:

Is it not just a more sophisticated way of saying / playing 'parking the bus'  / '10 men behind the ball' but makes it sound like one's a tactical genius for playing / saying it.

Exactly. Same with gegen pressing. People used to say Arsenal were a high pressing side 20 years ago, it's the same thing with a more sophisticated sounding name.

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He’s more than capable of playing against any defence but our problem really is the lack of contingency planning up front. We should have been in for someone like Che Adams a couple of years ago or Watkins this past summer who could come on after an hour as plan B with 2 up top or sub for Vardy and give him a break to prolong his career even more. A man his age shouldn’t have to be playing 90 minutes every match. 

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Low block, schlow  block, we need to stop conceding early goals from set pieces, which means having two strong central defenders. Our players are not suited to unlocking packed defences whatever we do, so the fewer times we’re chasing the game the better.

 

Of course we will have to do it sometimes and need to find a better way but the main focus should be on not getting in that situation in the first place.

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1 hour ago, Jazzy_Jeff said:

One thing that surprised me against Everton was the lack of attempts from distance. Maddison, Tielemans and Under are good strikers of the ball and think it’s something we should do more of.

 

Im not saying that it would directly result in a number of long range screamers flying in but keepers can spill, shots can deflect or ricochet and it might draw defences out enabling a cute through ball. We are very predictable so need to do more to get defences thinking.

 

The return of Ricardo and Castagne will make a huge difference as not had much in the way of overlapping 

On Wednesday, as so often this season, the ground was sopping.  Ideal time to test the keeper with long shots, especially when it's not their regular keeper. Hard to understand why that's not part of our game plan.

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4 minutes ago, deep blue said:

On Wednesday, as so often this season, the ground was sopping.  Ideal time to test the keeper with long shots, especially when it's not their regular keeper. Hard to understand why that's not part of our game plan.

We have been taking on long shots...but they got blocked....

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He doesn't score in home games anymore, just the one penalty against Wolves. We need to rethink how we play at home but we don't, the match against Everton we've seen so many times but even though he isn't in the game at all we don't look to change things up front. I know the alternative options are not good but given he's 34 next month we really need to have an alternative available to us now.

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1 hour ago, Blue and white said:

He doesn't score in home games anymore, just the one penalty against Wolves (and against Brighton too). We need to rethink how we play at home but we don't, the match against Everton we've seen so many times but even though he isn't in the game at all we don't look to change things up front. I know the alternative options are not good but given he's 34 next month we really need to have an alternative available to us now.

 

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2 hours ago, Sampson said:

I'd never heard the term "low block" until a couple of months ago, now it's everywhere.

 

What is it with modern football punditry trying to create new terms for styles of play or positions on the pitch that have existed for decades?

Pundits need to talk sh*t to justify their pay.

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Only issue with Vardy is that because of how we want him to play (on the defenders), we might as well be building up a man down half the time. I wouldn't be quick to replace him but I can definitely see an argument for a player which tends to contribute in the build up a little more like Iheanacho or Pérez against teams sitting back especially when we're already down a goal and the opposing team has no intention of pushing forward. 

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It's disappointing that the press still come out with this stuff but it's baffling when Leicester fans do. 

 

The idea that Vardy is one dimensional and can only play on the counter is such a shit myth. What's great about his movement and intelligence is those bursts of acceleration over short spaces, especially against teams who are defensively stubborn. 

 

It's literally like a year ago people were praising Brendan Rodgers and Jamie Vardy for rekindling his form particularly in Rodgers style of football where we were on the front foot, controlling possession and breaking teams down. 

 

Vardy went on a ridiculous scoring spree as we won something like eight or nine games on the bounce against teams that sat deep and "low blocked" against us. 

 

The problem isn't Vardy, the problem is supply. If we're going to play that way, the whole team must be able to engineer chances he can finish. This time last year we had a consistent team, we played the same side week in, week out (which we could do easily because we had one competition to focus on and no condensed schedule) playing a 433 that properly facilitated our attacking play with Ricardo overlapping one side and Chilwell the other, both at pace. 

 

Currently we have inconsistent formation, selection, everyone's all over the place, we're frequently forced to play formations that don't lend themselves towards creating, possession based football because Rodgers is doing his best to rotate and keep everyone fresh. 

 

None of this is Vardy's fault or because of Vardy's limitations. 

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