Do Leicester need to be more like Man United?!

[1884FoxInTheBox]

Here me out... It seems that a lot of our current problems are similar to those experienced by Man United at the start of the season.

 

1. Manager wanting to play a certain way but doesn't have the players for it or the players don't have the confidence to play that way.
2. Conceding turnovers and high quality chances cheaply. Huge gaps due to losing the ball in transition and poor recovery runs.
3. Frequently changing players and/or formations. As a result, players not knowing their roles and losing confidence.
4. Fullbacks not knowing whether to press/attack or hold position leading to them being caught out of position.
5. Ineffective CB pairing with one CB error prone.
6. Blame culture and losing their heads when they concede or make an error.
7. Having a CB as captain in a defensively poor team.

 

It seems that we could (if Brendan walks or miraculously develops some humility) copy some of the fixes that Ten Haag has employed to great effect.

 

1. Recognise the limitations of our GKs, accept that confidence is low, and stop trying to build out from the back.
2. Employ a compact mid block with high press and direct counter attack. Defend as a compact 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 with wingers fully tracking opposition fullbacks.
3. Stick to one formation and drop players from the starting 11 who are low on confidence or do not fit the style we want to employ. Maguire, Fred and Ronaldo (previous staples of the squad) have all be dropped and could be seen as equivalent to Amartey, KDH and Vardy.
4. Play with traditional fullbacks who's job is mainly defensive, keeping in line with CBs and tracking opposition wingers.
5. Play a CB pairing of 2 proper CBs. I have a horrible feeling we will sell/loan him, but we should start reintroducing Söyüncü. He works well alongside Evans and freezing talented players out of the squad only makes the dressing room more toxic.
6. Pick a starting back 4 and stick with it. Make the whole team's primary job defending so that they celebrate every successful tackle/block/interception instead of chastising every mistake.
7. It does not make sense to be putting more pressure on Evans than he is already under. Make Maddison (like Fernandes) our captain and tie him down to a longer contract. We will lose Tielemans for free next summer and Maddison will only have a year left on his contract. Financially, we can't afford to lose any more players cheaply.

 

My starting XI vs Man United's:

 

Iversen (De Gea)

 

Castagne (Dalot)
Evans (Varane)
Faes/Söyüncü (Martínez)
Justin (Malacia)

 

Ndidi (McTominay/Casemiro)
Tielemans (Eriksen)

 

Pérez/Iheanacho (Sancho)
Maddison (Fernandes)
Barnes (Elanga/Anthony)

 

Daka (Rashford)

 

Regular subs: Vardy, Albrighton, KDH, Soumaré, Praet

 

Player for player, you can see that our squad is comparable (not a million miles off) United's and we don't in fact need a big 'refresh' as claimed by BR. We already have a great squad that is being underutilised and is massively underperforming. Confidence is low and the manager needs to walk or take a massive slice of humble pie.

[Xen]

Tbh, Leicester just need to be more like, well, Leicester.

 

Our identity has completely disappeared of late and none of our players have any desire to impose themselves on the game (or the ability to in the system they've been shoehorned into). I don't want us looking at Man Utd and mimicking them - I want us looking back at what has worked for us over the past couple of seasons in our better spells and go back to that.

[1884FoxInTheBox]

3 minutes ago, Xen said:

Tbh, Leicester just need to be more like, well, Leicester.

 

Our identity has completely disappeared of late and none of our players have any desire to impose themselves on the game (or the ability to in the system they've been shoehorned into). I don't want us looking at Man Utd and mimicking them - I want us looking back at what has worked for us over the past couple of seasons in our better spells and go back to that.

I would agree, however the problem with looking back is that the league has moved on in the last couple of years.

 

Most teams employ a high press now and our passing and movement just isn't good enough at the moment to beat it. And that's not to mention the confidence required to play in such a way which we just don't have right now for obvious reasons.

 

I don't necessarily want to us to mimic Man United in the exact style that they play, but to have a manager who is humble enough to realise what he is doing isn't working and that he needs to move with the times.

[Mark_w]

Terribly run but big enough that it doesn’t even matter? I love it, what an aspiration.

[Finnegan]

Manchester United are quite possibly the worst run club in European top flight football, except maybe Barcelona. 

 

The answer is obviously no. 

[Fox92]

I was under the impression Maguire is still captain, not Fernandes, it's just that Maguire hasn't been playing.

[1884FoxInTheBox]

40 minutes ago, Mark_w said:

Terribly run but big enough that it doesn’t even matter? I love it, what an aspiration.

Obviously not what I meant but fair play 😂

Edited 5 September 2022 by 1884FoxInTheBox

[sylofox]

You mean just less shite than we are?

[Area88]

Utd performed worse in their first 2 games then we did and they turned it around to win 4 games on the bounce.

Arsenal tanked the first 3 games last year and turned it around.

 

The key is clearly something needs to change massively behind the scenes. We can talk about players, formations, tactics. But if players aren't even enjoying playing then that needs to be rectified immediately.