Tactics Under Maresca

[Dan LCFC]

Managed the game better today but do think the plan ultimately relies on the personnel and he really needs to see that when we don't have certain players - Ricardo the obvious one, we need to look for alternatives. In short never ever invert Choudhury again.

 

Better today but needs to turn this into one final ruthless run. Win them all.

[StinckleyFox]

2 hours ago, Nod.E said:

I give up with some of the guys on this forum.

 

We win = we ignored Enzo

We lose = ffs saw this coming, bloody Enzo ball

I find this so funny that people think the team have just gone out and completely ignore what they’ve been doing in training and play their own way 😂 like they had their pre match talk and then in the tunnel collectively decided to completely ignore the last 9 months of training and just play their own way.

 

The diagonal balls out from Faes to Mavidid and from vestagaard to Fatawu have been used in every single game we have played, just because it hasn’t come off every game doesn’t mean it isn’t part of enzo’s game plan. 
 

Dewsbury Hall was brilliant today and is so vital to how we play as well when since the turn of the new year he hasn’t been at his best, unfortunately we don’t have anyone who can step in for him when he is knackered or not playing at his best and emulate what he does for the team. 

[Guest leatherhead32]

On 31/03/2024 at 22:19, Daggers said:

You don’t need a Plan B when Plan A is working so well…

 

 

wish city kept the same tops for 40 years , fanstore dont tho

[HarryDee8]

Is he a one trick pony? 

 

This how 'play my way' is more important then the final scoreline is just stupid!

 

 

[Bptiger]

Our attack, comes down to two things our wingers if they don’t create chances we don’t score it’s as simple as that , we have become clueless on how to create chances unless it’s through the wingers , I think it relates to the slow built up , we don’t have the players to play that style of play that the manager wants , i think he thinks he’s still coaching at Manchester city 🤔

[Claudio Fannieri]

11 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

The feeling i got about the 'calm down' gesture was less about becoming complacent and easing off and more about staying focussed and not letting the adrenalin of scoring cause us to make rash decisions; that, great, we've scored, but there's still work to be done. 

Couldn’t agree more, I think he could sense the players were a bit anxious and whilst our build up play was good we lacked a little bit of quality with our final ball and decision making. He was being supportive to the players rather than critical and trying to take the pressure off them. 

Edited 2 April by Claudio Fannieri

[CosbehFox]

Don't wanna be negative here after such a great win. But it was largely facilitated by Norwich whose tactics had no real game plan or shape nor did they adopt the two key shapes which seems to be our achilles heel. Their pressing was woeful and their wingers didn't even bother helping out their full backs - unsurprisingly Mavididi has his best game where he doesn't have to take on three players. 

[cityfanlee23]

9 hours ago, StinckleyFox said:

I find this so funny that people think the team have just gone out and completely ignore what they’ve been doing in training and play their own way 😂 like they had their pre match talk and then in the tunnel collectively decided to completely ignore the last 9 months of training and just play their own way.

 

The diagonal balls out from Faes to Mavidid and from vestagaard to Fatawu have been used in every single game we have played, just because it hasn’t come off every game doesn’t mean it isn’t part of enzo’s game plan. 
 

Dewsbury Hall was brilliant today and is so vital to how we play as well when since the turn of the new year he hasn’t been at his best, unfortunately we don’t have anyone who can step in for him when he is knackered or not playing at his best and emulate what he does for the team. 

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone suggest the players completely ignored Enzo, I’ve seen multiple people myself included talking about the players ignoring his calls to slow down, and the reports from others that he was having a pop at fans in the stands about the speed at the beginning of the match and when we went down. 
 

Agree on the diagonal balls we have seen them all season so it was a good balance today between diagonal balls, direct fast play through the channels and through the middle and maybe 10 minutes of the usual all out ball control. Yesterdays approach was pragmatic and we changed how we attacked multiple times as Norwich adjusted, something we have not done very often this season, so Enzo deserves credit for that and we can only hope this is the start of him being a more pragmatic manager.
 

As far as I can see nobody has suggested the players decided to completely ignore what the manager planned though.

 

I find it quite strange though that even though yesterday was the same rough style of football that I’ve been calling for the entire season, and have been hounded by the Enzo fan club all season because what I wanted was “not his style” and I simply didn’t understand Enzoball, the moment we actually adopt what so many have been asking for and we actually go for the throat for 80 minutes and play aggressively with direct forward passing, suddenly that’s also now what Enzo ball is, I did find it quite a surprise to find out I’ve actually been an Enzoball fan all along. 

Edited 2 April by cityfanlee23

[cityfanlee23]

12 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Don't wanna be negative here after such a great win. But it was largely facilitated by Norwich whose tactics had no real game plan or shape nor did they adopt the two key shapes which seems to be our achilles heel. Their pressing was woeful and their wingers didn't even bother helping out their full backs - unsurprisingly Mavididi has his best game where he doesn't have to take on three players. 

Norwich were very poor, and there’s definitely an element of them letting us press them more and be more direct against them, but I think that was compounded by our approach, plenty of teams this season have been dogwater and we’ve managed to make them look half decent with our approach of passing it sideways for 75 minutes before eventually a mixture of tired opponents and our sheer quality seeing the game through, Norwich were definitely poor but we were a stark difference in approach to much that we’ve seen this season. 
 

 

[Bob Hazels shorts]

9 hours ago, StinckleyFox said:

I find this so funny that people think the team have just gone out and completely ignore what they’ve been doing in training and play their own way 😂 like they had their pre match talk and then in the tunnel collectively decided to completely ignore the last 9 months of training and just play their own way.

 

The diagonal balls out from Faes to Mavidid and from vestagaard to Fatawu have been used in every single game we have played, just because it hasn’t come off every game doesn’t mean it isn’t part of enzo’s game plan. 
 

Dewsbury Hall was brilliant today and is so vital to how we play as well when since the turn of the new year he hasn’t been at his best, unfortunately we don’t have anyone who can step in for him when he is knackered or not playing at his best and emulate what he does for the team. 

 

Who are these people?

 

I find it funny that some people couldn't see that the players did react to and were influenced by supporters 

 

Clearly our two main outlets are our wingers who have been starved of service (in Faes case almost vindictive)

 

If the players didn't tweak their style of play subconsciously to win the game why was Enzo so noticeably perturbed on the touchline and repeatedly reeled out his 'my way or i'm on the highway; in the media again? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[James_lcfc]

21 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Don't wanna be negative here after such a great win. But it was largely facilitated by Norwich whose tactics had no real game plan or shape nor did they adopt the two key shapes which seems to be our achilles heel. Their pressing was woeful and their wingers didn't even bother helping out their full backs - unsurprisingly Mavididi has his best game where he doesn't have to take on three players. 

Aside from the current top 4 and Rotherham - I genuinely can't tell the difference between the other 19 teams in this league.

 

Maybe I'm a simpleton, but they all seem the exact same in terms of quality. Some are a bit more organised or have a bit more energy, but I'm not sure I'd consider a game against Norwich or West Brom for example to be tougher than one against Sheff Wed or Huddersfield...it's weird! 

 

 

[Guest leatherhead32]

people who get frustrated rgd enzo tactics/style do have a right to moan , im a fan of it but hayho, its always been a case of peoples opinions so let em say or type what they want, i went school 45 year plus, ago with people who said football leicester and fans were all w*****s  and had me down as a whatever name  they felt at time , i spot a handful now down there( prem days onward ) with rep shirts scarves hats with kids n now grandkids and am shown by a mate they go on facebook with their moaning and opinions, we just use it as comedic value as some of the posts are from these very new age fans , read em and you will know whos constructive(  as it can be a very hard watch at times) and who lives in an oversized pram . so dont get angry get laughing.    

[filbertway]

10 minutes ago, James_lcfc said:

Aside from the current top 4 and Rotherham - I genuinely can't tell the difference between the other 19 teams in this league.

 

Maybe I'm a simpleton, but they all seem the exact same in terms of quality. Some are a bit more organised or have a bit more energy, but I'm not sure I'd consider a game against Norwich or West Brom for example to be tougher than one against Sheff Wed or Huddersfield...it's weird! 

 

 

Even when teams have sat deep - if there's only a goal in it, you'd see teams attacking us in the last 15-20 minutes. Lots of balls going into the box and all.

 

Norwich didn't seem to have any interest in all at trying to score an equaliser, it was weird. Even the commentators were perplexed at it.

[davieG]

I thought tactically we weren't too different to most games however we were helped massively by a hard to understand totally passive Norwich which allowed us to build intensity, which has been one of our big shortfalls in the past few games due to the long periods when we regained or were gifted possession.

[KFS]

The crowd jeers on the first switch of play basically won us this game. It was like our players remembered it was an option and then started using it. Norwich weren’t prepared for it and likely expected another passive, tippy tappy performance where they frustrate us into fall over ourselves for 90 mins (aka Friday). If we can switch things up like this for the last 7 games then we’ll do well. 

[cityfanlee23]

30 minutes ago, James_lcfc said:

Aside from the current top 4 and Rotherham - I genuinely can't tell the difference between the other 19 teams in this league.

 

Maybe I'm a simpleton, but they all seem the exact same in terms of quality. Some are a bit more organised or have a bit more energy, but I'm not sure I'd consider a game against Norwich or West Brom for example to be tougher than one against Sheff Wed or Huddersfield...it's weird! 

 

 

The gap between the premier league and championship is absolutely massive,I’ve been quite surprised by the lack of quality to be honest, I’ve said a few times I felt like our defensive record when we were so far clear earlier on in the season felt a bit misleading, in the majority of games this season we have absolutely gifted our opponents clear cut chances that in the premier league would be buried in the majority of cases. The standard of finishing in this division is just so poor compared to the top flight now, that’s been the biggest shock for me. 

[FosseSpark]

3 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

The gap between the premier league and championship is absolutely massive,I’ve been quite surprised by the lack of quality to be honest, I’ve said a few times I felt like our defensive record when we were so far clear earlier on in the season felt a bit misleading, in the majority of games this season we have absolutely gifted our opponents clear cut chances that in the premier league would be buried in the majority of cases. The standard of finishing in this division is just so poor compared to the top flight now, that’s been the biggest shock for me. 

totally agree. they also talk about the physicality being a massive thing in the championship. i just don't see it. i think they pace and power of premier league players is WAY superior to what i've seen in the championship. I also agree that i don't think that we've done anything to improve defensively apart from Hermansen being a much better goalkeeper. This is clear when you look at our record v 'good' teams this season where we have conceded 3 or 4 to Leeds, Liverpool, Chelsea. who are the only Premier League quality teams we've played; (i'm not counting Bournemouth reserves or Southampton down to 10men). 

When you look at it like that. We are still operating a system personnel which would be shipping 3 or 4 per week in the prem like last time we were in it.

[cityfanlee23]

1 minute ago, FosseSpark said:

totally agree. they also talk about the physicality being a massive thing in the championship. i just don't see it. i think they pace and power of premier league players is WAY superior to what i've seen in the championship. I also agree that i don't think that we've done anything to improve defensively apart from Hermansen being a much better goalkeeper. This is clear when you look at our record v 'good' teams this season where we have conceded 3 or 4 to Leeds, Liverpool, Chelsea. who are the only Premier League quality teams we've played; (i'm not counting Bournemouth reserves or Southampton down to 10men). 

When you look at it like that. We are still operating a system personnel which would be shipping 3 or 4 per week in the prem like last time we were in it.

Yep, if we manage to go up we need a massive (and very expensive if Enzo is still here) overhaul in summer. Regarding the Physicality I agree, we have a lot of light weight players who struggled in the premier league to hold off other players, and I think traditionally the Championship has been somewhere that players who are big and strong, but not quite good enough for the premier league or maybe not quite athletic enough have found a home, but in recent years it seems like teams seem to be focusing more and more on the tactical aspect, going for players who are technically sound first and foremost rather than big nasty players. It's the way football seems to be going in general, for example even teams like Milwall who traditionally went for players who would just chuck two feet in to let the opponent know who they are, nowadays they tend to be going for smaller more technical players like Flemming (who I think could easily step up to the premier league at a lower club). 

 

[Collymore]

Anyone else notice the Ndidi run through to the byline with a pass off the winger? Must have done it about 10 times yesterday. We seem obsessed by it and I think it becomes easy to defend. 

 

I know we scored off an Ndidi cross yesterday but we seem to put an awful lot of high balls into the box with absolutely no aerial threat. 

[Claudio Fannieri]

I think it will be really interesting if Enzo does stay beyond the summer, to see how the difference in our play next season after a summer of adding in more players with the profile to play this style, regardless of budget there will be players who fit the type of profile we are looking for, I still feel there a number of players in our squad, who don’t necessarily fit how we play and our recruitment in the summer even if restricted, will be intriguing. 

[Chocolate Teapot]

15 hours ago, James_lcfc said:

Enzo was shouting ‘Calm Down!’ after we scored the first with ~10mins to go in the first half!

 

Annoyed me for some reason  - Felt like it’s the opposite of what we should be doing…We were in the ascendency, and they looked rattled.
 

Luckily we kept the foot on the gas as you say, and did so even after the break.

 

Was a good performance overall.

 

So was Winks. I think this is part of the disconnect tbh. Fans want to see us put our foot on their throats and we constantly let sides back in it by slowing things down all the time. Need the crowd to basically demand it from the players - they actually responded to the jeers yesterday. If that's what it takes then I'm fine with it.

 

I'm firmly of the opinion that the tactics are holding us back now.

[HighPeakFox]

I have only seen highlights, but are some actually claiming that it was the fans that won the game yesterday?

[casablancas]

2 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

I have only seen highlights, but are some actually claiming that it was the fans that won the game yesterday?

Seems to be the case. 

[kenny]

2 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

I have only seen highlights, but are some actually claiming that it was the fans that won the game yesterday?

Is it that odd? We all know Cambiasso was the manager for the great escape so its safe to assume that yesterdays win was all down to the fans and the players ignoring the manager.

[HighPeakFox]

Just now, casablancas said:

Seems to be the case. 

In that case, I would like to cite countless occasions our fans have been horrific and lost the game.