Tactics Under Maresca

[Lillehamring]

19 hours ago, leicesterlad1989 said:

Under Rodgers, particularly in the last 18 months, we'd shit the bed when we were one up. What we saw yesterday was complete control. I must admit I wasn't a fan of us going to the corner flag with 6 minutes still to go but that's on the individual player, I'm sure. 

 

It's very much a cliché but we are a work in progress. We need to be creating more and scoring more, so that we aren't having to "manage" the game in the manner we have done in recent weeks. Early signs are promising. The 3 points matter the most ultimately. I don't care how we get them either. 

After the Tottenham fiasco i think it is smart to start using these kinds of tactics.  And with 8 or 9 minutes added time the norm these days it'll probably become a lot more commonplace now it's harder to timewaste.

[Lillehamring]

18 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

I had a thought over the weekend, casting my mind back to pre-season 2022.

 

Does anyone know what Rodger's version of the inverted fullback, which was to use Ricardo in that role, actually looked like? Did it get that far advanced before his injury?

 

Would it have been similar to Enzo's version? Rodgers wanted to sign Lookman to play on the right. Would Ricardo have played alongside Tielemans or Soumare, with Maddison and Praet further advanced? Did we even have 3 CBs available at the beginning of last season to play at the back?

 

It would be interesting to know, even though we know the rot was well and truly set in by then anyhow.

 

@StriderHiryu may have some expert tactical opinion on this?

I assume he'd have gone for Ricardo/fofana/evans/Justin - until none of them were available   Have to kind of feel sorry for him....

[Lillehamring]

18 hours ago, moore_94 said:

 

End product aside - i could watch that all day! 

[Guest glasgowfox]

Can't argue with the results and therefore to an extent the tactics.  However, I do not understand why Harry suottar has not even been on the bench but 2 keepers have.  I know he is not in the plans but even as a last minute sub to throw up front when desperate for a late goal makes more sense than putting danny ward on.

[coolhandfox]

4 minutes ago, glasgowfox said:

Can't argue with the results and therefore to an extent the tactics.  However, I do not understand why Harry suottar has not even been on the bench but 2 keepers have.  I know he is not in the plans but even as a last minute sub to throw up front when desperate for a late goal makes more sense than putting danny ward on.

You honestly think Enzo is going to chuck a CB upfront? 

[Guest glasgowfox]

No I do not but better option than 2 keepers on the bench imo.

[coolhandfox]

Just now, glasgowfox said:

No I do not but better option than 2 keepers on the bench imo.

He's got as much chance of getting on as Ward.

 

Zero.

[Guest glasgowfox]

1 minute ago, coolhandfox said:

He's got as much chance of getting on as Ward.

 

Zero.

I agree but just an opinion.

[BillyFOX12]

42 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

He's got as much chance of getting on as Ward.

 

Zero.

Don't jinx us now.

[STUHILL]

2 hours ago, glasgowfox said:

I do not understand why Harry suottar has not even been on the bench

I think Enzo was likely told/agreed that Souttar will be sold if possible, but that is looking unlikely now. 

I wouldn't be surprised if he is brought in quite quickly once the window is shut. 

He is a decent CB and can certainly still be an asset to the team.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

On 28/08/2023 at 18:41, moore_94 said:

 

Lovely, we make it look so simple but so much goes into training this sort of fluidity. This is sexy football and entertainment, I will accept some losses if we can get playing like this on a regular basis. 

[The Doctor]

On 28/08/2023 at 23:16, Bourbon Fox said:

Massively. All indications were that Soumaré was that player to move the ball vertically.- to gain yards quickly and break lines.

 

He just... didn't for some reason.

I mean that some reason is because Rodgers announced his immediate plan to change soumares game to be a Wilf/Youri hybrid, a ball winner capable of playing in that quarter back role, when really Soumare is a right sided #8. I think it was Finnegan who said the other day Soumare was probably bought by the scouting department rather than Rodgers and that's probably true, because Soumare fits that first 6 months of Rodgers ball but not the suffocating defensive possession he went to after getting slapped by Liverpool Christmas 2019 and losing his bottle 

[Lillehamring]

15 hours ago, glasgowfox said:

No I do not but better option than 2 keepers on the bench imo.

If it's not going to happen then who gives a fuch - Maresca obviously has his reasons, let's just trust that he knows what he's doing.

[Lionator]

While the progress with the ball has been evident to see, I think what I'm most impressed with so far is the psychological transformation of the team as others have noted.

 

Rodgers had turned the squad into a bunch of losers. One where nobody takes responsibility for anything, and lacked motivation to better themselves. It's not a stretch to say that almost every player declined over the past 24 months. 

 

Already we've seen a massive change in attitude, players taking responsibility at key moments of the game, improvements in ability and smiles on faces again. That comes from leadership. Enzo has set a standard and the standard is rewarding the players who really and truly want to meet it. He deserves so much credit for that particular transformation as it's so so difficult to turn around. The ultimate key will be when we hit a bad patch of form and how we respond to that, because Rodgers never knew how to snap his team out of a malaise. 

[StriderHiryu]

Leicester 0 - 1 Hull City

 

 

Didn't deserve to lose this one, but most certainly did not deserve to win it either! The dropped points were coming. Though we won all our games so prior to this one, we got away with too many lucky wins according to the underlying data. This time round we are probably unlucky to lose, but these things even themselves out over the course of the season.

 

We weren't creative enough today, but we also saw lots of sloppy passes or moments throughout the match.

 

I've always said that the first 10 games were going to be rough, and expected something a bit like this performance. We are bedding in so many new players, it's going to take time to build up the fluency. Personally, I think we will still see us flatter to deceive until about game 15 or so, it really does that that much time to get things right at minimum with system based tactics.

 

• Tactically, Hull went 4231 and despite missing their best player so far this season in Tufan, still chose an attacking lineup and were rewarded, albeit luckily.
• Initially, a tactic they had was to try to go man to man with Ricardo and Winks, though I think this left to them being vulnerable on the transition.
• Their goal came out of nowhere, and via a lucky deflection, but afterwards they had a few dangerous counter-attacks where Aaron Connelly should have done better. Despite that, he was one of their better players today.
• But that being said, Delap was clearly positioning himself to be up against Calum Doyle. Doyle loves to go forwards to support the attack, and sometimes that means he can get caught out. Overall Doyle has been impressive, but I think he had a bit of a stinker today.
• Afterwards they dug in with a deep block and played on the counter attack. They picked up a ton of yellow cards to kill our momentum and slow the game down. That worked amazingly well.
• What went wrong for us? Not clinical enough in the final third. 1 shot on target says it all, and in general we have not tested the keeper nearly enough in any of the games we have played so far.

 

You'd have to say that was a big test failed. Next up are two headline games, away to Southampton and Norwich, and those games will really tell us where we are this season.

 

 

Edited 2 September 2023 by StriderHiryu

[Tielemans63]

I like him a lot, but there has to be a bit more adventure and aggression in our play. Our attack is so slow at times, it's painful. 

[StriderHiryu]

1 minute ago, Tielemans63 said:

I like him a lot, but there has to be a bit more adventure and aggression in our play. Our attack is so slow at times, it's painful. 

That is clearly the story of the game. But that is not going to come overnight. When you are trying to play slick one-touch stuff with players running between the lines, it takes a lot of time on the training ground. It's not just the case of one player timing their pass, it can be about 2-3 players all doing things at the right time to make the space open up.

 

The style is to wait for the space and then exploit it, so we aren't going to see cross after cross with this manager, and that will disappoint a lot of the match going fans for sure.

 

I'm not going to be the Maresca Defence Force, because it might transpire in time that his approach doesn't work out. But I suspect it will work, it just needs time. He's only just now got his final squad, with almost all of the players he would have wanted. International break is coming up, and that will be invaluable time on the training ground with those players to teach them how to play the system more effectively.

[CosbehFox]

I did say Doyle is being targeted… and Hull went with their lead striker on the right wing today. 

 

Hes weak on his right hand side and inner channel. Vestergaard is concerned about Faes and Faes is naturally pulled right cos Pereira goes inverted. We saw that big gap of space appear a couple of times where Doyle had to cover. 
 

Hull try to be like us but their back four isn’t good enough to pass it out. Can’t believe it took us entire half to realise that 

[Kopfkino]

I think the number of shots highlights part of the problem today. The fact at least 9 of them were from outside of the box tells you we’re making poor decisions . You don’t see Man City shot maps that look like ours today. You’ve got to build the pressure and sustain the attacks by keep playing the pass not taking shots like Doyle, Faes, Winks, KDH on a couple of occasions. Delas where he’s got few other options, fine, almost all of ours less so.

 

Compounded today by not being able to get near them in the press on all but a couple of occasions. And that’s what real control in football looks like, can sustain attacks through patience by keep moving the opposition and can you then make it difficult to get out of you lose it. We didn’t have that today and until they were knackered at the end I think they were pretty comfortable 
 

 

[Sir Shep]

Some tough fixtures coming up now, Southampton, Norwich, Preston all coming up, Enzo will certainly be earning his coin! 

[HybridFox]

Pass pass pass pass pass goalkick

Pass pass pass pass pass throw-in

[CosbehFox]

Just to say I was a bit encouraged to see the CMs going past the full back to create cutbacks on the underlap. With the result in mind, the pattern and shape is more balanced. 
 

However annoyed at no point did we take advantage of their cb being booked after a minute 
 

We are pushing teams to their energy limits and making them play away over their levels. 

[davieG]

11 minutes ago, Sir Shep said:

Some tough fixtures coming up now, Southampton, Norwich, Preston all coming up, Enzo will certainly be earning his coin! 

We're not on our own Southampton lost 5-0 away to Sunderland and Norwich lost 2-1 away to Tranmere. I'd imagine they're have similar discussions to us.

[ClaphamFox]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

We're not on our own Southampton lost 5-0 away to Sunderland and Norwich lost 2-1 away to Tranmere. I'd imagine they're have similar discussions to us.

Leeds only drew 0-0 with Sheffield Wednesday, who were bottom before today without a point. That’s as poor as our result.

[Kierzz]

19 hours ago, lcfc_forever said:

So funny seeing some posters having a go at our players for lack of resilience/mental strength and then panic if there is a delay in announcement. 

 

30 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Leicester 0 - 1 Hull City

 

 

Didn't deserve to lose this one, but most certainly did not deserve to win it either! The dropped points were coming. Though we won all our games so prior to this one, we got away with too many lucky wins according to the underlying data. This time round we are probably unlucky to lose, but these things even themselves out over the course of the season.

 

We weren't creative enough today, but we also saw lots of sloppy passes or moments throughout the match.

 

I've always said that the first 10 games were going to be rough, and expected something a bit like this performance. We are bedding in so many new players, it's going to take time to build up the fluency. Personally, I think we will still see us flatter to deceive until about game 15 or so, it really does that that much time to get things right at minimum with system based tactics.

 

• Tactically, Hull went 4231 and despite missing their best player so far this season in Tufan, still chose an attacking lineup and were rewarded, albeit luckily.
• Initially, a tactic they had was to try to go man to man with Ricardo and Winks, though I think this left to them being vulnerable on the transition.
• Their goal came out of nowhere, and via a lucky deflection, but afterwards they had a few dangerous counter-attacks where Aaron Connelly should have done better. Despite that, he was one of their better players today.
• Afterwards they dug in with a deep block and played on the counter attack. They picked up a ton of yellow cards to kill our momentum and slow the game down. That worked amazingly well.
• What went wrong for us? Not clinical enough in the final third. 1 shot on target says it all, and in general we have not tested the keeper nearly enough in any of the games we have played so far.

 

You'd have to say that was a big test failed. Next up are two headline games, away to Southampton and Norwich, and those games will really tell us where we are this season.

You say the data suggests we got lucky in previous matches - suppose that's refering to XG comparison....however, you could argue that we have better finishers in our team than most teams we play which would be expected for the quality of our squad.

 

Agree today we were unlucky as 9 times out of 10 we would have taken one of our chances in the last 30mins which could have easily led to scoring another goal like the Coventry match.