Tactics Under Maresca

[Out Foxed]

3 minutes ago, blaaklint said:

Found it interesting that in the first half Ricardo inverted higher up the pitch, with Winks essentially as a single pivot at times?

 

Not sure if that was deliberate or a consequence of how passive Preston were.

nerd

[StriderHiryu]

9 minutes ago, Aleksz said:

Slight tweak to the in possession shape tonight for the first half - Ricardo playing in an advanced area along with KDH and Ndidi. 
 

Enzo mentioned on RL that they sprung a bit of a tactical surprise on him, think he obviously expected them to turn up with a back 5 and so wanted to go 6 (Mavididi, Ndidi, Vardy, KDH, Ricardo, Fatawu) vs an expected back 5… so maybe expect to see that again when the next back 5 low block team rock up at the KP.

 

Normal service resumed once we tweaked and Ricardo dropped back alongside Winks second half. Much more control, and it showed. 
 

But nice to see Enzo had something new up his sleeve nonetheless.

 

 

 

PS. Not having a left footer in that back three is killing the fluidity a bit in possession, but we’re riding it out. 

Yeah they actually went 442 with their defensive shape, so it was more crowded in the middle of the pitch than expected. I think Preston deserve credit for that first half, they could well have been in front.

 

I feel like he could have made the tactical change earlier, but I suppose his whole thing is to be patient. He knew that a team like this would never be able to hold out for 90 minutes, our first goal comes from a tired lunge, and that was at 60 minutes.

[Aleksz]

1 minute ago, StriderHiryu said:

Yeah they actually went 442 with their defensive shape, so it was more crowded in the middle of the pitch than expected. I think Preston deserve credit for that first half, they could well have been in front.

 

I feel like he could have made the tactical change earlier, but I suppose his whole thing is to be patient. He knew that a team like this would never be able to hold out for 90 minutes, our first goal comes from a tired lunge, and that was at 60 minutes.

I always feel he finds the right tactical solutions by half time. They always come out in the second half a bit more clued up on either their build up shape or pressing structure.

 

Was definitely the case tonight.

[Aleksz]

Not necessarily a tactic post here but I don’t know where else to really put it - did anyone clock onto Caballero sending a ball boy round to the rest of the ball boys behind the goal telling them to speed things up when Preston were time wasting in the second half? and then send him around again after we scored to tell them to slow it down
 

Class. Attention to details 

[StriderHiryu]

Leicester City 3 - 0 Preston North End Post Match

 

 

Although the pre-match prediction did pan out as such, more happened in this game than you might first have thought, which is why it was a classic case of "a tale of two halves"

 

First Half

 

 

• Preston came to defend but sprung a surprise. They didn't defend 541, but 4411, as seen in the picture below.
  • Enzo made a change, he pushed Ricardo up as an auxiliary additional CAM to complement Ndidi and KDH. This is because he wanted a superiority in the final phase to make it 6 vs 5.
  • However, Ryan Lowe second guessed this and had Duane Holmes man-mark Harry Winks.
  • This is why we were so lethargic in the first half, and why Winks (who was one yellow away from missing the next match) was restricted. He didn't have the bounce pass on to play around the corner like he would do usually.
  • The net effect was that KDH and Ndidi didn't receive the ball much. A problem of our own making... there was too much traffic! Wilf got it just 10 times in the first half!
    • Take a look at the average pitch positions, all of our players got in each others way. We were playing too centrally and right into Preston's hands.
• When we tried to force play in the first half, this is where we turned the ball over and gave chances away.
  • Coady was a prime offender in doing this. On current form you would play Vestergaard ahead of him for the CD quarterback role. Of course he is recovering from a fairly serious injury!

 

 

 

Second Half

 

 

• We made one very simple change. We moved Ricardo back to deeper on the pitch in his usual double pivot role with Winks.
• At the same time, Preston were tired, they were chasing us the entire game, and had just 22% possession.
• Ndidi and KDH started to receive the ball and began to run the game.
• We scored with our first real opportunity, but it was a tired lunge from McCann who was tired. If we didn't score then, we had 30 minutes plus stoppages... it would have been hard for them to hold out for that long.
  • This is especially true when the cavalry from the bench were sent on, with Iheanacho now free to drift between the lines as a false 9 having the freedom of the king Power.

 

Overall

 

This was the most defensive display a team has played against us for years. Tony Pulis for WBA during the home match against them in 2016 is the last time I remember something like this. Despite that, we kept it patient and found the answer. It's funny, as @cityfanlee23 and I were disappointed that we weren't going for it enough in the first half, but ironically we were poor in the first half because we were going for it too much! Actually, moving Ricardo BACKWARDS meant we were better at going forwards. Funny how football can work like that.

 

Enzo Maresca is a top, top, TOP manager. This era is going to be really enjoyable. Forza Enzo!

 

 

Edited 5 October 2023 by StriderHiryu

[davieG]

9 hours ago, Aleksz said:

Slight tweak to the in possession shape tonight for the first half - Ricardo playing in an advanced area along with KDH and Ndidi. 
 

Enzo mentioned on RL that they sprung a bit of a tactical surprise on him, think he obviously expected them to turn up with a back 5 and so wanted to go 6 (Mavididi, Ndidi, Vardy, KDH, Ricardo, Fatawu) vs an expected back 5… so maybe expect to see that again when the next back 5 low block team rock up at the KP.

 

Normal service resumed once we tweaked and Ricardo dropped back alongside Winks second half. Much more control, and it showed. 
 

But nice to see Enzo had something new up his sleeve nonetheless.

 

 

 

PS. Not having a left footer in that back three is killing the fluidity a bit in possession, but we’re riding it out. 

In the 2nd half at least it was noticeable how Justin was continually facing inwards and didn't pass to Fatawu once.

[Shane]

We had 4 players in the box for the 3rd goal. Was great to see

[SecretPro]

Shame Kel didn't score the volley and KDH picked it up on the re-bound, otherwise it would have been Goal of the Season. Such a well worked goal.

[Aleksz]

 

[UniFox21]

We do let at least 1 1v1 opportunity each week, and we've been lucky with how poor finishing has been so far 

[Plastik Man]

9 hours ago, SecretPro said:

Shame Kel didn't score the volley and KDH picked it up on the re-bound, otherwise it would have been Goal of the Season. Such a well worked goal.

It was a shame, it was a thing of beauty.

 

I have a feeling we will see a few goals this season in such a vein.

[StriderHiryu]

55 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

We do let at least 1 1v1 opportunity each week, and we've been lucky with how poor finishing has been so far 

Yep that will cost us in the Premier League, but it's something we can keep track of as the season goes by. I'd expect once we hit 2024 that these opportunities start drying up, other than when we make the mistake ourselves, those will always happen, even Allison, Ederson, etc make gaffes like that from time to time.

[UniFox21]

56 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Yep that will cost us in the Premier League, but it's something we can keep track of as the season goes by. I'd expect once we hit 2024 that these opportunities start drying up, other than when we make the mistake ourselves, those will always happen, even Allison, Ederson, etc make gaffes like that from time to time.

Exactly, we've tightened up since our first few games, think how open we were Vs cov for instance. However, we're still making errors that lead to opportunities. Blackburn took theirs and Preston didn't. 

 

I don't see many stations picking up on this, but just see us winning well and laud the side.

[Steve Earle]

11 hours ago, SecretPro said:

Shame Kel didn't score the volley and KDH picked it up on the re-bound, otherwise it would have been Goal of the Season. Such a well worked goal.

Watch it again and it’s illustrative of the tiredness we’d induced in PNE. Iheanacho plays the pass to Albrighton and sprints towards the box, leaving at least three PNE players chugging in his wake, like Tielemans chasing a referee!

[Plastik Man]

45 minutes ago, Steve Earle said:

Watch it again and it’s illustrative of the tiredness we’d induced in PNE. Iheanacho plays the pass to Albrighton and sprints towards the box, leaving at least three PNE players chugging in his wake, like Tielemans chasing a referee!

You've coined a phrase there.

 

This needs more recognition!

 

 

[MalletFox]

22 hours ago, Aleksz said:

Not necessarily a tactic post here but I don’t know where else to really put it - did anyone clock onto Caballero sending a ball boy round to the rest of the ball boys behind the goal telling them to speed things up when Preston were time wasting in the second half? and then send him around again after we scored to tell them to slow it down
 

Class. Attention to details 

I’m glad someone else spotted, some of our ball boys look like they’re stoned out their heads. Ball rolls past them and they don’t even move. Was good to see the lad run around and give a couple of em a kick up the backside!

[winteriscoming]

His tactics will come under more scrutiny when rather than if we’re in the premiership next season. I didn’t think we would but we should stroll this season. 

[Tom12345]

I wonder what Enzo can do if we still have Maddison and Barnes. I also think there was a player in Perez who was mismanaged - and if he is still here.

[Tom12345]

It is impressive the level of knowledge Enzo gets into in terms of understanding the club and the players.

 

I like what he said about Albrighton and how he paid respect to him for being one of the “glories” and being in the club for so long.

 

He is a real manager.

[Nicolo Barella]

31 minutes ago, Tom12345 said:

I wonder what Enzo can do if we still have Maddison and Barnes. I also think there was a player in Perez who was mismanaged - and if he is still here.

No chance Maddison would have stayed. Barnes I think would be operating as a far more effective Mavididi. As Mavididi is decent at this level I don't think it would be a huge difference. Maybe later in the season if we got a few injuries having Barnes over him would be the difference a couple times though, but you've got to say we used the money we raised from his sale well.

[Tom12345]

I wonder if any one has done an analysis on how similar, or different, is Enzoball compared to Pep’s style?

 

In this: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/66868576

 

He mentioned he cannot copy Pep because Pep is so good and a genius - suppose that means Pep is always thinking and changing - and that you need to make your own ideas.

 

He was only there for a year as one of Pep’s assistants, so I wonder how much Enzoball is actually his own ideas and how much is copied from Pep.

 

I hope what he says is true though. You need to have your own ideas to adapt to the type of players you have and the evolving nature of the game. Us fans talk about how we want to be patient and play a way to tire out the opponents so we can score late goals - if we can talk about it opposition team managers will one day find a way to counter that. So we always need to be ready to evolve and think one step ahead.

 

Promising from Enzo so far.

 

 

Edited 6 October 2023 by Tom12345

[Tielemans63]

On 05/10/2023 at 00:25, StriderHiryu said:

Leicester City 3 - 0 Preston North End Post Match

 

 

Although the pre-match prediction did pan out as such, more happened in this game than you might first have thought, which is why it was a classic case of "a tale of two halves"

 

First Half

 

 

• Preston came to defend but sprung a surprise. They didn't defend 541, but 4411, as seen in the picture below.
  • Enzo made a change, he pushed Ricardo up as an auxiliary additional CAM to complement Ndidi and KDH. This is because he wanted a superiority in the final phase to make it 6 vs 5.
  • However, Ryan Lowe second guessed this and had Duane Holmes man-mark Harry Winks.
  • This is why we were so lethargic in the first half, and why Winks (who was one yellow away from missing the next match) was restricted. He didn't have the bounce pass on to play around the corner like he would do usually.
  • The net effect was that KDH and Ndidi didn't receive the ball much. A problem of our own making... there was too much traffic! Wilf got it just 10 times in the first half!
    • Take a look at the average pitch positions, all of our players got in each others way. We were playing too centrally and right into Preston's hands.
• When we tried to force play in the first half, this is where we turned the ball over and gave chances away.
  • Coady was a prime offender in doing this. On current form you would play Vestergaard ahead of him for the CD quarterback role. Of course he is recovering from a fairly serious injury!

 

 

 

Second Half

 

 

• We made one very simple change. We moved Ricardo back to deeper on the pitch in his usual double pivot role with Winks.
• At the same time, Preston were tired, they were chasing us the entire game, and had just 22% possession.
• Ndidi and KDH started to receive the ball and began to run the game.
• We scored with our first real opportunity, but it was a tired lunge from McCann who was tired. If we didn't score then, we had 30 minutes plus stoppages... it would have been hard for them to hold out for that long.
  • This is especially true when the cavalry from the bench were sent on, with Iheanacho now free to drift between the lines as a false 9 having the freedom of the king Power.

 

Overall

 

This was the most defensive display a team has played against us for years. Tony Pulis for WBA during the home match against them in 2016 is the last time I remember something like this. Despite that, we kept it patient and found the answer. It's funny, as @cityfanlee23 and I were disappointed that we weren't going for it enough in the first half, but ironically we were poor in the first half because we were going for it too much! Actually, moving Ricardo BACKWARDS meant we were better at going forwards. Funny how football can work like that.

 

Enzo Maresca is a top, top, TOP manager. This era is going to be really enjoyable. Forza Enzo!

 

 

@StriderHiryu Big fan of your tactical analysis each week. Keep up the good work mate 👏 

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

23 hours ago, davieG said:

In the 2nd half at least it was noticeable how Justin was continually facing inwards and didn't pass to Fatawu once.

Absolutely. And when Hamza went there it got even worse. It was driving me potty. Face forward chaps. 

[Les-TA-Jon]

12 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

Exactly, we've tightened up since our first few games, think how open we were Vs cov for instance. However, we're still making errors that lead to opportunities. Blackburn took theirs and Preston didn't. 

 

I don't see many stations picking up on this, but just see us winning well and laud the side.

I mean, the opposition is always likely to get some chances. Conceding a non-zero amount of chances in a game is hardly a stick to beat Enzoball with...

[StriderHiryu]

Leicester City vs Stoke City Pre-Match

 

After a decent first 4 games, Stoke have tailed off recently...

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very difficult team to analyse, they really seem like a team that are all over the place, with frequent changes to players and formations. They are on a poor run of form, with 4 losses in their last 6, and their one win involved a comeback from 2 goals down in a game that Bristol City and Nigel Pearson will feel aggrieved to lose.

• The Southampton game had a really strange look to it. Looking at those average pitch positions, I assumed they were going man for man, but looking at the extended highlights, that doesn't appear to be the case.
  • The tactics looked like they were trying to compact play centrally and suffocate the game.
  • They lost at home to Ipswich early in the season before anyone realised quite how good they were, and in that one they did try 4231, which is maybe why they tried something different in this one.
  • This was the first game Southampton got a clean sheet, but Stoke were denied a pretty obvious penalty.
  • That aside, Stoke have struggled in front of goal this season, with only 11 goals from their 10 games so far.
• The Bristol game is a much more familiar 4231 with fullbacks pushed high to provide the width.
• Stoke seem a bit like a Championship version of themselves in the Premier League. Too good to go down, not good enough to challenge for the play-offs. Mid-table purgatory awaits.

Based on what I've seen from them, I think they will turn up with a 4231, but play rather cautiously. Not as cautiously as Preston or even Bristol, but maybe more like Cardiff where they try but struggle against our Premier League quality players who are stuck in the Championship. I think they will defend their positions rather than go for man-to-man. If they try to compress play centrally I think they would get destroyed by our wide players, but there is a certain logic in trying that against teams that try to overload midfield with an inverted player like both Southampton and us do.

 

Anything can happen in this division, but it's hard not to see anything other than a fairly comprehensive home victory here. Stoke have only 1 clean sheet all season, are horrible away from home, and struggle to score. If we aren't complacent, we should find a way to win.