The Enzo Thread

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Why are people still trying to pan Enzo after that? Or is it one of those "in spite" of performances?

Of course he is not totally happy, he never ever should  be! There is always room for improvement, any time a team pinches the ball its a negative 

We still player the ball around the back, but Saints get us the space, we chose our attack well, but as others have said, last night we would see far more of in the Premier League as who would need to low block us?

 

Absolutely dreading Vardy hanging up his boots  

I don’t think in spite of. That would suggest the players ignored instructions and chose to play how they did. Clearly he set up differently (as allowed by the fact Southampton weren’t going to come and park the bus) and it was spot on and credit to him as it did show adaptability. Whilst you can’t break quickly or counter attack against sides who have parked the bus, he could have tried to go possession toe to toe last night but didn’t.

 

I just wonder what he was unhappy with. If it is small things like losing the ball when we did have it, ok, like you say, you should always be looking to improve.

 

If he isn’t happy because of the lack of possession and deems that we didn’t have enough control as a result, that would concern me. As others have said, this is the way we should approach games if/when we are in the Prem next season.

 

That for me was the perfect style. Excellent football but quick and exciting. Possession with purpose not for the sake of it. We would still need to be more clinical (not talking last night but generally) and cut out being so open at the back and silly mistakes (again not last night), but if we can get a bit more quality to fix these issues but go with the general approach of last night, this would suit us well.

[Levi Port]

Tactically brilliant last night. Defence was perfect with Vestergaard and Faes being so aggressive. Tactical fouls were evident and so effective. His use of KDH and Ndidi was key in the final third, KDH. found huge pockets in that right 10 slot all game. We were wasteful for a lot of that game and still scored 5 goals. 100 point season please. 

[SafewayFox]

3 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

It makes me somewhat sad that last night will soon become a stick to beat the manager with, if it isn't already.

You know I absolutely love your posts mate but sometimes, it’s ok to not be 100% positive about the manager/club.

 

The posts about Enzo’s post match comments “not our best performance” and “would have liked to have kept the ball more in certain areas” are PTSD for us fans that still have images of the poisonous Rodgers.

 

I hope that our blip (was nearly a quarter of a season in a league that our club shouldn’t have been in) will be learnt from by Enzo and he doesn’t become another stubborn manager like Rodgers.

 

Here’s to enjoying the football though 🙌🏻

[Death by Football]

It’s becoming increasingly clear that our success is inextricably linked to the greyness of Enzo’s beard. 

[Dahnsouff]

7 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

You know I absolutely love your posts mate but sometimes, it’s ok to not be 100% positive about the manager/club.

 

 

The posts about Enzo’s post match comments “not our best performance” and “would have liked to have kept the ball more in certain areas” are PTSD for us fans that still have images of the poisonous Rodgers.

 

I hope that our blip (was nearly a quarter of a season in a league that our club shouldn’t have been in) will be learnt from by Enzo and he doesn’t become another stubborn manager like Rodgers.

 

Here’s to enjoying the football though 🙌🏻

Why? Stop reading everything as a negative and Rodgers may well have instilled this negativity within you, but only you have the power to remove it.

 

I mean,  negatives last night

• Fatawu should hit the target more
• Stephy should have a larger brain at times
• Faes needs to concentrate more and stop being so impulsive
• KDH should stop diving

but we were also 99% great.  

 

These are microscopic things, but if any manager is not managing to that level then he needs to find a new job.

(I never want to see a manager proclaim we are the best team in the world, at least not until we have won the Champions League for the fourth time in a row)

[Bordersfox]

20 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

You know I absolutely love your posts mate but sometimes, it’s ok to not be 100% positive about the manager/club.

 

The posts about Enzo’s post match comments “not our best performance” and “would have liked to have kept the ball more in certain areas” are PTSD for us fans that still have images of the poisonous Rodgers.

 

I hope that our blip (was nearly a quarter of a season in a league that our club shouldn’t have been in) will be learnt from by Enzo and he doesn’t become another stubborn manager like Rodgers.

 

Here’s to enjoying the football though 🙌🏻

He also said Fatawu has many areas to improve.   I see that simply as his style, to help keep feet on the ground.  He's been pretty level headed through the whole season.  

 

 

 

I also thought we were very wasteful in midfield at times with KDH and Ndidi both giving the ball away in promising positions.  Again, that was my interpretation of his words,  rather than some oblique message about needing more passes across defence. 

 

I think what is frustrating is the insistence of some fans (and this is not directed at you by the way) to put a negative spin on all things, particularly when they have a clear agenda against a playing style.  

 

Have I been happy with recent performances and results? Absolutely not. Has Enzo made some blunders? Yes I think he has.  And as for off the field - bloody shambles.  Rudkins sour face on my screen last night was the only negative of the 90m for me.  However, at times the hysteria and comments such as 'get the bald tw@t out of my club' are just embarrassing.   

 

Maresca set us up well last night, Southampton were shite admittedly, and yet some are claiming that victory was somehow despite Maresca, that we tore up the rulebook to get the victory. I just cannot understand that thinking personally.

[Chelmofox]

18 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

You know I absolutely love your posts mate but sometimes, it’s ok to not be 100% positive about the manager/club.

 

The posts about Enzo’s post match comments “not our best performance” and “would have liked to have kept the ball more in certain areas” are PTSD for us fans that still have images of the poisonous Rodgers.

 

I hope that our blip (was nearly a quarter of a season in a league that our club shouldn’t have been in) will be learnt from by Enzo and he doesn’t become another stubborn manager like Rodgers.

 

Here’s to enjoying the football though 🙌🏻

The most obvious negative is that our set pieces were absolute tosh (corners and free kicks) and i think even though we contained them for the first 15 mins of the 2nd half we were wasteful when we did win the ball back.

 

Once we got the 2nd the swagger came back and again i think it's fair for the manager to maybe think that the opposition crumbling might need factoring that into what happened next.  As long as he is constructive with everything he points out, i don't understand why anyone is getting worked up.

 

But no one can tell me after seeing Enzo jumping around after each goal and dancing like an absolute knobber in the changing rooms that he isn't delighted.

 

It was a little sad he didn't come round the pitch afterwards. I presume he was straight on interview duty as the game was on tv? 

[southfox66]

I personally would like to retract my previous negative comments about Enzo, a manager has to be based on a whole season and in the main he has done an excellent job, he has rode the bad periods, he hasn't blamed the players when we were losing games and he has remained positive throughout. We are ending on a high, which hopefully we will carry on in the premier. Looking forward to premier with Enzo in charge, the goal was to get us back to premier asap, which he's achieved and now for the next stage of the Enzo era

Edited 24 April by southfox66

[lcfcsnow]

3 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

The most obvious negative is that our set pieces were absolute tosh (corners and free kicks)

It doesn't help that KDH walks over as slow as possible (Maddison style) then all momentum has gone. Whenever we let other players take corners they are not so deliberately slow about it, Maddison was removed from set pieces eventually and doesn't take them for Spurs now either does he? The same needs to happen here.

[Chelmofox]

Just now, lcfcsnow said:

It doesn't help that KDH walks over as slow as possible (Maddison style) then all momentum has gone. Whenever we let other players take corners they are not so deliberately slow about it, Maddison was removed from set pieces eventually and doesn't take them for Spurs now either does he? The same needs to happen here.

Think Maddison has stopped playing full stop now.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

At least he had the good grace to look like he was enjoying the result, even if the style didn't quite adhere to The Idea. You just know Brendan would have been scowling and volleying water bottles down the touchline.

 

 

Edited 24 April by SouthStandUpperTier

[Ricey]

1 hour ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

At least he had the good grace to look like he was enjoying the result, even if the style didn't quite adhere to The Idea. You just know Brendan would have been scowling and volleying water bottles down the touchline.

 

 

This is true, and he didn't try and calm things down in the second half when we went 2-0 up. The pressing and the intensity remained high.

[MPH]

The thing i am reallyu hopeful for after last night is that we know teams will attack us more in the prem.... i really really hope last night teaches Enzo that we have the pace to hit teams on the break and i hope its a tactic he uses more often next season.

 

 

 

It was beautiful to see

[Stadt]

Much more adaptable and reactive yesterday - had he done the same for just a few of Middlesbrough H, QPR H, Plymouth A or Millwall we'd be up by now.

 

Let's hope last night was the wake up call that we have to be flexible. Hermansen launching the ball caused so many problems.

[An Away Move]

For all of those of you thinking Enzo changed the tactics last night or tried something different, please go and stand in front of a mirror and look back at yourself and repeat, ‘I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about’. Then, just then, it may sink in?

 

Last night was Enzo ball. We just had an opponent who didn’t park the bus and played a possession game of their own. It allowed us to show what we can do. It augurs well for the EPL. No team in that league is going to park the bus against us. 

Edited 24 April by An Away Move

[Chelmofox]

Just now, An Away Move said:

For all of those of you thinking Enzo changed the tactics last night or tried something different, please go and stand in the mirror and look back at yourself and repeat, ‘I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about’. Then, just then, it may sink in?

 

Last night was Enzo ball. We just had an opponent who did park the bus and played a possession game of their own. It allowed us to show what we can do. It augurs well for the EPL. No team in that league is going to park the bus against us. 

Here here!  However i do think the strategy was to dominate via the press as the whole team was doing that constantly so there was a tweak in tactics, largely because there could be. It definitely wasn't something that happened by accident. We did it all game, and its kind of funny to hear Russell say he thought Southampton played the press well.

 

Even that last goal at the end wasn't really counter attacking football. A Vesty interception playing out from the back. They just gave us all the space in the world. It wasn't long ball counter attacking. 

 

The best thing Russell could have done was to turn up low block and flood midfield.  That would have thrown us.

[trooky]

2 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

For all of those of you thinking Enzo changed the tactics last night or tried something different, please go and stand in front of a mirror and look back at yourself and repeat, ‘I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about’. Then, just then, it may sink in?

 

Last night was Enzo ball. We just had an opponent who didn’t park the bus and played a possession game of their own. It allowed us to show what we can do. It augurs well for the EPL. No team in that league is going to park the bus against us. 

100% spot on, people just chatting shit for the sake of it.

 

It's not going to sink in when they're calling for the managers head because we lost 2 away games in 4 days.

[coolhandfox]

He learning on the job his relatively inexperience which isn't really recognised by our fan base or the wider media , he's managed 65 games for us and Parma. I've been guilty of it myself. 

 

Compare that to the rest of the managers in the top 6: 

 

Kieran McKenna 128 (Ipswich) 

Daniel Farke  350 (Leeds) 

Russell Martin 228 (Southampton) 

Carlos Corberán 216 (WBA)

David Wagner 468 (Norwich) 

Edited 24 April by coolhandfox

[HighPeakFox]

2 hours ago, SafewayFox said:

You know I absolutely love your posts mate but sometimes, it’s ok to not be 100% positive about the manager/club.

 

The posts about Enzo’s post match comments “not our best performance” and “would have liked to have kept the ball more in certain areas” are PTSD for us fans that still have images of the poisonous Rodgers.

 

I hope that our blip (was nearly a quarter of a season in a league that our club shouldn’t have been in) will be learnt from by Enzo and he doesn’t become another stubborn manager like Rodgers.

 

Here’s to enjoying the football though 🙌🏻

I quite agree. I just get tired of a small section of our brethren who can turn anything positive into a negative - I'm all for constructive criticism at any time, but for some it's reflexive rather than responsive. 

[Lambert09]

the thing that’s frustrating for me, is that enzo has all the tools to be a genuinely top manager. 

His man management seem excellent.  his system is excellent when everyone is at the races.  But I don’t think that will cover up the lack of willingness to adapt. 
 

The elephant in the room for me, is that his system is based on confidence. in the prem we are likely to get pasted by the top sides, no shame in that. But the problem is that picking yourself up might not be possible, when you get fixtures like man c, arsenal then villa… and then the whole game plan goes out the window as people start shying away from the ball.  You can see that burnley have suffered from this, they’ve not really been able to play composed football in the winnable games they’ve had imo.  Games like the sheffield one at the weekend were a little more dirty in how they got there.

 

I think pre-season will say a lot, if we get a glimpse of a new system then we will know that he is just a perfectionist and needs time to implement a new strategy. I’m okay with that, just as long as it’s on his radar that this system won’t always be the way forward in a game. 

 

*edit 

 

For a final point on Burnley, as I did bring them up and obviously the most comparable side. 

 

firstly, I think enzo is better than kompany and has a much higher ceiling. 

 

But the second most important point, is that they had a terrible transfer window in the prem. I’m not convinced they improved anywhere and possibly had a weaker site as they lost Maatson and THB.  Our recruitment has been good this season so there’s a potential we can excel there even on a limited budget. 

Edited 24 April by Lambert09

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, An Away Move said:

For all of those of you thinking Enzo changed the tactics last night or tried something different, please go and stand in front of a mirror and look back at yourself and repeat, ‘I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about’. Then, just then, it may sink in?

 

Last night was Enzo ball. We just had an opponent who didn’t park the bus and played a possession game of their own. It allowed us to show what we can do. It augurs well for the EPL. No team in that league is going to park the bus against us. 

Yeah I think this is very good. Southampton are almost the perfect opponent for us to be effective in what we do. While control in the back and middle third is important, all of our best performances have involved pace in the final third which is what happened last night.  
 

You saw in the first half last night on several occasions that KDH especially didn’t have a clue what to do when he got into space, because he hasn’t had that much time on the ball for ages. Once we regained some composure in the second half, we were flying. 
 

The game plan was very very simple once you’d accepted that we weren’t getting much of the ball, press high and smash them on the transition. Our pressing was as good as I’ve seen it last night. 

[bmt]

2 hours ago, An Away Move said:

For all of those of you thinking Enzo changed the tactics last night or tried something different, please go and stand in front of a mirror and look back at yourself and repeat, ‘I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about’. Then, just then, it may sink in?

 

Last night was Enzo ball. We just had an opponent who didn’t park the bus and played a possession game of their own. It allowed us to show what we can do. It augurs well for the EPL. No team in that league is going to park the bus against us. 

Been saying this for months. Think our style has always been suited to playing teams who come at us, as everyone in the Prem will. HMS PISS THE PREMIER LEAGUE is ready to depart.

 

Think we may take a few pastings off the very good teams though.

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, Lambert09 said:

the thing that’s frustrating for me, is that enzo has all the tools to be a genuinely top manager. 

His man management seem excellent.  his system is excellent when everyone is at the races.  But I don’t think that will cover up the lack of willingness to adapt. 
 

The elephant in the room for me, is that his system is based on confidence. in the prem we are likely to get pasted by the top sides, no shame in that. But the problem is that picking yourself up might not be possible, when you get fixtures like man c, arsenal then villa… and then the whole game plan goes out the window as people start shying away from the ball.  You can see that burnley have suffered from this, they’ve not really been able to play composed football in the winnable games they’ve had imo.  Games like the sheffield one at the weekend were a little more dirty in how they got there.

 

I think pre-season will say a lot, if we get a glimpse of a new system then we will know that he is just a perfectionist and needs time to implement a new strategy. I’m okay with that, just as long as it’s on his radar that this system won’t always be the way forward in a game. 

 

*edit 

 

For a final point on Burnley, as I did bring them up and obviously the most comparable side. 

 

firstly, I think enzo is better than kompany and has a much higher ceiling. 

 

But the second most important point, is that they had a terrible transfer window in the prem. I’m not convinced they improved anywhere and possibly had a weaker site as they lost Maatson and THB.  Our recruitment has been good this season so there’s a potential we can excel there even on a limited budget. 

Confidence is an interesting one. I’m not going to place that on Enzo because ultimately this has been a problem at the club for well over a decade now. When things are good they’re great, when things are bad they’re dreadful. They snowball each way. Pearson, Ranieri, Puel, Shakey, Bodger and Enzo have all had this happen during their tenures. If anything, ignoring Pearson, Enzo has probably been the only one to slightly turn it back around. 

[foxfanazer]

One more win needed says Enzo 

[Dan LCFC]

I really hope that interview isn't Rodgers v West Brom all over again but fear it may well be. The thing is yesterday we were in total control. I was actually quite surprised that the possession was as low as it was when I saw the stats. We we created plenty of chances in different methods and we allowed them hardly anything all game. If he's genuinely not over the moon with that because it wasn't done in a particular way then that's quite disappointing really. It was everything I want from Leicester - organised, exciting and ruthless.