The Enzo Thread

[Dahnsouff]

5 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

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.

That is one outlook, the other is you never say you are finished, you never let up, you keep your players focused until the goal is reached. 

[5waller5]

6 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

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) 

That’s a great point

[Ian Nacho]

10 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. 

Nonsense. Vestegaard doesn't normally play in midfield does he. 

[foxile5]

10 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. 

That's a rather reductive point of view.

 

A) calling it -managername- ball is ridiculous. He's setting tactics. It isn't some wild revolution of thought. It isn't that revolutionary. 

 

B) it's possible for football fans to know what they see. I've consumed this product for decades. I do know what I'm talking about. It's possible to spot flaws in a philosophy that aren't apparent to the manger. He isn't a polymath operating at a higher level. 

 

Statistics bore this out. We had possession that isn't aligned with our usual style of play. So that isn't 'enzo ball' as it's previously been. You can't blanket credit when there are pronounced differences. It was a different game plan that worked. Unless you're confusing winning with the philosophy. 

 

Don't be so craven to dogma. He managed THAT GAME very well. But this isn't a total justification of his overall philosophy. It's a successful implementation of a game plan.

[Ric Flair]

14 hours 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  

 

12 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

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)

Yet the irony is, when we've laboured to 1 nil defeats to dog muck like Bristol City, Millwall and Plymouth he'll claim he's happy with the performance and won't criticise Vardy or Daka for their inexplicable misses.

 

He was argumentative when we played a similar counter attacking display away at Birmingham, although he had a right to be frustrated that night as defensively we were poor. Last night was a masterclass all over the pitch against a side that is a similar mantra to his and we've destroyed them twice letting them have the ball.

 

I'd hope that was deliberate and a game plan from him, but perhaps not so and just the players took advantage of the situation. If the latter then let's hope he has a similar life changing realisation that he could be a little more flexible in his ideology, like his experience watching the way Pep's Barcelona played all those years ago.

[Big_Nige]

16 minutes ago, Ian Nacho said:

Nonsense. Vestegaard doesn't normally play in midfield does he. 

We did to them what many teams have tried to do to us and go man for man. Vestergaard stepped into midfield to track Smallbone and press high. Everyone had a man to press, which left Faes 1v1 at the back most of the time. As disappointed as I was before the match that Faes kept his place instead of Coady as soon as I saw what we were trying to do it make sense. 
 

 

It’s not Enzo going away from his principles, it was the ultimate Enzo ball in a way. It’s the only time this season we’ve seen a team come to the KP and try and play like that, which was naive at best, but it shows we have a “second” way of playing, which is just the first , but when we’re allowed more space to attack into

 

 

[foxile5]

3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

 

Yet the irony is, when we've laboured to 1 nil defeats to dog muck like Bristol City, Millwall and Plymouth he'll claim he's happy with the performance and won't criticise Vardy or Daka for their inexplicable misses.

 

He was argumentative when we played a similar counter attacking display away at Birmingham, although he had a right to be frustrated that night as defensively we were poor. Last night was a masterclass all over the pitch against a side that is a similar mantra to his and we've destroyed them twice letting them have the ball.

 

I'd hope that was deliberate and a game plan from him, but perhaps not so and just the players took advantage of the situation. If the latter then let's hope he has a similar life changing realisation that he could be a little more flexible in his ideology, like his experience watching the way Pep's Barcelona played all those years ago.

I think his post match comments about not controlling the game were worrying in a way. 

 

Accept that control looks different game to game. We didn't need possession last night. We needed what we did. Don't be craven to possession when winning will do. 

 

He's done a good job but I can't accept that we should be slaves to a system that doesn't guarantee.

[Ric Flair]

2 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

I think his post match comments about not controlling the game were worrying in a way. 

 

Accept that control looks different game to game. We didn't need possession last night. We needed what we did. Don't be craven to possession when winning will do. 

 

He's done a good job but I can't accept that we should be slaves to a system that doesn't guarantee.

There's strong evidence that his possession ideology at this club yields less control in games than performances like yesterday in the shots against stats as well as things like xG etc.

 

So many games in 2024 that we've dominated possession against some ordinary teams who've created a significant amount of chances.

 

Both games against Southampton where we gave up the majority of possession and chance creation and xG etc is an absolute landslide in our favour and will favourably stack up against our preferred way of playing.

 

Why that doesn't drive him to a light bulb moment in his vision for the way football should be played is beyond me.

[foxile5]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

There's strong evidence that his possession ideology at this club yields less control in games than performances like yesterday in the shots against stats as well as things like xG etc.

 

So many games in 2024 that we've dominated possession against some ordinary teams who've created a significant amount of chances.

 

Both games against Southampton where we gave up the majority of possession and chance creation and xG etc is an absolute landslide in our favour and will favourably stack up against our preferred way of playing.

 

Why that doesn't drive him to a light bulb moment in his vision for the way football should be played is beyond me.

Possession matters in the sense that it's what you do with it yields the result. 

 

If you have 70+% and you use all of that to punish the opponents then you're laughing. 

 

If you use it to just have the ball then the other 30% is danger. 

 

Last night we used THEIR possession to make them pay. That's what you want. All the time we had the ball it was punishing their time with it. That's the ideal outcome. 

 

Can't score when it is just kicking around at the back. 

 

This isn't an assassination of the ideology but a moment where it should become apparent that the usage of possession is not as important as the intent of the possession.

[Ric Flair]

His post match comments when we beat Stoke 5-0 away were far more complimentary. So those claiming a manager will never be truly happy without room for improvement, is not necessarily true.

 

The man is uneasy with anything other than total domination of the ball, which makes me uneasy. Such a shame because if he learns the art of when to implement one or the other, both we and he become a very dangerous and effective prospect.

[Claudio Fannieri]

6 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

His post match comments when we beat Stoke 5-0 away were far more complimentary. So those claiming a manager will never be truly happy without room for improvement, is not necessarily true.

 

The man is uneasy with anything other than total domination of the ball, which makes me uneasy. Such a shame because if he learns the art of when to implement one or the other, both we and he become a very dangerous and effective prospect.

I don’t think he was unnecessarily critical of the players or how they played, too be fair our off the ball work was unreal, however when we had the ball at times we were a bit wasteful and whilst the goals were superb and the moves executed to perfection, there were other passages of play where the decision making or final execution of pass were poor, this will always happen in games. 
 

I am not sure this was him saying we can’t play this way, just that at times we were careless in possession and made a few unforced errors which broke down opportunities to get on the ball and control passages of play. 
 

Ideally I think we still attack with the pace and the aggressive press but in certain instances we get on the ball and be more controlled. Overall he seemed happy enough with how we played but I think in a world of striving for perfection, he will have seen many occasions where we gave possession far too easily due to unforced errors or poor decision making. Winks, Justin, KDH, Ndidi were particularly guilty. 

[Dahnsouff]

7 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

 

Yet the irony is, when we've laboured to 1 nil defeats to dog muck like Bristol City, Millwall and Plymouth he'll claim he's happy with the performance and won't criticise Vardy or Daka for their inexplicable misses.

 

He was argumentative when we played a similar counter attacking display away at Birmingham, although he had a right to be frustrated that night as defensively we were poor. Last night was a masterclass all over the pitch against a side that is a similar mantra to his and we've destroyed them twice letting them have the ball.

 

I'd hope that was deliberate and a game plan from him, but perhaps not so and just the players took advantage of the situation. If the latter then let's hope he has a similar life changing realisation that he could be a little more flexible in his ideology, like his experience watching the way Pep's Barcelona played all those years ago.

Against Saints that was not a surprising performance, much appreciated but not surprising. They, like many in the Premier League place control quite (far too?) highly in their mindset, so they just don`t feel they need to adopt a low block to stop getting undone by our patient build up.

Those teams that sit back and look to break at pace are a problem for not just us that suffer from a rigorous defensive structure, look at Leeds v Blackburn, Saints v Cardiff.

 

Regarding the comments from the Enzo about when he is happy/not happy, this is something that has  discussed plenty of times previously, and for me, why would he get be too negative when focus and encouragement is what is needed when he lose, or too positive when focus and reasons to get the group to believe they can even further is needed when we we win. Feels like psychology.  

(I do not believe he often speak to the fans)

 

Last few game he does seem to have been unopposed to 'going longer' from Mads, Jannik, Faes or Coady, which is quite the relief at times!    

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I don’t think he was unnecessarily critical of the players or how they played, too be fair our off the ball work was unreal, however when we had the ball at times we were a bit wasteful and whilst the goals were superb and the moves executed to perfection, there were other passages of play where the decision making or final execution of pass were poor, this will always happen in games. 
 

I am not sure this was him saying we can’t play this way, just that at times we were careless in possession and made a few unforced errors which broke down opportunities to get on the ball and control passages of play. 
 

Ideally I think we still attack with the pace and the aggressive press but in certain instances we get on the ball and be more controlled. Overall he seemed happy enough with how we played but I think in a world of striving for perfection, he will have seen many occasions where we gave possession far too easily due to unforced errors or poor decision making. Winks, Justin, KDH, Ndidi were particularly guilty. 

I get that but we are often incredibly wasteful but he's less concerned about that if the " idea " was still executed and we've won comfortably.

 

People are right that there's always going to be certain aspects that can be improved upon and you touch on some things from Tuesday but I think it's interesting what Enzo gets concerned more with.

 

We know he's not massively interested in playing counter attacking football, he's said as such and will remind anyone when they try to revel in patterns of play where we've done that. I just think on his journey as a manager (hopefully successfully) that he'll need to learn thr art of that being part of his armoury as what he currently truly believes in.

 

The reason I say this is if we do get promoted, then next season I think teams are going to open up more regularly against us and having the ability to be comfortable in possession like we are but devastating on the counter which we definitely are will be an essential combination.

[Ric Flair]

11 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Against Saints that was not a surprising performance, much appreciated but not surprising. They, like many in the Premier League place control quite (far too?) highly in their mindset, so they just don`t feel they need to adopt a low block to stop getting undone by our patient build up.

Those teams that sit back and look to break at pace are a problem for not just us that suffer from a rigorous defensive structure, look at Leeds v Blackburn, Saints v Cardiff.

 

Regarding the comments from the Enzo about when he is happy/not happy, this is something that has  discussed plenty of times previously, and for me, why would he get be too negative when focus and encouragement is what is needed when he lose, or too positive when focus and reasons to get the group to believe they can even further is needed when we we win. Feels like psychology.  

(I do not believe he often speak to the fans)

 

Last few game he does seem to have been unopposed to 'going longer' from Mads, Jannik, Faes or Coady, which is quite the relief at times!    

Yeah you're right!

[Collymore]

I think the performance and outcome against Southampton gave me some hope that it might not be all a horror show under Maresca in the Premier League. Saying that, Southampton were really poor at doing the basics such as closing down players quickly and denying space. We won't be afforded such an easy ride very often. 

 

 

 

[Matt]

On 24/04/2024 at 07:01, 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.

It doesn’t have to be this way though.

 

I’ve made my concerns for next season (should we go up…still saying that!) that I fear for how we play and that there will be no need to play that way (I’ve got it this season, accepted it and understood the reason for it), however Tuesday buoyed me, gave me some positivity and optimism for next season and the future.

 

The comments made after the game somewhat were cause for concern/dampened down the elation a little.

 

I’ve had to make compromises to continue my interest in the modern game, the way of playing, hopefully he meets us halfway.

 

But it remains to be seen either way!

[coolhandfox]

The term often used in boxing is "styles make fights"

 

It's the same in football, the style of the opposition has a massive effect on how you play

 

Southampton want to play and take us on in an open game, allows to play an open and expansive game, 95% of the league come and sit in a low block.

 

 

Edited 25 April by coolhandfox

[ozleicester]

19 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

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) 

This is most definitley one of the flaws... his lack of experience multiplied by overconfidence/self belief.

He needs an experienced head beside him, one who has the history, knowledge and confidence to pull him up on his failings and offer sound alternatives, someone who can explain the parts of the game he is clearly missing.

[Lionator]

Having seen the video of him throwing Abdul around in the changing room and dancing like a lunatic, I don’t think he was too fussed about Tuesday’s performance. It was definitely some kind of media face, some kinda weird Pep like deflection. 

[Dr The Singh]

8 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Having seen the video of him throwing Abdul around in the changing room and dancing like a lunatic, I don’t think he was too fussed about Tuesday’s performance. It was definitely some kind of media face, some kinda weird Pep like deflection. 

His dancing was shit, unfortunately the man has no pooonjabi blood in him.

[Lionator]

20 minutes ago, Dr The Singh said:

His dancing was shit, unfortunately the man has no pooonjabi blood in him.

Sack him!!!

[Dr The Singh]

11 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Sack him!!!

Defo dude, those moves stank the place out.

[sylofox]

On 23/04/2024 at 21:43, Bryn said:

Agreed, even before we took the lead we were moving the ball far more purposefully.

 

If he’s finally realised he has to mix things up there’s a future for him here.

My thoughts exactly. But if he reverts to his stubborn Rodgers head then my option will still be get rid.

 

One game don't put it right.

[HighPeakFox]

5 hours ago, Matt said:

It doesn’t have to be this way though.

 

I’ve made my concerns for next season (should we go up…still saying that!) that I fear for how we play and that there will be no need to play that way (I’ve got it this season, accepted it and understood the reason for it), however Tuesday buoyed me, gave me some positivity and optimism for next season and the future.

 

The comments made after the game somewhat were cause for concern/dampened down the elation a little.

 

I’ve had to make compromises to continue my interest in the modern game, the way of playing, hopefully he meets us halfway.

 

But it remains to be seen either way!

You're right, and of course you are not remotely who I was describing. Those that are will pretend I never said it. 

[MPH]

6 hours ago, Matt said:

It doesn’t have to be this way though.

 

I’ve made my concerns for next season (should we go up…still saying that!) that I fear for how we play and that there will be no need to play that way (I’ve got it this season, accepted it and understood the reason for it), however Tuesday buoyed me, gave me some positivity and optimism for next season and the future.

 

The comments made after the game somewhat were cause for concern/dampened down the elation a little.

 

I’ve had to make compromises to continue my interest in the modern game, the way of playing, hopefully he meets us halfway.

 

But it remains to be seen either way!

 

if we get a pacey striker in to replace Vardy next season, can you imagine Mav, Fats and newbie breaking at pace after soaking up the pressure.

 

 

its the stuff of dreams  and reminiscent of our title winning season.  Not that anyone would expect more than a top half finish, but it’s so obviously there .. 

 

 

teams next season are going to be confident, will press, play with a high defensive line… similar to a desperate Southampton..

 

we will have to splash some serious cash to have the players to play the system Enzo likes to play next season AND be successful and it doesn’t look like we will have that money..