There's now a pattern - The reality is.... We're offensively awful.

[sishades]

14 hours ago, cropstonfox said:

be quite happy to finish in the top 4,then fall at the play offs.

Thats just daft!

[jammie82uk]

20 hours ago, orangecity23 said:

We created plenty of chances today

Did we? Or was we presented with plenty of chances due to sloppy passes from their defense? 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

19 hours ago, Sideshow Faes said:

Or every modern manager. Football in general has been like this since guardiola built his Barcelona team - the greatest football team of all time but also the most boring. This is football now I'm afraid. 

Haha no way that Barcelona team were boring they were an absolute joy to watch and to label them the most boring team of all time is ridiculous. 

[Simonb]

I don't think we've been creative enough generating clear cut chances. However, that being said, we're creating a lot of half chances and the two forwards we are playing are not converting then and/or getting in to the right areas

 

Vardy has lost a couple of yards pace and sharpness and isn't getting into the right spaces. Against Leeds, twice Stephy put the ball across Meslier and Vardy had stopped his run.. you'd expect him to get on at least one

 

Iheanacho, for me just looks disinterested and isn't offering anything. 

 

From the limited knowledge I have of Cannon, he doesn't seem to me to be the poacher type the team needs.. but does seem to offer decent link up that could help bring the 8s in on goal maybe.

 

Didn't think I'd say it though, maybe it's time to give Daka one final chance to start a game after the break and see if he can get I the areas Vardys legs no longer can, at least until Cannon is fit enough to start.. can't see what we have to lose myself 

[cityfanlee23]

There’s 2 issues that I think stem from one core problem. 
 

The attackers are not making the right tactical decisions, if we hit teams on the counter and it’s a 3vs3 for example, you can bet your last £ that instead of making a final pass or having a shot we will instead push the ball out wide and then turn around and pass it 40 times, and by the time we finally decide to shoot there’s 11 opponents in the box. 
 

Time and time again we make the wrong decision and pass backwards when we can hit them where it hurts, whenever we counter with the ball I simply don’t expect us to make it count as we know we will give them an age to get back and defend. So with that said, I’m not 100% sure the attackers can be fully to blame. Whenever Iheanacho is in the box he’s completely surrounded by defenders, whenever fatawu is on the wing he has 3 players to beat to then have 1 attacker in the box and another 5 defenders in the box with the striker. 
 

This is a very poor tactical decision imo from Enzo. He is the one drumming it into the players that 70% possession is the ultimate goal, and passing sideways is the answer. Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe in his style being one that can do well for us, but as I’ve said time and time again, it’s the pedestrian style that bothers me. 
 

We can blame the attackers for wasting chances, but ultimately the tactical approach is one of the main drivers, whenever we have a clear chance on we pass it backwards or sideways. 
 

I have absolutely no doubt that if someone like Daniel Farke was in charge these players would be producing far better attacking results. Would we be top of the league? Probably, do I want Farke in charge over Enzo, right now no I don’t. 
 

But for me each player has issues individually, but fundamentally we are tactically poor in attack and we give opposition teams an age to position themselves, then wonder why they are so hard to break down. 
 

If Enzo would allow them to just attack with tempo more often rather than always taking the easy sideways pass we would be far more effective imo. This starts and ends with the system imo. 

[lcfc_forever]

Posted in another thread but relevant here: 

 

 

[cityfanlee23]

2 minutes ago, lcfc_forever said:

Posted in another thread but relevant here: 

 

 

I get what he’s saying but this screams snobbery and elitism that if you don’t agree with the tactical approach then you simply don’t understand what we are trying to do. 
 

Many of us completely understand what we are trying to do, but we disagree with parts of the system and are not being shown signs that it can work long term and are seeing a failure to adapt different aspects. 

 

Theres far too much snobbery on this forum already where people assume you  “don’t get it” if you disagree with it (not you) 

[sylofox]

Not sure anything is so wrong. Other than we play at one pace. We never look to hit teams at pace or on the break.

 

Yes it's way better but still very Brendan ball. 1 dimensional. Give the opposition wing backs full backs something to think about by swapping the wingers over.

 

Like C R did leave two forward when defending corners and free kicks.

[sbfox]

31 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

I get what he’s saying but this screams snobbery and elitism that if you don’t agree with the tactical approach then you simply don’t understand what we are trying to do. 
 

Many of us completely understand what we are trying to do, but we disagree with parts of the system and are not being shown signs that it can work long term and are seeing a failure to adapt different aspects. 

 

Theres far too much snobbery on this forum already where people assume you  “don’t get it” if you disagree with it (not you) 

But I'm not sure you do understand the system, as you said earlier than we play slowly and sideways? 

[Guest Sideshow Faes]

2 hours ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

Haha no way that Barcelona team were boring they were an absolute joy to watch and to label them the most boring team of all time is ridiculous. 

They were the best team ever.

Their highlights reel is ridiculous.

But they also did pass for the sake of passing and it could be truly boring for long periods.

Maybe you've just forgotten what full matches were like? 

[oz was my hero]

2 hours ago, sylofox said:

Not sure anything is so wrong. Other than we play at one pace. We never look to hit teams at pace or on the break.

 

Yes it's way better but still very Brendan ball. 1 dimensional. Give the opposition wing backs full backs something to think about by swapping the wingers over.

 

Like C R did leave two forward when defending corners and free kicks.

100%agree with this . As I said in a post yesterday we don't pull their back for around or give them something  extra to think about as we are very regimental  in positions.  Also never understand  a team having everyone back for a corner as its just inviting more players attacking the corner.  Leave 2 out they will leave 3 back.

[cropstonfox]

Let's face it we are a decent team for this League but only really in the mix not much above the others.We had a very kind set of fixtures to start with along with more than our share of  good fortune.

Things will level up over the season and no doubt we'll be around the top 4

Like Enzo said earlier in the season we are only 20% along  with the project.

January window will be an indication of the

Clubs ambition and expectation.

[Scanchez]

On 11/11/2023 at 17:08, SecretPro said:

We need Cannon to be a star player because if he isn't, our forward options are pretty weak.

I dunno.

 

I'd say Vardy, Nacho and Daka is one of the strongest in the division.

 

Nacho needs to find form though for sure.

[Guest Basildon Fox]

13 minutes ago, cropstonfox said:

Let's face it we are a decent team for this League but only really in the mix not much above the others.We had a very kind set of fixtures to start with along with more than our share of  good fortune.

Things will level up over the season and no doubt we'll be around the top 4

Like Enzo said earlier in the season we are only 20% along  with the project.

January window will be an indication of the

Clubs ambition and expectation.

If we are setting our sights on this team being top 4 after being FOURTEEN points clear then I despair.

 

You are quite clearly trying to justify the long-term aim of this brand of football but making yourself look a little silly by this 20% there bollocks. We have literally the greatest assembled team in this divisions modern history.  We should be walking the division not top 4.

 

We are negative and I can't see it getting any more productive. In fact I see it as more of a hinderence to scoring more goals the way we are set up. It is limiting and boring to watch, I do not care whether Balague agrees or not. We have been found out and are far too easy to stop now.

Edited 12 November 2023 by Basildon Fox

[sacreblueits442]

4 hours ago, jammie82uk said:

Did we? Or was we presented with plenty of chances due to sloppy passes from their defense? 

.. either way the chances were there but we failed to make use of them!!!

[Lillehamring]

On 11/11/2023 at 18:23, southfox66 said:

We have become too predictable it doesn't help when Enzo says in public that we not going to change so now even the opposition know how to beat us.

 

Watford will come to KP next week with the same game plan as Leeds and Middleboro, for me we need to play a completely different game to catch teams out. 

 

Another issue I have that in the main are strikers have been mostly ineffective whether it's them or the system we play. We need to throw Cannon into the mix pretty soon see if he can make a difference up front.

But they didn't have the same game plan at all - leeds pressed us to death, boro sat and tried to play us on the counter.

They only team that has played remotely like Leeds were sunderland, who we beat.

[cropstonfox]

3 minutes ago, Basildon Fox said:

If we are setting our sights on this team being top 4 after being FOURTEEN points clear then I despair.

 

You are quite clearly trying to justify the long-term aim of this brand of football but making yourself look a little silly by this 20% there bollocks. We have literally the greatest assembled team in this divisions incliluding modern history.  We should be walking the division not top 4.

Well thanks for your passionate response,

I'm pretty sure this team is quite good on paper but probably not as good as  Nigels team in 2014 or Mickey Adams team in 2002/3.

Both of these got over the line let's hope we do.

[Lillehamring]

23 hours ago, Bazly said:

There has been many comments for a while that our attack is bordering on non existent, its been three years in the making. The bulk of goals have come from midfield for a while now with Vardy being largely a passenger for his last 60 games. The only team on current scoring form in the Championship that has a chance of doing a Fulham in the EPL next season is Ipswich. No other team has enough goals in them to thrive, it'll be survival at best.

I looked back over the last 10 years since we last won the Championship and the 9 winning teams next years performance in the EPL (Norwich have done it twice). The average goals scored by the Championship winning team is 1.81 per game which falls to an average of only 1.08 goals for those teams per game in their following EPL season. Our present team wouldn't get much past the middle of the park against most EPL sides with the slow passy passy interplay, its not hard to see why newly promoted teams struggle to score first season in the EPL. 

Our current goals average is 1.81, it was 1.80 in 2013/14. The 2015 season, the great escape season was only just survived because there were goal scorers in the side (Ulloa and Vardy) and there was attacking pace. This present team lacks dedicated goal scorers and pace. I'd expect if this team goes up, it'll be a good bet to come straight back down without some radical changes in the way we form and execute attacks.

Championship winners and following year EPL goal average
Burnley 1.89 goal average - 0.75 EPL
Fulham 2.30 - 1.44 EPL
Norwich 1.63 - 0.60 EPL
Leeds 1.67 - 1.63 EPL
Norwich 2.02 - 0.68 EPL
Wolves 1.78 - 1.30EPL
Newcastle 1.84 - 1.02 EPL
Burnley 1.56 - 1.02 EPL
Bournemouth 2.15 - 1.18 EPL
Leicester 1.80 - 1.21 EPL

I see you skilfully avoid considering defending in your 'assessment'.

If Ipswich go up defending the way they do they are much more likely to struggle that if we go up defending the way we do - considering they have conceded twice as many goals as us.

I'm sure if you look at the majority of teams that go up and survive, it's because they can defend rather than they can score. Oddly, despite this lunacy of a thread we can defend AND score goals.

[Guest Basildon Fox]

6 minutes ago, cropstonfox said:

Well thanks for your passionate response,

I'm pretty sure this team is quite good on paper but probably not as good as  Nigels team in 2014 or Mickey Adams team in 2002/3.

Both of these got over the line let's hope we do.

This team is like chalk and cheese to those 2 teams. We have over a dozen internationals playing for us, most of the countries top ranked in World football.

 

To be anything other than double points ahead of third would be pound for pound a massive underachievement.

 

We are playing so far within ourselves at the moment. We need to be quicker on the ball. We would absolutely blow most, if not all of the teams in this division away. Tippy tappy, sideways football just does not do it for me. We can still control games by being far more aggressive with our approach.

Edited 12 November 2023 by Basildon Fox

[Wolfox]

HMS piss the bed 

[Lillehamring]

23 hours ago, ozvaldo said:

Mavididi is so hit and miss. 
Kasey looked rusty. 

What worries me slightly is how weak our attack looks vs the likes of Leeds the other week. Kel and Vardy aren’t looking like they’re in the thick of chances at all. 
 

It’s too slow and predictable. The better teams know what to do with us now. 

If leeds' attack is so good, how come their single goal was from a very badly defended corner?  Their xG in that game was 1.4 ours was 0.94 - I'd hardly class that as 'weak'

[Oldblueyes]

Watching Chelsea vs Man City. What a game 100 mph football clever build ups, 6 goals, brilliant football. We just haven't got a clue.

[cityfanlee23]

3 hours ago, sbfox said:

But I'm not sure you do understand the system, as you said earlier than we play slowly and sideways? 

It’s a slightly tongue in cheek comment about our “horse shoe” style of play, the ball goes out to Mavididi, comes back to Justin, Justin > Vesty, Vesty > Faes, Faes > Ricardo, over to Fatawu, Fatawu whips a cross into a crowded box and we either repeat that or the opponents try to counter. 
 

we’ve made about 10,500 passes this season and scored 21 goals from open play. That’s 500 passes per goal. 239 total crosses this season. 
 

Of our “action zones” 28% is in our own half, 44% is in the middle. We do pass the ball sideways and backwards a lot but that’s expected considering how much of the ball we have, the issue is our chances to pass the ball forward into dangerous areas are limited because of how often we allow the opposition to organise themselves. Often we accuse teams of “parking the bus” but I think in many cases teams are happy for us to have the ball.  

[Lillehamring]

18 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

Awful is harsh but you're being an ostrich if you're missing the red flags here. That Fosse Way article the other week is ageing worryingly well. I thought the general point about how we keep games tighter than we really need to rather than going for the kill was correct and when you do this, you are going to come out on the wrong side of a few of them.

 

You can't argue with the results over the season, and the period between the September and October international breaks we were superb, but I think our results are better than the performances in all honesty. I wouldn't mind, but Leeds and Ipswich are looking genuinely dangerous. I can see a scenario where you need maybe 98 to get 2nd - a tally I still think we're absolutely capable of but we've got to pick up, we've gone very flat again.

And yet still contrived to lose to Stoke and draw with Rotherham respectively.... ipswich have also failed to keep a clean sheet their last four games, leeds have 1 CS in  their last 6.

We weren't great against boro and we were poor against Leeds - but they're no more dangerous than we are.

[Dan]

3 hours ago, lcfc_forever said:

Posted in another thread but relevant here: 

 

 

7/8 clear chances  we haven't had that in the last 4 games combined!