Leicester City vs Nottingham Forest Tactical Analysis

[StriderHiryu]

 

The first Steve Cooper Classic of the season finished with his former team winning the game pretty comfortably after some awful individual errors cost us dearly. There was a lot to talk about in this game given a surprise team selection and lineup from Leicester City, that led to a really interesting tactical battle.

 

 

^ Despite a good first half, ultimatley Leicester despite having a lot more possession struggled to create many chances, with Forest capitalising on the opportunities we carelessly gave them.

 

 

^ A huge shock that got fans excited pre-match. Ricardo got his first minutes in the Premier League this season, with the injured Kristiansen dropping out. Both wingers started after a brilliant display from Abdul Fatawu against Southampton, with Winks restored to the first team instead of Oliver Skipp.

 

 

^ Despite playing on Monday and only have a 4 day turnaround, Forest named an unchanged lineup.

 

 

^ With the lineup Cooper named, this mean that at it's core this was a battle of possession against counter attacking. Leicester were going to have more of the ball, but Forest were going to try and hit us fast on the break. And as we saw, ultimately it was counter attacking that came out on top in this one.

 

 

^ Despite the overall result, there was a lot to admire in the first half, with some of our fluid attacking patterns of play from last season back on show.

 

 

^ We saw early on the positions Ricardo would take up, playing alongside Harry Winks when we attacked to create a box midfield and give us an additional player in midfield to find.

 

 

^ But when we were defending, Ricardo played at right back, meaning we could defend as a 442 shape, but attack in a 325.

 

 

^ Pre-match, we knew Callum Hudson-Odoi was a key player for Forest and his battle with Fatawu would be one to watch out for...

 

 

^ But in the early stages, it looked like the inverted fullback would offer Fatawu additional protection in the defensive phase, compared to James Justin being exposed 2v1 in many of the games we've played this season.

 

 

^ Last season under Enzo, playing out from the back was key to our play. The idea was to bait the opposition into moving out of their defensive positions so we could play in the spaces they left behind.

 

 

 

^ I had to break this sequence out into two clips. This first part shows us playing out from the back, with Okoli doing well here to bait the press and using his weaker foot in tight spaces to play the ball to Justin. There is a more aggressive pass that Winks could play, but given it's early in the game, he wisely decides to help the team advance up the pitch collectively as a unit whilst retaining control of the game.

 

 

^ And as a result from playing out from the back, we use the power of the inverted full back to find a spare man and spring an attack. This sequence ends in disapointment, but it was a clear demonstration of the attacking patterns of play we saw all season, and Vardy playing as a false 9 to link play from back to front. 

 

 

^ If you're going to attack with 5 men, then you've got to work hard when you lose the ball. Here's an example of a high / mid press with Okoli stepping up after the team loses the ball high up the pitch. This creates a counter-transition where if Buonanotte was a little less selfish, he could play in Fatawu.

 

 

^ Despite a good start, we conceded the first goal due to some awful defensive errors.

 

 

^ Forest's first goal. Failure from both Buonanotte and Justin to clear their lines creats a chance out of nothing for Yates, who punishes us with a good strike. So frustrating to give a goal like this away, because it should never have happened and otherwise we had control of the game.

 

 

^ We knew Forest were going to try and take advantage of transitional moments to spring counter attacks with their fast wingers. And now they were one up, this would play into their hands.

 

 

^ Here's the first warning sign of Forest's threat on the counter attack. They play the ball quickly to Elanga. Overall we deal with the threat well, but this was a sign of things to come.

 

 

^ 9 games played, 4 goals scored. Pretty impressive for a 37 year old! Vardy got on the scoresheet thanks to an exceptional team goal.

 

 

^ Our scintilating goal and a brilliant example of what can happen when the system works. As Alan Patridge would say "that was liquid football!"

 

 

^ If there's a better goalkeeper in the Premier League than this man, then I want to see him. The dashing dane has been in incredible form this season, and continues to go from strength to strength.

 

 

^ A world class save from Dominguez keeps the score at 1-1. This save was as good as scoring a goal. Look at the reaction from the players around him to see how good a save this was.

 

 

^ I get bored of writing this every week. One great half, one that is awful. And it was the same story this week too.

 

 

^ I've got to say I think this half was the worst we've played all season. Truly awful in just about every way possible.

 

 

 

^ Chris Wood's first goal. A careless pass from Harry Winks to Fatawu puts us in some trouble, but there is time to remedy the situation. However, Okoli doesn't get tight enough to his man, and after a truly brilliant turn and finish from the Kiwi, it's 2-1 just a few minutes into the second half and a terrible start.

 

 

 

^ A recurring theme in the second half was Forest attacking our build up players and robbing the ball from them to start off a fast break. Callum Hudson-Odoi almost makes us pay on this occasion, and it must be said that he won the battle between him and Fatawu / Ricardo over the 90.

 

 

 

^ Forest make it 3-1 with an awful goal for Leicester to give away. Route one, Faes totally misjudges the flight of the ball and his pathetic header plays Wood in, who lofts it over Hermansen. Wout Faes has generally been in good form for Leicester for a while, but we all know he's got a clanger in him, and sadly this was one to add to his collection.

 

 

^ I was really disapointed with the players in the second half and think the game was over at 3-1. Cooper tried to make changes, but they had little to no effect. He removed Ricardo, who being on a booking was understandable, but we abandoned our double pivot and looked rather clueless as to how we would go about getting back into it. Meanwhile Nuno put on another CDM and saw out the game comfortably.

 

 

^ After the subs we lined up like this, without an inverted player.

 

 

 

^ Forest have two of the most aerially dominant centre backs in the league, and we had taken off our best aerial player in Ndidi. So surely this would mean a more nuanced approach and trying to attack via clever one-twos and cutbacks?

 

 

^ But no. 3-1 down and we are out of ideas. Justin with a pointless cross into the box for one of the best defenders aerially in the league to gobble up.

 

 

 

^ An even worse move. An aimless forward lofted pass straight to Sels from Ayew. You can see from Ayew that he's confused as to what the team is trying to do here, not a surprise given he didn't play under Enzo and I doubt Cooper worked much on the attacking patterns of play with some of the newer players.

 

 

^ So the game ends 3-1 to Forest and after what looked like a promising display at half time leaves us feeling rather despondent!

 

Personally I was OK losing if it meant we went back to the system from last season, which is the one I believe we should have used since game 1 this time round. The system may end up getting us into trouble after a while, and we want to avoid doing what Burnley did last season where their style in the Championship just didn't carry over to the top flight. However, I believe we have the players to make it work and if we hadn't have given away such stupid goals would have seen a much closer battle. I think Forest may ultimately have still come out on top, but the patterns of play worked, despite some players putting in stinkers such as Mavididi and Buoanotte.

 

The bigger question for me is if Cooper can adjust it to tighten it up and improve things. Specifically some players aren't standing in the right positions at the right time, and occasionally Enzo would have made changes for certain games. For example, sometimes Ricardo would invert from left full back, and this is something he may have done against Forest given Hudson-Odoi is the better of their two wingers.

 

The Ipswich game is absolutely huge now and it will be interesting to see which way we go!

 

Edited 26 October 2024 by StriderHiryu

[Izzy]

Well that’s 12 hours of your life you’ll never get back Strider but thanks as always mate 

[honeybradger]

6 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Well that’s 12 hours of your life you’ll never get back Strider but thanks as always mate 

It's up to him whether it's a waste or not. As long as he's passionate and enjoys this sort of analysis then it's not a waste.

 

You could make the argument that anything football related is a waste, it just depends on your perspective.

[Izzy]

Just now, honeybradger said:

It's up to him whether it's a waste or not. As long as he's passionate and enjoys this sort of analysis then it's not a waste.

 

You could make the argument that anything football related is a waste, it just depends on your perspective.

He knows I’m only kidding 

[robski]

24 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

It's up to him whether it's a waste or not. As long as he's passionate and enjoys this sort of analysis then it's not a waste.

 

You could make the argument that anything football related is a waste, it just depends on your perspective.

a good analysis….just a bit brief and short of detail 🤩

[murphy]

30 minutes ago, robski said:

a good analysis….just a bit brief and short of detail 🤩

Nobody wants to dwell on that shit....

 

The match that is, not the analysis.

[fox_favourite]

My only concern is, yes we can play like that, but can Cooper coach it? Get the players who weren't here last season to understand it? I'm not so sure he has the ability to do it. He needs to fully understand it. Enzo did and knew how to tweak it, how to integrate new players into it so everyone knows new what to do.

 

I really don't think Cooper can, and that is where the system will fall down in each match. Right system, wrong manager/coaches.

 

And where does the buck stop....the person who employed Cooper. 

Edited 27 October 2024 by fox_favourite

[ozleicester]

Any chance of a TLDR?

[UniFox21]

We definitely showed some brilliant team movements with the inverted FB again. Winks was fully in control of our play again, but noticed we kept on being squashed in those middle areas and instead of recycling out wide we'd lose possession.

 

 

Maybe worth having Faes and Okoli sit a bit deeper than playing such a high line. 

 

Considering we don't have a left footed cb/full back able to play that LCB role (unless we try Kristiansen) could we go a bit outlandish and Try Skipp there? Combative midfielder, very good on the ball etc 

Edited 27 October 2024 by UniFox21

[StriderHiryu]

3 hours ago, ozleicester said:

Any chance of a TLDR?

System good, individual errors bad.

 

Please send £5 to [email protected] for this cutting edge summary.

[sm1]

Looked completely clueless in the 2nd half. They just squeezed the middle of the pitch and took the ball off us at will. Cooper's response was to throw players on and hope for the best. If we were going to resort to crosses in the box, he could've at least put Edourd on. If anything he's a big lump who could've pushed their CBs about.

[Bordersfox]

29 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

We definitely showed some brilliant team movements with the inverted FB again. Winks was fully in control of our play again, but noticed we kept on being squashed in those middle areas and instead of recycling out wide we'd lose possession.

 

 

Maybe worth having Faes and Okoli sit a bit deeper than playing such a high line. 

 

Considering we don't have a left footed cb/full back able to play that LCB role (unless we try Kristiansen) could we go a bit outlandish and Try Skipp there? Combative midfielder, very good on the ball etc 

Skipp has played at LB for Spurs on occasion I think and did pretty well.  Might be a bit too experimental for Brexit Steve.  

[Dahnsouff]

Just now, sm1 said:

Looked completely clueless in the 2nd half. They just squeezed the middle of the pitch and took the ball off us at will. Cooper's response was to throw players on and hope for the best. If we were going to resort to crosses in the box, he could've at least put Edourd on. If anything he's a big lump who could've pushed their CBs about.

This is why Cooper seem unfit to manage us, no other reason- he got undone quite well by a small tactical change by Nuno, but doubt it we will see change until we hit the relegation places.

[Bordersfox]

11 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

System good, individual errors bad.

 

Please send £5 to [email protected] for this cutting edge summary.

Is the system good for this league given our players and perhaps most importantly our manager?

 

I've been an advocate that our squad is better than a lot of people think. However, maybe I've been naive.  One of our best players technically, Winks, couldn't make a 5 yard pass to Fatawu.  We conceded.  There were lots of errors, perhaps seemingly individual but were they encouraged by a more intricate system? 

 

There were definitely games last season where very poor finishing saved us. Against Forest a mid-tier prem striker,  albeit in decent form, punished us clinically for two mistakes.    

 

A couple of tweaks to his own system and NES had Cooper on toast, Cooper seemed unable to make any meaningful impact on the game.  Is this a system Cooper is tactically astute enough to manage and adapt in game as needed?  That's what I'm concerned about.  

 

Thanks, as always, for the work put in to your analysis. 

[Tielemans63]

Genuinely think the club should have @StriderHiryuin it's analytics team. The boy has got talent!

[phildw]

Who the hell is Dominguez?? 

[ozleicester]

23 minutes ago, Bordersfox said:

Is the system good for this league given our players and perhaps most importantly our manager?

 

I've been an advocate that our squad is better than a lot of people think. However, maybe I've been naive.  One of our best players technically, Winks, couldn't make a 5 yard pass to Fatawu.  We conceded.  There were lots of errors, perhaps seemingly individual but were they encouraged by a more intricate system? 

 

There were definitely games last season where very poor finishing saved us. Against Forest a mid-tier prem striker,  albeit in decent form, punished us clinically for two mistakes.    

 

A couple of tweaks to his own system and NES had Cooper on toast, Cooper seemed unable to make any meaningful impact on the game.  Is this a system Cooper is tactically astute enough to manage and adapt in game as needed?  That's what I'm concerned about.  

 

Thanks, as always, for the work put in to your analysis. 

I stand by the theory that this squad is worse than the one we had in the Championship. I dont think Cooper is the answer but im not sure anyone can get a prem survival tune from this Aldi instrument.

[5waller5]

Great post. Again!

 

Thanks! 

[ozleicester]

1 minute ago, 5waller5 said:

Great post. Again!

 

Thanks! 

No worries      

[StriderHiryu]

6 hours ago, Bordersfox said:

Is the system good for this league given our players and perhaps most importantly our manager?

 

I've been an advocate that our squad is better than a lot of people think. However, maybe I've been naive.  One of our best players technically, Winks, couldn't make a 5 yard pass to Fatawu.  We conceded.  There were lots of errors, perhaps seemingly individual but were they encouraged by a more intricate system? 

 

There were definitely games last season where very poor finishing saved us. Against Forest a mid-tier prem striker,  albeit in decent form, punished us clinically for two mistakes.    

 

A couple of tweaks to his own system and NES had Cooper on toast, Cooper seemed unable to make any meaningful impact on the game.  Is this a system Cooper is tactically astute enough to manage and adapt in game as needed?  That's what I'm concerned about.  

 

Thanks, as always, for the work put in to your analysis. 

It’s a GREAT question. Honestly I don’t know!

 

If it was me I would have started the season with it and reviewed it after 5-10 games. We’ve seen big tweaks before; Ranieri changing his fullbacks and Pearson going to 352. 
 

In this match we shot ourselves in the foot big time so it’s hard to say. But I would say that simple yet effective 4231 Nuno plays would probably work for us. Our CBs aren’t as good but or keeper is better. So I think we could play a version that would keep us up. 

[Paninistickers]

6 hours ago, Bordersfox said:

There were lots of errors, perhaps seemingly individual but were they encouraged by a more intricate system? 

I wondered this too..

 

And funnily enough, the return of enzo's system I felt dampened the crowd..it was, dare I say, a tad boring (despite a lovely goal) ....i preferred the aggressive, more basic midfield Skipp, winks,.Wilf trio which saw good halves  v Villa and Palace. 

 

 

 

 

[Bordersfox]

Just now, Paninistickers said:

I wondered this too..

 

And funnily enough, the return of enzo's system I felt dampened the crowd..it was, dare I say, a tad boring (despite a lovely goal) ....i preferred the aggressive, more basic midfield Skipp, winks,.Wilf trio which saw good halves  v Villa and Palace. 

 

 

 

 

I actually thought, given the opponents and the occasion, this probably wasn't the best game to try and re-introduce Enzo’s system. A blood and thunder approach may have been more effective.  

 

I think Skipp has to be in the team but then I wouldn't want to drop Ndidi or Facundo so that leaves Winks - who was really effective first half.  Or I suppose Fatawu out with Facundo on the right but I think Fats needs game time and i want us to develop our own players above loan players.  We actually have some really decent options in midfield I think.  

 

Overall, formation aside the real concern is Justin and Ricardo, both look like they are floundering defensively and can be exposed at will by pacy wingers.  

[Paninistickers]

5 minutes ago, Bordersfox said:

I actually thought, given the opponents and the occasion, this probably wasn't the best game to try and re-introduce Enzo’s system. A blood and thunder approach may have been more effective.  

 

I think Skipp has to be in the team but then I wouldn't want to drop Ndidi or Facundo so that leaves Winks - who was really effective first half.  Or I suppose Fatawu out with Facundo on the right but I think Fats needs game time and i want us to develop our own players above loan players.  We actually have some really decent options in midfield I think.  

 

Overall, formation aside the real concern is Justin and Ricardo, both look like they are floundering defensively and can be exposed at will by pacy wingers.  

I'd accommodate Skipp by either dropping Abdul, and using him as the game changing trump card...or - I've gone on and on about this - dropping Vards and either playing Buonnotte as a false nine or Stephy up top

[Bordersfox]

9 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

I'd accommodate Skipp by either dropping Abdul, and using him as the game changing trump card...or - I've gone on and on about this - dropping Vards and either playing Buonnotte as a false nine or Stephy up top

Vardy is scoring but (and this is purely on the eye test) I am far from convinced he's making enough of a contribution otherwise to warrant playing 90m every game.  

[StriderHiryu]

32 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

I wondered this too..

 

And funnily enough, the return of enzo's system I felt dampened the crowd..it was, dare I say, a tad boring (despite a lovely goal) ....i preferred the aggressive, more basic midfield Skipp, winks,.Wilf trio which saw good halves  v Villa and Palace.

 

I agree with you here, it's been proven that the slower system doesn't get the crowd bouncing as much. However, after going 3-1 down we started putting in way more crosses and going direct and it was all too easy for Forest to deal with. Admittedly at this point the atmosephere was already flat, but my point is that against their defence and mid block, to break them down it was going to require a lot more finesse than trying to win headers.