Our Defensive Play

[Mark]

- 11 men back for Corners + Free kicks leaving no one up front, so even if we do clear the ball it's coming straight back. Preston had 3 men still up when we had corners?

- 5 man defence. It's all well and good saying that can make a 352 attacking formation, but its not happening is it? We play too deep for that to happen.

- Scowcroft up front is woeful. He's played in midfield for the past few years and often can't help himself but drift back into midfield where he isn't needed. Leaving Connolly up on his own. Saying that he isn't needed up front either, but i wont go into that.

These are merely my concerns but this is all so negative.

Preston views on the game..

A dull game, mainly down to the spoilers in blue shirts.

I don't know what it is with Leicester teams, it would appear that no matter which manager they have they always play the same way, with long balls, playing for set pieces and constant fouling.

I found it hillarious that they had a following of around 500 (which is pathetic when you consider they were in the premiership not to long ago) and by half time they must have had around 300 left with most of them getting arrested and marched out of the ground

Is this true?

Leicester City have to be one of the most dire football teams in the country and the football they put on show is non exsistent and a style akin to a small club who has to scrap out results, with below average footballers.

I dont know if anyone is bothered by these comments, but i hate it how other teams think of us as that. Even if the majority is true.

[Anish]

I wouldn't be surprised if we did play like that today. We have been a dull, unattractive team all season...and now we can add defence-minded to that list under Levein.

The point about 11 men back for set pieces has been raised before I have already stated my disappointment/frustration with Levein's tactics here. It obviously doesn't work with the amount of goals we concede from set pieces and we simply invite the opposition on. They may as well throw their goalkeeper in our box whenever they get a corner cos it won't make any difference - we'll still have everyone defending and nobody up front.

[davieG]

CL on Connolly's goal today.

"He has that in his locker. I think he is a very exciting striker and if we can eventually get to play the way that we want to then I'm sure we'll give him more opportunities.

Let's hope it's sooner rather than later, whatever he has in mind he obviously thinks it will lead to more goals.

Of course it could all be wishful thinking on his part :eek:

[Solihullfox]

I would say that we had about 1,000 there with a few getting thrown out for persistent standing during the first half. Stewards were well over the top but I'm sure there will be a thread on this when some of the Leicester chaps get back.

(By the way I was back in Solihull for 6.45 - what a result)

The team display was exactly what we seem to have had all season ie. we look good in small patches until any team attacks us then we go on the backfoot and look panicstricken. Boring and unimaginative football from a poor side. Other than Connolly, Maybury, Williams and Stewart (his effort) the players look as though they have just taken up football, have never practiced together and don't understand that you need movement to create space in order to open up teams.Nalis wasn't at the races today whilst Dabizas and Gudjohnsson were simply dire. Having said all of the above Preston were not much better and why we should think our performance is going to be anything other than what we get, I really don't know. Until players can be brought in who are prepared to work together, with more effort and more understanding of the need to pass and create space, you will get what we got today, boring and predictable garbage. Before any starts, this is not Craig Leveins fault, it is down to the policy employed by the club for the last couple of years. I don't know why but I for one am confident that CL will put this right and I might actually look forward to going to watch the team I have supported for 30 years.

[Scow]

- 11 men back for Corners + Free kicks leaving no one up front, so even if we do clear the ball it's coming straight back. Preston had 3 men still up when we had corners?

Yes, Preston had three men on the half way line. At least when they did clear the ball from a corner, they had players up there putting our players (Who were back in defence, usually Gudjonsson, Keown and Maybury) under pressure. This meant that we didn't simply get posession back and put them back under pressure, which the opposition do to us.

- 5 man defence. It's all well and good saying that can make a 352 attacking formation, but its not happening is it? We play too deep for that to happen.

Correct. When Preston had the ball, our wing backs Maybury and Stewart were sitting too deep, inviting their flank players to get forward. They had so much space, a better team would have punished us.

- Scowcroft up front is woeful. He's played in midfield for the past few years and often can't help himself but drift back into midfield where he isn't needed. Leaving Connolly up on his own. Saying that he isn't needed up front either, but i wont go into that.

He didn't drift back in to midfield as much compared to previous games, but he's not offering much support for Connolly anyway. He's virtually winning nothing in the air, and defenders are finding it too easy to play against him. For his size, he's not exerting much of a presence.

A dull game, mainly down to the spoilers in blue shirts.

I don't think we spoiled the game, I just think it's frustration on their behalf for not making much of an impact on our goal. Their approach play was good, but the final ball was lacking. A lot of the refereeing decisions went their way.

I don't know what it is with Leicester teams, it would appear that no matter which manager they have they always play the same way, with long balls, playing for set pieces and constant fouling.

I think that's bitterness/frustration again. We did pass it around neatly in phases, but with Dabizas, Keown and Dublin at the back, they often did hoof it up to Scowcroft and Connolly. We certainly weren't a dirty team.

I found it hillarious that they had a following of around 500 (which is pathetic when you consider they were in the premiership not to long ago) and by half time they must have had around 300 left with most of them getting arrested and marched out of the ground

Craig posted on the forum this week that we had sold around 850, so I imagine we took about 1000 in the end, accounting for people paying on the gate. There were people getting arrested for continually standing up, nothing to do with any trouble or violence. The stewards were power mad and seemed determined to cause a ruffle with some unwarranted treatment. I was standing at the back, and was in total disbelief at the harshness of the stewards. An absolute joke.

Leicester City have to be one of the most dire football teams in the country and the football they put on show is non exsistent and a style akin to a small club who has to scrap out results, with below average footballers.

Well, we're bigger than Preston.

[shen]

I have to agree on the set pieces part.. It works so well having 2-3 players up... It means that the opposition must leave men back to deal with them or take the chance of being hit on the counter. Although having said that, pace is not what we have an abundance of at City

[Guest]

I was making the same comments last night about us sitting oo deeply. CL has said before that he doesn't feel we have the right players to be able to be more attacking as this would leave us wide open to the counter-attack, and unfortunately this is the case.

I thought that Stewart and Maybury couldn't get forward as much as they would have liked, as we do not have the strength or support to enable them to do this. Joey tries, but he easily loses the ball, and neither Williams nor Nallis are true ball winners.

I would love to see us being more creative especially from midield, but I can't see which players we have will do this apart from a fully fit Williams. I haven't seen much of the younger players like Dawson to comment, before anyone corrects me!

As for Scowcroft, please somebody take him off of our hands!

[Hoof Fox]

Why are people getting so up tight, we were playing away against a side who are superb at home and have pace in abundance and are clearly on a roll, they have destroyed some of the top teams in the division at Deepdale and yet we go there and get a credible 1-1 draw and limit them to very few clear cut chances.

IMO we kept it tight and tried not to give anything away and the team played with a decent shape and discipline. Would people not be complaining if we were gung ho and got turned over 3-1. At this moment in time it is about getting results and points on the board and first of all securing our status in this division then we can start building for next season, CL is working with an inbalanced squad full of thirty somethings we are hardly going to play high tempo fast flowing football, give him time to ship out a few and bring in a few more players in the mould of Maybury and then see the difference.

And as for other fans from other teams, view of us or our tactics I could not care less what they think. Preston fans are just bitching because we didnt lie down and let them steamroller over us, it will be interesting next season when we have CL's side out there. At least we are not conceding late goals like we used to.

[shen]

Why are people getting so up tight, we were playing away against a side who are superb at home and have pace in abundance and are clearly on a roll, they have destroyed some of the top teams in the division at Deepdale and yet we go there and get a credible 1-1 draw and limit them to very few clear cut chances.

IMO we kept it tight and tried not to give anything away and the team played with a decent shape and discipline. Would people not be complaining if we were gung ho and got turned over 3-1. At this moment in time it is about getting results and points on the board and first of all securing our status in this division then we can start building for next season, CL is working with an inbalanced squad full of thirty somethings we are hardly going to play high tempo fast flowing football, give him time to ship out a few and bring in a few more players in the mould of Maybury and then see the difference.

And as for other fans from other teams, view of us or our tactics I could not care less what they think. Preston fans are just bitching because we didnt lie down and let them steamroller over us, it will be interesting next season when we have CL's side out there. At least we are not conceding late goals like we used to.

55388[/snapback]

But we are NOT getting results! It might work to play defensive away from home, but still, why should we be afraid of teams like Preston? When you look at our team, they've all played against strong opposition before and done quite well. Of course theres nothing wrong with being an optimist or looking on the bright side of things, but keep it real! We're not actually improving, neither are our results and we keep on inviting pressure in games. The main frustration is, that if we would just push forward a bit and put teams on the backfoot for long periods, we wouldn't be in half the trouble we're in now...