Sussed. (Playing 4-4-2 and other nonsense)

[foxes4e4]

I think we should sack Nige and employ you as the new manager Dave.

I mean, we are only second in the league, have offloaded some of our more expensive players and seem to be playing some of the best football I've seen a City team play for years.

Pearson out, Marbella in...

Totally finally a settled team and a semi settled manager second in the league but let's second guess the manager cus he's got no idea and hasn't chosen to do it as his career lets get another Wingeing Leicester fan

[Bluetintedspecs]

That's understandable. I am still seeing it as a nice bonus that we are where we are in the league rather than any indication that we will definitely be in the mix for automatic promotion at the end of the season. If we are, great. If not, it won't shock me given how difficult and relentless this division is.

It was just interesting to feel how different the atmosphere was on and off the pitch yesterday compared to the same fixture last season, when everyone was far more tense and expectant.

Edit: 20,000th post. And it's a nice, positive one. Splendid.

20.000 posts and you're still sane Fez

[Guest ttfn]

I wish MarbellaDave was manager.

We would never, ever lose. And we'd have the cleverest man in the world as manager.

Patronising thumbs up thing.

[Guest Col city fan]

I wish MarbellaDave was manager.

We would never, ever lose. And we'd have the cleverest man in the world as manager.

Patronising thumbs up thing.

[Bluetintedspecs]

[smudger63]

Actually the idiot sitting behind me couldn't tell, he spent the last ten minutes yelping "COME ON" into my left ear everytime one of players did somthing other than skin half their side and put it in the top right corner from 30 yards , i.e. a lot.

Or maybe he wanted the team to score more goals, thinking that come the end of the season, missing out on promotion on goal difference would be gut wrenching.

We cruised through the game after our fist goal, partly because we were never really made to up the game by Bristol City, and maybe through tiredness too, but i think Bristol City were there for a stuffing if we`d really wanted to give it them.

[fleckneymike]

I think this thread is at best misguided.

We regularly alter our shape and personel during the 90 minutes. This can be to counter a move by the opposition or to exploit a perceived weakness, to interpret these changes as a sign of weakness or an error in judgement is slightly disingenuous to Pearson. That alteration to 'shape' does not alter our philosophy, previously I have been very vocal in my disdain for Pearson's footballing ethos (long balls into channels, focusing solely on second balls and phases of play) but this season I think even his harshest critic (which I was previously accused of being) cannot claim that he is a proponent of long ball. We are able to be more fluid in our positioning thanks to Knockaert, his free role is accommodated by the deep lying roles of King and Drinkwater, this enables us to keep a solid shape which shields the back four whilst also being able to have an attacking 5. We are creating a great many chances, failure to convert them rather than 442, is to blame for our lower than expected goals for column.

[Heart-Shaped Fox]

We have a lot of fans who just like talk shit and moan.

Formation getting sussed!

[Thracian]

Never said otherwise, the switch worked beautifully defensively.

My point being that our current starting formation has issues and a poor Bristol side knew exactly how to get after us, if they were not so one dimensional they could have caused us real trouble, better teams will.

That we were comfortable defensively after the switch is undoubtably true, we were in total control so the issues I am pointed out did not matter on the day. On another day they might, and it is best we are prepared......

You're entirely right Dave but, unfortunately, some people see the result as everything and will never seek to improve week by week so that when the real tests present themselves we've fine-tuned our operation to the best effect possible.

Do these people really think top clubs, top players or top organisations are ever completely satisfied? They're not. they're forever searching for the next step forward because, if they don't, they'll suddenly find themselves eclipsed by someone who does.

We were back Saturday to playing 30 minutes of a good game and an hour of indifference whereas for most of this season we've managed at least an hour or so of entertaining or at least acceptably ambitious football.

There is also a further issue that will possibly never be resolved and that is the reasons people spend considerable sums of money to watch their team.

Some just want success however it's achieved and don't really give a toss about the entertainment value. In fact some fans hardly watch the match at all but are more interested in having a skinful beforehand and then being part of as much community singing as they can while not even watching the play at times.

Others want to see a really good performance and to enjoy the experience of seeing their team improve and climb to even unlikely heights as in the days of Matt Gillies and MON.

I'm part of the last camp. For me, if we're not going to bother attacking the game or trying to score goals for as much of the 90 minutes as possible I'd much rather do something else and simply catch up on the result via the radio or whatever.

Of course I'd like us to reach the Premier League but it's not imperative. I want to see us play some football and if I was only interested in the reflected glory of winning, I'd support Barcelona, Chelsea or one of the Manchester teams as many people do even though they have no connection whatsoever with the teams whose shirts they wear.

Sadly the two schools of thought will forever clash and Pearson stil seems too easily lured into the "win whatever" category rather than flying his flag for enterprise and the "school of constant improvement".

[cc_star]

Despite the posts on here and elswhere suggesting that we have been playing 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, the reality is that we have been playing 4-4-2.

Okay, it is a skewed and somewhat unusual formation but it has been 4-4-2 with our nominal right winger given licence to come inside and fill the void in forward midfield that was so obvious in our earlier games.

With Knockaert playing mostly through the middle it has left a huge space in front of our right back that was ripe for exploitation. Bristol sussed this and switched their most dynamic forward player to that flank and for half an hour or so Adomah gave Moore a pretty rough time. A better side than Bristol would have made more of it.

NFP switched Knockaert and Dyer and gave Dyer the job of covering Moore, worked well enough defensively but at a cost, our attacking play was never as penetrative again as it was in the first quarter.

NFP has 'form' for this, he played a more defensive form of this formation during the playoff season and when the pressure was on he quickly converted to a 4-5-1, with the wide midfield players given onorous defensive duties and our attacking play largely grinding to a halt as a result.

Interesting to see how things go over the next few games……

Despite us playing good football & sitting pretty in the league, it is a valid point.

However you say "a better team than Bristol would have..." well we've played & beat a few teams much, much better than Bristol, including Blackpool, Hull & Mboro & Huddesfield... All genuine rivals for our league position.... or they were when we beat them.

The thing that gives me confidence in him, is he changes things when it's not working, take Blackpool at home for example, we have the lion's share of possession, we're creating chances with Gilks leading a bit of a charmed life in goal, but they were always threatening and when they turned the screw, Nige subbed SSL, moved Konch to CB and played Schlupp at LB who did a far better job of containing their tricky wingers better.

We're far from a rigid 442 and it's this flowing style which gives us strength.

But, we have tricky games coming up (even though we've had nothing but tricky games so far) and it will be interesting if someone exploits our drifting winger from kickoff, either exploiting the space, or forcing him to track back cutting off one of our best routes to attack

[marbelladave]

I wish MarbellaDave was manager.

We would never, ever lose. And we'd have the cleverest man in the world as manager.

Patronising thumbs up thing.

Thanks guys, really appreciate your support.......

BTW. What does patronising mean......

[marbelladave]

Despite us playing good football & sitting pretty in the league, it is a valid point.

However you say "a better team than Bristol would have..." well we've played & beat a few teams much, much better than Bristol, including Blackpool, Hull & Mboro & Huddesfield... All genuine rivals for our league position.... or they were when we beat them.

The thing that gives me confidence in him, is he changes things when it's not working, take Blackpool at home for example, we have the lion's share of possession, we're creating chances with Gilks leading a bit of a charmed life in goal, but they were always threatening and when they turned the screw, Nige subbed SSL, moved Konch to CB and played Schlupp at LB who did a far better job of containing their tricky wingers better.

We're far from a rigid 442 and it's this flowing style which gives us strength.

But, we have tricky games coming up (even though we've had nothing but tricky games so far) and it will be interesting if someone exploits our drifting winger from kickoff, either exploiting the space, or forcing him to track back cutting off one of our best routes to attack

Very much so cc......

My only observation is that while we do change things around a bit from time to time, this tends to be reactive rather than pro-active, saturday being a case in point.

There wii, as you say, be games this season when that really matters....

[Guest ttfn]

Thanks guys, really appreciate your support.......

BTW. What does patronising mean......

[foxfanazer]

can't beleive this thread

[Grewks]

You're entirely right Dave but, unfortunately, some people see the result as everything and will never seek to improve week by week so that when the real tests present themselves we've fine-tuned our operation to the best effect possible.

Do these people really think top clubs, top players or top organisations are ever completely satisfied? They're not. they're forever searching for the next step forward because, if they don't, they'll suddenly find themselves eclipsed by someone who does.

We were back Saturday to playing 30 minutes of a good game and an hour of indifference whereas for most of this season we've managed at least an hour or so of entertaining or at least acceptably ambitious football.

There is also a further issue that will possibly never be resolved and that is the reasons people spend considerable sums of money to watch their team.

Some just want success however it's achieved and don't really give a toss about the entertainment value. In fact some fans hardly watch the match at all but are more interested in having a skinful beforehand and then being part of as much community singing as they can while not even watching the play at times.

Others want to see a really good performance and to enjoy the experience of seeing their team improve and climb to even unlikely heights as in the days of Matt Gillies and MON.

I'm part of the last camp. For me, if we're not going to bother attacking the game or trying to score goals for as much of the 90 minutes as possible I'd much rather do something else and simply catch up on the result via the radio or whatever.

Of course I'd like us to reach the Premier League but it's not imperative. I want to see us play some football and if I was only interested in the reflected glory of winning, I'd support Barcelona, Chelsea or one of the Manchester teams as many people do even though they have no connection whatsoever with the teams whose shirts they wear.

Sadly the two schools of thought will forever clash and Pearson stil seems too easily lured into the "win whatever" category rather than flying his flag for enterprise and the "school of constant improvement".

There are many other factors in football which play a factor rather than just 'the style of football'.

NP himself said it wasnt a great performance, and put it down to tiredness. The reason we didnt press hard for 3,4 or 5 was this. We had already made 3 subs, imagine another tired player pulls his hamstring and for the final 15-20 minutes we have to play with 10 men while trying to withstand pressure from the 11 men of bristol city. Unnecessary, and showed our professionalism.

We have all seen improvements in many areas this season. From our style of football (some of the best we have played in years), and even our management (tinkering formations in a game when not forced too is not a traditional NP trait).

Where as Saturday did not probably emphasise how far we have developed our style of play this season, it did show fans we now know how to prevent the opposition from playing, we know how to control and see out games and more importantly we have the desire which was so blatantly missing last season.

We all agree this season that we have seen a significant improvement to our style (huddersfield for example), a lot more invention is present in the side with some of the youngest upcoming talent this club has seen for a while.

There is always a debate in football over Style (swansea) or substance (west ham), and i think all season we have made improvements to our style. And on saturday, we simply showed we have the substance, when necessary if our style is not what is should be.

[marbelladave]

There are many other factors in football which play a factor rather than just 'the style of football'.

NP himself said it wasnt a great performance, and put it down to tiredness. The reason we didnt press hard for 3,4 or 5 was this. We had already made 3 subs, imagine another tired player pulls his hamstring and for the final 15-20 minutes we have to play with 10 men while trying to withstand pressure from the 11 men of bristol city. Unnecessary, and showed our professionalism.

We have all seen improvements in many areas this season. From our style of football (some of the best we have played in years), and even our management (tinkering formations in a game when not forced too is not a traditional NP trait).

Where as Saturday did not probably emphasise how far we have developed our style of play this season, it did show fans we now know how to prevent the opposition from playing, we know how to control and see out games and more importantly we have the desire which was so blatantly missing last season.

We all agree this season that we have seen a significant improvement to our style (huddersfield for example), a lot more invention is present in the side with some of the youngest upcoming talent this club has seen for a while.

There is always a debate in football over Style (swansea) or substance (west ham), and i think all season we have made improvements to our style. And on saturday, we simply showed we have the substance, when necessary if our style is not what is should be.

i think that we have taken huge steps forward from the dross that was served up towards the end of last season and, perhaps surprisingly to some, I am both pleased and impressed.......

The point is that football clubs and there teams are living, breathing entities and they need to move forward, to improve even when they are doing well. To be happy with a performance or a result and to simply try and produce the same again is to stagnate, even to move backwards.

We have only been playing our current formation since the introduction of Knockaert, just 5 games and already the opposition knows that we leave out right flank wide open and on saturday they deployed their most dangerous player to take advantage of that fact.

In fact had Baldock done better with Adomah's cross in the opening minutes the game could have been altogether different......

[Guest MattP]

Wow.

Sussed - If that's our team on Saturday when it was sussed out then we are in for a pretty good season.

I don't see the problem, they didn't look like scoring, we were comfortable, we won the game with ease and I could sit back, relax and enjoy it.

You don't go gung ho at a side for more goals when you have lost three defenders through injury when you already have a two goal lead, madness.

[marbelladave]

Wow.

Sussed - If that's our team on Saturday when it was sussed out then we are in for a pretty good season.

I don't see the problem, they didn't look like scoring, we were comfortable, we won the game with ease and I could sit back, relax and enjoy it.

You don't go gung ho at a side for more goals when you have lost three defenders through injury when you already have a two goal lead, madness.

Assuming you saw the game it was immediately obvious that Bristol planned to attack us down our right flank, they created a very decent chance within the first couple of minutes. They moved their most threatening player to that side in order to do so, so yes, I think "sussed" is fair comment......

Yes we were in total control and cruised to a victory, but it will not be that easy every week. As explained earlier in the thread, we set up in a strange, somewhat lopsided manner, and better teams will take advantage.

We have improved a lot since those early games where we played far too open but this is still very much a work in progress. I have been saying for weeks that we need to get our most influential player on the ball in central areas and we are beginning to do just that.

That said, we still need to set up our other forward players around him in a more effective manner, sacrificing our quickest attacker in a largely defensive right midfield role is not, for me, the answer.

[cc_star]

Assuming you saw the game it was immediately obvious that Bristol planned to attack us down our right flank, they created a very decent chance within the first couple of minutes. They moved their most threatening player to that side in order to do so, so yes, I think "sussed" is fair comment......

Yes we were in total control and cruised to a victory, but it will not be that easy every week. As explained earlier in the thread, we set up in a strange, somewhat lopsided manner, and better teams will take advantage.

We have improved a lot since those early games where we played far too open but this is still very much a work in progress. I have been saying for weeks that we need to get our most influential player on the ball in central areas and we are beginning to do just that.

That said, we still need to set up our other forward players around him in a more effective manner, sacrificing our quickest attacker in a largely defensive right midfield role is not, for me, the answer.

'Sussed' as a word itself does sound harsh considering we cantered to victory. So far we've had an answer for this being 'sussed' and I think now that we've got a hard working group of players who aren't reckless with possession, we'll have an answer to most problems we encounter.

How I picture the word sussed is:

2-0 at half time away at Derby under Sven's loanees, we really were playing like 70's Brazil and had been building up to that in the three victories prior. Something changed at halftime however & Derby got right in our faces, they fought to be first to every ball, they stuck tackles in and whilst they weren't dirty they were hard, we didn't let the lead slip though despite some Ricardo scares in the second half and it finished 2-0.

The following games was Brizzle at home an ugly encounter that Waghorn scored in the closing minutes of for us to win 2-1 our 5th successive victory, we only just won, Brizzle were in our faces all game, it was a pretty awful spoiled game and we were never allowed to get any momentum at all, from then on in the remaining 14 games we could hardly buy a win as teams learnt that if you tackle us we don't really have an answer, there was no other way that talented group of players could play & obviously we faded to mid-table nothingness

I just don't see that with this group of players under NP, the formation flexes from 442, to 4231/451 with ease, there are options all over the pitch created by Vardy's hard-work, Nugent's tenaciousness, Dyer's speed, Marshall peppering the box with crosses, Drinky's unstoppable workrate and of course King & Knocky's guile.

We can go long, we can go short, we can go wide, we can power through the middle, for this level it's very, very difficult to stop

The only problem I see is fatigue, we work hard without the ball and we work hard with it as the games go by keeping it up is going to be harder especially when the pitches get heavier, but then I suppose a slightly longer ball up to Futacs with Nugent to run on to will be just as effective.

I'm starting to love this team, it's amazing that despite half the number of players we have more options & styles open to us than we ever have in my memory

[TrentFox]

'Sussed' as a word itself does sound harsh considering we cantered to victory. So far we've had an answer for this being 'sussed' and I think now that we've got a hard working group of players who aren't reckless with possession, we'll have an answer to most problems we encounter.

How I picture the word sussed is:

2-0 at half time away at Derby under Sven's loanees, we really were playing like 70's Brazil and had been building up to that in the three victories prior. Something changed at halftime however & Derby got right in our faces, they fought to be first to every ball, they stuck tackles in and whilst they weren't dirty they were hard, we didn't let the lead slip though despite some Ricardo scares in the second half and it finished 2-0.

The following games was Brizzle at home an ugly encounter that Waghorn scored in the closing minutes of for us to win 2-1 our 5th successive victory, we only just won, Brizzle were in our faces all game, it was a pretty awful spoiled game and we were never allowed to get any momentum at all, from then on in the remaining 14 games we could hardly buy a win as teams learnt that if you tackle us we don't really have an answer, there was no other way that talented group of players could play & obviously we faded to mid-table nothingness

I just don't see that with this group of players under NP, the formation flexes from 442, to 4231/451 with ease, there are options all over the pitch created by Vardy's hard-work, Nugent's tenaciousness, Dyer's speed, Marshall peppering the box with crosses, Drinky's unstoppable workrate and of course King & Knocky's guile.

We can go long, we can go short, we can go wide, we can power through the middle, for this level it's very, very difficult to stop

The only problem I see is fatigue, we work hard without the ball and we work hard with it as the games go by keeping it up is going to be harder especially when the pitches get heavier, but then I suppose a slightly longer ball up to Futacs with Nugent to run on to will be just as effective.

I'm starting to love this team, it's amazing that despite half the number of players we have more options & styles open to us than we ever have in my memory

I'm liking the positivity in that post, CCS ! I'm also enjoying the decent debate in this thread, but have struggled with the word "sussed", too. Unless teams change their formation regularly, (which carries its own inherent dangers), then all teams are "sussed" at this level of footy .... there's always someone watching when you play ! Can't believe anyone has that much 'mystery' to them after a couple of games into the season unless they radically overhaul formation or playing squad. Question is, even when the opposition know what to expect, can they stop it ? Brizzle clearly weren't good enough to do so. For me this thread hangs on whether the Cardiff's and Wolves etc will be good enough. As we've played many of these teams, they're only going to get one chance to find out ..... and for many of them, that will be at the KP. Interesting.

[marbelladave]

cc_starr

It's just a word.....

Bit easier than saying;

'Bristol knew exactly how we were going to play and set themselves up to take advantage of our lack of a right sided player by deploying their most potent attacking threat on that side'

Nearly worked early on, though in the end they were nowhere near good enough........

[LCFC_FAN_1995]

[Corky]

Assuming you saw the game it was immediately obvious that Bristol planned to attack us down our right flank, they created a very decent chance within the first couple of minutes. They moved their most threatening player to that side in order to do so, so yes, I think "sussed" is fair comment......

Yes we were in total control and cruised to a victory, but it will not be that easy every week. As explained earlier in the thread, we set up in a strange, somewhat lopsided manner, and better teams will take advantage.

We have improved a lot since those early games where we played far too open but this is still very much a work in progress. I have been saying for weeks that we need to get our most influential player on the ball in central areas and we are beginning to do just that.

That said, we still need to set up our other forward players around him in a more effective manner, sacrificing our quickest attacker in a largely defensive right midfield role is not, for me, the answer.

Second half they moved Adomah over to their right to take on De Laet.

It suggested to me that we had control of their most threatening player, so we were hardly sussed.

Bristol City started well but faded, and we had chances to add to our score, whereas they didn't.

[marbelladave]

Trentfox

See above.

Also my concern is that our setup is so lopsided that it goes way beyond just being a bit predictable......

Also I was concerned that in order to nullify the Adomah threat we took our quickest attacking player and turned him into a largely defensive wide midfielder when we have a solid back 4 and 2 holding midfield players who really should have done the job themselves.

Struck me as pretty negative.

[marbelladave]

Second half they moved Adomah over to their right to take on De Laet.

It suggested to me that we had control of their most threatening player, so we were hardly sussed.

Bristol City started well but faded, and we had chances to add to our score, whereas they didn't.

Adomah tried both sides second half but by then we had cover on both flanks so he didn't get a look in, doesn't alter the fact that he gave us some trouble in the first quarter, we didn't have control of him then though.....