Brilliant piece of analysis on why Leicester have been dominating the championship but why that’s starting to change - check out the below link
Fundamentally it all comes down to this
Hermasen - Marescas most important signing is the catalyst for everything. The back line splits out allowing him to advance with the ball and the wing backs move into midfield allowing the 2 central mids to move higher up. This creates build up options but more importantly an overload that many teams have struggled with and has been discussed widely before.
Leicesters build up play is the third slowest in the entire championship - so when teams let us play, we destroy them. Cue Leeds and Middlesborough who employed the high press against Hermansen and it fell apart completely. With no other passing options and pressured into passing, Hermansen gives the ball away more regularly in dangerous areas.
On top of this - the overload stops working and we can’t then break teams down because the central mids can’t move forward. They’re stuck in the middle as the wide players now have to move back and defend
It’s all breathtakingly simple and incidentally the EXACT same reason Burnley are falling apart in the PL. Giving the ball away against the high press and conceding against much better quality.
https://totalfootballanalysis.com/team-analysis/efl-championship-202324-leicester-city-tactical-analysis-tactics
We have Watford at the weekend who are even slower than us so we shouldn’t have any problems. If we win people will think this was just a blip. It isn’t. It’s a very predictable pattern that will eventually see us come unstuck - even if we get promoted
Maresca is going to have learn to adapt or eventually, whether it’s this season or next - he will fail
Why teams are figuring us out
posted on 23/11/23
But honestly mate I’m quite prepared to jack it in on here for a bit if you guys want to spend all your time on this board pretending we’re heading back to Europe. Just let me know
posted on 23/11/23
To be fair I think there’s only one on here that’s ’ignoring it all’….. but the rest of us have been expecting a blip and then we will see what Enzo is made of.
But it honestly reads like you are wanting him to fail….. but that maybe my misinterpretation of your post!!!
posted on 23/11/23
It is kind of a blip.
There's not many teams in the championship that could press. It will be a problem next year only when you're back in the prem.
posted on 23/11/23
comment by Don'tUpsetTheAppletonCart (U13248)
posted 1 hour, 18 minutes ago
To be fair I think there’s only one on here that’s ’ignoring it all’….. but the rest of us have been expecting a blip and then we will see what Enzo is made of.
But it honestly reads like you are wanting him to fail….. but that maybe my misinterpretation of your post!!!
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You clearly haven’t read any of what I’ve just written. Or the article. That’s what I find so annoying - by ALL means, read the article for yourself and THEN respond but all you’re doing is reading this as me wanting us to fail because you haven’t bothered to do your own research into how we play and why we’ve started to struggle.
Ask yourself - why would someone who had a season ticket for 15 years want this club to fail? Perhaps that’s not my motivation. Perhaps I’m concerned the club has made a step towards a philosophy that in the end can’t work. Check out Burnley if you want some idea of where we could be headed
FFS Appleton - read what people write before responding with lazy cliche posts
posted on 23/11/23
comment by montleeds (U18330)
posted 40 minutes ago
It is kind of a blip.
There's not many teams in the championship that could press. It will be a problem next year only when you're back in the prem.
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And bingo - it takes a Leeds fan to understand it. That’s exactly why Burnley are falling apart. This style of play is not a long term philosophy
Why are some Leicester fans so hopelessly thick? Do they honestly think Leeds and Middlesborough beating us is co-incidence? Do they just think it’s two off days in a row. Really??
I’m actually starting to wonder if the likes of Appleton watch us or if they just turn up on here to get a feel for what’s going on. Boils my piiiss.
Last season I said we were going down from the very beginning. Half of the clowns on this site wouldn’t have it. I said we were being run badly. I got shot down. I mean what do I know
posted on 23/11/23
I've been pleased with the start to the season but knew that it is still early, we haven't even got enough points yet to stave off relegation.
It wasn't realistic to think we were going to continue to just breeze through this year - there are other teams who will all be trying their best to analyse how to counter us. They also have two shots at it so are likely to learn from their first attempts.
Hopefully we'll get back on track at the weekend, but I have longer term concerns - if we are successful this season I do fear for the next with our style of play, it's likely to be very difficult. We have built our success on Vestergaard at the back; as well as he has undoubtedly been playing this year, he is ill-equipped to cope with the much better quality of attackers in the EPL.
I keep on telling myself we just need to concentrate on this season, but the future does worry me nevertheless.
posted on 23/11/23
And this is where it turns into what this forum isn’t about.
All of a sudden a number of us are ‘hopelessly thick’. Just to confirm that I saw my first game in the late 70’s and am Leicestershire born and bred.
As for ‘wondering if I watch or not’ I am happy to say that I do, and that allows me to voice my opinion on here.
And I did read the whole post as I am not one for a knee jerk reaction, but my point would be that a large number of teams that get promoted have to ‘tweak’ their personnel and playing style in the PL to have any chance of staying up.
IF we do go up then we will have to change both, I think every Leicester fan will agree with that.
But let’s concentrate on this season and seeing how Enzo and the team bounce back from Leeds & Middlesbrough. If we fail to win against Watford then there is a definite problem.
If my reply has lit your fire 99 then I apologise.
posted on 23/11/23
It’s lit my fire because you seemed to have missed the point of the thread and dismissed the entire article I referenced with a jibe about me being negative. It’s a shame because if you’d taken the time to read the article I tagged - which it’s clear you haven’t done - you might have actually learned something.
If you know anything about Enzo - you’ll know this isn’t a guy who is going to change his philosophy. Ever. Just like Burnley aren’t changing the way they play (very similar to us) and are getting torn to shreds
No one is saying it’s doom and gloom. But this article clearly highlights that Enzos style of play has real limitations
posted on 23/11/23
comment by Nuneaton_fox (U7936)
posted 50 minutes ago
I've been pleased with the start to the season but knew that it is still early, we haven't even got enough points yet to stave off relegation.
It wasn't realistic to think we were going to continue to just breeze through this year - there are other teams who will all be trying their best to analyse how to counter us. They also have two shots at it so are likely to learn from their first attempts.
Hopefully we'll get back on track at the weekend, but I have longer term concerns - if we are successful this season I do fear for the next with our style of play, it's likely to be very difficult. We have built our success on Vestergaard at the back; as well as he has undoubtedly been playing this year, he is ill-equipped to cope with the much better quality of attackers in the EPL.
I keep on telling myself we just need to concentrate on this season, but the future does worry me nevertheless.
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Great post. We’ll bounce back against Watford. That article demonstrates why we will. They don’t press, they’re slower build up play than us (and we are really slow) - Watford suits us. The minute we come against a team that has a go and presses us - that’s when we’re in trouble
posted on 24/11/23
I'm not convinced we'll bounce back. Enzo has confirmed that we're going to play the same way. But with Hamza instead of Harry!