Tactics Under Maresca

[Lillehamring]

1 hour ago, coolhandfox said:

I alway find it interesting whenever a team win the is alway an assumption that a manager tactically got one over opposite number.

 

Sometimes it's as simple as players under performed, or then odd moment went the other teams way.

That's more how i read the performance/result.  For me there seemed an inevitability about the whole thing - what with our twin record breaking runs due to end at some point, coming up against probably the strongest attacking force in the league that, let's be clear here, needed to get something from the fixture (a leicester win would have built a 17 point gap) - it felt like this was the fixture to expect loss number 2.

 

I wrote in the post-match about how similar this was to the hull defeat - whilst leeds definitely gave us more of a game, they, like Hull, exposed some of our weaker links and got a slightly less but equally frustrating goal, whilst we created more than enough to get something from the game but, other than a fatawu shot agonisingly coming off the inside of the post, failed to test their keeper.

 

Yes we are better with ndidi and doyle than the deeply unimpressive casadei and justin, but we should still have enough to be putting in better performances than we've seen in the last few games.  Does this, then come down to tactics?  I'm inclined to think not, though i do feel enzo is encouraging them to be too cautious at times (especially against QPR), but the amount of chances we're creating and the small amount of goals we are conceding suggest things, tactically, are ok.  However, i do feel like enzo seems to have abandoned his free flowing approach to squad rotation, especially in the front 5 - granted that has been impacted by injuries, but it seems an age since we saw Marcal have a run out, and I think in the last two games we could have caused all kinds of trouble by playing daka and hitting it long for him to chase now and then - especially with nacho looking atrocious just lately.

[Lillehamring]

2 hours ago, dmayne7 said:

As per usual, your write it is very well thought out and balanced but I would challenge a few takeaways.

 

The fact that individuals played well

But did they?  I thought we were scrappy in possession and wasteful/malfunctioning in the final third; there seemed, to me, to be a return to the first games of the season, especially coventry, where we seemed to be overthinking everything rather than just playing naturally, and a real drop off in our ball recovery compared to the levels we have seen the players achieve.

 

Psychologically, too - we didn't seem as hungry as we have done, at least not until the last half hour - it almost felt like a case of 'ok, let's get this defeat out of the way'.

[Lillehamring]

1 hour ago, filbertway said:

I doubt they have those stats to the minute. However im pretty sure leeds had the lions share of possession in the game until they scored and elected to let us have the ball.

 

Not sure that constitutes as controlling the game.

 

The number of times we had to chase back or make last ditch interceptions or challenges. I think Leeds were rarely in thay position.

 

We created very few decent chances.

 

Im just not sure how we come away from that trying to paint it as a decent display. Especially at home.

 

Been very underwhelmed by the last 2 performances. 

 

The amount of time and effort we put into chasing Casadei is wild as well. The lad looks so far off what we need.

Up to the goal we had 60% possession, although from the start of the second half it was 50% (though in those 18 minutes they out shot us 6-0 - it does seem like that period is poor for us - 46-60 we have been out scored 1-3, not awful but the only period we have a negative GD)  From the goal to the end we had 76%, out shot them 6-3 (4 blocked, 1 miss and the KDH header), had 6 corners to 0 - sadly we just didn't take advantage of this.

[Lillehamring]

1 hour ago, drofmor55 said:

Once again putting Vardy at the front edge ofthe 6 yard box at a corner has cost us a goal, he hasnt the height to carry out this role...this happened reguarly under BR and now under the new manager...it makes me wonder who is in charge of team tactics and do they even watch the replays of matches

I think Mads will probably feel he could have done better - either holding it or parrying it somewhere that didn't have three leeds players standing waiting - that they were there is probably what really cost us the goal.  Certainly don't think it was vardy's fault.

[SafewayFox]

11 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

I don't agree with your tactical take. Just because you lose a game, doesn't mean the tactics were wrong. In-game management I do agree with though!

 

Depending on how you like your analysis. First up a video:

 

 

Now for my written analysis, I first want to present the Sofa Score ratings. These ratings are generated by stats, so whilst they don't always pass the eye test, other times they do take subjectivity out of the equation and make player analysis a bit more objective, and it's going to be useful for my critique.

 

 

• The game panned out how I expected it to in the pre-match, Leeds looking to win the ball from us high up the pitch to kill us on the fast transition.
  • This was notable from kick-off where Ampadu and Kamara pushed right up onto our double pivot, with the strikers and wingers going man-for-man on our backline.
  • I said pre-match that if we could exploit Ampadu and Kamara we would win, but I feel like they got the upper hand in this game, especially bullying Casadei, who I will get onto in a second. If football is a war, it's the midfield battle where it's won and lost, and I feel those two won the battle overall.
• The first 5 minutes were all Leeds, forcing us into hurried and sloppy passes and turning the ball over. Piroe having an excellent opportunity. The warning signs were there.
• However, Leicester grew into the game and after riding out the storm started to take control of the game.
  • In the first half Leeds could not deal with our wingers, with both Fatawu and Mavididi looking lethal.
  • Where they did do a good job was to block the runs of our 8's and Vardy, which meant a lot of the time one winger had to cross to the other winger. You can still score goals like this (it's a common Man City pattern of play), but we aren't so good at it yet.
  • Fatawu was one of our best players all game, his rating is deserved. He beat his man throughout, put dangerous balls into the box and had that amazing strike against the crossbar.
  • Justin, Ricardo and Faes did in the end do a decent job of recovery tackles on Summerville, Rutter and James, but these 3 were getting the ball too often during the match.
• I think we edged the first half overall, but it was a 50/50 game.
  • Leeds still looked really threatening on the transition, but luckily our defenders all made good recovery runs when needed.
  • Faes was the one that looked like he might make a mistake, but got away with it.
• Where we lost this game was at the start of the second half. Leeds pressed again but doubled up on Mavididi and Fatawu. Neither winger saw the ball for that first 15 minutes. This meant we lost our outlets, and we couldn't get going at all. Casadei turning over the ball a lot. He should have been subbed much earlier.
• The game changed after they scored, but we need to understand it's because Leeds changed their plan. After deservedly getting the goal after a superb start to the second half, they did what we did to Southampton and encouraged us onto them to hit us on the break.
• Maresca made a great and important substitution, Choudhury for Casadei, but Ricardo pushed up to be the second 8. Choudhury did well with ball recoveries, and Ricardo was way more effective at keeping the ball moving. Our wingers started to see the ball again, and we started to get control of the game.
• That said, other than the KDH chance right at the end, we didn't really test Meslier, and that's got to be the biggest disappointment. I think it shows that with our current injuries, we can't change the game too much with subs. Iheanacho was worse than Vardy IMO, and we didn't have Akgun or Ndidi to use. Maybe McAteer could have come on, but both wingers played well, so other than coming on as an 8, I don't see how much of a difference that would make.
  • That said, Farke made 5 subs and we only made two. And their energy helped them run that high press throughout most of the game.

 

I am disappointed with the result, but I think the performance was OK. Unlike the Sunderland game, we did manage to get control of the game despite having a lethal press against us, and weren't just pumping it long. Leeds' goal came from a corner, not because of a fast transition, although they got the corner from a transition. Casadei was poor, but I'm not going to dig him out. We did say missing Ndidi could be an issue in this one, and so it turned out to be. Praet is also injured, who might have been playing there too.

 

Before the game I said that of all of the teams in the division, the one best suited to beat us was Leeds, and tonight proved why. Their style is the best counter against us, Liverpool have beaten us twice playing this way, Sunderland really made it tough for us and Leeds beat us tonight. But here's the thing, if you want to get good enough to beat teams playing this way, you have to practice playing that way for a while against such teams first. It's understandable that sometimes it will go wrong over 46 games, and it's up to the team and manager to learn from this setback.

 

One thing you could say is that if the opposition is coming at you like this from minute one, why not go long a little bit just to settle into the game? This I do agree with to an extent. We scored after 30 seconds against Southampton by doing what Leeds did to us. At the start of the game, when everyone is cold, it can be good to take your time a bit and get everyone a few touches before settling into your controlled possession. But somehow I don't think this will ever be the Enzo way!

 

Overall you have to say well played to Leeds and Daniel Farke. He was brave with his tactics and made key adjustments at halftime and then after going one-up. He also made good subs to keep his team fresh and keep us from scoring. We were pretty soundly beaten, but 13 wins and 2 losses... overall it's going well. I don't think many other teams can play this way. Ipswich might be a better team than Leeds (or even us!), but they don't play such a German style press as Leeds do. I for one look forward to the return fixture!

 

 

Top post always.

 

I also don’t think Enzo will ever “go two up too” very often but why didn’t KDH/CC get closer to their wide players hardly at all?

 

When we actually looked decent was when we played quick 1,2’s with the wingers being direct at their FB’s.

 

Casadei was well off it but KDH had a very poor game IMO.

[Number 6]

Thing is when the aggressive press is successful it becomes very hard for us to try and slow the game down. That will always be the Achilles heel for this set up. Thankfully there aren't many presses in this division that will be that relentless and effective for that long. It will be a headache next season though.

[Corky]

Surprised he didn't change the wingers. Mavididi and Fatawu were excellent in the first half but faded  in the second (I know Fatawu set up the Dewsbury-Hall header) but maybe McAteer or Albrighton in the last 20 could have provided something different.

[Matt]

Wouldn't say last night was "playing football the Enzo way", it was at times exciting and entertaining, just not what I imagine he'd have wanted.

 

Contradicting myself I do worry we look abit lost when it's not going our way/it's not going in, it happens but iirc it was similar against Hull, we were still creating chances, still having shots but we were rarely getting in the box.

 

As i've mentioned in other threads, I think we were crying out for McAteer (And early), I'd have even been tempted to try Daka.

[Dahnsouff]

They were far more up for the fight than we were, just hope it’s blip

[volpeazzurro]

7 minutes ago, Matt said:

Wouldn't say last night was "playing football the Enzo way", it was at times exciting and entertaining, just not what I imagine he'd have wanted.

 

Contradicting myself I do worry we look abit lost when it's not going our way/it's not going in, it happens but iirc it was similar against Hull, we were still creating chances, still having shots but we were rarely getting in the box.

 

As i've mentioned in other threads, I think we were crying out for McAteer (And early), I'd have even been tempted to try Daka.

I think if we're not careful we'll become a one trick pony. I don't think it's Vardy and Iheanacho because if we had prime Lineker or Shearer I think they'd be the same, it's more how they're being deployed. In the first half Vardy was so deep and even covering right back once!

 

Most goals are scored percentage wise in the penalty area yet we rarely seemed to get the ball in there. Although I really rate Fatawu I got quite frustrated the amount of times he played the same ball from the right wing right over the penalty box towards Mavidivi on the opposite wing. Relying on tippy tappy runs into the box is fine but not all of the time as the opposition can quickly learn to frustrate it and did. For Christ's sake just mix it up a bit on occasions. 

 

Possible changes could have been on the wings ie Albrighton on and Fatawu on the left with plenty of balls fizzed into the box to make the opposition uncomfortable. Casadei was poor and I'd have even exchanged him for Iheanacho for a period with Vardy. If after 80 minutes it's blatantly obvious that we have little or no sense of being able to score then to not change things seems a little stubborn. 

 

However, the reality is 13 wins from 15 games nevertheless and I'mverymuch stilla Maresca fan.

 

Premiership teams would soon suspect us out though. Pep, for example is always changing things. Whilst the Hull result was somewhat an unfortunate fluke I do think Leeds were deserved of their win and their play against us could serve as a decent blueprint for other managers to combat our style of play. 

[tsintskaro]

To be honest he has to show more because winning over crap championship sides is easy when you have team like us.

 

Was not impressed by his so called tactics before we lost to leeds and ofc i am not now either.

 

Copying Pep is not enought 

 

 

[FoxTimmy2]

5 hours ago, winteriscoming said:

I couldn’t understand why Fatawu second half didn’t take the full back on instead it was cutting inside and either passing it sideways or long ball over to Mavididi. I could be completely wrong but it’s as if he’d been told to do that. Strange tactics when the better attacking option is to try and beat the fb. 

I noticed the same, he was toasting the fullback almost every time in the first half, why stop?

[STUHILL]

26 minutes ago, tsintskaro said:

Was not impressed by his so called tactics before we lost to leeds and ofc i am not now either.

The tactics that had us on a record breaking run of wins and best start to the Championship in its history?  

 

[StriderHiryu]

11 hours ago, STUHILL said:

I would have loved to see that in game tactical switch from Enzo tonight, as I think it would have completely baffled Leeds and caught them off guard.

They were so well prepped and organised for that high press. At times, they had so many players pushed forward deep into our half to press our back line, a ball over the top or down the channels could have really opened them up and also made them have to rethink their own game plan with the aggressive press which we struggled with.

 

Credit where it’s due though, they defended very well. Hopefully, big lessons learned from tonight. 

 

 

Their press was really impressive. Half time gave them time to get their breath and they came out with as strong a press at the start of the second half. Farke's game management was great, making subs to keep the momentum going, or taking off Summerville when it looked like he might get sent off.

 

6 hours ago, Supergray22 said:

Spot on. Ampadeu and kamara won that midfield battle far too often. They looked sharper and more intense particularly at the start of each half. Cesare sadly just wasn’t quite at the races and this was a game where we really missed Wilf. An area we may need to address in the January window along with more cover for full back and possibly in attack.  Kamara in particular looks like an astute buy for Leeds. 

 

Imagine how you'd be feeling if in your pre-match analysis, you called this out as one of the weak links of the Leeds midfield

 

5 hours ago, Sunbury Fox said:

Great analysis as always but I would welcome your take on the lack of threat from our wingers in the second half.

 

In the first half, as I expected, both wingers were beating their full backs with ease; it was clear full back is Leeds' biggest weakness (at least with Spence out injured). But in the second half they seemed far less direct. You say that Leeds doubled up on them but I'm not sure about that. They did starve the ball from Mavididi but Fatawu repeatedly had acres of space to get at Byram, a right back playing out of position at left back, who he'd taken apart in the first half and who was already on a booking. Summerville didn't really track back to help that much from what I could see either. And yet Fatawu turned into Rachid Ghezzal for most of the second half, playing simple passes inside or back to the defence, or pinging lofted passes to the other wing. I was imploring him to attack Byram more but it's like he was told to play differently and with more caution. We saw none of his usual chaos. 

 

Another big issue for me was that we had nowhere near enough people in the box when attacking towards the end. Nacho came so deep he was rarely in there, so even when the wingers did attack the full backs there were few options for them to hit in the middle. The guy behind me getting yelling for us to "get it in the box" but that would have been pointless as they had 5 defenders in there against 1 attacker. I'm not saying we should be booting it long but surely we need to pack the box with more bodies when we're a goal down towards the end of a game?

To me it felt like Farke recognised the wingers were the dangermen so asked his players to slow them down rather than commit to win the ball back quickly, forcing them to turn back and go inside.

 

Not attacking the box, I think that's down to the superb job both of the Leeds double pivot did, but also because our players have been overused in recent weeks. Ndidi's injury means we can't bring him on, and the role of the 8's is one of the most up and down in the team. I think it's fair criticism to say that neither were good enough in that game.

 

5 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

This is one of the best assessments I've read in a long while. 

 

High praise from one of the legendary Big Strong Leicester Boys!

 

4 hours ago, dmayne7 said:

As per usual, your write it is very well thought out and balanced but I would challenge a few takeaways.

 

The fact that individuals played well and apart from Vardy (completely disagree that Iheanacho was worse than Vardy; might not have been amazing but was a million miles more involved and was an odd decision to not start him) and Casadei, shows it wasn't one of those games were the players were just off it. The means it's either one of those days where you don't get the luck, which wasn't the case because we created so little, or, as was the case, you've lost the tactical battle. You're right that this system needs a lot of time to bed in but there needs to be more adaptability. It doesn't mean we have to starting lumping the ball or always go 2 up top but there needs to be subtle tweaks. The fact that the wingers didn't touch the ball for 15 mins and somebody like KDH was barely involved shows that it wasn't working, nor was it going to work, yet nothing changed?

 

With the quality of the squad, we can't cry about not having the options to change it, even with injuries. Not Enzo's fault at all but still more than enough players to make a difference against teams at this level. You've praised his sub of Casadei but also said he should have been hooked much earlier which is true. Doesn't deserve praise for taking too long to rectify the situation.

 

Thought Leeds were decent but Sunderland played much better. So not a game I think we should look at and hold our hands up that the opposition were much better than us. We deserved to lose, or at best grab a point but not because of the excellence of the opposition.

 

I've got 0 concerns about this season as we've already shown that even nowhere near our best, we'll win games. Like most people I generally love how Enzo speaks, the fact that he has reset the culture of the club, given the team an identity but the one big concern for me will be his ego/stubbornness. I'm not suggesting you abandon your game plan after 10 mins but he takes too long to change things around at times. Half-time at the latest we should have seen a tactical tweak and it never happened. QPR, he waited far too long to make a sub and it's glossed over because of a wonder strike. We've struggled against anything like decent teams so far by playing this style. I don't think he should give up on his principles but he needs to show a willingness to adapt against tougher opposition. It's a worry if that doesn't happen as we'll struggle in the PL where we're not so much better than everyone else. We didn't really deserve anything and I hope that him saying we did was just for show and not what he actually thinks. I also think the style is going to be painful to watch when we are trailing and in need of goal (standing on the ball and passing around the back in the 97th min is brain dead).

 

To be clear, I really rate him and think he's doing a great job but he'll need to make some changes if he's going to become a top manager.

Fair enough, I never claim to be the font of wisdom on here! I encourage people to put their own notes here too and get the discussion going!

 

Regarding subs and rotating the squad, I agree with you. In the video we go through this and do say that the lack of rotation and game management is a big criticism we can rightly have of Maresca.

 

Saying Leeds weren't as good as Sunderland does Leeds a disservice, though. Sunderland only had one really good opportunity in the whole match, Leeds had 6 shots on target compared to our 1. Other than the possession stats, all of the other underlying data shows us that this was the first team other than Liverpool this season that truly outplayed us.

 

1 hour ago, SafewayFox said:

Top post always.

 

I also don’t think Enzo will ever “go two up too” very often but why didn’t KDH/CC get closer to their wide players hardly at all?

 

When we actually looked decent was when we played quick 1,2’s with the wingers being direct at their FB’s.

 

Casadei was well off it but KDH had a very poor game IMO.

It could be inexperience, it could be coming up with a solution to a problem that we haven't really encountered before. You're right, we stopped being able to connect passes through the team in that second half. This team needs to figure out how to maintain the passing under pressure and controlling the game. If you can do it, you can totally open up teams that try to press you, but if you get it wrong you are under pressure. It's a fine line, and makes for some exciting games.

[SafewayFox]

2 hours ago, Corky said:

Surprised he didn't change the wingers. Mavididi and Fatawu were excellent in the first half but faded  in the second (I know Fatawu set up the Dewsbury-Hall header) but maybe McAteer or Albrighton in the last 20 could have provided something different.

I feel bad saying it but Albrighton has shown absolutely nothing in his cameos this season.

 

He isn’t going to change an outcome positively in 2023.

[lcfcell]

Keep forgetting Maresca is only about 25 games into his managerial career. Crazy really. 

[davieG]

1 minute ago, lcfcell said:

Keep forgetting Maresca is only about 25 games into his managerial career. Crazy really. 

Aye and Farke has got two teams promoted.

[ARTY_FOX]

2 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

They were far more up for the fight than we were, just hope it’s blip

They were always going to be. Last night was an absolute must win for them. No other result was any good. Where as its closer to 'just another game' for us 

[ARTY_FOX]

Really think he ballsed up with the wingers last night. Not having them run at the full back second half was really odd. 

[HarryDee8]

It wasn't just this game, the last 2 we were also poor, but beat teams that can't finish

 

We have been playing poorly in the last 3 games. It's almost like we can't play without ndidi

[Guest Col city fan]

I think what this shows us, having lost to Liverpool and Leeds (and Hull) is that our league position IS more indicative of a very very poor Championship this season. 
We’ll bounce straight back up but serious investment will have to be made if we don’t want to come straight back down again. Particularly up top imo.

We will need to much improve on the striker situation.

[smudger63]

3 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

That's more how i read the performance/result.  For me there seemed an inevitability about the whole thing - what with our twin record breaking runs due to end at some point, coming up against probably the strongest attacking force in the league that, let's be clear here, needed to get something from the fixture (a leicester win would have built a 17 point gap) - it felt like this was the fixture to expect loss number 2.

 

I wrote in the post-match about how similar this was to the hull defeat - whilst leeds definitely gave us more of a game, they, like Hull, exposed some of our weaker links and got a slightly less but equally frustrating goal, whilst we created more than enough to get something from the game but, other than a fatawu shot agonisingly coming off the inside of the post, failed to test their keeper.

 

Yes we are better with ndidi and doyle than the deeply unimpressive casadei and justin, but we should still have enough to be putting in better performances than we've seen in the last few games.  Does this, then come down to tactics?  I'm inclined to think not, though i do feel enzo is encouraging them to be too cautious at times (especially against QPR), but the amount of chances we're creating and the small amount of goals we are conceding suggest things, tactically, are ok.  However, i do feel like enzo seems to have abandoned his free flowing approach to squad rotation, especially in the front 5 - granted that has been impacted by injuries, but it seems an age since we saw Marcal have a run out, and I think in the last two games we could have caused all kinds of trouble by playing daka and hitting it long for him to chase now and then - especially with nacho looking atrocious just lately.

We won't be just hitting it long for any of our strikers to chase for the sake of chasing, while Enzo is the manager. 

We will, and have at times, be passing long when certain occasions arise, often from our keeper.

When that happens, you can usually see from the movement of a couple of our forwards, that there is a trigger, when that long pass will be played.

 

[Lillehamring]

1 hour ago, ARTY_FOX said:

They were always going to be. Last night was an absolute must win for them. No other result was any good. Where as its closer to 'just another game' for us 

Exactly - not only that but they played way better than they did the only other time i've seen them and we played pretty poorly and even then, but for the woodwork and a worldie save, we could have still nabbed at least a point.

 

What seems more important to me is that we take this as a new start and go on a run again, play to our strengths and with the confidence we had up to a few games back.

[Legend_in_blue]

We need to have games like this to see how he reacts.

 

I'd rather that, than find us struggling next season, so that it forces him come up with other options.

 

It's no use having it all plain sailing this season.  We need a rough patch too.

 

 

[Lillehamring]

1 hour ago, smudger63 said:

We won't be just hitting it long for any of our strikers to chase for the sake of chasing, while Enzo is the manager. 

We will, and have at times, be passing long when certain occasions arise, often from our keeper.

When that happens, you can usually see from the movement of a couple of our forwards, that there is a trigger, when that long pass will be played.

 

Despite the fact that we certainly have done this!

I'm not saying we go all route one, but in the games where we have been under more pressure (the liverpool games spring to mind) we have had vestergaard and faes playing balls over the top into the space teams are leaving.  In the same way we have also played long diagonals into the space the wingers have been finding.  Leeds, sunderland and even QPR left space to attack and we've failed to exploit it.