Tactics Under Maresca

[Lesta2014]

55 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...if you are at the byline and the defence is now a yard away from the keeper, they have to be, to cover the space for a potential tap-in!!!

where an attacking player should be, would be around the penalty spot. The defenders are already crowding the 6-yard box.

We seem to be going across goal cut out at front post or going high towards back, neither winger attack the back post particularly well either. 

[Chrysalis]

On 04/11/2023 at 01:40, 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!

 

 

Appreciate the write up, Enzo I hope see's it as a lesson learned though as over time (especially in the EPL) more teams will play this way against us. 

[StriderHiryu]

1 hour ago, Chrysalis said:

Appreciate the write up, Enzo I hope see's it as a lesson learned though as over time (especially in the EPL) more teams will play this way against us. 

There's also a learning process. It might take many games, even the full season to get used to it, and I am talking about being in the Premier League.

 

Roberto Di Zerbi managed to get Brighton playing his style very quickly, inside just a few months. So it can be done! But he did say that Graham Potter did amazing work before he got there, because every single player in the team was good at playing the ball out from the back, as that's what Potter instructed them to do. The difference was that RDZ turned that into a weapon by luring teams onto them. If we want to do the same thing, we need to get used to playing teams who get right up in our faces.

 

We definitely showed we could do it on occasion, even in this game:

 

 

 

[sm1]

9 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

There's also a learning process. It might take many games, even the full season to get used to it, and I am talking about being in the Premier League.

 

Roberto Di Zerbi managed to get Brighton playing his style very quickly, inside just a few months. So it can be done! But he did say that Graham Potter did amazing work before he got there, because every single player in the team was good at playing the ball out from the back, as that's what Potter instructed them to do. The difference was that RDZ turned that into a weapon by luring teams onto them. If we want to do the same thing, we need to get used to playing teams who get right up in our faces.

 

We definitely showed we could do it on occasion, even in this game:

 

 

 

That passage of play epitomises alot of our games this season. Lots of nice passing and we made our way up the pitch well, but what was actually achieved. On one occasion Abdul smashes a ball from 30yrds  and the other he over hits the cross. Literally zero to worry about for the Leeds defence.

[Lad1966]

1 hour ago, sm1 said:

That passage of play epitomises alot of our games this season. Lots of nice passing and we made our way up the pitch well, but what was actually achieved. On one occasion Abdul smashes a ball from 30yrds  and the other he over hits the cross. Literally zero to worry about for the Leeds defence.

It’s no coincidence that we’ve scored loads of goals in the last quarter of the match, mainly because we’ve kept procession in a similar way as in that clip and tried teams out. Against Leeds we not prepared to break the lines to get players into the box quickly, because we were worried about them counterattacking our back line!

 

[sacreblueits442]

2 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

There's also a learning process. It might take many games, even the full season to get used to it, and I am talking about being in the Premier League.

 

Roberto Di Zerbi managed to get Brighton playing his style very quickly, inside just a few months. So it can be done! But he did say that Graham Potter did amazing work before he got there, because every single player in the team was good at playing the ball out from the back, as that's what Potter instructed them to do. The difference was that RDZ turned that into a weapon by luring teams onto them. If we want to do the same thing, we need to get used to playing teams who get right up in our faces.

 

We definitely showed we could do it on occasion, even in this game:

 

 

 

...in the last clip, right at the end, you can see two Leicester players looking for the cutback whilst the Leeds players had all rushed to the near post to suffocate any balls coming across their 6-yard box!!!

   A cutback would have allowed either of them to have squared the ball to an unmarked Fatawu, who had the goal all to himself. Maresca has simplified the game, you hear the players saying the same thing about his coaching, and why they choose to ignore these basic things escapes me. It is not something that needs months and months to correct, it just needs a word from the coach to put it right. 

  You now have to question, what are the coaches and match analysis seeing?

  

[HarryDee8]

Lately we've been playing poorly.

 

Winger wise we seem to be playing Mavi and fatawu every game. Need yunus and Kasey back to give some back up

 

Winks really needs a backup in January. 

[GingerrrFox]

4 hours ago, sm1 said:

That passage of play epitomises alot of our games this season. Lots of nice passing and we made our way up the pitch well, but what was actually achieved. On one occasion Abdul smashes a ball from 30yrds  and the other he over hits the cross. Literally zero to worry about for the Leeds defence.

We’re 1st and did that by breaking the record start in a Championship season and were double figures off 3rd? We’ve scored 2nd most goals in the league and we’ve conceded the fewest goals. Nothing’s perfect but we haven’t been far off before the Leeds game, if we stay consistent with these performance levels we’re promoted sharpish. 

[Tom12345]

On 04/11/2023 at 23:28, SafewayFox said:

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.

In fairness to him he cannot show what his has if he is sitting on the bench.

 

He came on one game and within minutes he put in an excellent forward ball for Nacho whose first time shot was unfortunately saved (we still scored).

[Tom12345]

Opportunity to learn. Hope Enzo will.

 

With the team we have, we should be creating far more chances than we have in the season so far, but Enzo’s style is long term though it has not gotten to the level that I am sure he wants to yet. This is a good learning lesson and I am sure he wants the players to continue to feel confident about playing positively and our style.

 

However, we were always going to get found out if we do not improve. Our passing at the back has been suicidal at times but we were just lucky that at the championship level we were often not punished. Leeds employed an ultra intensive high press (which many EPL teams can do for long periods) and we struggled. We still have a lot to learn but fortunately we have months to do so at this level.

 

What I am slightly concerned about is that our patient style will turn a bit into Rodgerball if we are afraid to attack. But patience can be a positive thing if it is more about waiting with belief rather than passing back out of fear. Big difference so hopefully we do not turn down the wrong path.

 

So while disappointing this Leeds game needed to come to show us our weakness (what others have coined as us not getting out of first gear).

 

I hope this helps Enzo and the team to find that second gear because I am not sure we actually have that developed in our arsenal yet.

 

PS. I think a second gear involves playing quickly in transition. I have noticed that we have regressed in decision making recently with us choosing to pass backwards rather than try a forward pass in 50/50 situations but where the opposition is running back and out of shape. If we compare us with Man City, we don’t play like Man City much - Man City attack quick and they also do counter attacks. We almost don’t anymore.

Edited 7 November 2023 by Tom12345

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/enzo-maresca-explains-leicester-city-8889172

 

Enzo Maresca explains Leicester City selection policy with Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho
Leicester City's two leading strikers have shared the minutes this season, with Maresca tending to swap them over every Championship game, and rarely playing them together

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ByJordan Blackwell
11:40, 7 NOV 2023

Combine the qualities of Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho and Leicester City have a complete player, manager Enzo Maresca has said as he continues to share the minutes between the strike duo.

While City’s strongest 11 is becoming clearer by the week, there is a debate over who is the more effective player to lead the line, with Maresca regularly rotating. Vardy has started eight of the 15 Championship fixtures so far, with Iheanacho in the line-up for the other seven.

In recent weeks, Maresca has tended to swap them over each match, but against Leeds, he started Vardy for the second straight game. It wasn’t the number nine’s best outing, and he could not find the space to make himself a threat, unable to register a shot and touching the ball just twice in the box.

 

It is those qualities inside the penalty area that Maresca picks Vardy for, with Iheanacho the better option when he needs a striker to link play more. However, explaining his selection policy, the manager says that more often than not he just swaps them over no matter how his team intend to play.

“Inside the box, Jamie is the best one and we cannot teach him anything,” Maresca said. “Probably we can improve him outside of the box, how to link.

“Kele, he has to go on the other side. He is very good at linking, probably he needs to improve inside the box. They complete each other.

“The reason why one is going to play and the other is not going to play is most of the time we use one and the next time we use the other one. Also it depends if they defend with a line of five, if we need to link a little bit more. It depends.”

Although they do “complete” each other, they have not started together this season, with Maresca preferring to play just one striker at a time. For a few minutes late in the win over QPR, they were on the field together as City chased a winner, which came through Harry Winks. That’s not something Maresca is likely to do often. He says it upsets the balance of his team.

“We used them together (against QPR) because the idea was to attack with six players against the line of five,” Maresca said. “It’s a matter of balance. When we use both of them, we need two holding midfielders. One of them is Harry, and the other one is Cesare (Casadei) or Kiernan (Dewsbury-Hall), or Wilf (Ndidi) or Kiernan.

“Sometimes we take the decision to balance the situation. If we use Kele and Jamie together, probably we struggle to use Kiernan in the same game, because then we have just Harry as a holding midfielder. At the end it’s a matter of balance. But we try and consider to use Kele and Jamie together, no doubt.”

[Lionator]

23 hours ago, sm1 said:

That passage of play epitomises alot of our games this season. Lots of nice passing and we made our way up the pitch well, but what was actually achieved. On one occasion Abdul smashes a ball from 30yrds  and the other he over hits the cross. Literally zero to worry about for the Leeds defence.

This place astounds me, what has it achieved? 13 wins from 15 and the best ever start to a championship season. 

[Tom12345]

11 hours ago, davieG said:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/enzo-maresca-explains-leicester-city-8889172

 

Enzo Maresca explains Leicester City selection policy with Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho
Leicester City's two leading strikers have shared the minutes this season, with Maresca tending to swap them over every Championship game, and rarely playing them together

Bookmark
Comments
SPORT
ByJordan Blackwell
11:40, 7 NOV 2023

Combine the qualities of Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho and Leicester City have a complete player, manager Enzo Maresca has said as he continues to share the minutes between the strike duo.

While City’s strongest 11 is becoming clearer by the week, there is a debate over who is the more effective player to lead the line, with Maresca regularly rotating. Vardy has started eight of the 15 Championship fixtures so far, with Iheanacho in the line-up for the other seven.

In recent weeks, Maresca has tended to swap them over each match, but against Leeds, he started Vardy for the second straight game. It wasn’t the number nine’s best outing, and he could not find the space to make himself a threat, unable to register a shot and touching the ball just twice in the box.

 

It is those qualities inside the penalty area that Maresca picks Vardy for, with Iheanacho the better option when he needs a striker to link play more. However, explaining his selection policy, the manager says that more often than not he just swaps them over no matter how his team intend to play.

“Inside the box, Jamie is the best one and we cannot teach him anything,” Maresca said. “Probably we can improve him outside of the box, how to link.

“Kele, he has to go on the other side. He is very good at linking, probably he needs to improve inside the box. They complete each other.

“The reason why one is going to play and the other is not going to play is most of the time we use one and the next time we use the other one. Also it depends if they defend with a line of five, if we need to link a little bit more. It depends.”

Although they do “complete” each other, they have not started together this season, with Maresca preferring to play just one striker at a time. For a few minutes late in the win over QPR, they were on the field together as City chased a winner, which came through Harry Winks. That’s not something Maresca is likely to do often. He says it upsets the balance of his team.

“We used them together (against QPR) because the idea was to attack with six players against the line of five,” Maresca said. “It’s a matter of balance. When we use both of them, we need two holding midfielders. One of them is Harry, and the other one is Cesare (Casadei) or Kiernan (Dewsbury-Hall), or Wilf (Ndidi) or Kiernan.

“Sometimes we take the decision to balance the situation. If we use Kele and Jamie together, probably we struggle to use Kiernan in the same game, because then we have just Harry as a holding midfielder. At the end it’s a matter of balance. But we try and consider to use Kele and Jamie together, no doubt.”

No reference to Daka. Not used at all even when we chase the game,  Guess Enzo really does not fancy him or there is really an astronomical cost in using him in the league.

[Tom12345]

11 hours ago, davieG said:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/enzo-maresca-explains-leicester-city-8889172

 

Enzo Maresca explains Leicester City selection policy with Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho
Leicester City's two leading strikers have shared the minutes this season, with Maresca tending to swap them over every Championship game, and rarely playing them together

Bookmark
Comments
SPORT
ByJordan Blackwell
11:40, 7 NOV 2023

Combine the qualities of Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho and Leicester City have a complete player, manager Enzo Maresca has said as he continues to share the minutes between the strike duo.

While City’s strongest 11 is becoming clearer by the week, there is a debate over who is the more effective player to lead the line, with Maresca regularly rotating. Vardy has started eight of the 15 Championship fixtures so far, with Iheanacho in the line-up for the other seven.

In recent weeks, Maresca has tended to swap them over each match, but against Leeds, he started Vardy for the second straight game. It wasn’t the number nine’s best outing, and he could not find the space to make himself a threat, unable to register a shot and touching the ball just twice in the box.

 

It is those qualities inside the penalty area that Maresca picks Vardy for, with Iheanacho the better option when he needs a striker to link play more. However, explaining his selection policy, the manager says that more often than not he just swaps them over no matter how his team intend to play.

“Inside the box, Jamie is the best one and we cannot teach him anything,” Maresca said. “Probably we can improve him outside of the box, how to link.

“Kele, he has to go on the other side. He is very good at linking, probably he needs to improve inside the box. They complete each other.

“The reason why one is going to play and the other is not going to play is most of the time we use one and the next time we use the other one. Also it depends if they defend with a line of five, if we need to link a little bit more. It depends.”

Although they do “complete” each other, they have not started together this season, with Maresca preferring to play just one striker at a time. For a few minutes late in the win over QPR, they were on the field together as City chased a winner, which came through Harry Winks. That’s not something Maresca is likely to do often. He says it upsets the balance of his team.

“We used them together (against QPR) because the idea was to attack with six players against the line of five,” Maresca said. “It’s a matter of balance. When we use both of them, we need two holding midfielders. One of them is Harry, and the other one is Cesare (Casadei) or Kiernan (Dewsbury-Hall), or Wilf (Ndidi) or Kiernan.

“Sometimes we take the decision to balance the situation. If we use Kele and Jamie together, probably we struggle to use Kiernan in the same game, because then we have just Harry as a holding midfielder. At the end it’s a matter of balance. But we try and consider to use Kele and Jamie together, no doubt.”

Maybe we can indeed play the two of them together. Vardy as the forward and Nacho in place of the Ndidi/attacking midfielder position. With Ndidi and Praet injured and Casedai not playing well, why not give it a go? 

[sacreblueits442]

43 minutes ago, Tom12345 said:

No reference to Daka. Not used at all even when we chase the game,  Guess Enzo really does not fancy him or there is really an astronomical cost in using him in the league.

...I think that was disproved when he brought him on late for a few minutes against Sunderland!!!

It is pointless playing him, if Vardy is ineffective so will he be.

[Tom12345]

6 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...I think that was disproved when he brought him on late for a few minutes against Sunderland!!!

It is pointless playing him, if Vardy is ineffective so will he be.

Oh right, thanks. I missed that part of the Sunderland game …

[CosbehFox]

A lot of waffle from Leeds about they have given the blueprint how to stop us. I actually think a lot of clubs have been copying what Blackburn attempted. Mark the double pivot (Winks and Ricardo) and use that as your press point. What played out in that game was we managed to work the wingers into the game far more alongside NDidi breaking - eventually we'd work their midfield so hard, it broke down. 

 

We really need to miss a stage out when the press goes on the double pivot and try to get those wingers in the game. Our best moments in games recently always centre around the success of Fatawu and Mavididi. 

[LVFox]

I'm convinced that 90% of our problems against Leeds come from the lack of that underlapping run from the centre midfielders. Ndidi has been excellent at it and we missed him.

 

This meant that we isolated our wingers, who in turn had the space to look great but not to really effect the match that much. It was in safe spaces for Leeds. It also led to hugely isolated centre forwards, who had to come deeper and deeper to get involved.

[moore_94]

37 minutes ago, LVFox said:

I'm convinced that 90% of our problems against Leeds come from the lack of that underlapping run from the centre midfielders. Ndidi has been excellent at it and we missed him.

 

This meant that we isolated our wingers, who in turn had the space to look great but not to really effect the match that much. It was in safe spaces for Leeds. It also led to hugely isolated centre forwards, who had to come deeper and deeper to get involved.

This is an example from the Leeds game

 

Ndidi would’ve just gone for it, he definitely wouldn’t have pointed for it like Casadei did (making it very obvious to the Leeds player to drop off to cover it)

 

 

[StriderHiryu]

Middlesborough vs Leicester Pre-Match Preview

 

 

 

Boro are a really decent team and have a player I really admire in Michael Carrick in charge who has done an excellent job. He took over when they were in the relegation zone, changed their style of play and took them to the play-offs! I had them down as potential automatic promotion contenders when we first went down, but they got gutted by losing many of their star players such as last season's Championship player of the year Chuba Apkom and started the season badly as a result. However, recent form has picked up a lot and have only dropped points in 2 of their last 10 games.

 

• Boro are an attacking team and average a high number of xG in all their games/ Even when their results were bad, the underlying data suggested they were unlucky.
• They play 4231, but function somewhat similar to Ange Postecoglou's teams, where they go for a back 3 in possession.
  • However, unlike us, the spare fullback doesn't play as an extra midfielder, but as a wide player.
  • This allows them to play a support striker / number 10, and this is the position where Chuba Akpom last season was so deadly from.
  • They maintain a double pivot throughout the match to give them midfield control, and they are a high possession team most of the time.
• Boro are a modern team; they build from the back and press high up the pitch.
  • However, some of their players aren't as good as last season. Senny Dieng isn't as good with his feet as Zack Steffen was, Emannuel Latteh Lah is no Cameron Archer up front for them.
• Boro are a fun team to watch because whilst they offer a lot in attack, they take chances at the back and have a lot of space in behind. The 3-3 game I posted above in their last match against Plymouth attesting to that opinion!
• On paper I'd expect us to win this game. They will create problems, but like we've done in pretty much every away game this season, we should be able to kill them with our quality and especially on the transition. Stephy Mavididi in particular could have a lot of space to work with if we find him.
• That said, energy levels are important. This is a team that at home especially, will take the game to us, and they like to start fast. We must match their workrate right from the off, and this would be my one concern. as to me it's looked like the players have needed some time off for quite a while, and we could really do with players like Ndidi and Praet back, as well as being able to use Yunus Akgun and Kasey McAteer more often from the bench.

 

 

^ An example of Boro in possession.

 

 

^ The passing network from the same game. Look how high one of their fullbacks (number 2) gets in their build-up!

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/enzo-maresca-considers-ricardo-pereira-8899122

 

Enzo Maresca considers Ricardo Pereira decision in Leicester City bid to cause more danger
The Portuguese international took on a slightly different role for the final 20 minutes of the loss to Leeds and could be played there from the start against Middlesbrough

 

ByJordan Blackwell
08:00, 11 NOV 2023

Enzo Maresca could draw on Ricardo Pereira’s attacking qualities in an advanced position as he looks to get in behind Middlesbrough and get back to winning ways.

The Leicester City manager shuffled Ricardo into one of the two number eight roles for the final quarter of the defeat to Leeds, and with none of his injured midfielders yet fit to return, he could try the Portuguese international there from the start at the Riverside Stadium, he has said.

Cesare Casadei has been Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s regular partner in the attacking midfield positions over the past few weeks while the likes of Wilfred Ndidi, Yunus Akgun, and Dennis Praet have been out injured. But his struggles against Leeds saw Hamza Choudhury come on and Ricardo pushed forward, and Maresca feels he has the attributes needed to shine there.

 

“Yeah, Ricardo is clever, he’s intelligent,” Maresca said. “He’s a player who can play in the pocket because he’s a player who moves very well in small spaces. Against Leeds, the last 20 minutes, he did very well. So he can do that, yes.”

City fans remember Ricardo as an attacking force, the right-back using his intricate dribbling ability to score and set up goals in his first couple of seasons with the club. Under Maresca, he’s taken on a more technical position, operating at right-back out of possession, and then moving forward to help out Harry Winks in the deep midfield area when City do have the ball.

But that doesn’t mean he has lost his attacking qualities. In fact, Maresca reeled off a list of moments around the box where Ricardo has been a threat this season.

“If you see the amount of assists he’s done already, unfortunately for some of them we missed the goals,” the manager added. “I can remember two or three where he passed the ball and the team-mates were in front of the keeper and we missed.

“There was Macca (Kasey McAteer) against Coventry, Dennis Praet against Huddersfield. The penalty we scored against Bristol City, that was a Ricardo pass to Wilf. The goal we scored against Stoke at home, Ricardo passed the ball to Kele.

“Ricardo is a guy that, close to the box, it’s dangerous for the opponent because he has quality, he has the last pass, so the idea is to bring him next to Harry so he can build and he can give the last pass. Against Leeds, even more, we brought him even more to the opposite box.”

[Claridge]

Against the lesser teams these tactics are fine, when we play a better team, there at least needs to be a plan B. One effort on target against Leeds with all that possession is poor

[Lionator]

Starting to get fraud vibes. 

[tsintskaro]

This guy is such a fraud lmao

We are top because our squad is miles better, not because of his tactics

[beepee1984]

Has he even been to the last 2 match's - because he appears to refuse to use our ridiculously strong bench