Tactics Under Maresca

[Finnegan]

We're a quarter of the way through the season and we've lost three games. Think he's doing OK. 

[Lillehamring]

2 hours ago, beepee1984 said:

We started the season and in our 1st 4 matches we didn't take the lead until after our 2nd change. 

Fresh legs, I thought was part of the gameplan against teams tired from chasing all game

We had a good run of scoring early and now we just appear to wait for a goal instead of changing the personel

 

Shouldn't have lost today, we weren't that bad, but just couldn't score - some days you get them, but the lack of subs irriates me when we have the strongest bench the championship is likely ever to see.

 

More than today, It is still the Leeds game where we created nothing and still didn't change anything that annoys me

The question of the subs is a very good one - leaving it to 85 minutes was meaningless, when boro were looking leggy after 60 or 70.  

 

to lose without scoring against a team that had conceded 23 goals in 15 games, whilst leaving Daka, Cannon and Casadei sitting watching is a real worry.

 

With the system we have it surely should be an option to swap out the two #8 for two strikers.  I mean, 1-0 down with 7 minutes to play surely you have to go all in - imagine their leaky defence having to go 15 minutes against mavididi, daka, vardy, cannon & fatawu!  But no we get Vardy and the interminably slow nacho and the game peters out.

[weller54]

10 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Not true, scapegoating is never helpful.

I think it's true but you're entitled to your opinion.

[weller54]

10 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

They were shite but did they actually cost us either game

I believe they could have.

..but we'll never know for sure.

One things certain though, they both should have been replaced long before they actually were!!

[Wymsey]

10 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

We're a quarter of the way through the season and we've lost three games. Think he's doing OK. 

Agreed.

 

But seriously, imagine if we didn't sign Mads Hermansen and had to do with Ward.. - wouldn't lost quite a few points imo.

Edited 11 November 2023 by Wymsey

[Buzzard]

Just now, Wymsey said:

Agrees.

 

But seriously, imagine if we didn't sign Mads Hermansen and had to do with Ward.. - wouldn't lost quite a few points imo.

yeah... but we did. 

[Tommy G]

2 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

Agrees.

 

But seriously, imagine if we didn't sign Mads Hermansen and had to do with Ward.. - wouldn't lost quite a few points imo.

If we hadn’t of sold Maddison we’d have created more goals. Can’t really use that analogy

[Lillehamring]

2 hours ago, lcfcdamo said:

That nacho chance hits the post and goes in and that freekick from them goes over everyone is saying how well we played second half 100%

But the worry is why it so often seems to come down to these fine margins - as cityfanlee23 pointed out we've been in far more close games than we really should have been.

 

I suspect in the situation you describe it would more likely garner such responses as "why did we make that so difficult" and "we could easily have lost that".

Generally speaking, we actually did play quite well 2nd half (certainly it was good to see us come out focussed today for the 2nd half) -  the problem is, even though we have scored a lot of goals this season, we should have scored far more, there have been too many games where we've created loads of chances but scraped a goal or, in the three losses, failed to score.

 

In the three losses we've had 43 shots, 23 of those shots didn't even hit the target! That's awful.

[adejo92]

I mean I'm really thinking ahead here...but...

 

We are integrating a style of play that only Manchester City could pull off in the Premier League.

 

Bar getting Manchester Cities squad, next season is going to be a blood bath.

Edited 11 November 2023 by adejo92

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Feel like pure shit just want Pearson back x

[Dr The Singh]

26 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

We're a quarter of the way through the season and we've lost three games. Think he's doing OK. 

Is ok good enough????

[Fox92]

Strange subs again. Or lack of today. 1-0 down, 8 mins to go then he makes a change up front!?

[Finnegan]

28 minutes ago, Dr The Singh said:

Is ok good enough????

. Yes 

[Dr The Singh]

Just now, Finnegan said:

. Yes 

[filbertway]

My concerns aren't really for this season, we've proven we can Man U our way through most games and win due our far superior quality.

 

My concern is next season, its hard not to see us experiencing a season like Burnley with how toothless we are in the final 3rd and the chances we offer up to the opposition.

 

This is why I want to see convincing performances and results, to show me that were not going to be an easy 3 points next season.

 

Still very early so im not making any judgements, but I feel comfortable being concerned at the levels were currently showing, relative to the quality of our squad.

 

Nice run of fixtures coming up so would be good to see the performance levels rise between now and Christmas.

[sacreblueits442]

3 hours ago, beepee1984 said:

Interesting to see how we play against Watford

 

No Winks and no obvious back up

Still No Ndidi, Yunus or Praet? Casadei not suited to the system

Is he going to force players into the system or change system to suit the available players? 

...I would think he brought in Ricardo to play the Winks role with Hamza alongside, with Casadei back in #8!!!

[Lillehamring]

7 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...I would think he brought in Ricardo to play the Winks role with Hamza alongside, with Casadei back in #8!!!

I'm hoping Yunus will be back by then - not that enzo seems to trust him in that position, although i'm sure casadei can do a job if his good self turns up.

[Ric Flair]

Considering we are supposed to be so superior at this level, you go through the team and there's an ever increasing lack of goals scored.

 

Our strikers don't score enough for a team that has broken records in the opening third of the season. Our wingers don't score enough goals either by the looks of it, although that might be a little harsh on Kasey. But expecting our wingers to always go 1 v 1 or often 1 v 2 and get in to consistent scoring situations is unreasonable. 

 

Maresca is clearly a man with a plan and its somewhat different to the run of the mill modern manager but I've got my concerns about this long term, it needs fine tuning, certainly at a higher level. But right now, if a team with the talent we have can't score goals at the frequency a high flying team should, then that's a worry.

 

 

[King Claudio]

1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

Strange subs again. Or lack of today. 1-0 down, 8 mins to go then he makes a change up front!?

Seems pointless having 3 strikers on the bench. 

 

Is wanya injured? Surely he would have given us more options 

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, adejo92 said:

I mean I'm really thinking ahead here...but...

 

We are integrating a style of play that only Manchester City could pull off in the Premier League.

 

Bar getting Manchester Cities squad, next season is going to be a blood bath.

...we will have better players!!!

Borges was what I wanted to bring in to play on the left, Oscar Bobb as an #8 Archer and Rak-Sakyi as the CM and Right winger. All these at a fairly low cost and if we brought in McAtee it would improve this team no end. What this system needs are intelligent players, we let ourselves down so much with the choices that we make it does tend to cost us.

  We do need Maresca to identify the players that he believes can play these roles, this team will be markedly (in the Premier League) different from our present squad.

[Sly]

We’ll need a complete rebuild if we get promoted.

 

Promotion isn’t a foregone conclusion either by the way.

 

We will be cannon fodder if we play like this against Premier League teams. If you take games apart, we’re as lucky to have the points we do. 

[moore_94]

Not going to worry about how we are potentially going to play in the Prem until we are actually promoted

 

Just because we play like this in the Championship at the moment does not mean we will play like it in the Prem, or even by the end of the season, or even by the end of the year

 

Find it a bit weird to try and use it as a negative against him when we are still only 16 games into the season

 

There is A LOT of games left, and he is very much still learning and developing

 

This is his first bit of a wobble whilst our manager, not going to shit the bed yet

Edited 11 November 2023 by moore_94

[Trev3939]

Today was absolutely crazy from a tactics view. At times Janick was in midfield, Ricardo was a shadow striker, Kasey as a rb. I think almost everyone played everywhere today. I’m all here for it

[Lillehamring]

50 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Considering we are supposed to be so superior at this level, you go through the team and there's an ever increasing lack of goals scored.

 

Our strikers don't score enough for a team that has broken records in the opening third of the season. Our wingers don't score enough goals either by the looks of it, although that might be a little harsh on Kasey. But expecting our wingers to always go 1 v 1 or often 1 v 2 and get in to consistent scoring situations is unreasonable. 

 

Maresca is clearly a man with a plan and its somewhat different to the run of the mill modern manager but I've got my concerns about this long term, it needs fine tuning, certainly at a higher level. But right now, if a team with the talent we have can't score goals at the frequency a high flying team should, then that's a worry.

 

 

I think we need to keep some perspective - most fans were talking about october/november as when they expected us to start looking like we'd worked out the system - we've achieved so much so soon, and yet i don't think we're even close to being ready for 'fine' tuning, i think we're still at the tuning stage, but because, yes, we have a superior set of players, the ongoing process isn't really slowing us down.

 

The goals thing is weird, we've scored more than anyone but Ipswich, without, unlike Ipswich, sacrificing defensive solidity - so i'm not sure that it's an issue in general, but it does feel like, yes, we should be scoring more.

[Lillehamring]

35 minutes ago, Sly said:

We’ll need a complete rebuild if we get promoted.

We'll have the core of a decent PL team, we won't need a rebuild, we'll just need choice improvements

 

Promotion isn’t a foregone conclusion either by the way.

This is true

 

We will be cannon fodder if we play like this against Premier League teams. If you take games apart, we’re as lucky to have the points we do. 

But why would we play like this (by which i assume you mean failing to take our chances) in the PL, we've not played 'like this' in the majority of games this season - this is the height of pessimism, to base next seasons form on one of least convincing performances!  

 

Also, we've scored the 2nd most goals, and conceded the fewest - where does 'luck' come into it?