Wednesday post match

[HybridFox]

Meh should have played them on a Tuesday 

[inckley fox]

It's mind-numbingly unadventurous football. Once in a while, at very least, it would help us to participate fully in a first half, if only to keep opposition guessing. I understand the reason for all the patience, but we're deliberately taking games to the wire late on, instead of making a concerted effort to wrap up the points earlier.

 

And yet, while it's painstakingly risk-free going forward, we're sailing perpetually close to the wind at the other end of the pitch. It's as if risk-taking is great so long as it isn't confused with any notion of attacking urgency.

 

As for the unnecessary risk-taking with that team selection - which felt like a true case of picking numbers blindly from the hat - well, it was like the boss wasn't treating the occasion as a serious challenge. 

 

He's started well, and even if the dip continues I'll be patient. But expectations for this side have been sky-high, and a good start to the season still leaves him a long way short of what you'd classify as success for the club. There are warning signs now that Maresca's preferred system is all getting a bit easy to read, and that future success may require more flexibility, and a few less self-inflicted wounds.

Edited 30 November 2023 by inckley fox

[East Langton Fox]

We made a poor side look reasonable tonight and if they had a decent striker they would have been out of sight within the first 10 minutes. 
Mavadidi couldn’t have beaten an egg tonight and we were very short up front. Although Vestergaard was caught on the ball a couple of times he was always in the right place and was of the few who had a reasonable game.

A good turn out from the faithful and those of us who were there deserved better.

[TrentFox]

I don’t buy the ‘team selection was wrong’ stuff. That line-up should be accounting for the weakest team in the league.  But it doesn’t matter who he picks if they play football like that. We were rubbish in the first minute, nearly conceding. We were rubbish in  the last minute, actually conceding. And we were rubbish in virtually every minute in between. Pointless triangles on the halfway line isn’t the objective of a match…… which is a shame, as we are actually quite good at that 😞

[TrentFox]

Having said that, my opinions are solidifying around players this season. Casadei is nowhere near the level we need. Ricky P, whilst I love him, offers very little as a midfielder. He’s slow of mind and body these days. Vardy will always be a legend and score goals occasionally, but his all round game seems to diminish weekly. Akgun just continually disappoints. He has good technical ability but is just completely ineffective and without influence. Much like Praet has been since he arrived. We are limping towards the transfer window. Let’s hope some reinforcements arrive. Ideally, ones that are actually ready, unlike Cannon who looks to be a completely bizarre purchase. 

[Dr The Singh]

14 minutes ago, TrentFox said:

Having said that, my opinions are solidifying around players this season. Casadei is nowhere near the level we need. Ricky P, whilst I love him, offers very little as a midfielder. He’s slow of mind and body these days. Vardy will always be a legend and score goals occasionally, but his all round game seems to diminish weekly. Akgun just continually disappoints. He has good technical ability but is just completely ineffective and without influence. Much like Praet has been since he arrived. We are limping towards the transfer window. Let’s hope some reinforcements arrive. Ideally, ones that are actually ready, unlike Cannon who looks to be a completely bizarre purchase. 

What he says..,........good to see peeps in Notts like me talk good shit.

[ARTY_FOX]

Ah so we're the worst side ever again. 

[The Year Of The Fox]

8 hours ago, Fox1norfolk said:

Tippy tappy football. It cannot get any more boring than this style of play.

We can only play this way

 

 ThE gAmE hAs ChAnGeD

Edited 30 November 2023 by The Year Of The Fox

[alanf0x]

Concentrate on getting 3 points in the game you are playing rather than worrying about the next one. 
 

3pts last night, takes the pressure off a bit on Saturday against stronger opposition. 
 

It really is a simple game, over complicated at times

[Claudio Fannieri]

2 hours ago, TrentFox said:

I don’t buy the ‘team selection was wrong’ stuff. That line-up should be accounting for the weakest team in the league.  But it doesn’t matter who he picks if they play football like that. We were rubbish in the first minute, nearly conceding. We were rubbish in  the last minute, actually conceding. And we were rubbish in virtually every minute in between. Pointless triangles on the halfway line isn’t the objective of a match…… which is a shame, as we are actually quite good at that 😞

Too be honest my take on last night, the tactics are not the issue, it was the execution and the lack of fluency, cohesion and sharpness that cost us last night. I know people say the style is slow and laboured but I actually disagree, in this system it’s all about speed of thought and the ability to continually probe and manipulate the opposition and then exploit the spaces. Last night we looked disjointed, slow of thought and we seemed to take one/two  extra touches or an extra second on the ball which meant we lacked fluency and didn’t create enough. 
 

For me that was largely down to the 6 changes, I have no issue with any of the individuals selected but in reality Coady, Akgun and even Winks all looked rusty and lacking match sharpness. I also think resting both Ndidi and KDH was a mistake as they offer so much in terms of running power and stretching teams. Casadei and Akgun are both quality players but as a pairing I feel we lose quite a lot of intensity. When Casadei played alongside KDH for a run of games withe the exception of the Leeds game he  looked good. Akgun is a very tidy player who is calm and clever in possession but benefits from being alongside a midfield partner who can transition well and provide some physicality and protection. 
 

it was a flat and rusty performance and I think if Enzo had made 3 changes we would have won comfortably, it worked against Norwich but didn’t last night, I hope Enzo has learnt from this and moving forward we don’t make too many wholesale changes with players who are lacking match  sharpness  as it killed our fluency and team structure. 
 

If we do need to rest/rotate I hope Enzo always ensures we have one of KDH or Ndidi starting to retain intensity, running power and the ability to stretch teams. 
 

Disappointing evening but not going to over react, it’s still a fantastic platform we have built, Enzo is still learning and will make mistakes and get things wrong, last night was a case in point , but I am sure he will have learnt from this and hopefully we see a

much improved performance on Saturday. 

[Paninistickers]

2 hours ago, TrentFox said:

Cannon who looks to be a completely bizarre purchase. 

It looked odd to me at the time. A striker unwanted by a very poor Everton sides who's main striker is continually injured yet didn't want this guy anywhere near as deputy. 8m ffs. 

 

And it's the same ol' foxes talk posters who declared him better than proven PL strikers Cards and Kels, the same lot who binned off Wilf for Casadei. 

[goose2010]

3 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

It looked odd to me at the time. A striker unwanted by a very poor Everton sides who's main striker is continually injured yet didn't want this guy anywhere near as deputy. 8m ffs. 

 

And it's the same ol' foxes talk posters who declared him better than proven PL strikers Cards and Kels, the same lot who binned off Wilf for Casadei. 

Maybe, just maybe football fans get it wrong sometimes ? 

 

Let's trust the guys at the club on signing as so far this season they haven't really got one wrong. 

[Clarkielcfc]

Not sure what’s happened in regards to the zippy one touch play and patterns that were opening teams up, everyone seems to want or need, 2/3 touches before releasing it lately which in effect is slowing our tempo a lot, need to pick it back up and hopefully this is just our little ‘blip’ that all teams have. All sounds so very simple…!

[CosbehFox]

The xG is in and it’s not pretty. 
 

Leicester 0.8 Sheffield Wednesday 1.4 

 

Thats utter shit 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

3 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

The xG is in and it’s not pretty. 
 

Leicester 0.8 Sheffield Wednesday 1.4 

 

Thats utter shit 

What on earth is he talking about when he says we need to be more clinical. Same as the Middlesborough game.

[Fox92]

It was awful. Again. We created next to nothing, slow on the ball and presented them with two good opportunites thankfully they didn't take. Players just seemed like they could turn up and win. Same as first half on Saturday against Watford which was awful.

Another reason I hate going Hillsborough, we never seem to get anything there which I mentioned in the pre match thread. All these predictions of 4-0 were laughable, don't think we've got a 4-0 in us.

 

Very tough game Saturday now, can't see us winning at The Hawthorns, and with Ipswich at home to Cov too 

[Sunbury Fox]

I was hoping I'd wake up this morning in a more philosophical mood about last night's debacle (there is no other way of describing it) but despite really trying I'm failing to manage it. It's not the result itself (weird stuff can happen in football), it was the exceptionally poor level of performance. I was only able to start watching from about 25 minutes but in the 70 or so minutes of play that I watched, we created virtually nothing in open play. The only 2 efforts on target I saw were a loopy header from Vardy that barely reached the keeper and the last minute chance for Vesty off a corner (which I suspect makes up a large proportion of our 0.8xG (!!!) against by far the worst team in the league. We now go into a very tough game with some very serious concerns surrounding us and 3 teams behind us who are closing in fast. Make no mistake, a lame defeat on Saturday, which seems likely given WBA's form and ours, and the alarm bells will really be ringing. The last good performance was Swansea away back on 21 October. 

[dynamark]

Distinct feeling Enzo was thinking about saturday when he set last nights team  team up, Please try to win the games in order as a point a game will not be enough

 

And the Radio Leics commentary was rubbish last night

[Ricey]

I’ve not been that annoyed by a performance in a long time.

 

It was sloppy, but I think it was the arrogance that has annoyed me the most. Maybe it was because it was Sheffield Wednesday or maybe it’s because we are over confident in this ‘tire them out, score late’ philosophy, but we looked like a team expected to win with minimal effort.

 

Once we scored we just…stopped, as we so often do. Intensity drops, aggression lowers, players stop running and passes become too safe. We are playing the team rock bottom of the league, why not try and get a second and kill the game in the first half!

 

There was an arrogance to the team selection as well. I know that we need to rotate, but did we need three traditional CB’s? Did we need Casadei who’s clearly out of his depth? It reeked of complacency.

 

Teams have also sussed that we aren’t actually that good at playing out from the back. Every team is now aggressively pressing us once the ball moves out from our GK or CB’s and it’s causing us all sorts of problems. The worrying thing is that I can’t see Enzo adjusting anything to combat it.

[trooky]

All that possession and only 3 shots on target, and they managed 7.

[Rigga]

11 minutes ago, Sunbury Fox said:

I was hoping I'd wake up this morning in a more philosophical mood about last night's debacle (there is no other way of describing it) but despite really trying I'm failing to manage it. It's not the result itself (weird stuff can happen in football), it was the exceptionally poor level of performance. I was only able to start watching from about 25 minutes but in the 70 or so minutes of play that I watched, we created virtually nothing in open play. The only 2 efforts on target I saw were a loopy header from Vardy that barely reached the keeper and the last minute chance for Vesty off a corner (which I suspect makes up a large proportion of our 0.8xG (!!!) against by far the worst team in the league. We now go into a very tough game with some very serious concerns surrounding us and 3 teams behind us who are closing in fast. Make no mistake, a lame defeat on Saturday, which seems likely given WBA's form and ours, and the alarm bells will really be ringing. The last good performance was Swansea away back on 21 October. 

Wednesday could have been out of sight after the first 25 mins

[VLC86]

Two positives from last night. We didn’t lose and it’s becoming clearer to all that we need squad depth as some of our back ups (Akgun, Casadei) are not good enough.

[Fox92]

6 minutes ago, Rigga said:

Wednesday could have been out of sight after the first 25 mins

A decent side would have been.

[West Bridgford Fox]

Took my 12yr old boy to his first away game last night.

 

2.5 hrs to get there (from Nottingham), flat atmosphere and a really poor performance topped off by getting back to a parking ticket on my car! 
 

And reckon I might have been done by a speed camera in those roadworks on the M1 🤬
 

If Carlsberg did Wednesday nights they’d be nothing like mine last night!

[Guest BlueBrett]

10 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

Wouldn’t mind see us helping out very effective wingers with full backs over lapping rather than crowding out the middle of the pitch with inverted players etc. 

 

Opposition defence don’t like having their backs turned but we play 80% of our game in front of them. 

Agree completely. We look most dangerous and obviously most exciting when Stephy and Fatawu are involved in the game and running at the opposition. Mavididi looked virtually unplayable at this level earlier in the season but even just the attempts to run with the ball have dried up. It's clearly a tactical thing although I don't understand why it would be. Lost count of the number of times in the last ten games or so that Mavididi or Fatawu get the ball in a decent position and I'm thinking "go on, just take him on, go round the outside and test him" but invariably the ball just comes back inside and gets worked across to the other side and back again over and over. It's pretty strange. We were all so excited to have such dynamic wingers in the side again and it seemed for a while that they were just gonna tear up the league but then we stopped playing through them at all for some reason.