Two Points Dropped by Coward Cooper! Crystal Palace vs Leicester City Tactical Analysis

[StriderHiryu]

 

 

Aargh! What a frustrating game! 2-0 up away from home, good performances from several players, and yet we go away with just one point when we should have 3! In the video above I break down the game, with some more detailed examples here in the thread

 

Palace Setup

 

 

Under Glasner, Palace play an aggressive 343 formation with two wingbacks. Both Mitchell and Munoz push up high to support the attack, giving them options on attack. However, it also means that on transition, there are gaps behind those wingbacks that can be exploited, and this is something that for the first 64 minutes, we did well.

The Double Pivots

 

 

^ This game was going to heavily focus around which of the double pivots for each side could dicate the play. Palace started with Doucoure instead of Hughes, but he picked up a knock and Doucoure came off at half time. For the most part these players wouldn't be up against one another 1v1, which meant that in order to win the midfield battle, it was going to be other players that needed to disrupt them. Enter the stage, Wilfred Ndidi.

 

Wilfred Ndidi

 

Playing Wilfred Ndidi as a 10 / Box Crashing 8 was ridiculed last season, and that was in the Championship. And yet when he was out of the team, we had worse results and didn't play as well. And that has continued into this season too. He was brilliant in this game, with two assists, but also an all-round performance that was stand out.

 

 

^ Ndidi blocks the passing lane to Wharton. Winks steps up to put Doucoure under pressure, who plays the ball to Clyne. Ndidi pushes up and presses and does brilliantly to win the ball and setup a half chance for Ayew.

 

 

^ Recieving the ball, then using his strength to ride a challenge, pick himself off the floor and drive forward to play the ball into Mavididi.

 

 

^ Often in the match, we used Ndidi as our outlet when being pressed by Palace. When under heavy pressure and we can't play the ball on the floor and / or have to head clear, we would aim for Ndidi, who did a great job in the game at holding the ball up and keeping the ball for the team. Once he was taken off and replace by Hamza, we no longer had the ability to do this, and it was one reason why we invited wave after wave of Palace pressure onto us. More on this later.

 

 

^ Ndidi plays his part in the goal, he shrugs off Wharton again and plays the ball over the top to the GOAT. Vardy on the shoulder of the last man, attacking the goal you say? Only one outcome there!

 

 

Transitional Game

 

Now we are back in the top flight, games are way more even than playing against teams that stick 11 men behind the ball. Regardless of who was in charge this season, it meant that a change in style / outlook was inevitable, and under Cooper, we have become a team that looks to exploit opponents in moments of transition. We were quite good at this last season, and we've started this season with a decent threat. The first goal above is a great example of us landing the sucker punch on transition.

 

I describe a moment of transition as the moment when one team loses the ball and the other team gains possession. Moments of transition are decisive because they require quick, co-ordinated action and organisation as a collective to try to take advantage of the opponent's temporary, disorganised state. All teams press in the Premier League to stop teams dicating the game and to force them into mistakes. This means that when a team loses the ball, there is usually a 5-10 second window where they will be out of their defensive shape. Sometimes when a team tries to exploit the opponent when they are out of shape, they themselves lose the ball and are out of shape too, this is a counter-transition. Most games in the Premier League tend to be determined by these moments, and teams ability to maximise their effectiveness in these moments.

 

 

^ A danggerous moment for Palace on transition. The ball breaks and Eze gets on his bike to box crash. Kristiansen is in a predicament as he's been attracted all the way over from left back as we try to compress the defensive phase into one side of the pitch. This gives Munoz a totally free run at goal from right wingback, but luckily Faes makes a sensational challenge to bail us out.

 

 

^ Leicester almost score a second with another opportunity on transition on the stroke of half time. The hard-working Ayew wins the ball back and plays the ball into the wingback channel.  Vardy peeled out to the right hand side and plays in Mavididi. Perhaps Vardy's pass is a bit strong, but I think Stephy could do better and chop back into his right to test the keeper at worst. But luckily Stephy would make ammends pretty quickly!

 

 

 

^ To say the second half started with a bang is understamement of the century with two goals in the first 3 minutes. Hermansen plays the ball into the wight wingback position, Ayew wins the ball and plays it to Justin. Justin crosses to Vardy who lays it off to Ndidi, who unselfishly passes to Mavididi to put Leicester two up. This was good play from JJ, but perhaps makes us wonder why Ricardo isn't in the team and why we don't try to use the right back position more aggressively with a top quality player more often.

 

 

^ Unfortunately, Palace scored immediately afterwards. I feel we were a bit unlucky here and still am not sure why it wasn't offside! But that was the official decision so the goal stood. Okoli and Faes did well as they had stepped up to play Mateta offside, but JJ's dangling foot played them on. I think if we had of stayed 2-0 up for longer we would have won.

 

Palace Changes

 

 

 

At 64 minutes, with roughly 30 minutes of the game left, Glasner went for it. He put on Kamada, but also changed shape and pushed Nketiah up front with Mateta. This left them even more open at the back, but gave them better attacking threat. Sadly, the way Cooper reacted to this was poor. Despite Palace getting a goal back, up until this change, I felt we were comfortable and looked like we would see out the game.

 

 

 

^ Cooper made 3 subs, but drastically changed shape. And for me this change of shape cost us the game. He was super defensive and went 532. Forget the fact that Coady had a brain fart for a second, this change caused several issues:

 

- The Palace wingbacks could push much higher up the pitch. With both wingers removed and Fatawu playing more centrally, it meant that they were not being pinned back.

- With Ndidi gone, we no longer had an effective outlet for the longball. After he came off, we lost aerial duels when going long.

- Vardy was tiring (he's 37!) and was not able to run the channels as effectively.

- Whilst defending a lead makes sense, with no outlet or coutner threat, it meant that we lost the ball over and over and couldn't get out!

- IMO it would have been more sensible to maintain the same shape and structure but change the personel. El Khanouss is pretty tall and maybe could have played 10 instead of Ndidi? Ayew could have been replaced by either McAteer or De Cordova Reid, so along with Fatawu we had wingers. Putting anyone on for Vardy, even if they weren't a striker would give us more running up front. Buonanotte might have had a bit of a knock but surely could have made an impact for the last 10?

 

 

^ This chart shows the attacking momentum of the game. Look how it spikes for Palace towards the end of the game. This is a direct result of the changes that both managers made. This objectively shows that our changes invited pressure onto us, and meant that a second goal for Palace was inevitable, whereas it was almost impossible for us to score a third. The gamble was that if we held out, we come away with all 3 points, but it didn't work out.

 

 

^ Here we see us going to long to try to hit Fatawu. But despite him being 6 foot, he's not so used to winning midfield aerial duels and lost out. The ball is easily cleared up by Palace, and it's backs against the walls again. We didn't have wide players, so we had to go central, rather than having options across the pitch.

 

 

^ For someone as experienced as Coady is supposed to be, this is an absolute brainfart. This is something that is out of Cooper's control, but Coady started season injured and clearly isn't up to speed yet. Overall for me the Coady addition destroyed out shape, killed our momentum and then as the icing on the cake, threw away 2 points with stupid play.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

- This was our best 1st half performance. Our ability to create a threat on transition was good.

- Up until the Kamada sub from Palace, we were the better team. So despite the gloom and poor game management from the manager, he did at least get 2/3's of the game correct and showed we can be a good team at this level.

- However, poor game management and inability to understand / react to changes cost us, and this has not been the first time this has been the case.

- Coady had a brainfart, but we had been inviting pressure onto us with the shape change. 

- The lack of an outlet cost us. We removed our width and got pinned back, because we took our wingers off and moved Fatawu more centrally.

- In the end this result was super frustrating and Cooper needs to learn! It's not a surprise he only won 2 away games for Forest if this is how he tries to see games out!

 

 

Onto Everton, and a game that already feels like a must win!

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 10:12 by StriderHiryu

[GorlestonFox]

FAO @stevecooper 

[Parker Pen]

Thanks Strider I really enjoy your tactical analysis and breakdown of the matches and it does make me wonder with all the staff and analysts as their disposal why Rodgers, Enzo and Cooper get their substitutions more often than not wrong.

Especially changing to a back 5  without a successful outball plan!

[phoneticerror]

Saturday is Cooper’s last chance for me. If we cannot secure 3 points at home against a woeful Everton, we’re toast.

[Collymore]

7 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

Aargh! What a frustrating game! 2-0 up away from home, good performances from several players, and yet we go away with ust one point when we should have 3! In the video above I break down the game, with some more detailed examples here in the thread

 

Palace Setup

 

 

Under Glasner, Palace play an aggressive 343 formation with two wingbacks. Both Mitchell and Munoz push up high to support the attack, giving them options on attack. However, it also means that on transition, there are gaps behind those wingbacks that can be exploited, and this is something that for the first 64 minutes, we did well.

The Double Pivots

 

 

^ This game was going to heavily focus around which of the double pivots for each side could dicate the play. Palace started with Doucoure instead of Hughes, but he picked up a knock and Doucoure came off at half time. For the most part these players wouldn't be up against one another 1v1, which meant that in order to win the midfield battle, it was going to be other players that needed to disrupt them. Enter the stage, Wilfred Ndidi.

 

Wilfred Ndidi

 

Playing Wilfred Ndidi as a 10 / Box Crashing 8 was ridiculed last season, and that was in the Championship. And yet when he was out of the team, we had worse results and didn't play as well. And that has continued into this season too. He was brilliant in this game, with two assists, but also an all-round performance that was stand out.

 

 

^ Ndidi blocks the passing lane to Wharton. Winks steps up to put Doucoure under pressure, who plays the ball to Clyne. Ndidi pushes up and presses and does brilliantly to win the ball and setup a half chance for Ayew.

 

 

^ Recieving the ball, then using his strength to ride a challenge, pick himself off the floor and drive forward to play the ball into Mavididi.

 

 

^ Often in the match, we used Ndidi as our outlet when being pressed by Palace. When under heavy pressure and we can't play the ball on the floor and / or have to head clear, we would aim for Ndidi, who did a great job in the game at holding the ball up and keeping the ball for the team. Once he was taken off and replace by Hamza, we no longer had the ability to do this, and it was one reason why we invited wave after wave of Palace pressure onto us. More on this later.

 

 

^ Ndidi plays his part in the goal, he shrugs off Wharton again and plays the ball over the top to the GOAT. Vardy on the shoulder of the last man, attacking the goal you say? Only one outcome there!

 

 

Transitional Game

 

Now we are back in the top flight, games are way more even than playing against teams that stick 11 men behind the ball. Regardless of who was in charge this season, it meant that a change in style / outlook was inevitable, and under Cooper, we have become a team that looks to exploit opponents in moments of transition. We were quite good at this last season, and we've started this season with a decent threat. The first goal above is a great example of us landing the sucker punch on transition.

 

I describe a moment of transition as the moment when one team loses the ball and the other team gains possession. Moments of transition are decisive because they require quick, co-ordinated action and organisation as a collective to try to take advantage of the opponent's temporary, disorganised state. All teams press in the Premier League to stop teams dicating the game and to force them into mistakes. This means that when a team loses the ball, there is usually a 5-10 second window where they will be out of their defensive shape. Sometimes when a team tries to exploit the opponent when they are out of shape, they themselves lose the ball and are out of shape too, this is a counter-transition. Most games in the Premier League tend to be determined by these moments, and teams ability to maximise their effectiveness in these moments.

 

 

^ A danggerous moment for Palace on transition. The ball breaks and Eze gets on his bike to box crash. Kristiansen is in a predicament as he's been attracted all the way over from left back as we try to compress the defensive phase into one side of the pitch. This gives Munoz a totally free run at goal from right wingback, but luckily Faes makes a sensational challenge to bail us out.

 

 

^ Leicester almost score a second with another opportunity on transition on the stroke of half time. The hard-working Ayew wins the ball back and plays the ball into the wingback channel.  Vardy peeled out to the right hand side and plays in Mavididi. Perhaps Vardy's pass is a bit strong, but I think Stephy could do better and chop back into his right to test the keeper at worst. But luckily Stephy would make ammends pretty quickly!

 

 

 

^ To say the second half started with a bang is understamement of the century with two goals in the first 3 minutes. Hermansen plays the ball into the wight wingback position, Ayew wins the ball and plays it to Justin. Justin crosses to Vardy who lays it off to Ndidi, who unselfishly passes to Mavididi to put Leicester two up. This was good play from JJ, but perhaps makes us wonder why Ricardo isn't in the team and why we don't try to use the right back position more aggressively with a top quality player more often.

 

 

^ Unfortunately, Palace scored immediately afterwards. I feel we were a bit unlucky here and still am not sure why it wasn't offside! But that was the official decision so the goal stood. Okoli and Faes did well as they had stepped up to play Mateta offside, but JJ's dangling foot played them on. I think if we had of stayed 2-0 up for longer we would have won.

 

Palace Changes

 

 

 

At 64 minutes, with roughly 30 minutes of the game left, Glasner went for it. He put on Kamada, but also changed shape and pushed Nketiah up front with Mateta. This left them even more open at the back, but gave them better attacking threat. Sadly, the way Cooper reacted to this was poor. Despite Palace getting a goal back, up until this change, I felt we were comfortable and looked like we would see out the game.

 

 

 

^ Cooper made 3 subs, but drastically changed shape. And for me this change of shape cost us the game. He was super defensive and went 532. Forget the fact that Coady had a brain fart for a second, this change caused several issues:

 

- The Palace wingbacks could push much higher up the pitch. With both wingers removed and Fatawu playing more centrally, it meant that they were not being pinned back.

- With Ndidi gone, we no longer had an effective outlet for the longball. After he came off, we lost aerial duels when going long.

- Vardy was tiring (he's 37!) and was not able to run the channels as effectively.

- Whilst defending a lead makes sense, with no outlet or coutner threat, it meant that we lost the ball over and over and couldn't get out!

- IMO it would have been more sensible to maintain the same shape and structure but change the personel. El Khanouss is pretty tall and maybe could have played 10 instead of Ndidi? Ayew could have been replaced by either McAteer or De Cordova Reid, so along with Fatawu we had wingers. Putting anyone on for Vardy, even if they weren't a striker would give us more running up front. Buonanotte might have had a bit of a knock but surely could have made an impact for the last 10?

 

 

^ This chart shows the attacking momentum of the game. Look how it spikes for Palace towards the end of the game. This is a direct result of the changes that both managers made. This objectively shows that our changes invited pressure onto us, and meant that a second goal for Palace was inevitable, whereas it was almost impossible for us to score a third. The gamble was that if we held out, we come away with all 3 points, but it didn't work out.

 

 

^ Here we see us going to long to try to hit Fatawu. But despite him being 6 foot, he's not so used to winning midfield aerial duels and lost out. The ball is easily cleared up by Palace, and it's backs against the walls again. We didn't have wide players, so we had to go central, rather than having options across the pitch.

 

 

^ For someone as experienced as Coady is supposed to be, this is an absolute brainfart. This is something that is out of Cooper's control, but Coady started season injured and clearly isn't up to speed yet. Overall for me the Coady addition destroyed out shape, killed our momentum and then as the icing on the cake, threw away 2 points with stupid play.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

- This was our best 1st half performance. Our ability to create a threat on transition was good.

- Up until the Kamada sub from Palace, we were the better team. So despite the gloom and poor game management from the manager, he did at least get 2/3's of the game correct and showed we can be a good team at this level.

- However, poor game management and inability to understand / react to changes cost us, and this has not been the first time this has been the case.

- Coady had a brainfart, but we had been inviting pressure onto us with the shape change. 

- The lack of an outlet cost us. We removed our width and got pinned back, because we took our wingers off and moved Fatawu more centrally.

- In the end this result was super frustrating and Cooper needs to learn! It's not a surprise he only won 2 away games for Forest if this is how he tries to see games out!

 

 

Onto Everton, and a game that already feels like a must win!

 

 

 

 

I'll give this the time it deserves later. Awesome stuff. 

[RumbleFox]

Hours of work. Paragraphs and paragraphs of high quality content. Almost an hour of insightful video and you know my only takeaway? “Strider is more attractive than I’d imagined him to be”. 

[rugbyblue]

Strider for manager! 

 

Impressive dedication in all fairness 👍

[Nick]

8 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

Aargh! What a frustrating game! 2-0 up away from home, good performances from several players, and yet we go away with ust one point when we should have 3! In the video above I break down the game, with some more detailed examples here in the thread

 

Palace Setup

 

 

Under Glasner, Palace play an aggressive 343 formation with two wingbacks. Both Mitchell and Munoz push up high to support the attack, giving them options on attack. However, it also means that on transition, there are gaps behind those wingbacks that can be exploited, and this is something that for the first 64 minutes, we did well.

The Double Pivots

 

 

^ This game was going to heavily focus around which of the double pivots for each side could dicate the play. Palace started with Doucoure instead of Hughes, but he picked up a knock and Doucoure came off at half time. For the most part these players wouldn't be up against one another 1v1, which meant that in order to win the midfield battle, it was going to be other players that needed to disrupt them. Enter the stage, Wilfred Ndidi.

 

Wilfred Ndidi

 

Playing Wilfred Ndidi as a 10 / Box Crashing 8 was ridiculed last season, and that was in the Championship. And yet when he was out of the team, we had worse results and didn't play as well. And that has continued into this season too. He was brilliant in this game, with two assists, but also an all-round performance that was stand out.

 

 

^ Ndidi blocks the passing lane to Wharton. Winks steps up to put Doucoure under pressure, who plays the ball to Clyne. Ndidi pushes up and presses and does brilliantly to win the ball and setup a half chance for Ayew.

 

 

^ Recieving the ball, then using his strength to ride a challenge, pick himself off the floor and drive forward to play the ball into Mavididi.

 

 

^ Often in the match, we used Ndidi as our outlet when being pressed by Palace. When under heavy pressure and we can't play the ball on the floor and / or have to head clear, we would aim for Ndidi, who did a great job in the game at holding the ball up and keeping the ball for the team. Once he was taken off and replace by Hamza, we no longer had the ability to do this, and it was one reason why we invited wave after wave of Palace pressure onto us. More on this later.

 

 

^ Ndidi plays his part in the goal, he shrugs off Wharton again and plays the ball over the top to the GOAT. Vardy on the shoulder of the last man, attacking the goal you say? Only one outcome there!

 

 

Transitional Game

 

Now we are back in the top flight, games are way more even than playing against teams that stick 11 men behind the ball. Regardless of who was in charge this season, it meant that a change in style / outlook was inevitable, and under Cooper, we have become a team that looks to exploit opponents in moments of transition. We were quite good at this last season, and we've started this season with a decent threat. The first goal above is a great example of us landing the sucker punch on transition.

 

I describe a moment of transition as the moment when one team loses the ball and the other team gains possession. Moments of transition are decisive because they require quick, co-ordinated action and organisation as a collective to try to take advantage of the opponent's temporary, disorganised state. All teams press in the Premier League to stop teams dicating the game and to force them into mistakes. This means that when a team loses the ball, there is usually a 5-10 second window where they will be out of their defensive shape. Sometimes when a team tries to exploit the opponent when they are out of shape, they themselves lose the ball and are out of shape too, this is a counter-transition. Most games in the Premier League tend to be determined by these moments, and teams ability to maximise their effectiveness in these moments.

 

 

^ A danggerous moment for Palace on transition. The ball breaks and Eze gets on his bike to box crash. Kristiansen is in a predicament as he's been attracted all the way over from left back as we try to compress the defensive phase into one side of the pitch. This gives Munoz a totally free run at goal from right wingback, but luckily Faes makes a sensational challenge to bail us out.

 

 

^ Leicester almost score a second with another opportunity on transition on the stroke of half time. The hard-working Ayew wins the ball back and plays the ball into the wingback channel.  Vardy peeled out to the right hand side and plays in Mavididi. Perhaps Vardy's pass is a bit strong, but I think Stephy could do better and chop back into his right to test the keeper at worst. But luckily Stephy would make ammends pretty quickly!

 

 

 

^ To say the second half started with a bang is understamement of the century with two goals in the first 3 minutes. Hermansen plays the ball into the wight wingback position, Ayew wins the ball and plays it to Justin. Justin crosses to Vardy who lays it off to Ndidi, who unselfishly passes to Mavididi to put Leicester two up. This was good play from JJ, but perhaps makes us wonder why Ricardo isn't in the team and why we don't try to use the right back position more aggressively with a top quality player more often.

 

 

^ Unfortunately, Palace scored immediately afterwards. I feel we were a bit unlucky here and still am not sure why it wasn't offside! But that was the official decision so the goal stood. Okoli and Faes did well as they had stepped up to play Mateta offside, but JJ's dangling foot played them on. I think if we had of stayed 2-0 up for longer we would have won.

 

Palace Changes

 

 

 

At 64 minutes, with roughly 30 minutes of the game left, Glasner went for it. He put on Kamada, but also changed shape and pushed Nketiah up front with Mateta. This left them even more open at the back, but gave them better attacking threat. Sadly, the way Cooper reacted to this was poor. Despite Palace getting a goal back, up until this change, I felt we were comfortable and looked like we would see out the game.

 

 

 

^ Cooper made 3 subs, but drastically changed shape. And for me this change of shape cost us the game. He was super defensive and went 532. Forget the fact that Coady had a brain fart for a second, this change caused several issues:

 

- The Palace wingbacks could push much higher up the pitch. With both wingers removed and Fatawu playing more centrally, it meant that they were not being pinned back.

- With Ndidi gone, we no longer had an effective outlet for the longball. After he came off, we lost aerial duels when going long.

- Vardy was tiring (he's 37!) and was not able to run the channels as effectively.

- Whilst defending a lead makes sense, with no outlet or coutner threat, it meant that we lost the ball over and over and couldn't get out!

- IMO it would have been more sensible to maintain the same shape and structure but change the personel. El Khanouss is pretty tall and maybe could have played 10 instead of Ndidi? Ayew could have been replaced by either McAteer or De Cordova Reid, so along with Fatawu we had wingers. Putting anyone on for Vardy, even if they weren't a striker would give us more running up front. Buonanotte might have had a bit of a knock but surely could have made an impact for the last 10?

 

 

^ This chart shows the attacking momentum of the game. Look how it spikes for Palace towards the end of the game. This is a direct result of the changes that both managers made. This objectively shows that our changes invited pressure onto us, and meant that a second goal for Palace was inevitable, whereas it was almost impossible for us to score a third. The gamble was that if we held out, we come away with all 3 points, but it didn't work out.

 

 

^ Here we see us going to long to try to hit Fatawu. But despite him being 6 foot, he's not so used to winning midfield aerial duels and lost out. The ball is easily cleared up by Palace, and it's backs against the walls again. We didn't have wide players, so we had to go central, rather than having options across the pitch.

 

 

^ For someone as experienced as Coady is supposed to be, this is an absolute brainfart. This is something that is out of Cooper's control, but Coady started season injured and clearly isn't up to speed yet. Overall for me the Coady addition destroyed out shape, killed our momentum and then as the icing on the cake, threw away 2 points with stupid play.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

- This was our best 1st half performance. Our ability to create a threat on transition was good.

- Up until the Kamada sub from Palace, we were the better team. So despite the gloom and poor game management from the manager, he did at least get 2/3's of the game correct and showed we can be a good team at this level.

- However, poor game management and inability to understand / react to changes cost us, and this has not been the first time this has been the case.

- Coady had a brainfart, but we had been inviting pressure onto us with the shape change. 

- The lack of an outlet cost us. We removed our width and got pinned back, because we took our wingers off and moved Fatawu more centrally.

- In the end this result was super frustrating and Cooper needs to learn! It's not a surprise he only won 2 away games for Forest if this is how he tries to see games out!

 

 

Onto Everton, and a game that already feels like a must win!

 

 

 

 

 

[Daggers]

TLDR:

 

 

[beepee1984]

In short - we are not a bad team, but being poorly managed during the game!

 

A player who has had injury problems and not match sharp, was brought on to tighten up and invite pressure onto the defence, then mis controlled the ball and in his desperation sticks out a leg and costs us 2 points (Meanwhile we have an international defender who is match fit and playing well dropped from the squad with no reason - who would have been a better personal option if the idea to bring an extra defender on was a good idea - which it wasn't)

[fox_up_north]

I've said it with prior managers - learn from it. 

I predicted 2-0 Palace before the game and, on balance, I think the point is a good one. 

 

But it MUST be followed up with adjustments to certain areas, so we can win. Absolutely need a win out of the next 3 to put ourselves in a good mindset. 

[Ric Flair]

Excellent this is

[dr.o.ball]

1 hour ago, phoneticerror said:

Saturday is Cooper’s last chance for me. If we cannot secure 3 points at home against a woeful Everton, we’re toast.

Coopers last chance on game 5? Glad you're not in charge, there isn't that many managers in the world. 😂

[Crinklyfox]

Thanks for posting yet another well-considered analysis.  For my many decades I've watched City without considering the tactics in the depth to which you have and this has increased my appreciation of the game.

 

I can't help thinking that City's analysts should reach the same conclusions, and if they do are they able to make suggestions in the same way?  Or is that left to the manager to interpret?  

 

As yet I don't know what kind of manager SC is - a dogmatic one who sticks to his ideas regardless of comments from others or one who is open to feedback and willing to make adjustments accordingly.  

[StriderHiryu]

25 minutes ago, Crinklyfox said:

Thanks for posting yet another well-considered analysis.  For my many decades I've watched City without considering the tactics in the depth to which you have and this has increased my appreciation of the game.

 

I can't help thinking that City's analysts should reach the same conclusions, and if they do are they able to make suggestions in the same way?  Or is that left to the manager to interpret?  

 

As yet I don't know what kind of manager SC is - a dogmatic one who sticks to his ideas regardless of comments from others or one who is open to feedback and willing to make adjustments accordingly.  

 

They will be able to make suggestions post match for sure. The assistant probably has the biggest say of all, especially mid-match. One reason I do this work is that for positions such as football analysts, you may be asked to compile a report / dossier either for an upcoming match, or one that has previously been played. The content of such a report would be slightly different and more technical, but would probably reach the same conclusions. Will Still who is now the Lens manager got his start doing this for a 2nd division Belgian team as an example. Maybe I might try to get into football later down the line? I suspect I'm too old, but you never know!

 

Going back to Cooper, trying to be objective here:

 

- Seeing out games by going into a defensive shape was in the past seen as "the percentage play" in years gone by. I wonder if it's an England coaching setup thing, because Southgate did it, as did McLaren and many other English based managers.

 

- In this game, if Cooper did want to defend the 2-1, he did it in the wrong way.

              - Palace put on Kamada and moved Nketiah up front, so that means they've added an extra attacker. Responding by putting on another defender is the "correct" way to answer that move.

              - However, Cooper also packed midfield by putting Hamza on and withdrawing Ayew, and that doesn't make sense. Palace kept their wingbacks the entire game and in fact replaced them to have players with more energy later on. If Palace had added another attacking midfielder so they had 2 up top AND another central player, then the Hamza move would make sense. But instead it meant their wingbacks who were previously pinned back could do what they wanted to.

 

 

[Groby_Blue]

Excellent analysis, thank you. 

 

After the match I was messaging a F***t supporting mate and he said that whenever forest were winning,  Cooper would tell them to sit back and hold on - which they rarely did, and he'd always make bizarre late subs which also never worked. 

 

And he's doing the same thing here, so if we think and hope that Cooper will learn from these decisions and make adjustments for them, history suggests otherwise. 

 

Winning away from home needs a cool head and clever game mangament to see a game out and hold on to the result and I'm not sure Cooper has got that in him at the moment.  

[StriderHiryu]

6 minutes ago, Groby_Blue said:

Excellent analysis, thank you. 

 

After the match I was messaging a F***t supporting mate and he said that whenever forest were winning,  Cooper would tell them to sit back and hold on - which they rarely did, and he'd always make bizarre late subs which also never worked. 

 

And he's doing the same thing here, so if we think and hope that Cooper will learn from these decisions and make adjustments for them, history suggests otherwise. 

 

Winning away from home needs a cool head and clever game mangament to see a game out and hold on to the result and I'm not sure Cooper has got that in him at the moment.  

 

That's pretty depressing to read!

[Kierzz]

3 hours ago, Parker Pen said:

Thanks Strider I really enjoy your tactical analysis and breakdown of the matches and it does make me wonder with all the staff and analysts as their disposal why Rodgers, Enzo and Cooper get their substitutions more often than not wrong.

Especially changing to a back 5  without a successful outball plan!

It's so easy to call which substitutions should happen in hindsight.

 

I'm sure he had a plan for an outcall, like Fatawu breaking and running into one of the channels to receive a long ball. Maybe with vardy also so they split their defence. But ultimately it didn't work, maybe due to energy levels, players being asked to play out of position, etc.

[Ric Flair]

23 minutes ago, Groby_Blue said:

Excellent analysis, thank you. 

 

After the match I was messaging a F***t supporting mate and he said that whenever forest were winning,  Cooper would tell them to sit back and hold on - which they rarely did, and he'd always make bizarre late subs which also never worked. 

 

And he's doing the same thing here, so if we think and hope that Cooper will learn from these decisions and make adjustments for them, history suggests otherwise. 

 

Winning away from home needs a cool head and clever game mangament to see a game out and hold on to the result and I'm not sure Cooper has got that in him at the moment.  

Yeah, which backs up the research I did yesterday. In 59 PL games, Cooper's sides have dropped points 9 times in the closing minutes. 

 

4 times his teams have been 2+ goals to the good as well. 6 times winning and then gone on to lose in the dying moments.

 

Our fans staunchly defending him can't say they haven't been warned.

[murphy]

24 minutes ago, Groby_Blue said:

Excellent analysis, thank you. 

 

After the match I was messaging a F***t supporting mate and he said that whenever forest were winning,  Cooper would tell them to sit back and hold on - which they rarely did, and he'd always make bizarre late subs which also never worked. 

 

And he's doing the same thing here, so if we think and hope that Cooper will learn from these decisions and make adjustments for them, history suggests otherwise. 

 

Winning away from home needs a cool head and clever game mangament to see a game out and hold on to the result and I'm not sure Cooper has got that in him at the moment.  

 

17 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

That's pretty depressing to read!

I know...

 

  Imagine having a Forest supporting mate 

[Bablemikey]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Yeah, which backs up the research I did yesterday. In 59 PL games, Cooper's sides have dropped points 9 times in the closing minutes. 

 

4 times his teams have been 2+ goals to the good as well. 6 times winning and then gone on to lose in the dying moments.

 

Our fans staunchly defending him can't say they haven't been warned.

As poor as that sounds those stats are relatively meaningless in isolation. It needs comparison to other teams at a similar level to us for context.

[The whole world smiles]

I'm a big fan of these. The title was slightly clickbaity and sensationalist but the content was very fair and balanced. Would love these as a podcast.

[Tom12345]

12 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

Aargh! What a frustrating game! 2-0 up away from home, good performances from several players, and yet we go away with just one point when we should have 3! In the video above I break down the game, with some more detailed examples here in the thread

 

Palace Setup

 

 

Under Glasner, Palace play an aggressive 343 formation with two wingbacks. Both Mitchell and Munoz push up high to support the attack, giving them options on attack. However, it also means that on transition, there are gaps behind those wingbacks that can be exploited, and this is something that for the first 64 minutes, we did well.

The Double Pivots

 

 

^ This game was going to heavily focus around which of the double pivots for each side could dicate the play. Palace started with Doucoure instead of Hughes, but he picked up a knock and Doucoure came off at half time. For the most part these players wouldn't be up against one another 1v1, which meant that in order to win the midfield battle, it was going to be other players that needed to disrupt them. Enter the stage, Wilfred Ndidi.

 

Wilfred Ndidi

 

Playing Wilfred Ndidi as a 10 / Box Crashing 8 was ridiculed last season, and that was in the Championship. And yet when he was out of the team, we had worse results and didn't play as well. And that has continued into this season too. He was brilliant in this game, with two assists, but also an all-round performance that was stand out.

 

 

^ Ndidi blocks the passing lane to Wharton. Winks steps up to put Doucoure under pressure, who plays the ball to Clyne. Ndidi pushes up and presses and does brilliantly to win the ball and setup a half chance for Ayew.

 

 

^ Recieving the ball, then using his strength to ride a challenge, pick himself off the floor and drive forward to play the ball into Mavididi.

 

 

^ Often in the match, we used Ndidi as our outlet when being pressed by Palace. When under heavy pressure and we can't play the ball on the floor and / or have to head clear, we would aim for Ndidi, who did a great job in the game at holding the ball up and keeping the ball for the team. Once he was taken off and replace by Hamza, we no longer had the ability to do this, and it was one reason why we invited wave after wave of Palace pressure onto us. More on this later.

 

 

^ Ndidi plays his part in the goal, he shrugs off Wharton again and plays the ball over the top to the GOAT. Vardy on the shoulder of the last man, attacking the goal you say? Only one outcome there!

 

 

Transitional Game

 

Now we are back in the top flight, games are way more even than playing against teams that stick 11 men behind the ball. Regardless of who was in charge this season, it meant that a change in style / outlook was inevitable, and under Cooper, we have become a team that looks to exploit opponents in moments of transition. We were quite good at this last season, and we've started this season with a decent threat. The first goal above is a great example of us landing the sucker punch on transition.

 

I describe a moment of transition as the moment when one team loses the ball and the other team gains possession. Moments of transition are decisive because they require quick, co-ordinated action and organisation as a collective to try to take advantage of the opponent's temporary, disorganised state. All teams press in the Premier League to stop teams dicating the game and to force them into mistakes. This means that when a team loses the ball, there is usually a 5-10 second window where they will be out of their defensive shape. Sometimes when a team tries to exploit the opponent when they are out of shape, they themselves lose the ball and are out of shape too, this is a counter-transition. Most games in the Premier League tend to be determined by these moments, and teams ability to maximise their effectiveness in these moments.

 

 

^ A danggerous moment for Palace on transition. The ball breaks and Eze gets on his bike to box crash. Kristiansen is in a predicament as he's been attracted all the way over from left back as we try to compress the defensive phase into one side of the pitch. This gives Munoz a totally free run at goal from right wingback, but luckily Faes makes a sensational challenge to bail us out.

 

 

^ Leicester almost score a second with another opportunity on transition on the stroke of half time. The hard-working Ayew wins the ball back and plays the ball into the wingback channel.  Vardy peeled out to the right hand side and plays in Mavididi. Perhaps Vardy's pass is a bit strong, but I think Stephy could do better and chop back into his right to test the keeper at worst. But luckily Stephy would make ammends pretty quickly!

 

 

 

^ To say the second half started with a bang is understamement of the century with two goals in the first 3 minutes. Hermansen plays the ball into the wight wingback position, Ayew wins the ball and plays it to Justin. Justin crosses to Vardy who lays it off to Ndidi, who unselfishly passes to Mavididi to put Leicester two up. This was good play from JJ, but perhaps makes us wonder why Ricardo isn't in the team and why we don't try to use the right back position more aggressively with a top quality player more often.

 

 

^ Unfortunately, Palace scored immediately afterwards. I feel we were a bit unlucky here and still am not sure why it wasn't offside! But that was the official decision so the goal stood. Okoli and Faes did well as they had stepped up to play Mateta offside, but JJ's dangling foot played them on. I think if we had of stayed 2-0 up for longer we would have won.

 

Palace Changes

 

 

 

At 64 minutes, with roughly 30 minutes of the game left, Glasner went for it. He put on Kamada, but also changed shape and pushed Nketiah up front with Mateta. This left them even more open at the back, but gave them better attacking threat. Sadly, the way Cooper reacted to this was poor. Despite Palace getting a goal back, up until this change, I felt we were comfortable and looked like we would see out the game.

 

 

 

^ Cooper made 3 subs, but drastically changed shape. And for me this change of shape cost us the game. He was super defensive and went 532. Forget the fact that Coady had a brain fart for a second, this change caused several issues:

 

- The Palace wingbacks could push much higher up the pitch. With both wingers removed and Fatawu playing more centrally, it meant that they were not being pinned back.

- With Ndidi gone, we no longer had an effective outlet for the longball. After he came off, we lost aerial duels when going long.

- Vardy was tiring (he's 37!) and was not able to run the channels as effectively.

- Whilst defending a lead makes sense, with no outlet or coutner threat, it meant that we lost the ball over and over and couldn't get out!

- IMO it would have been more sensible to maintain the same shape and structure but change the personel. El Khanouss is pretty tall and maybe could have played 10 instead of Ndidi? Ayew could have been replaced by either McAteer or De Cordova Reid, so along with Fatawu we had wingers. Putting anyone on for Vardy, even if they weren't a striker would give us more running up front. Buonanotte might have had a bit of a knock but surely could have made an impact for the last 10?

 

 

^ This chart shows the attacking momentum of the game. Look how it spikes for Palace towards the end of the game. This is a direct result of the changes that both managers made. This objectively shows that our changes invited pressure onto us, and meant that a second goal for Palace was inevitable, whereas it was almost impossible for us to score a third. The gamble was that if we held out, we come away with all 3 points, but it didn't work out.

 

 

^ Here we see us going to long to try to hit Fatawu. But despite him being 6 foot, he's not so used to winning midfield aerial duels and lost out. The ball is easily cleared up by Palace, and it's backs against the walls again. We didn't have wide players, so we had to go central, rather than having options across the pitch.

 

 

^ For someone as experienced as Coady is supposed to be, this is an absolute brainfart. This is something that is out of Cooper's control, but Coady started season injured and clearly isn't up to speed yet. Overall for me the Coady addition destroyed out shape, killed our momentum and then as the icing on the cake, threw away 2 points with stupid play.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

- This was our best 1st half performance. Our ability to create a threat on transition was good.

- Up until the Kamada sub from Palace, we were the better team. So despite the gloom and poor game management from the manager, he did at least get 2/3's of the game correct and showed we can be a good team at this level.

- However, poor game management and inability to understand / react to changes cost us, and this has not been the first time this has been the case.

- Coady had a brainfart, but we had been inviting pressure onto us with the shape change. 

- The lack of an outlet cost us. We removed our width and got pinned back, because we took our wingers off and moved Fatawu more centrally.

- In the end this result was super frustrating and Cooper needs to learn! It's not a surprise he only won 2 away games for Forest if this is how he tries to see games out!

 

 

Onto Everton, and a game that already feels like a must win!

 

 

 

 

Excellent work again.

 

Agree with everything you say.

 

At the end of the day, attack (or just playing our football) is the best form of defense, instead of just sitting back and inviting pressure (and be nervous). I don’t know why our managers (Rodgers and now Cooper) keep failing in this department. It is also bad for confidence if we don’t trust our own football to win games, especially if it got us to a winning position in the first place (as you say, we were doing well for 2/3 of the game!).

Edited Monday at 10:51 by Tom12345

[Pita]

Great article well put together. Let’s hope Cooper reads it he might learn a thing or two. 

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

Good analysis as always, though don't agree with it all. But surprisingly and disappointingly let down by an appalling thread title. Thought you were better than that.