Shakespeare and a pressing issue

After a mediocre start to the season, albeit with the caveat of a tough opening fixture list, we once again find ourselves little further on as a team. there will be some who argue - quite possibly with justification - that this was to be expected with Shakespeare in charge, that he was a good fix-it solution but is not capable of moving the club onward. It is up to him to prove otherwise.

As things stand now, he has several options at his disposal, but some difficult problems to solve as well in order to make them work. I find myself wondering how he can succeed in this challenge.


- We have 4 highly capable strikers. Vardy is looking sharp and so should score goals, Slimani knows where the net is and Iheanacho comes highly rated and with a strong record from Man City. However, the problem remains for Shakespeare that we never look anywhere near as good without Okazaki on the pitch. It's starting to feel like the old Heskey problem with him: He doesn't score much, nor does he assist, but without him as a foil and without the selflessness he brings to the team, we can't get into the kind of positions where we could make use of a more prolific player. I suspect the Slimani ship has probably sailed with regard to playing a 4-4-2, but can Iheanacho play in Okazaki's place? If the Huddersfield match at the weekend was an audition for that, it doesn't sound like a successful one.

- We're getting overrun in midfield. It's always the danger of playing a midfield 2, and Okazaki can help in that, but can this working going on? Ndidi and James have energy, but will surely always be fighting rather than controlling a match from there. And if they're struggling for supremacy, how can Iborra fit into such a formation given that he's far less mobile? However, if we play a midfield 3 - which is an option - Shakespeare has a different conundrum: Do you just play one up top? (Presumably Vardy.) In which case, where does Iheanacho fit in? What do we do with our 4 strikers (including Ulloa) who aren't starting? Whether Silva signs or not - and there is an argument to say that Silva could play as an advanced midfielder in a 3 - this problem would remain.

- Or do we go 3 at the back, with Albrighton as a wing back and Fuchs or Chilwell on the other side? This would mean a reshuffle at the back, where there are options, but it then leaves the question of where to play Mahrez or Gray. Neither could possibly be a wing back as neither can really defend. One could play as an advanced midfielder, but do you not just end up with the same problem and get killed down the wing?


Personally, I think there's no one perfect answer to the problems we have with regard to formation: It's the persistent modern-day problem that the ideal formation we would like to play is a 4-5-2. i.e. We have to leave a gap somewhere. What is more important to me is that we seem to have lost the art of pressing that we had during the title win season. That year, we pressed in waves, then sat back as a team to gather energy before going again. It was fluid throughout the match. At present - and granted the matches I've seen haven't been the greatest place to display this - we're not coordinated in a pressing game like we once were and opposition teams are finding ways to play around us. If I was Shakespeare, that would be the number one thing I would be working on in training: Press as a team, then rest as a team, repeat as fitness dictates. Do that and then we might be able to find ways of playing to a formation's advantage rather than trying (and probably failing) to hide its disadvantages.