...and other tactical issues.
Facing Leicester at the moment isn’t a walk in the park.
If Rodgers goes 3-4-1-2, as he has their last few games, the CBs will have the two Leicester strikers trying to pull them wide and then beat them for pace. Ole might try to combat this by having AWB (primarily) and Shaw take turns to sit deeper as cover.
There’s also what the three CBs means for us, and particularly Bruno (who you’d expect to start despite Portugal’s ridiculous schedule the next ten days), going forwards with one of them likely pushing out to try to make life difficult for him. Ndidi, Tielemans and Perez are also pretty good at patrolling the passing lanes. I expect he’s going to have to work hard to get on the ball, or come wide or deep where he’s less effective.
Leicester are in the habit of dominating the ball, so there’s a chance we might see an approach like the one we took against City: use two of our forwards to man-mark their midfielders, then try to push on and nick the ball high up the pitch if we can pin them back. It’s ultimately how we won the penalty against City, and really disrupted their play, keeping Cancelo and Rodri off the ball, and forcing their eights to come deep to help out in the midfield area. If we can do the same and drag Perez deep, it’ll isolate their strikers and leave them outnumbered.
Alternatively, Ole might consider matching Leicester up by going three at the back with two strikers. I think this is probably only an option if Rashford is available though, which seems unlikely.
As such, I reckon it’ll be a more pragmatic version of the 4-2-3-1 we saw after halftime midweek, with a deeper block and the CBs and Pogba trying to hit James and Greenwood in behind.
Something pretty close to:
——————Hendo
AWB—Lindelof—Maguire—Shaw
————McT——Fred
James———Bruno———Pogba
—————Greeners
Combatting Vardy and Iheanacho
posted on 21/3/21
Our best two players in recent games have been Shaw and McGuire.
posted on 21/3/21
Good article Rosso. I don't think about tactics and formations as much as you do. I do think having at least one, good, true winger would be a start to addressing our problems against teams who sit deep.
posted on 21/3/21
Donny starts! And Telles
posted on 21/3/21
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 5 minutes ago
Good article Rosso. I don't think about tactics and formations as much as you do. I do think having at least one, good, true winger would be a start to addressing our problems against teams who sit deep.
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I haven’t been the biggest proponent of us chasing Grealish this last 24 months or so, but it seems to me more and more like we’d benefit from someone of his ilk for the RHS than an old-fashioned flying winger.
We’re seeing more and more teams sitting deep against us, and linkup play, committing defenders and finding the forwards has probably been more of an issue than anything with our attacking play.
With Rashford on the left, and Bruno playing at least as high up as the wide forwards, it wouldn’t hurt having an inside right who could firstly take a bit of the pressure off Bruno in providing a creative threat, and second work space and time to deliver better balls into the other forwards.
posted on 21/3/21
comment by Pun Guy (U21588)
posted 50 seconds ago
Donny starts! And Telles
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And Martial and Matic.
posted on 21/3/21
Matic
posted on 21/3/21
Fredic in midfield today.
posted on 21/3/21
I’ve done a match thread as I couldn’t see a line up already posted. Sorry.
At least we can focus on the Europa now.
posted on 21/3/21
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by Pun Guy (U21588)
posted 50 seconds ago
Donny starts! And Telles
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And Martial and Matic.
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Yep
posted on 21/3/21
I haven’t been the biggest proponent of us chasing Grealish this last 24 months or so, but it seems to me more and more like we’d benefit from someone of his ilk for the RHS than an old-fashioned flying winger.
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Just go for Sancho, he'd be a better fit.