In a recent article from the soccer tactical website Phase of Play, Pep Guardiola is qouted, saying; “If your possession doesn’t have emotion or life, or you are not creating danger, I’d rather play on the counterattack.”
As a fan of Leicester you try to follow up on every aspect and talk regarding form, games, players, coaching staff, results, and of course, not missing the thorough and well written essays from Rob Tanner of The Athletic.
His recent story on tactical choices, statistics and the way of play in the games so far, gives a great insight into the full package. There are of course a great number of positives, but also part of the play that can give heavy concerns and looking at this analytics with the qoute of Pep Guardiola i mind, you are getting a picture that cannot be faulted.
All of the stats made up from the Leicester games so far, gives us in sum, a lot of possession with little or no penetration, and translating that into words of Pep, Enzo Maresca do have a distance to walk, before he is in reach of anything created by his former boss.
In football you do not have a this or that, as counterattacking is part of the game, as well as playing with possession. The key questions are, how many passes you use to create a goal chance, how fast you are pushing the ball forward and of course the pace and quality you have in your approach.
Brendan Rodgers struggled to get games to bed, having loads of possession, this has not changed under Enzo Maresca, as the passing in itself do not solve anything, if you throw away winning results.
Leicester do not look very comfortable at times in their new style, as the slowness and very patient build up, often results in little or no end product. Too little risk taken, and probably not enough creativity in the midfield area, as well as the skills of the three front men.
It will be interesting to follow the progress of Enzo, as Pep’s words surely makes a lot of sence, and watching Man City at present, compared to Leicester, are two very different movies.
TCF is in full support of Enzo at this point, but still worried that his approach might not be the most correctly. Questions to be asked? His act towards certain players, looks very odd and strange. They are great footballers and fantastic professionals, showing in other environments, that they can play and do well.
A manager need to find his own style, and of course having people to look up to, but as we have seen in the past an assistant is not the same as the main man.
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