Match Ratings Ratings vs Leicester

[TheHoddleWaddle]

Bentancur scored about 25 minutes before Bissouma came onto the pitch.

Yes I know. But there was a notable change in the formation that Bentancur, I felt, benefitted from when Bissouma came on. He was still generally excellent before.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

There are various versions of "we were shit"" and "we are boring" all over the board. It's a particularly strange accusation for such a free-scoring side after winning 6-2. But it doesn't want contradicting. It wants specificity.

We also have a fair number of "the defence was shit" this time, which isn't so. Sanchez made one of his stupid mistakes and then gave the ball away a few times. Otherwise, anything Leicester created was much more down to their very good creative players than our defence. Lloris was excellent and mobile, Dier and Lenglet controlled matters well in the box and even Sanchez was effective when he wasn't losing concentration. The wing-backs tracked back well enough and helped out, Sessegnon less so.

So what's wrong with us? Why are we so frustrating to watch most weeks. Because every player, almost without exception, has developed a habit of passing directly to an opponent, usually when under no pressure. It's not a problem that crops up 2 or 3 times and gives away a few big chances. it's a problem that happens 20, 30, even 50 times in a match. breaking up our attacking continuity, wasting countless promising positions and sacrificing initiative and possession. It happens so many times that you just want to throttle whoever was the most recent culprit.

More to the point, it happens in a contagious manner: we'll be fine, as we were for the first 15 minutes yesterday, and then the whole team, especially in midfield gets a collective attack of the giveaways at the same time. Some of it is due to the formation, with 2 midfielders usually coping with 3 opponents. But that's what the wing-backs are for: to provide an outlet for that pressure, working to ball wide to keep possession and try again. If no one can pass straight, they may as well not be there.

Opposition pressure is not the main issue, nor is the formation. Our wing-backs, midfielders and attacking players are giving the ball away under no pressure at all. Sometimes, it's ill-advised ambition, but usually it's just pure inaccuracy.

Richarlison has tried the same around-the-corner attacking flick about 9 times so far this season. On not one occasion has anyone started the run that is necessary to get on the end of it. So why does he keep doing it? In the first half yesterday, both midfielders, Kane and Sessegnon repeatedly passed directly to the feet of a Leicester player when at least 2 teammates were available and only Kulusevski seemed to have the rudiments of ball retention.

The result was Maddison's goal. It was a brilliant finish by a skilful player, but the situation arose because we had ceded possession cheaply every time we had the ball for the previous 15 minutes, leading to Leicester gaining complete control of the centre of the park, from where they could mount attacks in numbers, confident that, even if they lost the ball, we would give it back before we could mount a counterattack.

I don't know why the whole team loses concentration and intensity for 15-20 minutes at a time. But the incessant unforced loss of the ball in midfield is the main reason why we go through long periods without control, on the back foot, under pressure, without showing any attacking intent and without applying any pressure on the opposition goal.

When we don't do it, we get a performance such as the win against Fulham. That's the only match this season where it hasn't been a problem. If we can fix it, we may or may not win more matches, but we'll be a hell of a lot more fun and less frustrating to watch.

 

[Teemu]

Lloris was excellent and mobile, Dier and Lenglet controlled matters well in the box and even Sanchez was effective when he wasn't losing concentration. The wing-backs tracked back well enough and helped out, Sessegnon less so.

Watch out, that’s the sort of objective thinking that gets you in trouble on here

(Completed agree with your post btw)

 

[atoubasrightfoot]

There are various versions of "we were shit"" and "we are boring" all over the board. It's a particularly strange accusation for such a free-scoring side after winning 6-2. But it doesn't want contradicting. It wants specificity.

We also have a fair number of "the defence was shit" this time, which isn't so. Sanchez made one of his stupid mistakes and then gave the ball away a few times. Otherwise, anything Leicester created was much more down to their very good creative players than our defence. Lloris was excellent and mobile, Dier and Lenglet controlled matters well in the box and even Sanchez was effective when he wasn't losing concentration. The wing-backs tracked back well enough and helped out, Sessegnon less so.

So what's wrong with us? Why are we so frustrating to watch most weeks. Because every player, almost without exception, has developed a habit of passing directly to an opponent, usually when under no pressure. It's not a problem that crops up 2 or 3 times and gives away a few big chances. it's a problem that happens 20, 30, even 50 times in a match. breaking up our attacking continuity, wasting countless promising positions and sacrificing initiative and possession. It happens so many times that you just want to throttle whoever was the most recent culprit.

More to the point, it happens in a contagious manner: we'll be fine, as we were for the first 15 minutes yesterday, and then the whole team, especially in midfield gets a collective attack of the giveaways at the same time. Some of it is due to the formation, with 2 midfielders usually coping with 3 opponents. But that's what the wing-backs are for: to provide an outlet for that pressure, working to ball wide to keep possession and try again. If no one can pass straight, they may as well not be there.

Opposition pressure is not the main issue, nor is the formation. Our wing-backs, midfielders and attacking players are giving the ball away under no pressure at all. Sometimes, it's ill-advised ambition, but usually it's just pure inaccuracy.

Richarlison has tried the same around-the-corner attacking flick about 9 times so far this season. On not one occasion has anyone started the run that is necessary to get on the end of it. So why does he keep doing it? In the first half yesterday, both midfielders, Kane and Sessegnon repeatedly passed directly to the feet of a Leicester player when at least 2 teammates were available and only Kulusevski seemed to have the rudiments of ball retention.

The result was Maddison's goal. It was a brilliant finish by a skilful player, but the situation arose because we had ceded possession cheaply every time we had the ball for the previous 15 minutes, leading to Leicester gaining complete control of the centre of the park, from where they could mount attacks in numbers, confident that, even if they lost the ball, we would give it back before we could mount a counterattack.

I don't know why the whole team loses concentration and intensity for 15-20 minutes at a time. But the incessant unforced loss of the ball in midfield is the main reason why we go through long periods without control, on the back foot, under pressure, without showing any attacking intent and without applying any pressure on the opposition goal.

When we don't do it, we get a performance such as the win against Fulham. That's the only match this season where it hasn't been a problem. If we can fix it, we may or may not win more matches, but we'll be a hell of a lot more fun and less frustrating to watch.

Nailed it.

 

[ero1x]

There are various versions of "we were shit"" and "we are boring" all over the board. It's a particularly strange accusation for such a free-scoring side after winning 6-2. But it doesn't want contradicting. It wants specificity.

We also have a fair number of "the defence was shit" this time, which isn't so. Sanchez made one of his stupid mistakes and then gave the ball away a few times. Otherwise, anything Leicester created was much more down to their very good creative players than our defence. Lloris was excellent and mobile, Dier and Lenglet controlled matters well in the box and even Sanchez was effective when he wasn't losing concentration. The wing-backs tracked back well enough and helped out, Sessegnon less so.

So what's wrong with us? Why are we so frustrating to watch most weeks. Because every player, almost without exception, has developed a habit of passing directly to an opponent, usually when under no pressure. It's not a problem that crops up 2 or 3 times and gives away a few big chances. it's a problem that happens 20, 30, even 50 times in a match. breaking up our attacking continuity, wasting countless promising positions and sacrificing initiative and possession. It happens so many times that you just want to throttle whoever was the most recent culprit.

More to the point, it happens in a contagious manner: we'll be fine, as we were for the first 15 minutes yesterday, and then the whole team, especially in midfield gets a collective attack of the giveaways at the same time. Some of it is due to the formation, with 2 midfielders usually coping with 3 opponents. But that's what the wing-backs are for: to provide an outlet for that pressure, working to ball wide to keep possession and try again. If no one can pass straight, they may as well not be there.

Opposition pressure is not the main issue, nor is the formation. Our wing-backs, midfielders and attacking players are giving the ball away under no pressure at all. Sometimes, it's ill-advised ambition, but usually it's just pure inaccuracy.

Richarlison has tried the same around-the-corner attacking flick about 9 times so far this season. On not one occasion has anyone started the run that is necessary to get on the end of it. So why does he keep doing it? In the first half yesterday, both midfielders, Kane and Sessegnon repeatedly passed directly to the feet of a Leicester player when at least 2 teammates were available and only Kulusevski seemed to have the rudiments of ball retention.

The result was Maddison's goal. It was a brilliant finish by a skilful player, but the situation arose because we had ceded possession cheaply every time we had the ball for the previous 15 minutes, leading to Leicester gaining complete control of the centre of the park, from where they could mount attacks in numbers, confident that, even if they lost the ball, we would give it back before we could mount a counterattack.

I don't know why the whole team loses concentration and intensity for 15-20 minutes at a time. But the incessant unforced loss of the ball in midfield is the main reason why we go through long periods without control, on the back foot, under pressure, without showing any attacking intent and without applying any pressure on the opposition goal.

When we don't do it, we get a performance such as the win against Fulham. That's the only match this season where it hasn't been a problem. If we can fix it, we may or may not win more matches, but we'll be a hell of a lot more fun and less frustrating to watch.

The amount of times we needlessly give the ball away is mind numbing… I feel once this stops we’ll start to really control games.

 

[EastLondonYid]

Can't see beyond Sonny for mom.
How can someone come on and score a wonder hatrick in 15 minutes not be.

I've been begging for 3-5-2 all season
We don't have the right players for 3-4-3 yet....

Bissouma came on and Maddisson was completely nullified and we took complete control.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Sorry but we were poor in defence yesterday. People only seem to recognise obvious errors. The amount of times the ball was played into Leicesters front three uncontested who were able to turn and run at us happened far to often. Not aggressive and strong on the first ball and plenty of hesitation in there.

 

[Timberwolf]

There are various versions of "we were shit"" and "we are boring" all over the board. It's a particularly strange accusation for such a free-scoring side after winning 6-2. But it doesn't want contradicting. It wants specificity.

We also have a fair number of "the defence was shit" this time, which isn't so. Sanchez made one of his stupid mistakes and then gave the ball away a few times. Otherwise, anything Leicester created was much more down to their very good creative players than our defence. Lloris was excellent and mobile, Dier and Lenglet controlled matters well in the box and even Sanchez was effective when he wasn't losing concentration. The wing-backs tracked back well enough and helped out, Sessegnon less so.

So what's wrong with us? Why are we so frustrating to watch most weeks. Because every player, almost without exception, has developed a habit of passing directly to an opponent, usually when under no pressure. It's not a problem that crops up 2 or 3 times and gives away a few big chances. it's a problem that happens 20, 30, even 50 times in a match. breaking up our attacking continuity, wasting countless promising positions and sacrificing initiative and possession. It happens so many times that you just want to throttle whoever was the most recent culprit.

More to the point, it happens in a contagious manner: we'll be fine, as we were for the first 15 minutes yesterday, and then the whole team, especially in midfield gets a collective attack of the giveaways at the same time. Some of it is due to the formation, with 2 midfielders usually coping with 3 opponents. But that's what the wing-backs are for: to provide an outlet for that pressure, working to ball wide to keep possession and try again. If no one can pass straight, they may as well not be there.

Opposition pressure is not the main issue, nor is the formation. Our wing-backs, midfielders and attacking players are giving the ball away under no pressure at all. Sometimes, it's ill-advised ambition, but usually it's just pure inaccuracy.

Richarlison has tried the same around-the-corner attacking flick about 9 times so far this season. On not one occasion has anyone started the run that is necessary to get on the end of it. So why does he keep doing it? In the first half yesterday, both midfielders, Kane and Sessegnon repeatedly passed directly to the feet of a Leicester player when at least 2 teammates were available and only Kulusevski seemed to have the rudiments of ball retention.

The result was Maddison's goal. It was a brilliant finish by a skilful player, but the situation arose because we had ceded possession cheaply every time we had the ball for the previous 15 minutes, leading to Leicester gaining complete control of the centre of the park, from where they could mount attacks in numbers, confident that, even if they lost the ball, we would give it back before we could mount a counterattack.

I don't know why the whole team loses concentration and intensity for 15-20 minutes at a time. But the incessant unforced loss of the ball in midfield is the main reason why we go through long periods without control, on the back foot, under pressure, without showing any attacking intent and without applying any pressure on the opposition goal.

When we don't do it, we get a performance such as the win against Fulham. That's the only match this season where it hasn't been a problem. If we can fix it, we may or may not win more matches, but we'll be a hell of a lot more fun and less frustrating to watch.

Definitely agree that we need to be sharper in possession and stop giving the ball away so cheaply. Given how much we must practise these passing patterns in training, it's amazing we're not better at them by now.

I do think that a big reason we're struggling is that the opposition teams are getting wise to our automations and cutting them out at the source. We repeatedly have our CBs make fast vertical passes through to the feet of our forwards, but more and more often the opposition are getting touch-tight to our front 3 and making life extremely difficult for them to receive the ball and make the lay-offs required to get us on the break.

Towards the end of last season we scored about 5 or 6 'classic' Conte goals where we basically passed our way from Lloris all the way through the opposition in fluid, calculated moves. Teams haven't let us do that this season and I can't think of a single goal we've scored that quite fits that mould. More and more often they're blocking the passing lanes, forcing the play to our weaker passers (e.g. Sanchez, Royal) and generally stifling our entire game plan.

Also doesn't help that accurate one-touch passing isn't really the speciality of many of our players. Players like Son and Richarlison are much better as direct runners and finishers than reliable technicians, which means they naturally fuck up lots of moves. Plus pretty much all of our wingbacks except Perisic are quite average in possession.

 

[ohtottenham!]

Definitely agree that we need to be sharper in possession and stop giving the ball away so cheaply. Given how much we must practise these passing patterns in training, it's amazing we're not better at them by now.

I do think that a big reason we're struggling is that the opposition teams are getting wise to our automations and cutting them out at the source. We repeatedly have our CBs make fast vertical passes through to the feet of our forwards, but more and more often the opposition are getting touch-tight to our front 3 and making life extremely difficult for them to receive the ball and make the lay-offs required to get us on the break.

Towards the end of last season we scored about 5 or 6 'classic' Conte goals where we basically passed our way from Lloris all the way through the opposition in fluid, calculated moves. Teams haven't let us do that this season and I can't think of a single goal we've scored that quite fits that mould. More and more often they're blocking the passing lanes, forcing the play to our weaker passers (e.g. Sanchez, Royal) and generally stifling our entire game plan.

Also doesn't help that accurate one-touch passing isn't really the speciality of many of our players. Players like Son and Richarlison are much better as direct runners and finishers than reliable technicians, which means they naturally fuck up lots of moves. Plus pretty much all of our wingbacks except Perisic are quite average in possession.

This is spot on, imo, in every point you make. I think a key issue in yesterday's game all came from the defence. Romero's absence was clear from the start. We're just so much more organized and composed in every way, back to front, when he's there.

Sess had one of those games where he was losing concentration, and Lenglet while he had a good game overall, is still new to the team. Think we actually missed Davies' calming influence in there given Romero's absence.

That first half was the most open and vulnerable I've seen us look defensively all season.

 

[Japhet]

The amount of times we needlessly give the ball away is mind numbing… I feel once this stops we’ll start to really control games.

I think a big part of that is playing 2 in CM. Winning second balls in midfield becomes increasingly rare and the lack of passing angles makes it extremely difficult to play up the middle. It also greatly decreases options for the back 3 to pass out of defence which means we often revert to long balls. Conte wants to play like this though, but I'd say things became significantly more stable when Bissouma joined PEH and Bentancur in the middle.