Bucks new way of playing

Fair enough, and well done Brendan. But, werent us silly fuckers crying out for this when he insisted on going toe to toe with everyone, in a passing contest? Does that make us the best British coaches of our era’s?
 
It's obvious that this 'development' is purely down to opposition and hasn't changed one bit since he came in. Reality is we don't have the ball against more technical teams and as a result we counter - we have always got results against teams like that. At the moment we've been lucky enough to come up against teams that don't press. Arsenal, Man City and especially Braga didn't press us at all - even Leeds sat off us. Liverpool Boxing Day tore us a new aris and will most likely do so again. If we can break the press and finish the few chances we get then we are laughing.

Wolves will be an interesting test and the best marker so far about how far we are progressing. Fully fit squad and we beat them - as we are now its much more touch and go.
 
Brendan Rodgers is the best British coach of his generation and has always been categorised as an ideologue, unbending in his desire to dominate possession, press high and be the aggressor in any game.

The Swansea City team he brought into the Premier League operated like a decaf Barcelona, monopolising the ball and using a 4-3-3 with tricky wingers hugging the touchline. Raheem Sterling, Luis Suarez and Daniel Strurridge offered his Liverpool team more counter-attacking thrust but Rodgers' principles remained much the same.

How he would change the style of a Leicester team who won a Premier League title counter-punching was one of the dominant themes of his first full season. However, in response to the disappointment of letting a Champions League place slip and the loss of Ben Chilwell, Ricardo Pereira and Wilfred Ndidi, Rodgers has adapted to make Leicester the league's away specialists.

We are dealing with a small sample size - and away fixtures at Manchester City, Arsenal and Leeds United are a factor - but Leicester's numbers are different from last season. They are having less possession - 50.8 per cent as opposed 57.4 per cent - and are completing just 386.9 passes per game compared to 431.1.

Shots per game have fallen from 14.2 to 9.3, although their expected goals per game is an identical 1.67. In other words, Leicester's attempts on goal are more scarce but of a higher quality, taking advantage of teams who commit numbers forward and are disorganised at the back (Jamie Vardy's winner at Arsenal a fine example).

1604690273929.png



It is Leicester's more passive defensive approach that is most striking, though. Defending in a back five, they are conceding more shots but are doing a good job limiting the quality of those shots because their expected goals conceded per game has decreased. Leicester are not pressing as intensely. They are forcing just 3.1 high turnovers per game to last season's 4.5, pressed sequences per game has decreased from 14.2 to 12.1 and most notably, Leicester are now allowing the opposition 16 passes per defensive action (PPDA). Last season, their PPDA figure was just nine.

Soaking up pressure and springing from deep has earned Leicester away wins at City, Arsenal and Leeds, although they have lost at home to Aston Villa and West Ham, failing to score in both. Sunday's opponents Wolves are rarely expansive so the onus will be on Leicester to take the initiative like a more typical Rodgers team.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top