Quote Originally Posted by Leics_Pie View Post
It was a rude awakening for sure.

Love LW, but thought the team selection was wrong from the get-go. First game back in the division against a team that has a lot of big and powerful players, would like to have gone for a bit more solidity at the back. Wanted TAR and Chicksen to start as both give us a bit more defensively than Jones and Nemane. Disappointing that Baldwin wasn’t fit to start either as the starting three have all got bigger weaknesses than him.

Ultimately though, the tone was set going a goal down after 90 seconds. You’d have thought the game plan would have been to be compact and not give them freebie’s in the first 20-25 mins, then look to exert influence.

The first goal was needless. Connell should have stepped across his man and let the ball run out. The mismatch at the corner, both in terms of physicality and positioning was frightening. Then to lose your keeper after 14 mins thanks to yet another poor back pass is pure shooting ourselves in the foot. 11v11 was going to be tough, a man down which gave them an extra player to press with was suicide.

Our game plan is high line, condense the pitch, dominate possession, overwhelm teams. Fair enough, but we saw last season we struggle and make mistakes when team press us consistently. We’ve got to get back to moving the ball more quickly and purposefully. The number of times we checked back/played loose passes was criminal and we started to see it at the end of last season. We can’t afford for it to continue.

Biggest issues for me are whether we have an option with more physicality in midfield when we are being overrun, and we desperately need a centre back or two that have the pace to make recovery runs when teams play behind the high line, as well as a dominant presence who can deal with set pieces and high balls into the box. Without those it’s gonna be tough.
I think you are spot on with hindsight but unfortunately LW didn’t have that and with Nemane being one of our best sources of attack last season and Jones looking fitter and stronger there pre-season and also him and the squad believed the hype of the bookies so why would he go defensive away at a team that finished 14th last season although your theory was more solid and bring the more attacking players on when the game was stretched a bit more …perhaps something we will have to do more often this season
We know there are problems at the back and would like to see Baldwin and Tipton in the side probably in a back 4
As worrying for me was Palmer and Bostock ran the midfield last season in virtually every game and rarely gave the ball away but yesterday they were both bullied and gave the ball away a lot.
Hopefully it was mainly down to us having 10 men