It's late, Ive had a long day, so I'll keep this brief.
What was perhaps lost in amongst all the ref being a cunt stuff, I think, was the fact that Leicester actually, plain and simple, out tactic'd and outplayed us for big chunks of today.
And I don't often say this about any team against us, and even rarer teams from the middle of the table.
This 41212 diamond was really poor in application, with no Kane or Alli, there's very little presence or creative interplay. Llorente is very static and predictable and Son is almost the opposite, very lively but incredibly erratic, he's capable of explosive moments of productivity but also a lot of bumbling about, he rarely does anything in a composed fashion. For most of this game neither Skipp or Sissoko, the two occupying the 8 remits, offered any creative interplay either (contrast with Tielemans for example who played several incisive passes), this left Eriksen with virtually the sole creative remit, and he's really missing the presence of Kane and Alli to bounce off, to hold up, interact and share the creative load.
Puel set Leicester up in a kind of 4141 but unlike many team that come here and just try to stifle and counter, Leicester actually played football, several times outplaying us in midfield - mostly on Sissoko's side - and opening us up. First half we had more possession, second half they had 55%.
Yes, they played a couple of balls inside Tripper, but they also played one inside Sissoko, and one inside Rose that lead to their goal. There was no "targeting' of Trippier, they just outplayed us in midfield and repeatedly got behind us.
They played much cleverer attacking football than we did, Madison and Tielemans providing the kind of midfield incision that Sissoko and especially Skipp failed miserably to do for us. We made 9 key passes as a team, Madison made 7 on his own, and Leicester made 19, more than double ours, they also had 20 shots to our 12, 9 on target to our 5. We scored three goals with an x/g of 1.26, theirs was 2.76
Poch really needed to react to what was happening, switch up the diamond maybe into a 4231 with Skipp and Winks sitting, Eriksen as the 10 and Sissoko ARM, or go orthodox 433, dropping Eriksen back and pushing Sissoko into the front three, with Son WLF, but getting both him and Sissoko to track their full backs. The way this played out they just swamped out midfield, we had no-one showing, holding and bringing others into forward areas and as a result couldn't retain the ball in their third or create chances, especially second half.
Luckily for us, Eriksen came up with a nice assist and cracking goal, but even the rest of his day was pretty meh by his standards, Leicester completely snuffing him out, the excellent Ndidi keeping him very quiet - although it was Ndidi's blunder from Sissoko's hopeful pass that ultimately helped us finally seal the deal, allowing Son to canter from our own half all the way to their penalty box as they were piled forward trying to equalise.
The only two players to really come out of this game with much credit were Lloris, who finally saved a penalty and made a couple of other really good stops, Sanchez, who was excellent throughout, several times putting his pace to good use, but was also calm under pressure with the ball too (63 passes 91% second best behind Winks) and Winks who once again held things together, got through a shit load of ball and is also improving his defensive play, game by game.
Players
Lloris - Great penalty save, very good game.
Trippier - Positioning was poor for the first chance for Brooks, but after that just got caught out like others did by our poor pressing ahead of him and inability to stop them playing through us.
Sanchez - Very good game, using his pace well and staying calm under pressure.
Vertonghen - Pretty decent, tough day though.
Rose - Decent enough, got done by a ball inside for their goal but no different to the other side, there was little he could do about it, it was just good football.
Sissoko/Skipp/Eriksen - This wasn't a bad performance by Sissoko's standards, and he finished with an assist, albeit helped by Ndidi committing harry carry and Son still needing to run half the pitch, and Eriksen curled a lovely assist for Sanchez's goal and scored a cracker, but none of these three contributed enough for most of the 90 minutes. Skipp's a kid having his second start, so he gets plenty of latitude, but Eriksen and Sissoko really needed to provide more imputes to this game, but they weren't helped by the poor structure and tactics.
Winks - Becoming a vital component of the way we play. Another very good game.
Son - Goal aside, which was great, he was poor today, got himself offside (as often does) too often, flitted about and was really flimsy without the ball too, allowing players to go past him too easily and not dropping in and helping an outnumbered midfield enough.
Llorente - He worked hard by his standards, and showed some decent touches, but we miss Kane's energy and hold up play enormously.
What was perhaps lost in amongst all the ref being a cunt stuff, I think, was the fact that Leicester actually, plain and simple, out tactic'd and outplayed us for big chunks of today.
And I don't often say this about any team against us, and even rarer teams from the middle of the table.
This 41212 diamond was really poor in application, with no Kane or Alli, there's very little presence or creative interplay. Llorente is very static and predictable and Son is almost the opposite, very lively but incredibly erratic, he's capable of explosive moments of productivity but also a lot of bumbling about, he rarely does anything in a composed fashion. For most of this game neither Skipp or Sissoko, the two occupying the 8 remits, offered any creative interplay either (contrast with Tielemans for example who played several incisive passes), this left Eriksen with virtually the sole creative remit, and he's really missing the presence of Kane and Alli to bounce off, to hold up, interact and share the creative load.
Puel set Leicester up in a kind of 4141 but unlike many team that come here and just try to stifle and counter, Leicester actually played football, several times outplaying us in midfield - mostly on Sissoko's side - and opening us up. First half we had more possession, second half they had 55%.
Yes, they played a couple of balls inside Tripper, but they also played one inside Sissoko, and one inside Rose that lead to their goal. There was no "targeting' of Trippier, they just outplayed us in midfield and repeatedly got behind us.
They played much cleverer attacking football than we did, Madison and Tielemans providing the kind of midfield incision that Sissoko and especially Skipp failed miserably to do for us. We made 9 key passes as a team, Madison made 7 on his own, and Leicester made 19, more than double ours, they also had 20 shots to our 12, 9 on target to our 5. We scored three goals with an x/g of 1.26, theirs was 2.76
Poch really needed to react to what was happening, switch up the diamond maybe into a 4231 with Skipp and Winks sitting, Eriksen as the 10 and Sissoko ARM, or go orthodox 433, dropping Eriksen back and pushing Sissoko into the front three, with Son WLF, but getting both him and Sissoko to track their full backs. The way this played out they just swamped out midfield, we had no-one showing, holding and bringing others into forward areas and as a result couldn't retain the ball in their third or create chances, especially second half.
Luckily for us, Eriksen came up with a nice assist and cracking goal, but even the rest of his day was pretty meh by his standards, Leicester completely snuffing him out, the excellent Ndidi keeping him very quiet - although it was Ndidi's blunder from Sissoko's hopeful pass that ultimately helped us finally seal the deal, allowing Son to canter from our own half all the way to their penalty box as they were piled forward trying to equalise.
The only two players to really come out of this game with much credit were Lloris, who finally saved a penalty and made a couple of other really good stops, Sanchez, who was excellent throughout, several times putting his pace to good use, but was also calm under pressure with the ball too (63 passes 91% second best behind Winks) and Winks who once again held things together, got through a shit load of ball and is also improving his defensive play, game by game.
Players
Lloris - Great penalty save, very good game.
Trippier - Positioning was poor for the first chance for Brooks, but after that just got caught out like others did by our poor pressing ahead of him and inability to stop them playing through us.
Sanchez - Very good game, using his pace well and staying calm under pressure.
Vertonghen - Pretty decent, tough day though.
Rose - Decent enough, got done by a ball inside for their goal but no different to the other side, there was little he could do about it, it was just good football.
Sissoko/Skipp/Eriksen - This wasn't a bad performance by Sissoko's standards, and he finished with an assist, albeit helped by Ndidi committing harry carry and Son still needing to run half the pitch, and Eriksen curled a lovely assist for Sanchez's goal and scored a cracker, but none of these three contributed enough for most of the 90 minutes. Skipp's a kid having his second start, so he gets plenty of latitude, but Eriksen and Sissoko really needed to provide more imputes to this game, but they weren't helped by the poor structure and tactics.
Winks - Becoming a vital component of the way we play. Another very good game.
Son - Goal aside, which was great, he was poor today, got himself offside (as often does) too often, flitted about and was really flimsy without the ball too, allowing players to go past him too easily and not dropping in and helping an outnumbered midfield enough.
Llorente - He worked hard by his standards, and showed some decent touches, but we miss Kane's energy and hold up play enormously.
