trying to make sense of what is happening with Leicester at the moment. I am a Leicester fan and have been for 20 years. I have got carried away with moments and thought we were great after a good result and been distraught after others. The temptation is there to get carried away and make lots of sweeping statements after yesterday's capitulation but the fact my snap judgements have been wrong so often in the past makes me try to stay even headed. So taken on its own, yesterdays result wasn't so bad, was it? Millwall's first came from a dubious penalty decision. I was very close to the action at the ground and I wasn't sure whether it was a penalty. After watching the Football League Show I am still non the wiser. So not a stone wall penalty! This obviously knocked the stuffing out of Leicester, who in Sven's opinion, were tired anyway. We gamely tried to get something out of the game before half-time. Who didn't expect us to be level by the interval? That might have been our undoing because while flying forwards like it was the end of the second half, Millwall caught our defence out of position and were able to score a good goal. So we came out with a mountain to climb. But most in the ground fully expected us to do it. Dyer made a big difference and so did Vassell...at first. The same people around me who were fed up with Sven after the final whistle were fully expecting a full blooded fightback. We know it didn't happen. Millwall scored a third from a corner, with a huge helping of foul play in my opinion. The defender on Henderson was clearly elbowed out of the way. It should have been a Leicester free kick. So very disappointing. A team we were expected to beat and we end up trudging away from the ground after a 3-0 loss at home. As I've said, I think fans have a natural tendency to get carried away. But is there any greater cause for concern? Is it a one off or is there a deeper problem? Cause for concern one: the individual errors which plagued our early season seem to be back. Against Birmingham a soft penalty was awarded against us after Andy King trod on the forwards foot in the box. This was followed by a reckless tackle by Matt Mills which he was sent off for. Yesterday saw some individual errors too. If Bamba did trip the Millwall forward then it is the same error twice in a week. Bamba came close to being sent off too. Should players of the quality we have brought in be making errors this frequently? Cause for concern 2: Apart from Derby, we do not look anything like an attacking threat. We have top quality forwards who have done well elsewhere and they struggle to get into the game. This is particularly strange after the exciting football on offer from Sven's Leicester last season. Many fans clamoured for 4-4-2 but now we have it, it produces dull, defensive football with few highlights. Some fans before the season started were questioning Sven's decision not to bring any new wide attackers to the club. I was on Sven's side with this. I thought playing 4-3-3 would result in quality play from the wing and with the diamond, our midfielders should have the quality to put a decent cross in. It does not seem to be happening though. Our crossing from anywhere has been terrible and trying to pass it through the middle usually ends up with the ball back with the defence as we fail to find a way through. Concern 3: Many of our central midfielders seem to do the same thing. Johnson, Wellens and Abe all get the ball, put a foot on it, and look for a pass. With 3 players doing this it slows our attacks down to the extent that the opposition have no problem putting their training into practice and being very well organised by the time we get into their third. Concern 4: is there trouble in the camp? Stringer reported on the radio before the game that Neil Danns had left the ground before the game and gone home. He said he would try to get some answers after the game but none were forthcoming. We obviously have a large squad and the last minute rule change to only have 5 on the bench has made this problem worse. Concern 5: is Sven even sackable? I've heard many people say we should get a proven Championship manager to replace Sven. But...how many proven Championship managers are marketable in Thailand? Would the owners get rid of a worldwide name such as Sven? If not, what kind of manager would come to live in Sven's shadow if he moved upstairs? I'm not on the Sven out bandwagon just yet, but a hear a tiny ringing in my ears. It's not tinatus, it's the possibility of alarm bells in the not too distant future. To be fair, I should list the positives of the season so far but I doubt many people will have read this far anyway, so I'll leave it to others. Fingers crossed Sven pulls it out the fire but if he doesn't...then upwards and onwards!
I agree with the sentiments of your article and you make some good, constructive points. It is far too early to be writing off our promotion hopes. But there is a real issue with breaking teams down when they set up like Millwall did and more and more teams are going to do it unless we find a solution. I can't help but think that the way we play sometimes doesn't help us. We're too ponderous when we have the ball and its easy for teams to sit back and defend against it. Also, we have a lack of options when players do have the ball. For instance, lets say Lee Peltier has the ball, we're playing a diamond in midfield so there is no-one down the line for Lee to pass to, so the next pass has to go inside. But inside of him, there is 7 vs 9 in Millwall's favour so he has to go simple into Michael Johnson. So Johnson controls, looks up and it's the same situation. So he goes back to the spare man, Sean St Ledger. He looks up and its now 8 vs 9 but still in Millwall's favour so, with nothing on, he goes square to Sol Bamba. Bamba has the same situation as SSL but decides to play a pass into midfield to Richie Wellens Again we're outnumbered in front of him so he goes and spreads it wide to left back Paul Konchesky and the whole circle goes around again. For me, that shows two things. First, a lack of invention and innovation to try different things to unlock the defence and tactical naivety to play into Millwall's hands like that. All it then takes is one misplaced pass and we're caught with both full-backs up the pitch and space in behind for Millwall to counter. The diamond has worked in the bigger games when teams have come and played open football because it allows us the space to monopolise the centre of midfield but when teams like Millwall come and flood midfield, then there is no space for us to do this so we need to utilise the space out wide. But we don't do that and it's very hard to do that playing this narrow diamond. What I would suggest is, in games like this, it might be worth considering going back to 4-3-3 so we have people out wide to stretch the oppostion and the play which will result in more space in the centre of midfield as well. Also, it forces teams to change their approach as well if they want to match us up and try to deny us space. It was easy for Millwall to adapt because they just had to get their midfield four to deal with ours but if went 4-3-3, we'd either outnumber them in central midfield or they'd play the four narrow which gives us the extra man out wide if we can get full-back overlapping. There is definitely food for thought but there is undoubted talent in this squad and if we can work out how to play against these teams, then we're more than capable of promotion. But that is a big if.
Just on your point about Danns - he went home to fetch his family so he could watch the game with them, so nothing sinister there
he went home to fetch his family so he could watch the game with them, so nothing sinister there ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ That's good then. Apart from his family watching the game that is! This thing about Leicester not being able to break teams down. I've been hearing that criticism for years now. It's not necessarily something about Sven. Teams wouldn't do it if it didn't work sometimes. I would totally be in favour of trying 4-3-3 at home though.
Everyone is going to go the extra mile to beat Leicester, it is going to be hard for us this season with all the publicity, but Sven should know this anyway.If we'd won, we would be 4th, just goes to show that it is still far too early to write off any teams yet.
