Examining the second half’s chaos, individual mistakes, Enzo Maresca’s tactics, Cooper’s reputation, and other aspects of Leicester City’s 3-1 home loss to Nottingham Forest
They provide that second half just as you’re beginning to understand what this Leicester City squad is, how they play, what they excel at, and what you can consistently count on from them.
It was a disaster, to be honest. They provided little attacking danger, the play was haphazard, they let two bad goals, including a devastating one, and they had the opportunity to give up more. After substitutions were made, the performance just got more disorganised, and any hint of a strategy vanished.
All of it occurred, in part, because City’s performance in the first half forced Nottingham Forest to make a change. “Even though we were really good and organised in the first half, they were breaking us through the middle, so we had to make adjustments,” explained their manager Nuno Espirito Santo. The second half was far superior.
That was the problem with City. Forest made adjustments to neutralise their advantages and block the forward pathways they were using in the first half. The city need a response of its own. They had not got one.
City had another game where they played well in one half and terribly in the other. Only against Bournemouth have they not lost at least one half this season, and even then, they may have been lucky to avoid giving up in the second half. Despite just playing well for forty-five minutes, it has become one of this team’s defining characteristics. They have to make the correction.
The loss of this City team’s other, more admirable traits, however, is particularly disheartening. The reputation they have been cultivating over the last few months was not lived up to by them.
They are usually at their best towards the beginning of the second half. They had the best record in the division from minutes 46 to 75 going into the game, and last weekend’s match against Southampton provided more evidence. It was around this time that they faltered and gave up twice.
This team’s ability to stay in games has been maybe its strongest quality. They haven’t been thoroughly defeated. They have at least a remote chance of winning every game going into the last ten minutes. On Friday night, however, such was not the case. There was never a moment when City appeared capable of cutting the deficit after Forest had taken a two-goal lead.
Fans will get even more discouraged due to the circumstances of the game, as if losing to a local rival wasn’t depressing enough. Some of the hard work seems to have been undone. There seem to be questions about some of this team’s facts, the things you can rely on. When asked what they can anticipate from this City team on a weekly basis, no one has a definitive response.
Individual mistakes are less concerning than defensive weakness.
According to Steve Cooper, City’s loss was “self-inflicted,” with each of the three Forest goals being the result of individual mistakes. However, there was no consistent pattern among them.
Facundo Buonanotte gave up control while attempting to dribble out of his own box for the first Forest goal, and it just appeared to be a case of a young attacking player making a bad choice. There is a sense of youth about the Argentinean, and he likes to move the ball up the pitch and around players as much as possible. Occasionally, he will try to do this in the wrong places.
Perhaps much more worrisome was James Justin’s hack at the clearance. From a distance, the full-back’s frantic attempts to get the ball away and subsequent mishits appeared to be the result of nervousness.
However, nerves shouldn’t have been present. It’s not as though City is still trying to win. They had a lot of energy going into the game. It is not ideal if the players’ performances still convey a feeling of apprehension.
Harry Winks’ pass for the second Forest goal appeared to be a lack of composure. He played the ball too far ahead of Abdul Fatawu before he was ready to receive it because he was too eager to start City playing on the front foot and move the ball swiftly. Winks is typically far more calm than that and will know when to slow down and speed up the game.
After that, Caleb Okoli failed to come close enough to Chris Wood. However, that is actually a fairly common error. Perhaps it isn’t even accurate to claim that the Italian turned off. Wood was able to pivot and reach the bottom corner because he gave him a half-second more time than he should have.
Even though Wout Faes made a mistake by just heading the ball into a more dangerous position, the third goal felt like a lack of preparation. When Matz Sels launched the ball down the pitch, Faes and Okoli both acted as though they had never handled a ball like that before. This suggests that there was a training error.
To put it succinctly, there was no pattern to the errors. They happened for a variety of reasons. Actually, the issue at hand is not individual mistakes. This season, they haven’t been a constant problem.
Simply said, City is giving up too many opportunities. They have allowed the most shots in the league, and during their nine games, the majority of those have come from the defence and team structure rather than individual errors.
Since management needs to establish an environment where the majority of mistakes are avoided, they may be questioned if the mistakes persist. However, there is now insufficient proof of such. That is only one aspect of the defensive issues.
If the Maresca approach is successful in the first half, it shouldn’t be abandoned.
Cooper fielded an eleven, which would have been the overwhelming choice if City supporters had been invited to choose the squad. In addition, the City manager went back to using the Enzo Maresca system, which kept the two wingers high and wide and used Ricardo Pereira as a midfielder.
“We just felt that it was a game for two wide players and that they could have an impact against Forest,” Cooper explained the choice. In the first half, it was that way. We were able to get Abdul and Stephy a lot of good ball.
At halftime, that was the annoying part. We could obviously have a significant impact on the game. Any strategy that would have helped us win the game, however, was completely destroyed by the way we began the second half and subsequently lost the third.
Cooper made a bold decision. Reintroducing that setup on Friday night was an offensive move because, as was demonstrated last season, that approach is vulnerable to counterattacks, which is where Forest thrives.
However, it would be inaccurate to claim that City exposed themselves. Despite the danger posed by their wingers, Forest did not generate many chances in the first half. A 20-yard shot was their aim. Pinball at a set-piece was their only significant opportunity, which Mads Hermansen expertly saved.
In general, the strategies were successful. City used the middle of the pitch to play a lot of excellent football. They appeared more dangerous in their overall build-up play and frequently found themselves in favourable positions. It was thrilling to observe. Jamie Vardy’s goal was a pretty good team move that was taken directly from the Maresca playbook.
But the issue was generating obvious opportunities. Despite the excellent combination and territory play, City didn’t have many obvious opportunities. Players shooting from a distance when they could have pushed the ball into more dangerous locations may have been caused in part by a lack of patience.
Additionally, Forest had the second-best defensive record in the division going into the match. They have shut out several strong opponents this season and have been excellent at the back. Compared to Liverpool, Brighton, Fulham, and Bournemouth against Forest, City made ten passes into the penalty area. On that point, only Chelsea can surpass City.
The way the game turned out does not mean that the strategies were ineffective or that the system was completely abandoned. City could have won against teams with weaker defences than Forest if they had made better decisions in and around the box.
As Cooper loses favour in the struggle to win over fans, Chant will hurt.
Cooper refrained from responding to any queries regarding his time at Forest that would have been interpreted as demonstrating any disregard or indifference towards City fans and his position at the King Power Stadium at his pregame press conference. He is well aware that he is fighting for people’s favour.
It was not the right time to lose this game. The song “Straight back down, straight back down Leicester City, playing football the Cooper way” was sung by Forest supporters. That will hurt the manager and the fans alike.
The outcome of the home game against Forest was going to have the most impact on Cooper’s reputation among the supporters more than any other game this season. Due to the significance of this game, the goodwill he had gained from the previous two wins—particularly from the manner City came back at Southampton—may have all but vanished.
Fans won’t feel more confident that their team had no response to Forest’s adjustment and that the substitutes merely reduced their effectiveness, nor will it help that City’s weaker half occurred after the break. No matter what Cooper said or didn’t say during his press conference, the outcome on the pitch would always matter more. With so many admirers, it seems like he will have to start over.
Even though they lost, City is in a stronger position than they were two seasons ago.
Since City defeated Forest 4-0 in this match two seasons ago and was still relegated, supporters will undoubtedly be thinking about that possibility now that their neighbours have defeated them. However, for the time being, things are still looking better overall.
Before defeating Forest two years ago, they had only managed one point from seven games. They have now defeated them after winning nine of eight points. As frustrating as it is, the current results indicate that Forest will not be among the team’s bottom-dwelling opponents this season.
City won’t finish in the bottom three even if they have to spend the entire weekend watching other teams close the gap and pass them. They will still be ahead of Ipswich the next Saturday.
And Vardy comes next. He has already scored four goals this season, which is more than he scored in 37 games when they were demoted. Relegation-threatened teams are frequently criticised for lacking a goal scorer. That does not appear to be the case for City this semester, though.
There will be awful games this season, and sometimes fans will have to smile and put up with it. It goes without saying that this game in particular will evoke strong emotions. However, if you look at the wider perspective, they are not in a dire situation.
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