Four games in and our season has shown that our form is very unpredictable, we are well set up to counter against the superpowers of the Premier League but we struggle to finish off the teams in and around where we would expect to be. This was demonstrated in our home fixtures against Leicester and Bournemouth.
The next team to come to the Boleyn are Newcastle United. McCLaren’s men have had a rocky start to the season, with new players coming in and struggling to fully adapting to the British style of play. Hopefully we will manage to get that illusive first home victory of the season.
The diamond system that served us so well throughout the majority of the last campaign is beginning to seem predictable and teams are coming to the Boleyn with the goal of catching us out on the counter with pace throughout the attack. Mahrez and Vardy were both influential in Leicester’s victory whilst Gradel, Wilson and Ritchie also worked well together to expose our defensive fragilities.
In my opinion, a possible way to prevent the issue of the counter attacks is to inject some pace into our squad, in particularly out wide. This would allow us to play quickly on both sides of the pitch. Currently we are limited to playing the ball through the centre of the pitch. With the acquisitions of Moses and Antonio and other players like Lanzini, we ourselves have a very pacey attack.
In addition to this, I hope that our defenders have been working tirelessly over the international break as they have looked very nervous at home this season. In particular I would single out Carl Jenkinson as a player who has drastically underperformed. His individual errors have largely contributed to the defeats we have suffered, culminating in his dismissal after a clumsy challenge on Max Gradel to say the least.
Whether Slaven Bilic will change the team that thrashed Liverpool 0-3 for the Monday night clash remains to be seen however personally I would make just the one change, bringing in Antonio for Obiang or Noble. My reasoning for this change is simple. We need to change our system for these types of fixtures, the lesser teams if you will, as playing three fairly defensively minded midfielders in Obiang, Kouyate and Noble is not the way to dominate games and push results in our favour.
Join the conversation below: How do you think we can beat the ‘lesser teams’? What changes would you make both tactically and in personnel?
