A new era of defense and counterattack!

[Stonigut]

Count'em three, yes three 22 yo's with an good and growing record of defensive advantages on an individual level that combined with Captain Morgan the man who is leading Leicester to potentially surviving the drop with a rock hard defense that has led that team to six wins in seven starts with a good chance of surviving the drop if they can win this weekend, this core is as good as we have ever seen on an individual level.

So Lawrence, Powell, Hector, Captain Morgan, Mapps, Taylor, all very goods, all very competitive with three young ones with the most incredible upside.

Looking at dm in a 4-5-1 with Austin and Watson we have two crunchers, two ball winners and two with hearts of winners, they will with the wing backs will initiate /lead the counter attacks upon interception or break down in opponent attacks.

On the attack side mcleary and mcanuff both harass opponents deep into their own defensive half also creating multiple opportunities for counters with Dawkins, Barnes in the attacking mid or Barnes or mattocks at top we have a lot of speed, skill and decent finishing to compete with any team playing this style.

Hopefully Winnie can get the chemistry going, if that gets rolling and we get true cohesion I cannot wait to see this thing on the field.

[Stonigut]

Wow, went back and looked at this old post, very interesting!!

[OJ]

Stoni you make like this.

http://spielverlagerung.com/2014/07/...ng-variations/

[Stonigut]

Serious detail that, use of counter press requires an incredible level of fitness, discipline and team awareness, my thoughts are more on fundamental press rather than counterpress, in my mind counterpress uses a lot of energy and the payback benefit may not be so great relative to cost. So upon ball loss it is more getting back to tortoise shape and reset the formation and press man, space and potential passing lane.

So much opportunity to improve and we have the best athletes to make regular pressing effective, speed, strength now we just need fitness and discipline, both easily attainable but not so easy in yard environment.

[OJ]

Fair point, I think though so much of the game now is about defending to score , how to turn people over and attack while they are unbalance. The other point that is evident although the english media is missing this is that counter press did not start with klop. He used it to great effect but you made a great point. Will this work in the EPL when you play 3 games in 7 days especially over the holiday period. Secondly does athletes who are in the latter stages invested in this as it is hard running and at 31 or so I may not want to do it as it going to shorten by shelve life. Overall over the last 5 years immediate ball recovery or countepress has defined some teams and coaches. Pep and klop to name a few.