According to Lako, I apparently need to offer an opinion, and so here it is.
Results started to tail off after the Villa game. We were poor against Norwich and it's continued. Some may argue that we were poor against Villa, I disagree, but that's the joy of opinions.
Up until Villa, there was little outside pressure. The media were actively ignoring us and our rise. It became a running joke, it was that obvious. Post Villa, Rogers and others gave interviews about being ignored and the media hype ramped up considerably. I've just found reports calling it a two horse race etc immediately after those interviews and that match. There was also the added pressure of it being a record breaking victory, Vardy being on another scoring run etc.
In my humble opinion, the pressure got to the players at the worst possible time. We went into the Liverpool and Man City games under that pressure. Suddenly the media were talking about us catching Liverpool and leaving Man City behind. Other than Kasper, Evans and Vardy, none of our regular first team have experience of playing at that pressure. It's not about having so many first team games (Barnes, Chilwell etc) or even Premier League games. It's about knowing how to deal with the pressure of having to win every time you step out there. That's hard to do with 8, mostly young, players new to that.
The same youthful confidence that served us so well leading up to the dip is equally fragile and susceptible to knocks.
What really pisses me off, and is a reflection on society as a whole, is how everything must be black and white. Nobody is allowed to make mistakes and learn or move on. Look at Stormzy with his accurate, but misreported, comment on racism. It wasn't enough for large swathes of society and the media to be given the correct context, there were demands for him to be dropped from labels and kicked off shows. It's the same with us. Chilwell has shown on many occasions he's a more than capable left wing back for this team. He's also shown on many occasions he has weaknesses that hinder that. He can't possibly be a young player trying to cope with the extra mental pressure and adapt his game and still be learning, he's "dogshit", or should be sold for whatever we can get.
So, my opinion Lako, is that the players have struggled with the pressure and played themselves into a bad run of form. None of them are shit (if they are, you'll need to think of a different word to describe Alan Maybury going forwards), as they clearly weren't when they drove us to second.
