Post Match Leicester 1 Liverpool 2

[TornadoShaunUK]

Great performance yesterday. Just a few moments of loss of concentration kind of let us down defensively and let them in. As against Man U I think we were the better side and can count ourselves unlucky not to have taken any points. We're clearly a work in progress and gradually improving playing some nice football, still need to solid up a bit defensively and develop a killer instinct at the other end. Two gripes yesterday, starting Gray up front ahead of Nacho was daft, as was subbing Maddison for Amartey at a point where we're looking in with a chance of getting the equaliser.

 

[Volpone]

Well, apart from the Morgan fluff, yes pretty much.

We were decent all over the pitch apart from in both penalty boxes. Gray up front instead of Nacho was mind numbingly stupid.

You obviously didn't see Maddison's excellent shot which would have beaten most goalkeepers. Were you asleep?

A lot of people including Matt Piper predicted Gray would start. He himself has said he wanted to play there if the opportunity arose.

Kelechi needed a kick up the bum. He is nowhere near nasty or physical enough to play up front yet. Read Mitrovic in yesterdays Daily Mail. That's how Nacho should approach games.

 

[camberwell fox]

The ****?

****ng auto correct.

 

[camberwell fox]

But we’re not the finished article yet. We have completely changed our style from that season as everyone spotted that it was a bit of a one off.

We are playing very good football and I fully expect in about 6 games to be firing on all cylinders.

I then see is getting bing the bike g boys a bloody nose.

As best I can remember it should have read:

I then see us giving the big boys a bloody nose.

 

[Volpone]

Watched the game back this morning. Football is all about goals, and I want to focus on our ability at either end.

I don't blame Ricardo for the first goal. It was just all round sloppy defending. Ndidi was as much to blame as anyone as he didn't spot the danger and was attracted to the ball. He should have been where the ball went.

The second goal was clearly Maddison's error. We now defend set pieces with a mix of zonal and man marking. It looks an absolute mess but yesterday was the first time we've been caught out with it (so far). Our best headers of the ball no longer man mark which is just counter-intuitive to me, and I think, to them too.

Whatever way you look at it, young players make mistakes and we're going to concede goals like we did yesterday. Especially playing a back four with two attacking full backs and central defenders that are encouraged to pass out of defence.

We averaged 1.6 goals against last season and I see no reason why we're going to do better this time overall. Unless Soyuncu is some genius, the same issues remain. The problem with this is that we then need to score at least two in most matches to get anything.

Taking Mahrez out of the team means fewer goals for us. Maddison is the solution to this but he's got too much pressure and expectation on his shoulders for my liking. We're absolutely desperate for Vardy to come back in and be at his best for us. Ultimately, I just can't see us scoring more than last season or conceding less.

So, it doesn't really matter that much how the playing style is changing, or our possession stats are improving, or our average age is reducing. We remain a team that can usually be okay against weaker opposition but who can also never really compete with teams with the better players.

Klopp spoke about how he was happy with his teams performance, including sitting back and playing counter attack when we had spells of possession. Mourinho was exactly the same. It's nice to see us playing good football but it's not good enough to hurt these teams. They will mostly be able to keep us out and then exploit our inevitable errors.

So, much as I can see that the football is better than it was in the second half of last season, what are we trying to achieve? When we played a style of football that was deliberately different, it gave us a chance against anyone. Now we're just settling for secondary status and a few condescending pats on the back.

If you're spending over £100m on an already strong squad, is that enough? We should be nowhere near a relegation battle as our squad is far superior to several others, but is all we're about trying to finish nearer to 7th than 10th and hope to avoid the big teams in the cups?

I read all that and have summed it up in 3 words 'work in progress' and I'm happy with how things are developing.

 

[H T B]

To me, some are falling into the WBA, Stoke and Southampton trap.
Plenty of positives to take from the game.
Nacho on the bench was the correct call.
He wanted it when he came on, it showed with our goal.
Hopefully next 2 weeks will get our new centre half ready to start in place of Morgan.

 

[Brown Nose]

“When we played a style of football that was deliberately different, it gave us a chance against anyone. Now we're just settling for secondary status and a few condescending pats on the back”.

That’s 100% absolutely the exact root of my frustration. Was talking about that with my parents yesterday after the results. What is the point of playing in the same style as the bigger clubs when all that means is the team with the best players wins? It’s an inevitability that we finish around 7-8 because that’s how much our squad is worth and we seem happy to play well in this style and lose than actually ruffle the feathers. I find it antithetical to what we’ve stood for for a long time. It’s amazing. The footballing world seems to have completely forgotten what made Leicester successful in the first place. Including Leicester. It’s fine to evolve but we are, like many others, falling into The Pepball trap.

"The best chess move to play is not the best chess move, it's the move your opponent least wants you to play"

 

[homer]

Nacho on the bench was the correct call.

No it wasn't

It was the stupefying ****wittery of the highest order

Perhaps the most incredible thing about yesterday's game is that it took the feckwit a whole hour before he finally brought a bloody striker on instead of fartarsing about with the hapless Gray, who clearly cannot play in that role while he has a hole in his arse FFS

It was extraordinarily stupid in every possible way

 

[bocadillo]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/how-leicester-city-players-rated-1959710

Tanner gives Gray the same score as Ndidi. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable!
I'm not going to give it the click that it doesn't deserve but perhaps you can tell me whether he believed that Ndidi was that bad or that Gray was that good.

 

[Brown Nose]

I read all that and have summed it up in 3 words 'work in progress' and I'm happy with how things are developing.

So, do you see us scoring more than last season? If so, where and how? And/or do you see us conceding fewer goals? Again, if so, how?

 

[londonfox]

Great performance yesterday.

No it wasn’t. Or we clearly have very different definitions of what “great performance” means.

 

[City Fan]

You obviously didn't see Maddison's excellent shot which would have beaten most goalkeepers. Were you asleep?

I genuinely don’t remember an excellent shot from Maddison. So I guess I must have been sleeping.

 

[City Fan]

Unbelievable!
I'm not going to give it the click that it doesn't deserve but perhaps you can tell me whether he believed that Ndidi was that bad or that Gray was that good.

Both 6/10.

 

[homer]

I genuinely don’t remember an excellent shot from Maddison. So I guess I must have been sleeping.

Hard to tell if it was excellent or not, as Gomez blocked it before it had travelled more than a foot or so.

 

[bocadillo]

Both 6/10.

Well, at least he got one of them correct.

 

[Volpone]

I genuinely don’t remember an excellent shot from Maddison. So I guess I must have been sleeping.

Perhaps it's me getting it wrong. Who had the shot through the defender's leg that their goalie saved with his arm as he dived to the right? In the first half. It was a fantastic save. I thought it was going to be a goal.

 

[Brown Nose]

"The best chess move to play is not the best chess move, it's the move your opponent least wants you to play"

Watford are currently doing a job on Spurs by roughing them up. Using their advantages and doing everything that Spurs don't want them to do.

They may or may not end up winning the game, but this is exactly what I mean by the above. Pretty passing football against these teams will always be the wrong option.

 

[Jeff]

Who had the shot through the defender's leg that their goalie saved with his arm as he dived to the right? In the first half. It was a fantastic save. I thought it was going to be a goal.

That was Gray.

 

[Brown Nose]

Perhaps it's me getting it wrong. Who had the shot through the defender's leg that their goalie saved with his arm as he dived to the right? In the first half. It was a fantastic save. I thought it was going to be a goal.

Our only decent effort in the first half was from Gray, when he was put in by a lovely ball from Ghezzal. That wasn't a great save at all. It was a save that any Premier League keeper would make.

 

[Mike - True Blue Tinter]

I take it that you also can’t see a vast improvement on how we played last season?

We are still getting to grips with new players trying to get used to playing with each other, this is going to take about 10 games until we get so until them we will still look a little disjointed. Yesterday we had Mendy (practically a new signing), Perreira, Maddison and Chezzai (sp). No team could introduce about a third of the players into a team and it not take time to get up to speed.

Surely you can see a vast improvement?

It took Vardy and Mahrez nearly a year to fit into the team and start playing decent football.