Post Match Leicester 3 Birmingham 0 FA cup r4

[Jeff]

Vardy, Yunus and Praet

 

[Micky]

Piece of piss. Good to rest some key players as well.

 

[TommyK]

Well that was easy. Id hope Birmingham would at least have a few shots.

 

[Miles Away]

Doesn’t get much better than that really:

No notable injuries and key players rested.

Matches for Vardy, Coady, Praet, Yunus.

A few debuts for Cover and Raikhy.

Vintage Albrighton/Vardy goal.

Clean sheet.

 

[Jeff]

Well that was easy. Id hope Birmingham would at least have a few shots.

They had more shots than us. And they won on xG.

 

[TommyK]

They had more shots than us. And they won on xG.

It was sarcasm.

They should have been 3 up at half time

 

[bocadillo]

5th round draw will take place ahead of the game between Liverpool and Norwich City from around 2pm tomorrow.

Ball 6

 

[Micky]

Pereira was class when he came on.
Ben Nelson is very promising.
Akgun good but would I spend alit of money on him, no.
Cannons movement is excellent.
Hamza had a shocker.
Stolarcyk was generally superb.
Last one... Vardy and Albrighton rolled back the years and I loved it.

 

[Miles Away]

Always great to see academy/youth players involved today. My thoughts on each:

Stolarzyck - made some excellent saves and commands his box well. Not as good with his feet as Hermansen, but expect him to have a good career.

Cover - Looked busy and only played 45. Our midfield was getting overrun in the first half and he had a lot to deal with. Thought he did alright, but is probably far off the first team.

Choudhury - Pretty crap, to be honest. Serviceable enough in an “as needed” role but his days of playing every week are long gone.

Mcateer - Busy, tidy, bit of pace. Not sure he’ll ever reach premier league level but he’s certainly got enough about him in the championship.

Marcal - Anonymous again. I think he needs a loan and a run of games before we can decide, but he’s not someone I think we can rely on currently.

Raikhy - Too early to say. Kept himself busy, but like Cover, don’t think we will see him again for a while.

A word for Nelson though. I think he’s our best academy prospect since Chilwell. He looks calm, strong, has an eye for a pass and anticipates danger really well. He looks the business to me and I would like to see him more involved as the season goes on. If you told me today he’d go on to get caps, I’d believe you. Early days, but ****ing hell, he looks a good player.

 

[londonfox]

Nelson looks like a real prospect. If Vesty or Faes were out I’d have no problem with him playing in the Championship.

I thought Yunus had a good game throughout.

Lovely to see Albrighton and Vardy combine again. Albrighton had a good game.

Cannon is a real talent. Only a cameo today but he did so well for the third. And it was a very nice finish from the much maligned Dennis Praet.

Stolarczyk did excellently with his saves, not so much with his feet. He can be proud of his performance.

Marcal isn’t good enough and doesn’t look likes he’s going to be. I’d be worried if we had to rely on Coady in the league for more than one game. Choudhury was abysmal in the first half but got (slightly) better as the game went on.

Job done. Now let’s end the Maidstone dream in the next round.

 

[tedfoxxx]

McAteer coming on made a massive difference, played as a more conventional wing back and meant that we weren’t hideously outnumbered in midfield and it made space for Akgun.

Ricardo can just cruise through a half against tired opposition too.

Picked them off brilliantly in the second half. Albrighton was immense bless him. Nelson looks the business.

 

[Miles Away]

Yeah, Cannon looked very very sharp.

 

[Robin127]

McAteer coming on made a massive difference, played as a more conventional wing back

He also had Justin playing behind him, for all his good passing Doyle just cannot defend.

 

[Rock Fox]

Phew! The second half was as pleasurable as the first half was painful. There were some awful performances in first 45 minutes but let's not dwell on that.

MOTM for me was either Stolarczyk (for 1st half) or Albrighton (in second half)

And the Albrighton-to-Vardy-to-back-of-the-net brought back so many joyful memories!

 

[Orifice]

A fine result. Great to see youngsters and non first team regulars getting a game. A great goal by two of our newcomers to the team for the first goal.

Earlier this season, I was happy with Doyle and was looking forward to Coady doing the business but neither of them look too good lately.

 

[Brown Nose]

Nasty first half performance from most of them. Choudhury and Marcal being the pick of a very bad bunch bidding for stinker of the day. I was sitting close to EM and he told the three subs that they were coming on at half time after 35 minutes. If I were him, I'd have done it immediately. How we weren't three or four down at half time is remarkable.

Cover was okay in possession but, positionally, he was all over the place. The problem defensively in that first half was that Doyle was playing too wide on the left and Coady kept going inside on his right foot which left a massive hole between the two.

The introduction of Ricardo made all the difference. Birmingham were disappointing after we went in front. They were still well in the game but their heads dropped and I could see from Mowbray that he knew that his team didn't have any belief once they went behind.

Praet and Akgun grew into it as soon as Ricardo was a calming influence behind them. Praet has class on the ball but just lacks that fire that you want to see. Akgun is not a central player, he has to play wide.

In the end, it will look like a job well done but EM messed up and got lucky. The selection was utterly stupid. To be fair, he realised that quite fast and made the key improvements at half time but it was pure luck that we got away with it.

Nelson looks a fabulous prospect. Aggressive and calm. He has some pace too. He got cramp with about 15 minutes to go and didn't even go down, just carried on in pain. He certainly didn't look a step down from Faes.

 

[Miles Away]

He can mess up and get lucky as much he wants as long as the wins keeping stacking up.

 

[tedfoxxx]

He also had Justin playing behind him, for all his good passing Doyle just cannot defend.

Doyle looks so unfit, I can’t see him getting his place back JJ now, although I’d be up for us signing him on a permanent if the opportunity is there.

 

[homer]

First half was an absolute festering pile of stinking shite. When you have three pieces of complete turd like a Marcal, Hamza and Praet reeking the place out there’s not much else you can do. I know it’s a cruel thing to do, but hevshoukd have hooked a couple of them after half an hour, it really was that bad. Incredibly lucky to limp along to half time without conceding, and we have the keeper to thank for that. His control of the ball at his feet and his distribution may be ****ing hideous, but my goodness he is a proper keeper.

The changes at half time obviously changed the game, and we ****ingbsmashed them in the second half. OST of this was down to Ricardo, who came calmly in and ran the whole game, particularly so when we were in possession. It was an absolute masterclass.

Hamza was wank. Marcal was simply not good enough. Praet was an abomination. Coady was poor.

Ricardo was imperious and without equal anywhere on the pitch. Stolarcyk kept us in the game. Nelson and Albrighton were excellent. I also thought Yunus was very good, more so given he had the ****ing hopeless Choudhury behind him and the abomination of Dennis Praet next to him.

Said it after the last round and I’m saying it again - I fancy us big time for a good cup run this year. Get yer bets on

 

[DillyDing22]

I’m sat a little confused because I thought Nelson gave the ball away time after time and kept putting the midfield and goalkeeper in heaps of trouble. Maybe I got the numbers or haircuts wrong, don’t think he warranted anywhere near the praise he is getting on here.

Overall though what a crap performance. Very lucky not to be dead and buried by half time, some excellent saves from Stolarcyk covered for his and the teams errors.

Despite this a fantastic result and lots of positives to take, returns to fitness, rests for key players, youth getting a chance, and the goals were beautiful.

bring on Maidstone