Ricey

Guy who sits next to me left on the 79th minute rather than the 75th. Progress.

Southampton.

It's amazing how quickly the mood can switch when teams around you also win, especially winning in the way they both did. It's agonising. I tried not to watch both matches but then the score lines sucked me in. Ipswich's winner brought back some serious PTSD of Allison's winner for Liverpool against West Brom. Having said that, we are still in better shape than we were before yesterday's matches. We played well, displaying all of the things that we've been crying out for. Even if we haven't gained anything on Leeds and Ipswich, we can hopefully use the performance as a springboard to go on a decent run. Famous last words, but I think the remaining fixtures suit us. Next up are three teams near the relegation zone, who although they will be fighting for their lives, are down there for a reason. After that we have West Brom and Southampton at home, who are both good sides, but you would think they won't park the bus in the same way that QPR and Middlesbrough did, which could suit us. Preston away could be tough, as they are hard to break down, but they may have nothing to play for. Finally, Blackburn at home, a team which until yesterday had only won once since the 12th December.

Feels like the crowd are largely responsible for our more direct style today. Maresca turning to the West Stand and having a go at them for wanting us to play it quicker doesn’t bode well for the future. It was only 6 minutes in. Sounds like Faes cupped his ears to the fans after the goal as well. Reeks of last seasons arrogance.

Proper Bournemouth at home from last season vibes. A horrible realisation that things are grim and are unlikely to change.

I still can’t quite believe today. I was confident that a break would have done us the world of good, not only to rest but to adapt and try a few new things….but we looked just as tired and just as devoid of ideas as we did before the break. Where do we go from here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager so steadfast in his beliefs. I just can’t see anything changing.

If he plays Faes and Choudhury, I’m done.

Deduct the points this season, the outcome will be the same.

I have two main concerns, besides the clear capitulation that is happening in front of our eyes. 1. If we did manage to go up, his style of play just will not work without heavy investment, which isn’t happening. He’s carbon copying Man City, rather than simply taking inspiration from them, and it only really works if you have a squad head and shoulders above your opponents. 2. His style of play will never go down well with the fans. I get as annoyed as anyone with the “gerrit forward” brigade but the fact is the football is on the whole dull and it lacks all of the qualities that Leicester fans enjoy; tenacity, fight, resilience and intensity. The club seems determined for us to play a slow, heavy possession style, but after how hated Puel, Rodgers and potentially now Maresca have become, maybe the penny will drop with them that this isn’t the way.

Still our best striker. He had a mare but I’d have left him on as every miss fires him up more.

That’s that then. After a long awaited international break nothing has changed. Slow, predictable football with no variation of play. Maresca should be rightly criticised for his part in today. Ndidi shouldn’t have started when he hasn’t trained, Faes is a liability and yet again a total lack of subs or tactical changes to try and turn the tide. How many times have we seen the opposition start to make subs from 60 mins onwards and then begin to take control. All the while we just sit back and change nothing. He isn’t learning.

They are coming at us, which in theory should suit us, but we are just devoid of any confidence or composure.

They would only be able to do the title winning kit without the Puma badges. Bearing in mind there was three of them on the shirt, I’m not sure it would sell that well. The FA Cup winning shirt however is surely a no brainer.

That sound you can hear is the barrel being scraped.

For the most part he's been fine at LB this season. His pace is essential to cover Vestergaard, especially tomorrow when Bristol City's gameplan will be to hit us on the counter.

Good job we've been highly cooperative with the authorities....

Weird match. I though tactically we were naive and defensively terrible, but through Chelsea’s ineptitude we got back into the game and gave it a good go. Crazy to play such a high line against Jackson, Sterling, Palmer and Mudryk. Even crazier to do it with Doyle instead of Justin. Maresca seems happy we didn’t change our style and gave them a good match, but they should have killed us by HT and ultimately it’s another match we’ve lost at the death. Without heavy investment or incredibly shrewd recruitment I really fear this style of play just won’t work if we go up.

Not playing Justin is really strange. High line and up against Palmer, Doyle just doesn’t have the mobility.

This ultimately is the problem. It’s a style that works scarily well if you have players that can maintain high possession in every match. If your squad contains a higher calibre of player than the opposition's it can work really well. Which is why it’s worked really well for us this season when our best players have been fit. However against teams with a similar or better quality of player, or if we lose a couple of key players, it can quickly become exposed.

It’s tactical suicide to play this high of a line, with huge gaps in between each defender and no protection in front of it. Add to that a half arsed press and two of the back four being painfully slow and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.

We are awful defensively, we just didn’t realise for most of the season because we kept the ball so well.

…and this is why I wouldn’t want Vestergaard in the PL.

Not sure if that’s optimism or pessimism.

Ipswich match will no doubt be moved to after the Semi. No doubt in the final week of the season.

It does…for 4 days until we play Southampton. I’d sooner Coventry didn’t have the distraction of the Semi and/or quite bad fixture congestion when they play Ipswich.