Hammo

I said a while back that the second half of the season would show whether Maresca was a Ranieri (ruthless) or a Rodgers (bottler) in terms of having the ability to see the job through to the end. Blind faith gets you nowhere. If this guy fails to get us promoted with this group of players, we know which category he will fall into. Judgment is suspended. The heat is on…

Maybe conceding those two late equalisers to Ipswich can be considered a factor

Let’s hope they don’t. Proof of that on Friday would be very welcome.

Some pep talks from Vardy and Albrighton in the lead-up to this on what it takes to perform under pressure and achieve your ultimate goal would not go amiss.

The acid test. Time to show everyone why we are top of the table… … and why we are going to stay there.

Rodgers was mostly to blame, obviously, but a lot of players downed tools too and couldn’t rise to the challenge when it really mattered. Maresca deserves our trust for what he has done so far, but we are now entering the ‘business end’ of the season and the heat is on. He has to be ruthless and ensure that the players do not take promotion for granted (like some of our fans appear to be doing).

Big test of this team’s mettle coming up now after that, starting in the cauldron of Elland Road. The concerted effort they put in late in the game was encouraging, but the players can’t come swanning into any game from now on thinking that they can just knock it around harmlessly at will and the opposition will eventually submit to their ‘control’. They have to work for this promotion and make life much harder for the opposition than was the case today. Leeds and Southampton are good teams - virtually on a par with us in terms of quality of personnel - but fortunately we got a head start on them both. Complacency - the sort of complacency shown today by Mavididi and Faes - is the only enemy that can undo us. That’s what happened last season. It had better not happen again.

I really don’t get the argument that allowing Sheff Wed back into the game in the second half with sloppy passes and the frequent concession of corners was ‘conserving energy’ or ‘managing the game’. Granted, we didn’t bust a gut to finish them off, but there is no denying that we played poorly in the second half - especially after such an excellent first 45.

Played some lovely slick football in the first half, deservedly going in 2-0 up, before allowing some complacency and sloppiness to creep in during the second that needlessly invited Wednesday back into the game. Fortunately, like most teams in this league, their finishing was woeful, otherwise it might not have been as comfortable as it ultimately was. Southampton losing was a wonderful bonus on another positive evening.

Thank heavens he did miss. Porteous spent the whole game trying to get himself red carded… but the ref was having none of it.

The way we play it is inevitable that we will concede goals by overplaying at the back. This one though was particularly horrid and avoidable, especially as it came from our player of the season. Fortunately though the only things it cost us were a clean sheet and a lot of frayed nerves.

Needlessly nervy and a lot of substandard individual performances but a wonderful winning goal gets us a vital victory. Leeds and Southampton are not going away, are they? We cannot afford to be complacent. Only that will deny us the ultimate prize.

Unimpressive 45 despite winning. Has McAteer done a single thing right all half? He has been dreadful

Wouldn't have won the FA Cup - or the Community shield for that matter - without him.

3-1. Did you leave early?

I can understand why Liverpool fans adore Klopp for his achievements, but my opinion of him changed forever when he went over the top calling out Hamza for an innocuous foul on Salah in his post-match interview to shift the focus away from the fact that Liverpool had just beaten us with a last-minute penalty after a clear dive from Mane. There have been many other disingenuous or downright ridiculous comments from him since then that have further fuelled my dislike of him - and by extension the club and the fans (particularly the 'never been to Anfield' Red Tribe of NW Leics) that hang on his every word. Not a pleasant human being, but obviously a brilliant manager, who has made Liverpool great again.

Hmm. Does ‘Enzoball’ mean not getting it forward then? Can’t recall us getting it into their half much at all in the last 20. Mavididi barely had a kick. I’d say the atmosphere was at its worst then because we had complacently handed Ipswich the initiative, they were pinning us back, and people were getting agitated and nervous about conceding the inevitable equaliser.

If you believe the slow-paced style of the football on show does not contribute to the lack of atmosphere, then all I can do is heartily disagree with you.

Fast, energetic and dynamic football gets the crowd going. Slow, patient possession-based probing doesn’t. It’s fairly simple really. That is not a criticism of our style of play. Just a straightforward observation. Anyone been to Manchester City’s ground recently? And heard the opposition fans chant “is this a library?” etc. There’s your evidence.

Arrogance, complacency and a lack of ruthlessness are starting to become all too common traits of this team. We have the best group of players in the division - a sizeable number of them full internationals - yet we rarely kill inferior teams off as we should. And then we invite them back into the game. It’s an attitude problem as well as a tactical faux pas in my opinion - and needs sorting pronto.

Surely all towns and villages in Leicestershire are predominantly ‘Leicester’.

There were bound to be bumps along the road. This gives us a jolt. Hopefully nothing more. Last season should have taught us that you can never rely on other teams to help you out. The onus is on us to avoid complacency and a repeat of the kind of stupidity that cost us three points today. This league is ours to win. But it is not going to be easy. We need to fight for every point and show what we are made of. Starting next week at home to our closest challengers…

I agree with you.. but I have zero faith in Casadei being up to the task of filling Ndidi’s boots for the next three months. That’s what concerns me. Promotion-winning teams can’t afford to carry passengers.

Some people seem determined to make sympathetic excuses for him but we have surely seen enough now to know that Casadei is a footballer of unexceptional ability who is decent in the air but slow, physically weak, easy to dispossess and lacking in creativity. If we had two No8s of his modest calibre playing week in week out we would not be where we are in the table. Not even close.

Fatawu’s recklessness let the team down. With ten men we didn’t have an out ball and had to rely on grit and discipline. Fair play to Coventry. They kept piling on the pressure and made us pay. If you keep working and turning the defence, you will generally get rewarded. Unfortunately, they did today.