Tom12345

Not to mention this time we have a massive advantage in the quality of our squad and money available to us. We have no excuse this time. I mean losing to QPR is quite different to losing to any team in the Premier League.

“Good intensity”? It was just the same pass pass back pass back side cross into the box when everyone in QPR is back in possession. No urgency and no adventure in our play. Just like Rodgers. We made QPR look very solid in defence.

Choking once again.

Geeze. Should have got rid of Hamza. He has no creativity.

No threats at all. Zero shot on target. There was only one chance when we got through to the middle but we passed back. Reminds me of Rodgers a bit, although we are still a bit better. Our patience game is making QPR looks very solid at the back with the extra time we always give them to set themselves up.

This is down to Maresca. He is just like Rodgers trying to defend a lead. Keep playing like we play in the first minute all the time. If that got us to be leading in the first place, why then change game plan and try to defend a lead or “game manage”? This is why we keep losing to better teams in this manner because then they will take advantage and get back into the game. Worst of all, it makes our players mentally weak. Be the aggressor all the time. Build that killer winning mindset and not be afraid to concede! We do that in the Premier League and we will get relegated again.

I was really concerned we would come out of halftime doing that straight away. I was nervous as I knew from the history of this team and Maresca that we will “game manage” (ie. stop playing our best football and mentally become a loser) at some point. And yes, we did in the last 20 mins. We took our foot off the pedal once again. It seems like we still have not learnt from the Rodgers era what that can do to our mentality. I really hope fans stop talking about the team needing to game manage. We would be creating another team of bottlers once again otherwise. Leeds didn’t stop after leading. They didn’t run to the corner flag like what I am 100% sure we would. They continued to put the ball into our box and as a result we were not in their box trying to score a goal.

When you care more about defending a 1-0 lead and invite pressure, the chances are the opponents would be in your box having these flukey deflected goals. We need to learn to keep it going. Keep putting the pressure on!

Mentality is set by the coach. We need to look at Maresca. He needs to tell his players to play football and not be afraid to lose the lead when we are up.

We could have won if we took our chances and Daka’s goal was not ruled out for offside wrongly. But we only have ourselves to blame. Not the first time this season our mentality switched to trying to hold on to a 1-0 lead instead of maintaining our way of play and attack. We invited pressure and more importantly we became weak in mentality. This is on Maresca. Look at Leeds. They took the lead and did not just defend. They had the ball near the corner flag a few times more and they still delivered it into the box. We would have run to the corner flag. And guess what, they scored again. We would have passed all the way back to the keeper only for him to hoof it up. Rodgers in disguise. Dont mind us losing but not happy at the way we lost and our poor mentality.

Yes. I really don’t like this taking our foot off the pedal thing. We should keep attacking.

Geeze. We rue our missed chances.

Where is Vardy?

Is there a way to appeal a yellow card?

If we keep passing it back to the keeper only for him to hoof it up, we are going to concede. Can we try to attack properly. This reminds me of Rodgers.

Not the first time. He has consistently made bad decisions against us in the EPL.

Pawson should not even ref in the Championship. Disgraceful decision to give yellow card to Ricardo.

Daka has been playing well and scoring goals. This is just one game where he missed a sitter. He moved well though and the rest of the team had an off day. Vardy also missed an absolute sitter. It happens. No need to jump on his back at the first opportunity available.

Casedei is too far off at the moment for a starting position in the Championship.

This game is a test of our mentality. We have enough in our squad to beat Ipswich, but we don’t have enough with our players missing to just keep passing the ball around and be defensive. We need to start Albrighton who should benefit Cannon. Casedei is just a poor midfield distributor and I rather Yunus start over him. Casedei can come in in the last 20 mins to cause trouble in the opposition box.

Quite simply put, it is the same with Rodgers. He emphasised “control” as well though he is even more conservative than Enzo. I don’t want us to go down the same path as Rodgers took us mentally. You used Klopp as an example and I agree with that. He once said something to the effect that he never wants his team to take the foot off the pedal. Winning or losing, he wants them to play the same way because it is important to build mentality and consistency. This is why I really don’t like it when people speak of learning how to “grind” games off when we are winning - that is actually building towards a loser mentality. Play your football and let the rest take care of itself. If we start having to “manage” games when winning, we are learning to switch off. If we overdo this, we learn to be afraid. That then eats into your mentality - see Rodgers.

We miss Matty James?

No. Choudhury is only of the most negative players I have seen. 9/10 he looks backwards without even looking forward. No creativity. Ndidi’s ball control is bad, but at least he has always had that instinct with vision and ideas.

Go for a third

How the hell was it a drop ball for Cardiff when we had the ball???