funkyrobot

As blatant a dive as you’ll ever see

I thought Hamza was ok. KDH was poor, his final ball was always slightly off or too heavy except for the one when Vardy and then Yunus could’ve scored. Winks was targeted very effectively by Sunderland in the 2nd half. As soon as he got it he was pressed by a triangle of Sunderland players and probably lost the ball 5 or 6 times in very dangerous positions. We looked very low on energy in the second half except for Fatawu, 2nd to the ball and dropping off too much and then resorting to long clearances that came straight back. We looked destined to concede a goal particularly after Justin came on to shore things up, instead the exact opposite happened with Justin culpable 2 or 3 times in as many minutes.

That’s never a penalty. As clear a dive as you will ever see. Unbelievable how you can watch action replays of that and say penalty. 😮

That’s a shocking assessment of a blatant dive mate

Never a pen, felt an arm on his shoulder and dived. The ref was shocking, absolutely hated Mavididi but at the end saw through a blatant dive.

Two times we’ve been clean through with Mavididi and Vardy and both times this ref has given fouls that absolutely were not fouls. Truly appalling refereeing.

It is generally agreed that having only one space after a full stop or punctuation mark is correct.

Despite the constant fan on fan moaning on this thread, it remains a fact that the easiest thing to fix with Leicester is the 11 players on the pitch. It’s much easier to orchestrate them into meaningful action than 32k of fans of wildly ranging ages, seating positions within a modern bowl stadium and (quite importantly) alcohol levels. The team peppering the opposition with efforts, playing our style of football with more tempo will create a better atmosphere than a slow game with an apparent reluctance to really go at a deep block. This was particularly apparent against QPR. As for singing, it’s the simpler songs that people can learn in the stadium rather than looking up on a website that will get most participation. Playing football the Enzo way for example is easy to understand and a well known tune and as such gets more participation than the complex songs (tho it wasn’t sang at all on Saturday which was strange.) On a final note, I notice that a lot of clubs play stomping old club songs and they have become a chant during games. Everton and Leeds are two that spring to mind. I think we miss a trick by not playing our own stomping 70’s classic ‘This is the season for Leicester’ at some point before the games - it’s a great singalong and the more that it’s played it will get into people’s heads and become a chant that will likely get some of the oldies who get accused of not singing involved - And it doesn’t have any of those embarrassing high notes that the Everton song has.

I think the conference league as a competition is great but we qualified for it by failing miserably in The Europa League and that was hard to accept when we should’ve qualified easily through the group stage. I don’t think failure should be rewarded by entry into another competition and that’s the flaw with the European cup system in place from the Champions League downwards.

Yeh I agree and tempo is definitely one of the big factors that separates Man City from teams like us that try and emulate their style. Man City move the ball faster and move more off the ball and faster off the ball. We haven’t got the players at their level but we also aren’t playing at their level so there’s no excuse. We’ve been a bit too pedestrian for a while, mainly at home and that’s allowed deep blocks to settle.

Poor old Winksy’s gonna be fighting fires all over the pitch with that lineup 😂

He went past him whilst nonchalantly chewing gum and not feeling great (Saka was subbed at half time because he felt sick)

I actually looked at him almost as our Lampard, or McTominay, a deep lying striker who was dangerous around the box and at corners but didn’t offer much as an all round midfielder. He’ll probably go on to be a more complete midfielder but he was already offering us that effective alternative option. He has definitely been a loss and he’s now wasting away on the bench. I’m sure he’ll get loaned out again next season.

Agree with Vardy and despite concern with Doyle against a rapid winger I’d go with him too as he’s actually more confident going forward and overlapping with Mavidid than Justin. Faes over Nelson for me for experience though. I can see the logic behind bringing Sharky in but I’d still be tempted to go with Fatawu because he’s good defensive cover for Hamza and attacking wise he had his fullback on toast on Saturday.

Fatawu beat his man down the outside on numerous occasions yesterday, he didn’t just rely on cutting in onto his left. His dribbling was definitely not one dimensional. His final ball or shot let him down for sure though. Mavididi, for all of his step overs did look one dimensional yesterday. He tried only twice to go on the outside in the second half and got outfought both times and in general by a fullback he should’ve had in his back pocket. He cut back inside pretty much every time without attempting a dribble and then usually passed it centrally with no penetration. It’s the 2nd home game on the trot where the threat has looked on our right side with Fatawu only. Mavididi has looked a bit sulky with his body language - low in confidence and belief.

Watching Man City earlier on playing against the deep block of the shambles that is Man U and it was noticeable that they weren’t afraid of taking shots from the edge of the area and outside it from a central position. Foden scored centrally from range and there were a few efforts from a similar position. It wasn’t all Tiki-Taka and ultimately the ranged effort broke the block. I know we have Fatawu with his efforts coming in from the right but other than him yesterday the lads had opportunities to fire a few shots and they didn’t take them. Justin was particularly culpable but there were plenty of other times that a shot could’ve been taken and instead it was shuffled sideways. Begovic didn’t get his kit dirty. He’s slow to get down and loves a parry, the weather was shite, the grass was greasy and it was the perfect opportunity to test his ageing limbs but we seemed reluctant.

Season after season of bottling it after the FA Cup have taken their toll for sure but It’s not being negative to consider not getting promoted, it’s being realistic. There’s no point burying our heads in the sand or thinking we’ll be ok as the club seemed to do in January. Yes let’s create the best atmosphere we can but it’s the players and the manager that need to do the push, we can offer support but it’s down to them. We’ve lost 3 league matches on the trot. We’ve lost our main inverted fullback. We’re on our 4th choice right sided number 8 in Akgun who Enzo doesnt trust. Mavididi has lost his spark, Daka is being Daka again. I support the lads, I chant, I stay to the end and clap them off but the reality is we’ve pretty much blown a 12 point lead and pretty much blown a massive goal difference and so we need to at least consider and make sense of a potential failure if nothing else for our own sanity!

Great bantz tbf

I wouldn’t be surprised if the senior management team have even considered what will happen if we don’t achieve promotion this season so I thought maybe we should in do so in their absence. As it stands and unbelievable as it is to write this, our momentum and the momentum of our 3 rivals would suggest we could still be in The Championship next year. I’m not really sure of the financial status but I know our parachute payment will reduce by a further 10% and we’d be faced with another year of significantly reduced revenue and tighter FFP targets. From a squad perspective I wouldn’t expect us to be able to resign any of the players out of contract at the end of the season that we might want too. Out of the 9 players out of contract at the end of the season, the only realistic one we might be able to retain is Vardy. Players like Vestergaard, Ndidi, Fatawu, Doyle, Iheanacho and Akgun who would’ve potentially be offered terms will go to other top tier clubs or return from their loans. On top of that I would see us losing contracted players like KDH, Ricardo, Daka and Faes to adhere to FFP. There’s also players like Souttar, Soumare, Kristiansen and Thomas who don’t appear to have a future at the club that Enzo will need to ship out. A massive squad reengineering will need to be done on a limited budget and within a weaker pool of players. The inevitable reduction in squad quality with bring us closer to the rest of The Championship pack and make promotion more of a challenge than it is now. Really we need the lads to halt the momentum and start a winning run again now - and we need the teams around us to do the exact opposite, but with injuries and form this seems increasingly like wishful thinking.😬

If we don’t achieve promotion it will be due to a combination of poor defending, poor finishing, being on the end of some poor refereeing decisions, a raft of injuries, the early cancellation of a key loan player and the lack of activity in the January transfer window. That’s where you should be directing your ire. It won’t be due to Hamza Choudhury being made captain for a home league match against QPR. The decision to make Hamza captain out of the 11 players selected to start had absolutely no impact on the result yesterday.

Having seen both on the pitch I’d have to say I can understand why Maresca has perhaps selected Nelson. He does look the better footballer from a possession perspective. I was surprised when I first saw Coady run out for us considering his England past. He looks a bit awkward as a ball player and slower on the ball (and slower off it), though at times he can ping a pass. Maybe it’s just an aesthetic thing tbf. In saying that, Coady has the leadership and the knowledge of a seasoned professional and after another defeat it’s probably time for a more experienced approach against Sunderland. I’d start him on Tuesday.

Ricci P out until April

Hamza’s just not as good at the progressive part of the role as Ricardo. That’s just a fact. We’ve got to somehow find a way of stopping the rot knowing we are weaker at inverted fullback without Ricardo and weaker at number 8 without Ndidi.

For me, the most important part of the captain’s role on a Matchday is what he does on the pitch in terms of leading. The pre match stuff has no absolutely no impact or importance for the vast majority of fans. It’s a non issue for me. The issue Enzo needs to focus on is why the wheels have come off and that’s not got anything to do with asking Hamza to be captain after his drink driving conviction last week.

Strangely enough relegation threatened QPR had no moral issues playing Prison FC bound Ilias Chair against us. I have no problem with Hamza playing, with Ricardo out there’s no option. I wouldn’t’ve made him Captain purely from a vocal perspective, I would’ve gone with Winks who talks and directs more in a game.