shailen Posted 21 May 2015 Author Posted 21 May 2015 For me, it's a mixture of things. 1. Huth - the signing of the season for us and maybe, arguably, the best signing Pearson has ever made. He's brought a wealth of experience and something our other CBs could look up to. He's taken a lot of pressure off Wes (note that Wes' performances have been great since Huth came in and we went 3 at the back). His no nonsense style has helped us to cut out the errors and both Was and Wes have grown alongside him. 2. Playing the current formation (3-4-3/3-5-2/3-4-1-2) - A major factor is Pearson has eventually found the formation that suits our current players and our work ethic well. Turning Schlupp and Albrighton into wing backs has been a masterstroke. Playing 3 defenders has not only helped Morgan massively but it's taken a little more pressure off the attacking players who previously seemed to need to score 3 or 4 for us to even win because of our poor defensive record. The solidity based from this back 3 and the role of Huth in that back 3 has given freedom to our attackers and taken a lot of the burden off of them. Therefore, they've played a lot more freely and have been consistently more clinical in creating and taking chances. Added to this, the 3 at the back has given us more strength and height at set pieces with 3 big units in both boxes. Ultimately, we've looked far more solid defending set pieces and far more threatening attacking set pieces because of this presence from the back 3. This had been a major achilles heel throughout the season. 3. The Fans - from the start of the West Ham home game something happened at the KP. There was almost an air of "this is it, we may as well go down fighting" from the fans, which I truly believe transferred straight onto the pitch. This continued right through the rest of the season and played a massive part in helping to give the players that belief and fight that we could actually pull off something spectacular. Whether it was the clappers or just generally a change in people's attitudes, it had a massive effect on the team and the positivity around the KP. 4. Key players finally adapted to the demands of the PL - James, Vardy, Morgan and even Schmeichel when he returned all seemed to finally suss out what was needed in this division. Vardy was beating his man, getting crosses in and dragging defences around the pitch when previously defenders were dealing with him easily. Morgan began to cut out the errors. Schmeichel became more commanding. All of this added to everything else that had been happening at the time. I don't buy any of this business about us suddenly deciding to attack. Like others have said, we'd done this many times before and got nothing from it. Very good post. Agree with every single line. Especially the last one where I don't believe that we are playing any more attacking than we were. It's all been about taking our chances and getting that moment of luck. See the Spurs/Arsenal/Liverpool/Palace games. We should have won those amongst many others with the chances we created. But only recently have we been able to do this.
daddylonglegs Posted 21 May 2015 Posted 21 May 2015 Without Huth I don't think the other options are a possibility.
veezeeblue Posted 21 May 2015 Posted 21 May 2015 it's coz they knew i was coming back for the last two games and wanted a big vardyparty ! seriously i think its all of the above especially huth / back 3 / vardy form / schlupps workrate / albrighton influence / schmeichel comeback = saviour / morgans return to form / wasyl in first 11 the list could go on ! but all these things together made us click and confidence grew - we truly became fearless whoever said it before the vardy goal at wba was just epic - celebration of the year ! proud so proud
HighPeakFox Posted 22 May 2015 Posted 22 May 2015 Impossible to give one catalyst, as others have said or implied. A lot of hard work and thinking and adjustments over a period of time finally paying off, with the addition of good timing & a huge dollop of confidence after a couple of wins.
mid devon loyal Posted 22 May 2015 Posted 22 May 2015 confidence, so much at this level of sport is in the mind. plus Albrighton and Huth
David Hankey Posted 22 May 2015 Posted 22 May 2015 The fact of the matter is that during the dark days and months of autumn and winter we weren't playing too badly. We were creating chances and not taking them and for a team at the bottom of the table we weren't getting hammered. Self-belief and the ability of players are two main ingredients and I for one, who hadn't written them off in March, am highly delighted that the 'Great Escape' has been achieved and sincerely hope the harsh lessons we have had this season will be learnt and stand us in good stead for next term. 8th or 10th place would be very nice, please.
shailen Posted 22 May 2015 Author Posted 22 May 2015 Been thinking about this a lot, and I do not believe that the performances at West Ham or West Brom were any different to a lot of performances we have given this season. The only difference being that we took our chances at the right time. There are so many other games this season where we failed to do so, and after those two wins we built the confidence and momentum to produce some outstanding performances against Swansea/Chelsea/Newcastle/Southampton. Had Kouyate not hit the post and scored or Berahino played Gardner in, we probably would never have gone on the run we did. So fine margins indeed
jammie82uk Posted 22 May 2015 Posted 22 May 2015 I'm gonna go with Nigel reading the forum and listening to some advice I agree lets do something a little radical like going 3-4-3 we have nothing to lose sod this five at the back malarkey
Guest Posted 22 May 2015 Posted 22 May 2015 Without Huth I don't think the other options are a possibility. Exactly!
cc_star Posted 22 May 2015 Posted 22 May 2015 Exactly! From a side which seemed to let 2 goals in every game to 5 clean sheets in 6 games, with only the runaway Champions scoring past us
North East Fox Posted 23 May 2015 Posted 23 May 2015 I voted for Huth - don't understand why other clubs weren't in for him, everybody knows exactly what you will get, an experienced prem defender who will plug a leaky defence! Easy win for any manager surely? Didn't really know which thread to post this in but my brother met Peter Schmichael (spelling) the other day at some work function. He managed to have a 5 minute talk with him explaining he was a Leicester fan etc, it was in Manchester. Big Pete was full of praise for Nige and the way the club is run, highlighting the fact NIge runs it from the top down. Not exactly revolutionary news but made me feel so happy for Nige in the fact that he's stuck with it and it's paid off. When Nige rejoined he spoke about un-finished business and I'm so pleased it's worked for him - I'm thinking this could be the start of another golden era for citeh! So in short the only answer should be - Nigel Pearson!! P.S. Kaspers pops also mentioned that Kasper is absolutely loving it at the club. Might be lip service but apparently it sounded 100% genuine
Phube Posted 23 May 2015 Posted 23 May 2015 I was always neutral on the matter BUT... Most people who were calling for his head were bemoaning team selection and tactics; namely Albrighton left out for no reason. Crazy Nigel - March teams: Quote Man City - CITY: Schwarzer, Konchesky (Nugent 57), Morgan ©, Upson, James, Huth, Schlupp, Simpson, Cambiasso, Mahrez (Ulloa 76), Kramarić (Vardy 57) Hull - CITY Schwarzer, De Laet (Lawrence 76), Upson, Huth, Morgan © (Nugent 84), Schlupp, Vardy, Cambiasso, James, Mahrez, Kramarić (Ulloa 61) SPURS - CITY: Schmeichel; Morgan ©, Huth (Mahrez 76), Upson (Wasilewski 46); De Laet, Cambiasso (King 85), James, Schlupp; Vardy, Ulloa, Nugent Winning Nigel - April teams: Quote West Ham - CITY: Schmeichel, De Laet (King 79), Morgan ©, James, Vardy, Huth, Schlupp, Cambiasso, Ulloa (Kramarić 72), Mahrez (Albrighton 46), Nugent West Brom - CITY: Schmeichel, De Laet (Wasilewski 46), Morgan ©, Huth, Schlupp, Cambiasso, James (King 60), Albrighton, Nugent, Vardy, Ulloa (Mahrez 64) Swansea - CITY: Schmeichel, Huth, Wasilewski (De Laet 46), Morgan ©, Schlupp, King, Cambiasso, Albrighton, Ulloa (Mahrez 68), Vardy, Kramarić (Drinkwater 74) Burnley - CITY: Schmeichel; Wasilewski, Huth, Morgan ©; Albrighton (De Laet 70), King, Cambiasso, Drinkwater (James 77), Konchesky; Vardy, Ulloa (Kramaric 65) Hmmm... must be a connection somehwere... As posted somwhere else is all Albrighton...
CosbehFox Posted 23 May 2015 Posted 23 May 2015 Spurs game. We were poor first half but second half had a real 'let's give this a go and see what happens' air about it. From that point onwards the shackles were off and we started going at teams. At 2-2 of that game we learnt a very important lesson. The players were celebrating as if it was a last minute winner. They learnt they have to control their emotions. The stark contrast to how we celebrated equalisers at West Brom was huge. Leo now takes an age when we scored to get back for kick-off. The mentality changed to let's play at our pace, let us control the tempo of the game. Spurs away was in many ways a mercy killing. We just thought 'f**k it' from there on in. Players, management and fans.
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