1 win in 7 games

[Bayfox]

Yes. That's because they could not care less about the FA cup and have prioritised the league.

With our squad - that's cost 10% of all the 'big' clubs - has to be managed, as it cannot possibly compete using our best 11 on all fronts.

You have to be realistic. Recently with two of our top 3 players their form level has dropped (Mahrez and Kante have been playing as if they were in the top ten players in Europe) while our star striker has been injured and is recovering from an operation.

Take them out of the team and we are struggling. That nobody's fault but just what we have. We need better players - particularly a striker, and we can give the top 4 a real go.

If it doesn't pan out tough shit. Neither the players as a whole, nor the manager should be getting any stick whatsoever given the circumstances.

 

But the big clubs don't seem to give **** either, look at Liverpools line up the other night at Exeter, look at the opposition last night, yes they won the game but spurs squad cost a hell of a lot more than us, yet they made changes, how many of those fringe players at spurs would you take at our place, a couple?

 

The FA cup is going to hell in a handcart at the minute. So sad that finishing 4th or 17th is seen as a bigger prize.

[Babylon]

Exactly.

Ranieri set up wrong for those matches and the Spurs matches (the 2-2 was just about right despite peoples issues with the late peno).

The 1-0 win was a robbery.

Imagine if we set up how we have been setting up since Liverpool away from the start of the season? We would be about 10th.

And whilst at the start of the season we would have taken that, in 2015 we have shown we are worth being in the top 4 on talent rather than luck.

The honeymoon period is over. I wish people would stop using our current position as an excuse for a months underperformance.

I've just seen Ranieri said we put in a fantastic performance last night and talked about Spurs in the early 2000s and their build up to this point and we are aspiring to be like them in 10 years.

That sort of talk really, really annoys me in the context of 2015.

And before anyone starts, I'm not calling for Ranieris head. I'm just calling a spade a spade. You can't go into games with a clean sheet as first priority and a goal as second priority.

Months of under performance, really? It's currently January the 21st and we were beating Chelsea and Everton on the 14th and 19th of December.

 

We've played a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas, we've had a few injuries, our leading striker not able to train for some time and had an operation. Our other best player slightly off colour. We've played quite a few good teams in that period, teams like Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, all expensively assembled and teams we failed to beat last year. In fact in 6 games we picked up 1 point against them.

 

If we'd smashed in two pennos and not had a dodgy one given against we'd be four points clear and still in the cup having won 4 out of 6, with a draw against the most expensively assembled squad in uk history.... whilst going through a sticky patch. Something all teams will go through at some point.

 

We have a decent team, but a team many think has been punching above it's weight considering our squad. We don't have the options of swapping one top class player for another to give them a rest like those around us. Injuries and out of form players was always going to kick us in the balls more than the other teams.

 

You can argue about how we've setup until the cows come home. We played open against Arsenal and got tanked, playing it tight against the better teams is arguably more successful than trying to take them on at their own game. You don't want to take that into games like Villa and Bournemouth, but sometimes shit happens and you don't play well. Villa have had home draws against West Ham and Man City, Bournemouth are no mugs and have beaten enough teams to show they have something about them.

 

If we continue like this then fair enough, but all things considered... one months worth of iffy play, that should have actually yielded more than it did is hardly enough to start hitting the panic button. We're not going to continue wiping the floor with people, it just doesn't happen, it doesn't happen to any team in this league. We've lost less games than anyone else by some distance over the last 31 league games... that's truly exceptional. For that to carry on it would be an achievement up there with Forest and Clough, stuff they write movies about.....

 

Yet people are sat here whinging about a handful of not great performances like it's what they now expect for ever more. Like what we've got at the minute isn't actually enough!

[The Doctor]

Care to elaborate?

Repeatedly going 4-5-1 seems to be the obvious one, given all it does is nullify any threat we offer. Likewise picking ulloa while he's woefully out of form. The substitutions have been strange as well (prime example okazaki off for de laet last Saturday). Claudios got more far right than wrong so far, but it'd take a monumental amount of blindness not to see that we're the architects of this rut with horrifically negative tactics

[Stan]

Months of under performance, really? It's currently January the 21st and we were beating Chelsea and Everton on the 14th and 19th of December.

 

We've played a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas, we've had a few injuries, our leading striker not able to train for some time and had an operation. Our other best player slightly off colour. We've played quite a few good teams in that period, teams like Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, all expensively assembled and teams we failed to beat last year. In fact in 6 games we picked up 1 point against them.

 

If we'd smashed in two pennos and not had a dodgy one given against we'd be four points clear and still in the cup having won 4 out of 6, with a draw against the most expensively assembled squad in uk history.... whilst going through a sticky patch. Something all teams will go through at some point.

 

We have a decent team, but a team many think has been punching above it's weight considering our squad. We don't have the options of swapping one top class player for another to give them a rest like those around us. Injuries and out of form players was always going to kick us in the balls more than the other teams.

 

You can argue about how we've setup until the cows come home. We played open against Arsenal and got tanked, playing it tight against the better teams is arguably more successful than trying to take them on at their own game. You don't want to take that into games like Villa and Bournemouth, but sometimes shit happens and you don't play well. Villa have had home draws against West Ham and Man City, Bournemouth are no mugs and have beaten enough teams to show they have something about them.

 

If we continue like this then fair enough, but all things considered... one months worth of iffy play, that should have actually yielded more than it did is hardly enough to start hitting the panic button. We're not going to continue wiping the floor with people, it just doesn't happen, it doesn't happen to any team in this league. We've lost less games than anyone else by some distance over the last 31 league games... that's truly exceptional. For that to carry on it would be an achievement up there with Forest and Clough, stuff they write movies about.....

 

Yet people are sat here whinging about a handful of not great performances like it's what they now expect for ever more. Like what we've got at the minute isn't actually enough!

 

Like an oasis of sanity in a desert of idiocy.

[goose2010]

Repeatedly going 4-5-1 seems to be the obvious one, given all it does is nullify any threat we offer. Likewise picking ulloa while he's woefully out of form. The substitutions have been strange as well (prime example okazaki off for de laet last Saturday). Claudios got more far right than wrong so far, but it'd take a monumental amount of blindness not to see that we're the architects of this rut with horrifically negative tactics

Ulloa is out of form but surely putting him in the team in the cup to try and regain some form is better than playing him in the league?

 

It was an odd sub but its not the first time we have put RDL out on the wing and Mahrez in the hole its worked in the past just didn't work Saturday.

 

I do think people are massively over reacting we are having a bit of a bad run that's all

[Tim'llFixIt]

If we replicate our league form for the next 16 games that we did against man city spurs Bournemouth and villa we will finish up on 68 points

It's not all bad fellas

[goose2010]

Months of under performance, really? It's currently January the 21st and we were beating Chelsea and Everton on the 14th and 19th of December.

 

We've played a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas, we've had a few injuries, our leading striker not able to train for some time and had an operation. Our other best player slightly off colour. We've played quite a few good teams in that period, teams like Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, all expensively assembled and teams we failed to beat last year. In fact in 6 games we picked up 1 point against them.

 

If we'd smashed in two pennos and not had a dodgy one given against we'd be four points clear and still in the cup having won 4 out of 6, with a draw against the most expensively assembled squad in uk history.... whilst going through a sticky patch. Something all teams will go through at some point.

 

We have a decent team, but a team many think has been punching above it's weight considering our squad. We don't have the options of swapping one top class player for another to give them a rest like those around us. Injuries and out of form players was always going to kick us in the balls more than the other teams.

 

You can argue about how we've setup until the cows come home. We played open against Arsenal and got tanked, playing it tight against the better teams is arguably more successful than trying to take them on at their own game. You don't want to take that into games like Villa and Bournemouth, but sometimes shit happens and you don't play well. Villa have had home draws against West Ham and Man City, Bournemouth are no mugs and have beaten enough teams to show they have something about them.

 

If we continue like this then fair enough, but all things considered... one months worth of iffy play, that should have actually yielded more than it did is hardly enough to start hitting the panic button. We're not going to continue wiping the floor with people, it just doesn't happen, it doesn't happen to any team in this league. We've lost less games than anyone else by some distance over the last 31 league games... that's truly exceptional. For that to carry on it would be an achievement up there with Forest and Clough, stuff they write movies about.....

 

Yet people are sat here whinging about a handful of not great performances like it's what they now expect for ever more. Like what we've got at the minute isn't actually enough!

 

 

 

Posts like this keep my faith in this forum!!   

[The Doctor]

Ulloa is out of form but surely putting him in the team in the cup to try and regain some form is better than playing him in the league?

It was an odd sub but its not the first time we have put RDL out on the wing and Mahrez in the hole its worked in the past just didn't work Saturday.

I do think people are massively over reacting we are having a bit of a bad run that's all

We've been trying to play him back into form for six months and it's not working - surely it would have been better to set up with some intent, go for it and give him Colchester, or stick him in the under 21s, not just say **** it, goals don't matter, to every game.

[MattyFromLE]

We've come so far in such a short space of time, shame to see that people's expectations have rocketed. 

 

1 win in 7, yes. Of those 7, 4 have been away from home, twice at Tottenham, and once at Anfield - which are extremely hard places to get results from. Villa was a disappointment - we should have won. 

 

I'm more concerned about the performances than the points return as, we're not lost much/any ground on teams around us. We need a plan B, quickly.

[fuchsntf]

Months of under performance, really? It's currently January the 21st and we were beating Chelsea and Everton on the 14th and 19th of December.

 

We've played a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas, we've had a few injuries, our leading striker not able to train for some time and had an operation. Our other best player slightly off colour. We've played quite a few good teams in that period, teams like Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, all expensively assembled and teams we failed to beat last year. In fact in 6 games we picked up 1 point against them.

 

If we'd smashed in two pennos and not had a dodgy one given against we'd be four points clear and still in the cup having won 4 out of 6, with a draw against the most expensively assembled squad in uk history.... whilst going through a sticky patch. Something all teams will go through at some point.

 

We have a decent team, but a team many think has been punching above it's weight considering our squad. We don't have the options of swapping one top class player for another to give them a rest like those around us. Injuries and out of form players was always going to kick us in the balls more than the other teams.

 

You can argue about how we've setup until the cows come home. We played open against Arsenal and got tanked, playing it tight against the better teams is arguably more successful than trying to take them on at their own game. You don't want to take that into games like Villa and Bournemouth, but sometimes shit happens and you don't play well. Villa have had home draws against West Ham and Man City, Bournemouth are no mugs and have beaten enough teams to show they have something about them.

 

If we continue like this then fair enough, but all things considered... one months worth of iffy play, that should have actually yielded more than it did is hardly enough to start hitting the panic button. We're not going to continue wiping the floor with people, it just doesn't happen, it doesn't happen to any team in this league. We've lost less games than anyone else by some distance over the last 31 league games... that's truly exceptional. For that to carry on it would be an achievement up there with Forest and Clough, stuff they write movies about.....

 

Yet people are sat here whinging about a handful of not great performances like it's what they now expect for ever more. Like what we've got at the minute isn't actually enough!

Thank god, a bit of common sense. I put my tent up in your camp.

Some posters have really hit the panic button.

[Loggy88]

The fan who started this thread is a bit stupid here, yes we have gone off the boil a bit but keep things in perspective. We have played some very good sides recently, and we have actually only lost 2 games in those 7. So the 1 win in 7 fact is actually not as bad as you may first think. We have only lost 3 games all season now, how anyone can moan is beyond me. Compare our squad with those clubs around us, have a reality check and start supporting the club rather than getting on their backs.

[kingcarr21]

The fan who started this thread is a bit stupid here, yes we have gone off the boil a bit but keep things in perspective. We have played some very good sides recently, and we have actually only lost 2 games in those 7. So the 1 win in 7 fact is actually not as bad as you may first think. We have only lost 3 games all season now, how anyone can moan is beyond me. Compare our squad with those clubs around us, have a reality check and start supporting the club rather than getting on their backs.

we've lost 4 games

[EnglishOxide]

Months of under performance, really? It's currently January the 21st and we were beating Chelsea and Everton on the 14th and 19th of December.

We've played a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas, we've had a few injuries, our leading striker not able to train for some time and had an operation. Our other best player slightly off colour. We've played quite a few good teams in that period, teams like Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, all expensively assembled and teams we failed to beat last year. In fact in 6 games we picked up 1 point against them.

If we'd smashed in two pennos and not had a dodgy one given against we'd be four points clear and still in the cup having won 4 out of 6, with a draw against the most expensively assembled squad in uk history.... whilst going through a sticky patch. Something all teams will go through at some point.

We have a decent team, but a team many think has been punching above it's weight considering our squad. We don't have the options of swapping one top class player for another to give them a rest like those around us. Injuries and out of form players was always going to kick us in the balls more than the other teams.

You can argue about how we've setup until the cows come home. We played open against Arsenal and got tanked, playing it tight against the better teams is arguably more successful than trying to take them on at their own game. You don't want to take that into games like Villa and Bournemouth, but sometimes shit happens and you don't play well. Villa have had home draws against West Ham and Man City, Bournemouth are no mugs and have beaten enough teams to show they have something about them.

If we continue like this then fair enough, but all things considered... one months worth of iffy play, that should have actually yielded more than it did is hardly enough to start hitting the panic button. We're not going to continue wiping the floor with people, it just doesn't happen, it doesn't happen to any team in this league. We've lost less games than anyone else by some distance over the last 31 league games... that's truly exceptional. For that to carry on it would be an achievement up there with Forest and Clough, stuff they write movies about.....

Yet people are sat here whinging about a handful of not great performances like it's what they now expect for ever more. Like what we've got at the minute isn't actually enough!

I said A MONTHS underperformance.

The many games argument is completely void. It's an excuse which papers over the cracks. Every team has had a congested fixture list.

Whether we smashed in the two pennos or not is irrelevant, we are talking about the style of play and general run of play. I'm happy to lose. The losses to Liverpool and Arsenal were fair enough. Because we gave it our best shot by playing to our style, with the right selection.

Say what you like about team spirit, morale and talent. If you are told to go out there and get a clean sheet and sit deep whilst lumping it to Ulloa or expecting a half fit Vardy to chase every ball alone morale will soon drop because you are constantly defending. Trying not to lose rather than trying to win. I don't think players enjoy orders like that. It's negative rather than positive. It's everything that that shithouse van Gaal has done all season and look at the stick he gets.

Seemingly being told to play so deep against Villa and Bournemouth whilst we are joint top of the league underplays just how good we can be IMO and as a player I would now be wondering whether the manager trusts us or not.

On the Vardy fitness issue. If the manager plays him at 80% constantly and he underperforms due to that, who's fault is it? That's why 2nd, 3rd and 4th choice strikers exist.

You are talking alot of sense, but criticism should be put out there too. Why change our style mid way through perhaps our most successful season ever?

Ranieri called last night 'a fantastic performance'. It's an insult to the intelligence of everyone and a worrying trend if he is genuinely not seeing the problem of the last 4 or 5 weeks.

The manager is not immune to criticism.

He has been good for us up to this point and I would hate to see us blowing our position because of him making rather clear mistakes.

I don't know one person who thinks 451 with Ulloa is a good idea. Yet we have played it a few times now with the same horrific result.

[Babylon]

The many games argument is completely void. It's an excuse which papers over the cracks. Every team has had a congested fixture list.

It's not void at all, look at the Christmas period. Who has come out of it better than most?... Those with the best and most expensively assembled teams, with quality they can replace match winners almost like for like. We don't have that, a busy fixture list will always impact those with thin squads quality wise. Your problem is, that you seemingly now expect is to compete with Man City and Arsenal without having the tools to do so.

 

Watford and Palace were flying as well... look what's happened to them recently. There is a reason why most people expect us to slide down at some point.

 

 

Whether we smashed in the two pennos or not is irrelevant, we are talking about the style of play and general run of play. I'm happy to lose. The losses to Liverpool and Arsenal were fair enough. Because we gave it our best shot by playing to our style, with the right selection.

It's not irrelevant as all... the title says "1 win in 7".

 

 

On the Vardy fitness issue. If the manager plays him at 80% constantly and he underperforms due to that, who's fault is it? That's why 2nd, 3rd and 4th choice strikers exist.

If he thinks an 80% Vardy is better than a 100% Kramaric, then it just highlights how weak the squad is.

 

 

Why change our style mid way through perhaps our most successful season ever?

We haven't changed style, we played the same way against Spurs and Man U earlier in the season. There is evidence there that it's the way the manager believes we'll pick up points against those with better players and better squads. That's how most people play against the top teams for a very good reason. So far we've beaten Spurs and Chelsea, drawn against United and City. That's 8 points in games that last year we only got 3... is he wrong to think that defending is the way to go against them?!?!? It's admirable but ultimately foolish to believe we'll out play them on a regular basis playing very open.

 

As I said you don't want to take that into other games, but sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn't click, sometimes the energy isn't there, sometimes the form isn't there. But we have to plod along with Mahrez being shit, because the options were him or Dyer pretty much of late. The likes of Man City of smash Palace with Toure and Sterling chilling on the bench.

 

Maybe he did set us up defensively against them... maybe the players just weren't able to get it going as they have before. How many times did Pearson say "I wanted them to attack but they didn't commit themselves enough", it can happen. The second it started to look like we had something tangible to hold on to at the top, it's natural for the players to start feeling a different type of pressure... that alone can make you play differently. Last season it clicked when we were as good as dead and burried, the pressure was almost off to an extent as we looked gone.

 

 

Ranieri called last night 'a fantastic performance'. It's an insult to the intelligence of everyone and a worrying trend if he is genuinely not seeing the problem of the last 4 or 5 weeks.

Did he? All I saw him say was this...

 

“I think we’ve made a very fantastic step, because in four matches against Tottenham, we’ve won one, lost one and drawn two. If you imagine it’s a minimum of 10 years that Tottenham are building their team to reach the Europa League and Champions League zone."

 

He's clearly talking about our progress as a team and not the performance in that one. If he said something else you'll have to show me. I'm sure he did more than just the OS interview so he might have done. 

 

He's constantly tried to stop people getting carried away, because he's realistic enough to know where we are is in part to other teams being in transition or failing. He's constantly said we don't really have the squad to challenge... yet people don't listen.

 

Critisism is one thing, but you seemingly don't want to take into account many other factors than can contribute to us not going out and smashing teams 3-0 like we did just before we started playing a lot of better teams.

[NotTheMarketLeader]

I said A MONTHS underperformance.

The many games argument is completely void. It's an excuse which papers over the cracks. Every team has had a congested fixture list.

Whether we smashed in the two pennos or not is irrelevant, we are talking about the style of play and general run of play. I'm happy to lose. The losses to Liverpool and Arsenal were fair enough. Because we gave it our best shot by playing to our style, with the right selection.

Say what you like about team spirit, morale and talent. If you are told to go out there and get a clean sheet and sit deep whilst lumping it to Ulloa or expecting a half fit Vardy to chase every ball alone morale will soon drop because you are constantly defending. Trying not to lose rather than trying to win. I don't think players enjoy orders like that. It's negative rather than positive. It's everything that that shithouse van Gaal has done all season and look at the stick he gets.

Seemingly being told to play so deep against Villa and Bournemouth whilst we are joint top of the league underplays just how good we can be IMO and as a player I would now be wondering whether the manager trusts us or not.

On the Vardy fitness issue. If the manager plays him at 80% constantly and he underperforms due to that, who's fault is it? That's why 2nd, 3rd and 4th choice strikers exist.

You are talking alot of sense, but criticism should be put out there too. Why change our style mid way through perhaps our most successful season ever?

Ranieri called last night 'a fantastic performance'. It's an insult to the intelligence of everyone and a worrying trend if he is genuinely not seeing the problem of the last 4 or 5 weeks.

The manager is not immune to criticism.

He has been good for us up to this point and I would hate to see us blowing our position because of him making rather clear mistakes.

I don't know one person who thinks 451 with Ulloa is a good idea. Yet we have played it a few times now with the same horrific result.

My view on Ulloa - or my hope - is that CR sees that he's shit, couldn't care lets about the FA cup so played him last night, and gave the squad players a run out. That's not to everyone's taste I accept, but again I'm hoping that was the case to rest our three best performers.

I agree it was not a setup to score goals, and it should cement the idea with the hierarchy that we need a striker to help Vardy.

Bournemouth and Villa were two games that we should have won given chances created - despite below par performances.

Mahrez and even Kante have gone off the boil, and JV has played with injuries and latterly to regain fitness. These are the reasons we have dropped points in the league imo. Matters which will happen in a season. You can't have those players at 80% and win games.

Aside from yesterday - which as said above I partly understand - I can't see that the manager has done much wrong so far.

[Bluetintedspecs]

Months of under performance, really? It's currently January the 21st and we were beating Chelsea and Everton on the 14th and 19th of December.

We've played a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas, we've had a few injuries, our leading striker not able to train for some time and had an operation. Our other best player slightly off colour. We've played quite a few good teams in that period, teams like Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, all expensively assembled and teams we failed to beat last year. In fact in 6 games we picked up 1 point against them.

If we'd smashed in two pennos and not had a dodgy one given against we'd be four points clear and still in the cup having won 4 out of 6, with a draw against the most expensively assembled squad in uk history.... whilst going through a sticky patch. Something all teams will go through at some point.

We have a decent team, but a team many think has been punching above it's weight considering our squad. We don't have the options of swapping one top class player for another to give them a rest like those around us. Injuries and out of form players was always going to kick us in the balls more than the other teams.

You can argue about how we've setup until the cows come home. We played open against Arsenal and got tanked, playing it tight against the better teams is arguably more successful than trying to take them on at their own game. You don't want to take that into games like Villa and Bournemouth, but sometimes shit happens and you don't play well. Villa have had home draws against West Ham and Man City, Bournemouth are no mugs and have beaten enough teams to show they have something about them.

If we continue like this then fair enough, but all things considered... one months worth of iffy play, that should have actually yielded more than it did is hardly enough to start hitting the panic button. We're not going to continue wiping the floor with people, it just doesn't happen, it doesn't happen to any team in this league. We've lost less games than anyone else by some distance over the last 31 league games... that's truly exceptional. For that to carry on it would be an achievement up there with Forest and Clough, stuff they write movies about.....

Yet people are sat here whinging about a handful of not great performances like it's what they now expect for ever more. Like what we've got at the minute isn't actually enough!

Babs I've been making exactly the same points in other threads and I am finding the whole thing incredulous.

If we were a long established Premiership team that had spent 100s of Millions on gradual strengthening and squad improvement then criticise and expect away!

No, we had the greatest escape in history and the most amazing season to date punching way above our fkn weight, yet the deluded tools just don't get it.

[WardyisPukka]

Massive overreaction once again dear o dear. Sick of certain fans expecting our amazing form to last the whole season and play on the break in every game. Fact of the matter it isn't. We are well overachieving in the league. We were never going to keep our amazing form up. Injuries /tiredness were always going to be major factors in the season and now they are proving to be. 

 

yes we played poorly last night especially first half. 

 

Vardy hasn't trained properly in two months - and he hasn't scored since chelsea? coincidence? i think not 

 

Mahrez confidence is shot as is Ulloas. 

 

We need to go back to basics - I'd drop mahrez on Saturday and put gray in as he looked dangerous at times last night. 

 

One point i'm concerned about though is where goals are going to come from without vardy and mahrez. Its a valid point. Okazaki is playing better but i still think we need a more mobile target man. Negredo at Valenica would be my choice 

[inckley fox]

Stop talking league position and start talking performances. We all know we've had a season so far to exceed expectation massively. That's not the point.

I think we are on a knife-edge at the moment personally. There are so many people I think, still itching to tell us that Pearson shouldn't have been sacked. The media are waiting to pounce and Saturday's game suddenly becomes a real biggie in terms of win it and the confidence returns (in all), lose it and the opposite may well happen.

 

Agree totally. It would be insanity to say 'look where we are now, isn't that good enough for you?' It's certainly not what Ranieri appears to be saying when he talks about 79 points, and back in 2000-01 when we were 4th in March a lot of people came to wish they'd paid more attention to all of those early warning signs (or, in quite different circumstances, in 2012-13). Of course as fans we can't do much about heeding these signs, but there's no point in pretending that they're not there.

 

This season could easily pan out with people saying 'Ranieri maintained the end-of-Pearson form with, almost entirely, the end-of-Pearson squad, then ballsed it up after Christmas like Taylor did after O'Neill because he started introducing too many of his own ideas and couldn't bring in players of his own to add to the set-up'. I don't think that will happen, because I think he's ten times the manager Taylor was, but Leicester fans - who have been in a not-too-dissimilar position to this in living memory - should be alert to the danger without saying 'look where we are now, and that's all there is to say on the matter'.

[Babylon]

Agree totally. It would be insanity to say 'look where we are now, isn't that good enough for you?' It's certainly not what Ranieri appears to be saying when he talks about 79 points, and back in 2000-01 when we were 4th in March a lot of people came to wish they'd paid more attention to all of those early warning signs (or, in quite different circumstances, in 2012-13). Of course as fans we can't do much about heeding these signs, but there's no point in pretending that they're not there.

 

This season could easily pan out with people saying 'Ranieri maintained the end-of-Pearson form with, almost entirely, the end-of-Pearson squad, then ballsed it up after Christmas like Taylor did after O'Neill because he started introducing too many of his own ideas and couldn't bring in players of his own to add to the set-up'. I don't think that will happen, because I think he's ten times the manager Taylor was, but Leicester fans - who have been in a not-too-dissimilar position to this in living memory - should be alert to the danger without saying 'look where we are now, and that's all there is to say on the matter'.

How many people have just said that though... it's actually more often than not backed up with a large number of points that can all influence a handful of performances. During which time our lead over 5th has been cut by a whopping two points... which tells you everything you need to know about how other teams are performing. We're not excluded from having bad form.

 

If it continues over an extended period of time, then fair enough. But there are far too many influences that can impact performance. There is no need to have a wappy and start creating negative thread after negative thread which certain people seem to revel in.

[Mad Dog]

Any more room for me to plant my flag in this camp? Post of the year so far. Well said.

Months of under performance, really? It's currently January the 21st and we were beating Chelsea and Everton on the 14th and 19th of December.

We've played a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas, we've had a few injuries, our leading striker not able to train for some time and had an operation. Our other best player slightly off colour. We've played quite a few good teams in that period, teams like Liverpool, Man City and Spurs, all expensively assembled and teams we failed to beat last year. In fact in 6 games we picked up 1 point against them.

If we'd smashed in two pennos and not had a dodgy one given against we'd be four points clear and still in the cup having won 4 out of 6, with a draw against the most expensively assembled squad in uk history.... whilst going through a sticky patch. Something all teams will go through at some point.

We have a decent team, but a team many think has been punching above it's weight considering our squad. We don't have the options of swapping one top class player for another to give them a rest like those around us. Injuries and out of form players was always going to kick us in the balls more than the other teams.

You can argue about how we've setup until the cows come home. We played open against Arsenal and got tanked, playing it tight against the better teams is arguably more successful than trying to take them on at their own game. You don't want to take that into games like Villa and Bournemouth, but sometimes shit happens and you don't play well. Villa have had home draws against West Ham and Man City, Bournemouth are no mugs and have beaten enough teams to show they have something about them.

If we continue like this then fair enough, but all things considered... one months worth of iffy play, that should have actually yielded more than it did is hardly enough to start hitting the panic button. We're not going to continue wiping the floor with people, it just doesn't happen, it doesn't happen to any team in this league. We've lost less games than anyone else by some distance over the last 31 league games... that's truly exceptional. For that to carry on it would be an achievement up there with Forest and Clough, stuff they write movies about.....

Yet people are sat here whinging about a handful of not great performances like it's what they now expect for ever more. Like what we've got at the minute isn't actually enough!

[Corky]

If this is our worst run of the season then I'll be ecstatic.

[coolhandfox]

Interesting people moaning about a month of under performing, we have over performed for 5 months, we haven't got a top 4 squad.  

[M0901]

... We're joint top?

The above is just clarifying the situation

Carry on

[AyewJoking]

perhaps its time to be grateful we wont be relegated this season.

 

i believe a title/top 3 finish is still on

 

dont know if Ranieri or the players still believe that.

[Vacamion]

Some of the stuff posted in this thread less than a week ago was spectacularly misguided at the time and now appears even more off the mark after this weekend's set of results.

That said, the forum is now going to be "blessed" with people all but planning the open top bus parade after we win the league at a canter by the end of March.

That is, until the next time we lose, when the sky will, once again, be falling in.