Leicester vs Barcelona - Match Thread

[Clever Fox]

CR has to take huge credit for his tactical awareness again. He understands and reads the game better than anyone I can think off.

[ealingfox]

Not good first half but a few raised selection dilemmas. Promising 2nd half performance.

 

Still don't think we can continue to play 4-4-2 now Kanté is gone.

[Stevosevic]

3 minutes ago, ealingfox said:

Not good first half but a few raised selection dilemmas. Promising 2nd half performance.

 

Still don't think we can continue to play 4-4-2 now Kanté is gone.

I think we can against most teams but we may need to be more flexible against the top teams and have 3 in the middle.

 

Although every time we went with 3 last season i was not impressed.

[ealingfox]

1 minute ago, Stevosevic said:

I think we can against most teams but we may need to be more flexible against the top teams and have 3 in the middle.

 

Although every time we went with 3 last season i was not impressed.

 

That's the tricky part for us, I don't think I've ever seen a Leicester team play well in a 4-3-3. Much to ponder especially now Musa has staked his claim.

[Trav Le Bleu]

It's only a friendly. I bet at half time this place was as gloomy as Corby on a Thursday night. Just saying.

 

That said though, we came out of it with our pride and as Col said earlier, if Barca were playing us at the KP with all the crowd behind them and the stadium rocking... who knows. Many good points to be had and I honestly believe the game could have gone either way. Suarez's goal for instance, whilst well taken with a stranger's instinct, 9 times out of 10, one of the many deflections it took would have put it out and if we had taken our earlier chances better... who knows.

 

Promising.

 

 

[MPH]

Not worried about shipping goals against PSG and Barca. For one thing, it's PSG and Barca and also if there is one thing an experienced Italian manager will know how to do, it's to shore up a leaky defense.

 

Intrigued than Ron Bob played the whole

game and wonder if that means Schmiechel will play the whole of the Man. United game? If not then it can only reveal  one thing..

[biggs]

Mendy was a breath of fresh air in the second half and helped open play up for Drinkwater who himself had a fabulous game. The two work well together and to heck Mendy is a poor man's Kante. I'm not judging him against Kante yet......Give him a chance to show what he can do. I think he'll be very similar once he gets accustomed to our style of play.

[dbtcity]

The thing that impressed me was just how good Okazaki is when he stays on his feet, can't remember him throwing himself to the floor once and looked a proper player in the process, look forward to seeing more of Hernandez looks a decent cb... Then there's Musa , I'm hoping to see a front 3 of Musa vardy Mahrez with 3 cms at some point 

[leftbackinthechangingroom]

3 minutes ago, MPH said:

Not worried about shipping goals against PSG and Barca. For one thing, it's PSG and Barca and also if there is one thing an experienced Italian manager will know how to do, it's to shore up a leaky defense.

 

Intrigued than Ron Bob played the whole

game and wonder if that means Schmiechel will play the whole of the Man. United game? If not then it can only reveal  one thing..

 

Not really as Kasper played the whole 90 against PSG. So it's just a matter of giving ron rob game time

[nettle]

In the first half we stood off them to much and gave them to much respect, after the changes at half time we were sharper into challenges and played at a higher tempo when we had the ball. I expect this is how we will play on Sunday here's hoping anyway.

[dbtcity]

3 minutes ago, MPH said:

Not worried about shipping goals against PSG and Barca. For one thing, it's PSG and Barca and also if there is one thing an experienced Italian manager will know how to do, it's to shore up a leaky defense.

 

Intrigued than Ron Bob played the whole

game and wonder if that means Schmiechel will play the whole of the Man. United game? If not then it can only reveal  one thing..

Was always going to happen after Kasper played the full 90 v psg......

[CosbehFox]

The first half wasn't even that bad. We made three good chances. Two of which were very good.

 

We were undone by Simpson sleeping (that ball between the FB and CB has been a problem from the start of last season - Ranieri always signals to  stay narrow and this will be worked on the training ground) 

 

2nd goal beautiful pass by Messi and a touch of luck 

 

3rd well the assist was simply world class. 

[AKCJ]

49 minutes ago, Finnaldo said:

Everyone associated with Man U's face when Musa kicks off next Sunday and runs straight at them

oh boy thats done me. 

 

night all x

[bmt]

Where is everyone going for beers then lads

[Guest Cujek]

24 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Kante irreplaceable... End of! 

One season wonder imo

[justfoxes]

Only managed to catch the first 30 min of the second half and thought Musa is going to score us plenty of goals in the prem even Wasyl impressed me in what I saw of him and that dirty foul mouthed little biting Tw@ Suarez having a go at DD I thought Danny was going to floor him when I lip read (well that's what I thought it was ) Suarez calling him a Fooking Cnut !!

After seeing some excellent football I thought were going to give Utd a run for their money at Wembley Musa is definitely a cracking player Mendy was awesome at times I think we will be just fine next season everyone else write us off at your peril !!

[Dylster]

Thought Hernandez looked good when he came on.

Still would like to see us try a 4-3-3 though and maybe bring in a new right back.

 

                                           Schmeichel

 

Simpson              Morgan                        Huth                 Fuchs

 

                                              Mendy

                       Drinkwater                      King/Amartey

 

Mahrez                                                                             Musa

                                              Vardy

 

Something like that could be good.

[Fox seen in Norwich]

We were in headlights first half, nervous and showed barca too much respect. Good early 2nd half goal picked us up and played like ourselves 2nd half. 

Mahrez, Vardy, gray were quiet. 3's

king, Simpson Chillwell ok 4's

rest 5/6's

musa, Okazaki 7's and to start together at Wembley.

 

mention about Hernandez who I thought looked liked he could be a tremendous CB. Reads the game and has quick feet on the ball.

 

Start of the season is close. Come on!!! 

 

[fuchsntf]

34 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

I think it's simple.

Play like we did first half, on Sunday, we'll get tanked.

Play like we did second half, it could be a cracking game.

Gotta sort out the midfield...Drinkwater looks class, the others look a mis-match of players who aren't sure what their roles are.

King, James, Mendy (so far) are much of a muchness I think.

I dont think we played that bad  in the 1st half.just not clinical enough.

I wont opinionate on Individual players, not pre-season.

If we had took our chances and had cleaner runs, we might of suprised Barcelona,

including 1st half. We know possesion means nothing, but this was  Barcelona, their

Play around the box is magnificent...We wont be seeing that like, for 90 minutes, in the PL.

I maybe alone in this, taking the team we played against, our defence looked good, in

both halves, mistakes yes but thats what pre season is about

[Thracian]

11 minutes ago, ealingfox said:

 

That's the tricky part for us, I don't think I've ever seen a Leicester team play well in a 4-3-3. Much to ponder especially now Musa has staked his claim.

 

My thought exactly about 4-3-3 but I don't say it's impossible for us to make it work. 

 

It's just too soon to be sure of anything tactically.

 

Kante's departure has not just left a gap in midfield it's exposed such gaps in our back four it's like we've lost two men and a piece of our heart. 

 

.

 

      

 

 

[Kitchandro]

The thought of Musa and Vardy up front is mouthwatering. Now imagine we managed to fit Mahrez, Gray & Kapustka all in the same team as well. Frightening.

 

Drinkwater looks more like Xavi reincarnated every time I see him. It's utterly unbelievable he's not England captain, frankly. His range and quality of passing is world class. £20m couldn't buy his weaker foot.

 

Gray shows a bit of youthful immaturity now and again but he looks a real player. Tenacious, quick, reads the game, quality passing, skill. He's everything Schlupp should be and isn't. Jeff, Simpson and Chilwell were the only ones that looked out of their depth.

 

Okazaki has really impressed me this pre-season. He's obviously desperate not to lose his place, maybe a summer break has recharged him and he looks the player he did very early last season - with real quality to match his undeniable work rate.

 

Didn't see a great deal of Musa in the first 2 games apart from a shocking miss but he looked the real deal tonight. 2 very different goals but each very impressive, showing different sides to his game. Pace and power yes, but composure when rushed as well. And that was reflected in his general play, in fact.

 

On the negatives, I'm not sure how chasing Barcelona around will have helped us for Sunday. I hope they're not too knackered.

 

Defensively we need to do better. We've not been quite as well organised as usual but admittedly we've played sides that are better than most if not all Premier League teams (PSG & Barca not Celtic obviously). Again though, some of them look tired.

 

Tonight makes it even more sickening that Kante is gone. We've clearly got loads of potential going forward but we're up against it because we simply cannot replace the Judas. It makes a huge difference and I wonder how well have to set up without him. Mendy might be good, but good and Kante are two completely different things. If we play 3 in the middle, where do we sacrifice? A striker? Full  backs? An exciting midfielder? It's a shame.

 

It remains to be seen just how much of a difference it will make, I'd suggest a significant one but a lot of the other signs are positive.

[foxaholic]

3 hours ago, limeydale said:

Hoping for a win, but reckon Barca 4-2

hope you had a bet on correct score

[Wortho]

I thought we were really good 2nd half. This gives us hope for Sunday, it was a great physical work out for the team.

[Kitchandro]

Oh and what a brilliant game of football that was. 2 completely different halves. Barca were almost in 2nd gear at times but on a technical level they're miles better than any English team.

 

I don't think we played badly at any point and against most other teams there's no way we'd have been 3 down, even though the goals were far too easy.

 

Some of our football in the second half was just superb. It was the classic Leicester of last season but turbo charged. Pressing and pace with technical skill makes for really great football to watch. I love our style of play, it's quite unique and thoroughly entertaining.

[lgfualol]

Dont want to talk much about first half as messi ****ed us. Way better second half. Enjoyed the Musa Schlupp Okazaki Kapustka Mendy Drinkwater experience.Defence looked better too, Hernandez is really calm and looks good to me, I feel like him and Wasyl could both do a job filling in, Hernandez maybe even push Huth to start. 

 

PACE