Leicester vs Barcelona - Match Thread

[possiblygeorge]

10 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

They like to do a '5 things we learnt' in the Leicester Mercury ...    so what have we (as in me) learnt from that ....

 

In no particular order ...

 

Musa has definitely got it !

Amartey is going to be good and is full of running.

Simpson weak link ??

Good back up keeper.

Shinji and Jeff are important to us ...   do not sell !!

 

Whats your 5 ?

-No Vardy? There's still a party

-Hernandez, massive to our title defence

-Musa, the next player to get poached from us, without a doubt

-The "never say die" attitude hasn't gone anywhere

-The season's a marathon, not a sprint, we'll get better as the season goes on

[Old Fox]

24 minutes ago, los dedos said:

So ulloa didn't get on the pitch anyone know why.

Because we replaced everyone but Drinky

[Babylon]

I think we should stop trying to make every goal against us as being down to not having Kante there. The first two goals came from brilliant team splitting passes from Messi that totally bypassed the midfield and put the ball at the feet of the attackers close to goal... helped massively by poor defending by Simpson, then Chilwell and Huth with a big slice of luck.

 

The third was again another brilliant defence splitting pass from distance, that caught Morgan out of position. You can argue he might have closed Messi down quicker so he didn't have time to make the pass, but once the ball left his feet there is nothing he could have done as he'd have been bypassed like the others were. But we're talking about Messi, he's the best player ever.

 

The fourth was another brilliant long ball, again bypassing the centre of the park into space at right back. You could say he might have got back to stop the guy who finished it, but he can't be in every position.

 

PSG and Barca have the players who can bypass any player, couple of passes and they are around him and gone. He can't travel quicker than the ball.

 

[shade]

4 minutes ago, Babylon said:

I think we should stop trying to make every goal against us as being down to not having Kante there. The first two goals came from brilliant team splitting passes from Messi that totally bypassed the midfield and put the ball at the feet of the attackers close to goal... helped massively by poor defending by Simpson, then Chilwell and Huth with a big slice of luck.

 

The third was again another brilliant defence splitting pass from distance, that caught Morgan out of position. You can argue he might have closed Messi down quicker so he didn't have time to make the pass, but once the ball left his feet there is nothing he could have done as he'd have been bypassed like the others were. But we're talking about Messi, he's the best player ever.

 

The fourth was another brilliant long ball, again bypassing the centre of the park into space at right back. You could say he might have got back to stop the guy who finished it, but he can't be in every position.

 

PSG and Barca have the players who can bypass any player, couple of passes and they are around him and gone. He can't travel quicker than the ball.

 

yeah, let's not forget, kante was in the team and the players still couldn't get a pizza.

[BrummieFOX]

Another central midfielder, central defender and possibly another striker and I'm delighted with our squad. Lots of depth in midfield in particular and unbelievably even more pace added. Despite it being pre-season, Drinky looks to have stepped up another level, some of the vision and accuracy of his passing was world class. I really hope Woy was watching that! A lot of our pace was through the middle and over the top last season, largely through Vards but I can see us trying to stretch teams more with Musa, Gray, Kaputska etc hugging the touchline, knowing that teams will give us a bit more respect this season and sit back.

 

Really exciting and can't wait for Sunday. 

 

 

[Ric Flair]

I can't help feel our defensive weaknesses have always been there, we saw it in 2014/15 and then at the start of last season, we just found systems that blended good defending as a unit with attacking as a unit and that's what successful teams do. Every team has weaknesses and it's about improving the side and improving your system to make it work. Kante was instrumental in allowing us to break up play and get moving up pitch fast, he was often the difference against the very best sides in the PL because he made 3 v 2 seems like 2 v 2 which took the strain off our team. Morgan and Huth will at some point be too old and we saw with Chelsea last season that from one year to the next solid defences can suddenly be painfully exposed. Ranieri absolutely loves a solid cohesive unit so I'm not worried if and when this happens, he'll be finding a way to either plug the gaps or improve our defence. I still think we'll get at least one more defender in. If Simpson's form from last season reverts more to what he showed under Pearson then we must have a backup plan for that.

[Adster]

Excellent performance bar Simpson, who was battered all game whilst he was on.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

11 hours ago, Brooksy said:

Are you gonna celebrate when he scores in a competitive match or do you hate him that much?

As I said... I'd like to be proved wrong as my own ego matters less than LCFC's success and Musa contributing. I'd love to be wrong and have him score over 20 goals and develop the weaker parts of his game over the season. However that's my opinion, I don't rate him at all based on what I've previously seen of him. It's embarrassing how anyone that doesn't agree with the majority on here gets ridiculed

[Babylon]

7 minutes ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

As I said... I'd like to be proved wrong as my own ego matters less than LCFC's success and Musa contributing. I'd love to be wrong and have him score over 20 goals and develop the weaker parts of his game over the season. However that's my opinion, I don't rate him at all based on what I've previously seen of him. It's embarrassing how anyone that doesn't agree with the majority on here gets ridiculed

I see you're now changing tack and it's scoring over 20 goals would prove you wrong. You absolutely trashed the bloke on the basis of a couple of viewings, some of which were friendly games you admitted. Yesterday was a Friendly as well and he ripped Barca a new hole.

 

The ridicule comes from the fact you were ridiculously over the top with your condemnation of him and just kept repeating it over and over again. All based on limited viewing and a mate who is a CSKA fan... so why are you surprised that people flag you who when he comes on and looks exceptional?

 

If you had left it at, "I've seen him and don't think he's good enough" you're name wouldn't have been mentioned once in this thread. So it has nothing to do with the opinion itself, just how ridiculously over the top you were about it.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

2 minutes ago, Babylon said:

I see you're now changing tack and it's scoring over 20 goals would prove you wrong. You absolutely trashed the bloke on the basis of a couple of viewings, some of which were friendly games you admitted. Yesterday was a Friendly as well and he ripped Barca a new hole.

 

The ridicule comes from the fact you were ridiculously over the top with your condemnation of him and just kept repeating it over and over again. All based on limited viewing and a mate who is a CSKA fan... so why are you surprised that people flag you who when he comes on and looks exceptional?

For 20 goals, read 'a successful season', it was just an example.

 

You've got a point, I was pretty vocal about not rating him, and haven't changed my opinion, so I'll just suck it up. But people don't like to hear negativity surrounding someone they are putting faith in and I'm just concerned its going to be misplaced faith when the important games start.

[foxes161]

Simpson was poor. Musa looks like a real talent who is going to cause teams all kind of problems with his pace this season.

[FireFox]

People using Mahrez as an excuse for Simpson. I thought Simpson > De Laet precisely because it allowed Mahrez to be less defensive? But now Simpson isn't even good enough to defend by himself? So then why have him over De Laet at all? (I'll trust Claudio's judgement on De Laet, having lost his shirt number, but I'll never not criticize Simpson.)

 

[Captain...]

I think we have a rival for Col and Cambiasso/Cattermole.

 

Arriba Los Zorros will be reminded of this every time Musa scores.

[ARM1968]

To be completely fair all round Musa looked off it against PSG. He looked awesome last night. How will he perform in the PL? Who knows really. He certainly seems to have the attributes to be a success. 

 

Im much more inclined to give the bloke a season to show what he's got. 

 

Look at Vardy. He wasn't great at first and looked way worse than Musa. That hasn't turned out so bad really. 

 

Kante was an unknown to most and that went quite well too. 

 

Judge when there is real evidence to consider. 

[psychonaut]

3 minutes ago, FireFox said:

People using Mahrez as an excuse for Simpson. I thought Simpson > De Laet precisely because it allowed Mahrez to be less defensive? But now Simpson isn't even good enough to defend by himself? So then why have him over De Laet at all? (I'll trust Claudio's judgement on De Laet, having lost his shirt number, but I'll never not criticize Simpson.)

 

It was one game against arguably the best club in the world. So lets not throw his part in a title winning season down the drain for one performance.

[ARM1968]

Simpson was excellent last season. Personal opinions aside he was very good the majority of the time. 

[tom27111]

We've played 2 of the best teams in the world and 3 of Barca's goals involved 2 of the best players of a generation.

 

The style of football we've faced in the last 2 matches is completely alien to us. Its a good learning curve for the Champions League.

 

It took the great English sides of the mid 90's a hell of a long time to adjust to European football. United struggled in the Champions League for a long while.

 

[Guest Col city fan]

51 minutes ago, Captain... said:

I think we have a rival for Col and Cambiasso/Cattermole.

 

Arriba Los Zorros will be reminded of this every time Musa scores.

I say again, if being nearly relegated was somehow 'wrong', when we went on to win the league the next season, I don't mind being 'wrong'

[Guest Col city fan]

35 minutes ago, ARM1968 said:

Simpson was excellent last season. Personal opinions aside he was very good the majority of the time. 

I'm assuming this....if we continue to concede goals freely and Simpson (or any of the back four) have off games, this forum will blame....it will blame the back four, like it blamed the back four during the season before last.

WE KNOW how good they can be...Morgan and Huth were rocks last season and Simpson was possibly the best RB in the country.

If we now start to leak goals, it will be about a BIGGER PICTURE...that being how we are defending as a team.

The bulk of the forum won't recognize this, however, the blame will fall squarely at the feet of the back four.

Just like it did the season before last.

[ARM1968]

Col - agreed. 

 

My my concern is that few realise the massive miss Kante will prove to be. His screening of the defence was epic and essential. 

 

I I also agree that we need to move on and find a way to play without him, but my concern is also that the defence will be blamed. 

 

 

[Charl91]

1 hour ago, ARM1968 said:

Col - agreed. 

 

My my concern is that few realise the massive miss Kante will prove to be. His screening of the defence was epic and essential. 

 

I I also agree that we need to move on and find a way to play without him, but my concern is also that the defence will be blamed. 

 

 

 

I think everyone realises the problems that Kante not being there will cause. Unfortunately, we can't make Kante come back.

[foxes21]

 

foxestalk have been waiting a longggggg time for simpson to have a shit game. now everyone cant wait to discredit the lad.

 

dilly ding dilly dong, wake up. It was a pre-season game, against barca. simpson will still do a good job for us this season and is a better defender then alot of fullbacks in the premiership.

 

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Col city fan said:

I say again, if being nearly relegated was somehow 'wrong', when we went on to win the league the next season, I don't mind being 'wrong'

Did we not finished above Cattermoles team?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

For 20 goals, read 'a successful season', it was just an example.

 

You've got a point, I was pretty vocal about not rating him, and haven't changed my opinion, so I'll just suck it up. But people don't like to hear negativity surrounding someone they are putting faith in and I'm just concerned its going to be misplaced faith when the important games start.

 

You are the new Col  - Cambiasso mate but as opposed to Col, you are wrong.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Col city fan said:

I'm assuming this....if we continue to concede goals freely and Simpson (or any of the back four) have off games, this forum will blame....it will blame the back four, like it blamed the back four during the season before last.

WE KNOW how good they can be...Morgan and Huth were rocks last season and Simpson was possibly the best RB in the country.

If we now start to leak goals, it will be about a BIGGER PICTURE...that being how we are defending as a team.

The bulk of the forum won't recognize this, however, the blame will fall squarely at the feet of the back four.

Just like it did the season before last.

They blamed defence the season before last because they were fecking shit. There is a very good reason Schlupp no longer players at left back, Konch got let go, De Laet is on the transfer list with Moore, Upson got bombed out and Was never plays. You talk about bigger picture and basically then try and lay the blame squarely on Cambiasso to try and prove a point.

 

We were better at the back because we put in better defenders and asked them to defend, as well as changing our defensive system in front of them and how we attacked. Of course Kante is a big loss, he's amazing at ball recovery and things will be a bit harder. But that doesn't excuse not actually laying the blame where it should lie if a defender hasn't done his job... every goal last night can be attributed to poor defending. Kante or no Kante, there were some basic errors.