Chelsea 3 Leicester 0. Post match thread.

[Koke]

Amartey in the second half was actually passing the ball forward. First half it was all backwards and sideways from him. 

[Wymsey]

Drinkwater could play for any side.

 

Barring one crap long pass, he was quite instrumental but others alongside him weren't at his level.

 

Schmeichel was alright as well.

[foxinsocks]

3 minutes ago, Webbo said:

He's only 21 and still learning that position, might be a couple of years before he's at his peak. I hope so anyway.

Agree.... i think he will come good. ... but in the meantime i think we just don't have the players for 442

Though king is not the answer...

I think our back is over a barrel in jan

 

[Alf Bentley]

 

1st goal: Last season Wes wouldn't have let Costa run off him like that 

2nd goal: Last season Huth would've hammered that through-ball into touch - and hammered Hernandez into the crowd, too, if necessary

That makes me think there's a psychological issue: a lack of last season's fierce determination, motivation, concentration and self-belief

That's understandable, to an extent. How do you maintain that attitude when you've just won the top prize? It's interesting that our Champions League performances have been more focussed.

 

There are tactical and personnel issues, too, though:

- Coping and continuing to play 4-4-2 without Kante was always going to be tough. Maybe we need a different formation away to better teams? In any case, the switch to 2 out-and-out strikers seems suicidal. We're getting over-run in midfield, but now we don't have Kante to cover the space of 2 men and to consistently win the ball in dangerous situation. We used to have Okazaki (& Nugent before him) dropping back to be a third body in central midfield. Vardy, Slimani & Musa just aren't players who do that.

- I know we've lost Mendy, but we're short of quality in central midfield. Was it a good decision to buy 2 expensive strikers, but only 1 central midfielder when we hadn't lost a striker, but had lost an outstanding central midfielder?

 

Yet for the first 25-30 minutes of the 2nd half, we looked quite decent without creating much - Vardy is not the threat of last season (yet). 

 

 That isn't a good combination, though: playing well for part of a game without creating anything, but being over-run for the rest of it, while making elementary defensive gaffes and failing to concentrate.

Get the attitude and concentration right again and we'll finish at least mid-table, possibly a good bit higher. Carry on like this and the season could start to unravel.

[MPH]

I don't mean it of course, because I never want it taken awake and no one every can but every now and then there's part of me that wishes last season didn't happen because it makes results like this that more painful...

[lcfcdamo]

1 hour ago, SecretPro said:

Andy King, Formidable left winger. 

 

 

If I was Gray, I'd be smashing a brick into Ranieri's face about now.

100% wot does he have 2 do he is head and shoulders above Schlupp and to bring king on to play on the wing when we 2-0 has ranieri lost it??

[NotTheMarketLeader]

1 hour ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

We've missed the boat with our transfer dealings completely, we're now left with the difficult task of trying to persuade good players to join a struggling team, the summer was such a great opportunity for the club and it's looking like we really have messed things up, we're left with an aging rocky defence and a midfield woefully short on numbers and quality (excluding Drinky) these opportunities come once in a lifetime for a club like us we should of grabbed our chance when we had it.

This it's crying shame. 

 

Whoever is responsible for the summers transfers should be shot

[lee7]

Drinkwater second half was a class above any other Leicester player on that pitch. Without him we would seriously struggle to create anything positive. All of our best play comes through him and when we get him on the ball we look dangerous.

 

Absolutely appalling first half, one of the worst I've watched in a long time from any team let alone Leicester.

I find it ridiculous that some are calling for Ranieri to go but at the same time a few more performances like that on the spin and he could be in grave danger of getting the boot irrelevant of our champions league form. 

[Matt]

I was abit naive, I was under the illusion after last season's success no matter what happened from then nothing would hurt/piss me off regarding Leicester, not too much anyway, it does.

 

Getting very pissed off, last season does not excuse these players, certainly not playing as bad as they currently are.

 

I thank them for the joy and success we never thought we'd ever see but I think Roy Keane was quoted once saying something of the lines of 'you don't thank your postman for doing their job do you?!'.

 

Sort it out. I was for dropping Mahrez and it happened today, I'm now going to turn my attentions to dropping Vardy and Okazaki has to start games!!!

[TheMightySystem]

Want to line up against Tottenham using the formation we used at the start of the second half. The back 3 looked more composed and with Hernandez and Schlupp released a bit from defensive duties it opened up more passing options which allowed us to move the ball around quicker instead of having to stop and look all the time. Still couldn't believe it when Ranieri switched back to 4-4-2 as suprise suprise we got over ran again and couldn't move the ball out of our own half.

[Hammo]

12 minutes ago, MPH said:

I don't mean it of course, because I never want it taken awake and no one every can but every now and then there's part of me that wishes last season didn't happen because it makes results like this that more painful...

No, you don't mean it. Not one part of you means it! At least I hope you don't, otherwise - and I mean this in the nicest way - I recommend that you seek help.

[MPH]

2 minutes ago, Hammo said:

No, you don't mean it. Not one part of you means it! At least I hope you don't, otherwise - and I mean this in the nicest way - I recommend that you seek help.

 

This season is painful. That's all, really!

[Realist Guy In The Room]

We absolutely need to abandon 4-4-2.

 

As soon as we switched we looked a different team.

 

I cannot for the life of me understand why Ranieri made the changes when he did.  We were on top and looking like scoring.  Bringing on Riyad and Slimani completely took away our momentum.

[Hammo]

1 minute ago, MPH said:

 

This season is painful. That's all, really!

We're all feeling it but we scaled a peak last season that none of us ever imagined was remotely possible. Speak to fans of other clubs like ours and feel the envy! Come what may, the ecstasy of 2015/16 will never leave us.

[Realist Guy In The Room]

1 minute ago, Hammo said:

We're all feeling it but we scaled a peak last season that none of us ever imagined was remotely possible. Speak to fans of other clubs like ours and feel the envy! Come what may, the ecstasy of 2015/16 will never leave us.

After the first half it felt like they were trying their best to take it away!

[Guest Col city fan]

3 minutes ago, Realist Guy In The Room said:

We absolutely need to abandon 4-4-2.

 

As soon as we switched we looked a different team.

 

I cannot for the life of me understand why Ranieri made the changes when he did.  We were on top and looking like scoring.  Bringing on Riyad and Slimani completely took away our momentum.

Spot on..we absolutely need to ditch the 442 WITH THIS PERSONNEL. It's not good enough to play it!

[Vestan Pance]

30 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

1st goal: Last season Wes wouldn't have let Costa run off him like that 

2nd goal: Last season Huth would've hammered that through-ball into touch - and hammered Hernandez into the crowd, too, if necessary

That makes me think there's a psychological issue: a lack of last season's fierce determination, motivation, concentration and self-belief

That's understandable, to an extent. How do you maintain that attitude when you've just won the top prize?

Spot on. They barely had a break before jetting off around the world for that stupid competiton. It was quite clear right from the Celtic game that there was a lack of motivation, nothing has changed. There is a casual attitude, some players are coping but others look like they could do with a break and a mental reset.

[MPH]

Surely, even Ranieri can see it's time for a formation change now....

[foxinsocks]

6 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Spot on..we absolutely need to ditch the 442 WITH THIS PERSONNEL. It's not good enough to play it!

IF mend come back we could try two holding mids (amarty and mendy) and  then play danny and the two wingers behind a lone striker... kinn of 4231. meanwhile we could try one holding (amarty or mendy) and then danny and the winders behind shinji and a striker: 41311 - this would allow shingi to pay behind the centre forward.  We have the personnel for that.

[Vacamion]

 

It wasn't Musa's fault that we kept lumping high balls to him, only for him to be bullied off it by Chelsea players whose hair weighs more than he does.

 

He's lightning fast, but was used (or decided to play) incorrectly.

[Countryfox]

56 minutes ago, Matt said:

Okazaki has to start games!!!

Yep.

[Mike Oxlong]

We've had some tough fixtures so far.

 

It's not that we have lost these games but how we have lost that really troubling.

 

[Guest ttfn]

First half was atrocious. Tactics, application and ability all non-existent.

 

When are people going to realise that Schlupp isn't good enough? He's not a young player any more. He's played over 100 games for us and he looks just as clueless as when he started. I've no doubt he's trying his best but he's hopeless anywhere other than on the left wing, a position where he's barely top flight standard. Playing him on the right rather than Mahrez or Gray is an absolute joke - Alan Maybury was probably a more effective right winger than Jeff.

 

 

[Riot Van]

Not sure I can be bothered to spend my money and waste my time on these away games if we are surrendering them before they've started.  Also, our end was a joke today and I know there wasn't much to cheer about, but it was a poor effort from our fans.

 

Oh, and we currently have one of the best u21 players in the country on our bench so would you mind bloody playing him.

[Gazza M]

My observations from today:

 

The defence don't appear to be communicating with each other. They were so well drilled last year. They seem to get pulled out of position and falling over each other at times (literally!)

 

We had pace to burn up top but failed to use it. We just don't move the ball from back to front quick enough, giving the opposition time to get deep and set. The players were static, so no movement means sideways/ backwards shitty passing.

 

Claudio needs to stop obsessing with playing wide men on weaker foot so can cut inside. He did it with the strikers today too. Fair play it worked with Marhez last year but didn't work today.

 

Some of our players sell by dates expired in May and almost overnight, they are now in decline. Only hindsight tells me that, but one recruitment crime was no young CB signing. For me: Huth, Morgan, Fuchs and sad to say maybe Vardy fall in to that bracket.

 

Finally clear that confidence is low and I think for these away games, we need a formation change. I would try 3-5-2 for a while. Gives us some protection where we need it as Huth/Morgan and Drinkwater/Amartey too exposed.

 

I fully expect us to win in the C/L in the week and qualify for 2nd round. We need to keep our home form going in the league and start picking up points away and being harder to grind down and assess again in January. Mid table would be fine after Xmas and see if we can push on and break top 10 in 2nd half of season.