fuchsntf Posted 16 October 2016 Posted 16 October 2016 Nice thread, some interesting posts and replies......except you are forgetting one thing.. Everygame hes not chosen one weak team based on last year...... Every team played, were last years champions with exception on so called improved transfer new buys. And I dont care how one sells it Kante aint the Holy ghost...you all go down your pubs and to work shouting , claiming for others ....one player doesnt make a team...So dont back off now. It hurts, but last years success, knackered the team, Spirit needs a break. King Dick has proved it, he gone off on Holiday...
lcfcben76 Posted 16 October 2016 Posted 16 October 2016 If he is throwing pl games it's a disgrace, I don't pay good money week in week out to see us not putting in a fight. Players didn't even give 60% first half on saturday
st albans fox Posted 16 October 2016 Posted 16 October 2016 I wonder what the stats were on the players second half of last season. just how knackered were they? Maybe the approach over the past few away games reveals the gist of these?? We pressed hard for the first few months of last season and maybe we really were fortunate to keep the show on the road through Feb to may. its quite clear that the payers are not working as hard as they did last campaign. that can only be under instruction from the management. Otherwise we would see more changes in personnel. what we will see Tuesday night re effort ? Could be quite revealing.
RizLCFC Posted 16 October 2016 Posted 16 October 2016 He needs to realise that we need a change of formation away from home. If that means dropping a striker, even if it's Vardy, then so be it!
Wymsey Posted 16 October 2016 Posted 16 October 2016 Leave Vardy on bench in away games, making him hungry to play at home. Put Okazaki in away games, to give him another opportunity to link in between striker and midfield. Also, depending on game progression, give Ulloa some game time in aways where the defence can lump the ball towards him. Certainly Gray must play whenever possible due to direct threat. Very confused on Kaputska on why he's not being considered at all.
nnfox Posted 16 October 2016 Posted 16 October 2016 I've been disappointed with the performances so far this season but I can't say I'm too disappointed with the results. We won't be the only team to lose at Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool - they are tough places to go! Even last season we only got 2 points from those fixtures. What is evident is that our squad lacks depth, particularly in the defence. The likes of Morgan, Huth and Fuchs will play A LOT of games this year and given for about the last 8 games last season it was pretty obvious that the team were running purely on adrenaline, this season's tired performances perhaps aren't a surprise. They aren't getting any younger! How much longer can Vardy run after lost causes without it taking its toll? We are able to bench 3 or 4 players but the reality is that those that are expected to play both games will only play at 70-80% of their maximum - no way any of them want to get injured 3 days before a CL game. I also agree with the comments that you can't just throw in the likes of Gray, Kaputska and Chilwell into games against title contenders. We are obviously saving ourselves for CL football. Why wouldn't we? In a way, the fixtures have actually fallen quite nicely I suppose. If you want to rest players before a big CL match then in a way it is good to do it against the likes of Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool - any team in the league could lose at those grounds. If we had to rest our players or give less than our best at places like Sunderland, Watford and Palace then I'd be more concerned. If we give our best we could win all those games, yet even if we gave our best in our away fixtures so far, we could have still come away with no points. The clamp down on physical contact at set pieces hasn't helped, we will have to adapt to that. And just to end on a positive - we are 4 points down on last season's corresponding fixtures (a 25% reduction). If we maintain that return, we'll finish with 61 points. AND we are well placed to progress in Europe. Who'd have thought that Leicester fans would be annoyed by stats like that? These are great times for our club and I will continue enjoying them!
ozleicester Posted 16 October 2016 Posted 16 October 2016 A couple of honest questions.... At the beginning of the season, did you expect to win the away games at ManU, Liverpool and Chelsea? Would you have been happy if Claudio had parked the bus at these games?
HankMarvin Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 Claudio Ranieri is kidding himself if he thinks Leicester are not in a relegation scrap The champions were abysmal here and they knew it - Marc Albrighton claimed they lacked fight in an “unacceptable’Claudio Ranieri spent half of last season trying to convince us he was only interested in Leicester earning the 40 points needed to retain Premier League status. And the Italian is denying reality again when he claims he is not worried about relegation this season. On the basis of Leicester’s first four away games, in which they have shipped 13 goals in losing them all, the Foxes are heading for a battle against the drop. The champions were abysmal here and they knew it. Marc Albrighton claimed they lacked fight in an “unacceptable’ performance” and Danny Drinkwater said they must pull themselves together “pretty damn quick”. The shock nature of last season’s triumph meant that nobody expected Leicester to defend their title successfully. And trips to Liverpool, Manchester United andChelsea were never going to be easy. But the way a team built on superhuman spirit has been running up the white flag is extraordinary. This looks like being a worse title defence than even Chelsea’s was last season. And as Ranieri rested his Footballer of the Year Riyad Mahrez and record signing Islam Slimani for Tuesday's Champions League clash with Copenhagen, that air of defeatism stemmed from the manager himself. Winger Albrighton said: “It is not really acceptable to keep losing in this manner. We need to get our heads right for Tuesday and perform better. “We have had a chat in the dressing room. We feel we need to be stronger, harder to play against, harder to beat, harder to score against. We should not be rolling over like we have been doing. “As far as we’re concerned, it is not the way we are playing – it is about fight. We need to fight more. We have lost the fight from last year. We need to get that back – and quickly.” It was a rare and damning omission from a Premier League player to admit his side lacked desire. Especially a team which sweated its way to the stars. Is it that Leicester are too focused on the Champions League, where they have won twice and would virtually secure qualification for the knock-out stages by beating the Danish champions tomorrow? Albrighton added: “I’m not sure why it is different in different competitions, but we need to treat them both with the utmost respect and get back to what we’re good at doing.” Drinkwater was the only Leicester player to show last season’s form as they were overwhelmed by a Chelsea side inspired by their much-missed old boy N’Golo Kante – with goals from Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Victor Moses scant reward for their dominance. England midfielder Drinkwater said: “This is not good enough. There is something missing. If it is that fight, we need to get it back pretty damn quick. “The bunch of lads we have is not one which is happy with these kind of results and hopefully we will turn it around quickly. “No team comes to Chelsea and expects three points. But the manner of the defeat was not good enough. “Winning against Copenhagen would brush over the negatives, but we have away games in the season we have to take care of. No what matter performance we put in in the Champions League, we have to replicate it in the Premier League.” And while Ranieri claimed relegation was not a concern – despite Leicester being just two points clear of the trap door – he admitted their lack of fight was a worry. He said: “When we play away, we are not competitive, it’s very strange. Last season we were so solid, strong, concentrated, hungry – and now we have to change our mindset. “Last season we were very connected with each other, this season, not so well. This is the problem. The body language is not good. We have to react.” interesting player omissions, maybe this is why fergie was so good at reinventing his sides every year... Desire and hunger
cruzFOX Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 That's a good synopsis Hankmarvin. there are way too many factors that just aren't right with the foxes. If Ranieri says he doesn't understand why the players don't have the focus or fight in them for these away games than we have a real problem on our hands. It's his job to know and fix it! I hope it's a case of players not being on the same page with one another and lacking a real sense of urgency about the situation they are in. its not Christmas yet but we are far enough into the season that a disturbing pattern is forming. everyone from the players the manager the fans are saying we need to get our act together quick but with each away game that passes by it's the same old issues. Every player needs to be at his very best in mind and body from the kick-off! captain Morgan for example has become captain careless recently. It is not acceptable to be continuously switching off in games at set pieces. we are shipping goals needlessly at an alarming rate. Maybe it's time to give the captaincy to drinkwater and rest Morgan until he's fired up again? There are others who are getting complacent too. We all watch the games and see the same damn thing happening over & over. back up will be coming in the january window as our Thai owners are not about to throw away all the great work & achievements from last season. bring on Copenhagen and let's see a positive response and for once follow it with some decent away and home performances! go foxes!
Babylon Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 Yes and no... I don't think playing a full team would have yielded a different result to be honest, but we certainly played a weaker team. Which would suggest a common sense decision in weighing up what served us best.
foxy boxing Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 hopefully our league form will pick up after the champions league is done, it is a hard balancing act for us to have league games and then champions league in our debut season but if we can get to the knockout stages of the champions league that would be a massive success for the club. if we finish in the top ten of the premier league that would not be too bad. I know fans were hoping for top six maybe even top four but at the moment they look out of reach. we can still have a great season just not a spectacular one like last season. are expectations too high most definitely but as long as we keep improving and building that is fine along with winning of course
Benji Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 We are not in a relegation scrap. There is some absolute dross in the league this year and our home form alone will keep us safe, with a few wins away against those at the bottom. That's not to say there aren't concerns from our away performances and my pre-season prediction of top 6 is rapidly disappearing / will be gone by November at this rate. In answer to the OP, it'll be interesting to see how Tuesday goes and whether we see a different energy level.
Babylon Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 22 hours ago, Raj said: To be fair we have played 3 of the clubs who Will be competing for the title come May(And Hull was always on the cards what with no Champions losing the first game of the season and all that) Next away is Spurs,another title contender so surely a better gauge will be when we play the likes of West Ham,Saints,Swansea etc away. I'm not saying were playing well,as we clearly are a shadow of last season BUT like I said a better gauge will be playing teams aribg us where we hope to finish ie mid table. As I said a couple of weeks ago, get Kopenhagen away out of the way and we have a run of games where we only play 3 of the top 7 in the following 13 games.. and those 3 are at home. So far we've played 5 of the top 8 and played 3 of them away. We then play Palace and Spurs. Making it 7 of the top 9 we've had to play and 4 of them away. That's a bloody hard start to the season for anyone. Yes performances have not been good enough in those games and it's a worry, but we've actually done ok in the other games barring Hull, and we could have been three up before they scored quite easily.
Mjeb Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 Is it the owners or the manager deciding that the champions league is more important / and the complete change in our style of play ? where has our pressing game all over the pitch from the front gone. We we could go down if we are not careful come me on city get back at it before it's to late .
reynard Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 4 hours ago, Benji said: We are not in a relegation scrap. There is some absolute dross in the league this year and our home form alone will keep us safe, with a few wins away against those at the bottom. That's not to say there aren't concerns from our away performances and my pre-season prediction of top 6 is rapidly disappearing / will be gone by November at this rate. In answer to the OP, it'll be interesting to see how Tuesday goes and whether we see a different energy level. Sorry to disagree. We might not yet be in a relegation scrap but we very soon will be. The game on Saturday is a must win game for me. Anything less and confidence will just drain away. The question for me is do we have a manager up for this type of fight? All credit for last season but that has gone now and I'm getting a bit fed up with his approach especially in away matches. It isn't the fact we have lost them it is that the overall level of performance is so low. Let's see how we go over the next 5 or 6 games but if things continue we will be in a real fight for survival. Ranieri might just find himself in the lead in the sack race. The owners have invested a lot of money in the squad and frankly at this point we seem not to have progressed but have gone massively backwards.
Benji Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 15 minutes ago, reynard said: Sorry to disagree. We might not yet be in a relegation scrap but we very soon will be. The game on Saturday is a must win game for me. Anything less and confidence will just drain away. The question for me is do we have a manager up for this type of fight? All credit for last season but that has gone now and I'm getting a bit fed up with his approach especially in away matches. It isn't the fact we have lost them it is that the overall level of performance is so low. Let's see how we go over the next 5 or 6 games but if things continue we will be in a real fight for survival. Ranieri might just find himself in the lead in the sack race. The owners have invested a lot of money in the squad and frankly at this point we seem not to have progressed but have gone massively backwards. Feel free - but honestly, watch Sunderland, Burnley, Middlesbrough, Swansea, Hull (I know, I know) and even West Ham this weekend and you will quickly feel better. And I could list a couple more.
Babylon Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 24 minutes ago, reynard said: The game on Saturday is a must win game for me. Nope, nope it's not... so rest easy.
nnfox Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 To anyone who thinks we are even close to a relegation battle: WE'RE NOT! 8 games played and 4 of them against Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea. We have 30 games to go and most of them will not be as hard as what we've played so far. Top half should be realistic.
Manwell Pablo Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 omg please no with the "must wins" already
char123 Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 To anyone who thinks we are even close to a relegation battle: WE'RE NOT! 8 games played and 4 of them against Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea. We have 30 games to go and most of them will not be as hard as what we've played so far. Top half should be realistic.exactly!!! if we win one, lose one all season then i would be happy because that would give us approximatley 55 points which could give us a top half finish. last year was a one off which probably aint gonna happen again in our lifetime. lets just enjoy however far we get in the CL and see what happens in the league. i certainly dont think we will be relegation fodder.Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
CloudFox Posted 17 October 2016 Posted 17 October 2016 To answer the original question: No. Of course he's not. We have had a crazy few seasons and a poor pre-season this year. Teams have altered the way they play to stop us playing the way that we do. That's football. Shit happens, and teams learn. Couple that with our horrendous run of away fixtures and, well...we have to accept it was always going to be hard. On top of that, imagine achieving your life's dream...and then having to come into work the next day. How hard would it be to come down from that? The title win was impossible, and is probably still sinking in - even for Claudio. These are not excuses - because at times the perceived effort and concentration has been embarrassing this season - but they are facts. And we know this team: when the going gets tough, they fight like hell. No way is Claudio going to be 'abandoning' the Prem. It's our bread and butter, and he clearly is unhappy with the way we have been playing. However, he has stated the obvious today: We want to get as far in the Champions League as we can, because this could be our only chance, ever. This isn't the League Cup - it's the ****ing Champions League, people. Everyone is there on high merit, and so rotation ahead of it (especially after an International break) is sensible. It feels awful at the moment, but these boys will come good again. It will click, and Ranieri will find a solution. They're our champions, for fox sake. All of them. Have faith.
WigstonWanderer Posted 18 October 2016 Posted 18 October 2016 I think it's fair to say that last season's exciting attacking play complemented by the incisive long ball over the top has evolved into a depressingly unattractive form of hoofball that would embarrass Tony Pulis. How does this compare with Claudio teams of the past? Is this style something he is likely to have introduced deliberately?
HighPeakFox Posted 18 October 2016 Posted 18 October 2016 5 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said: I think it's fair to say that last season's exciting attacking play complemented by the incisive long ball over the top has evolved into a depressingly unattractive form of hoofball that would embarrass Tony Pulis. How does this compare with Claudio teams of the past? Is this style something he is likely to have introduced deliberately? No - they've just lost the formula, for now. That's all.
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