Leicester 1 Copenhagen 0

[Koke]

Mahrez spends way too much time defending for my liking. I wish he was more centrally cos I think he'd be more effective. 

 

Ranieri's post match interview was rather concerning to be honest.

[narboroughblue]

Great result but turgid performance as has become too regular at times. I'm over the moon at the Chsmpions League group table but wish we could provide something a little more pleasing in the eye. 

 

It seems like we are so flat that when we win the ball back there is a massive lack of options and we are so deep the only option is the hoof forward and hope for the best. Last year we nicked the ball back higher up the pitch so the long balls were much shorter and more successful. Even Drinky was massively guilty last night of trying too many aimless hoofs over the top. 

 

Most sides nowadays have 4 lines of players whereas we only have 3 and therefore the gap between those lines becomes too big for short passing options. I think the issue starts at the back, the majority of our defenders aren't that comfortable on the ball and therefore we lose a passing option to move the whole side up the pitch which other sides have. If we could correct that the likes of Drinky and Mahrez would get the bell closer to the strikers and cause more problems for the opposition without the long hoofs. 

 

Not sure we can resolve this in the short term as we don't have the personnel but let's hope  January yields a couple of improvements as I can't wait for the European adventure to continue into 2017. 

 

9/9 is stuff dreams is made of though. ☺️☺️

[MC Prussian]

Ranieri's face says it all:

[Guest Mee-9]

I thought we were bloody awful in the first half. 

 

Yeah we looked a bit better in the second half, but we looked like a team bereft of confidence and ideas who had no clue how to pass the ball. 

[Wymsey]

10 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Ranieri's face says it all:

Need to give him some birthday cake tomorrow for his 65th.

Otherwise he could go like Yaya Toure, get grumpy about not getting one and as a result doesn't want to be part of the club again..

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, Ollie93 said:

As Vin Diesel once said, " It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning’s winning". 

And here's the thing.

It seems some on this thread are more bothered about the performance than the result - just bizarre.

So many want their cake and eat it. Greedy, entitled and unrealistic.

Football is a results business whether we like it or not. If people want to see the beautiful game every week, possession football and sexy pass completion stats - go follow Arsenal.

Last season we massively over achieved and set the bar SO high that the expectations now are through the roof.

How many posts on here start "Good result last night...BUT...(insert moan about performance).

When we look back on this CL campaign in years to come, we won't be discussing performances. We'll be discussing goals, clean sheets, results and points won. I don't want to tell my grandkids we failed to qualify for the last 16 in our one and only attempt at the CL - but at least we played some nice stuff though..

I feel proud as fvck to be a Leicester fan today. As Kasper said, 'we're traditional slow starters and performances will improve', so why can't people just be happy we're top of the group and rewriting history?

Constant fvckin moaning and worrying on here is doing my nut in. Keep the faith. 

 

[The Horse's Mouth]

first half was horrendous, I wish we'd just learn how to pass the ball. The amount of misplaced passes and aimless hoofballs was concerning. The goal definitely helped though and we looked better second half. King was excellent, got to give credit to Ranieri for starting him

[StriderHiryu]

2 hours ago, reynard said:

Agree 100% with this.

What concerns me is the post match interview with Ranieri confirmed that the pointless and aimless hoofball of the first half was basically his tactical plan. If this really is his plan B then we are going to be in for a very long hard season. Also it sort of admits that we don't have any alternatives of playing the ball through the middle because we basically don't have any attacking central midfield options that can drop their shoulder and go past a player.

The other question for me is who plays up front? Initial indications against Burnley were that Vardy and Slimani might be ok together but frankly yesterday they looked a poor partnership. They were either too far apart or too close together. Slimani worked hard but lacks raw pace. Vardy seems to have lost a yard of pace and frankly the effort doesn't seem to be there or he has been told not to close down so energetically. last season he set the tempo for the team this year his tempo is more of a slow waltz and I feel that is transferring itself to the rest of the team.

Not surprisingly our goal came from one of the very few decent spells of play we produced in the whole of the first half. For most of the first half we played a frankly embarrassing form of kick and rush with no quality. For 15 to 20 minutes at the start of the second half we passed the ball on the ground and actually saw some movement off the ball and surprise surprise actually looked quite good until we suddenly seemed to forget about this and revert to aimless long balls once again.

 

If we play like this against Palace we will lose.

 

Obviously it is fantastic to be playing in the Champions league and to be winning all our games but anyone who wants to hide away from the fact that in so doing our performances have not always been of a high quality is entitled to do so. However, those who want to complain are quite right to do so as well. We have invested over 60 million (gross) in the squad over the summer and the improvements just aren't happening yet. I have to say that after last season I didn't expect us to do anywhere near as well but neither did I expect to be served up football of astonishingly low quality with at times what appears to be little tactical nous.

This is a really good post!

 

Agree that the 15-20 minute spell you talked about (when Slimani's goal was ruled out incorrectly) is the base template of how we need to play. There was even a moment where Wes Morgan stepped in with an interception, dropped a shoulder past one of the Copenhagen strikers and delivered a class cross-field ball to Mahrez, who then brought the ball down and also played a nice pass to another player. We need more of that and less of "PANIC, MUST GO LONG NOW!" 

[Babylon]

5 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

And here's the thing.

It seems some on this thread are more bothered about the performance than the result - just bizarre.

So many want their cake and eat it. Greedy, entitled and unrealistic.

Football is a results business whether we like it or not. If people want to see the beautiful game every week, possession football and sexy pass completion stats - go follow Arsenal.

Last season we massively over achieved and set the bar SO high that the expectations now are through the roof.

How many posts on here start "Good result last night...BUT...(insert moan about performance).

When we look back on this CL campaign in years to come, we won't be discussing performances. We'll be discussing goals, clean sheets, results and points won. I don't want to tell my grandkids we failed to qualify for the last 16 in our one and only attempt at the CL - but at least we played some nice stuff though..

I feel proud as fvck to be a Leicester fan today. As Kasper said, 'we're traditional slow starters and performances will improve', so why can't people just be happy we're top of the group and rewriting history?

Constant fvckin moaning and worrying on here is doing my nut in. Keep the faith. 

 

We'll all just ignore the fact we were fairly crap for long spells and happy clap along like there was nothing wrong.

 

There is nothing bizarre, greedy, entitled or unrealistic about people expressing their opinions on what was a pretty naff show over all. You are allowed to be happy with a result and not happy with a performance, it's not mutually exclusive. Just as you can be happy with a performance and unhappy with a result if you play brilliantly and lose.

 

We aren't 10 years down the line, we're the next day... In 10 years I might just remember the result, but today I remember both with the passage of time not having greyed things out. So I'll talk about the performance if I want to.

 

Coming in the thread telling people what they should and shouldn't be saying, when they are actually more than reasonable points is far more "bizarre" than saying the performance wasn't that good. Telling people to "go and support Arsenal" because they dare point out we're better than the shit show that was served up first half is pathetic, grow up.

[fuchsntf]

5 hours ago, Babylon said:

Ridiculous.

 

If "so called supporters" actually want to call the game as they saw it they can, it doesn't make you any more of a fan sat there deluded we played well and that there wasn't clearly still a lot of problems.

 

As for Copenhagen, at least they attempted to pass and move and work the ball up the pitch, yes much of it ended with a cross or "high ball", but most of it wasn't aimless hoofing with nothing else. They also don't have a team anywhere near as expensive as ours, they also aren't performing below standard as we have been. 

 

A better team would have put us to the sword again last night.

But we didnt play a better team....How many IFS  have we ourselves fallen down on.

Enjoy the merry go round, we were never going to be the New Barcelona,

or another B.Dortmund. 

Its the end of October, and one thing I am sure of after seeing the Last 2-3 months of Closed and new season. The Major players from last year are mentally tired, we have to accept the

Title cost them in effort. Eg. Vardy, Huth Always had that bite in their game, last year all players,took all they and and more, with extra sprinkling of digging out the unknowns.

It got them to their and our incredible   impossible realisation of a dream.

I really believe we are underrating what it took, and what it took out of the players.

We are no longer covering that empty space, our "thats mine" mentallity and pace of thought then pass. ...Its gone.   It makes them look lazy or not concentrated.Its not that that they dont want to, at the moment they cant. Maybe that was Chelseas problem, only maybe.

Some say D.Drinkwater is still doing it, but if I want to be small minded, his foward passes, look more hit and hope, than that 1-2 precision passes in a game that he played last season.

Morgan and Huth are way off last seasons form, their individual strengths of attack space and ball, have deserted them, their timing is well off. Meaning we are not thinking quick enough when wanting to service the forwards.

I believe, Ranieri is dumbfounded, that the team has lost that high octane fight and spirit from last season, its not gone, its just ticking over at too low a revs.  

 

 

 

[artursteppe]

I actually think the concept of playing the 'chipped' ball over the opposition defense earlier, is very clever. Last fifteen minutes of the first half we improved, if the chipped pass was intercepted by a defender, our midfield players were in position to pick up their headed clearances giving us momentum going forward up the pitch. Our goal came from the increased pressure we had put on Kobenhagen during that time.

We do need to practise it more, but I think it will work very well in games to come.

Very astute tactical change from Claudio, excellant!

[Guest Col city fan]

4 minutes ago, Babylon said:

We'll all just ignore the fact we were fairly crap for long spells and happy clap along like there was nothing wrong.

 

There is nothing bizarre, greedy, entitled or unrealistic about people expressing their opinions on what was a pretty naff show over all. You are allowed to be happy with a result and not happy with a performance, it's not mutually exclusive. Just as you can be happy with a performance and unhappy with a result if you play brilliantly and lose.

 

We aren't 10 years down the line, we're the next day... In 10 years I might just remember the result, but today I remember both with the passage of time not having greyed things out. So I'll talk about the performance if I want to.

 

Coming in the thread telling people what they should and shouldn't be saying, when they are actually more than reasonable points is far more "bizarre" than saying the performance wasn't that good. Telling people to "go and support Arsenal" because they dare point out we're better than the shit show that was served up first half is pathetic, grow up.

Well Izzy my man, that's bloody told you!

 

[Izzy]

5 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Well Izzy my man, that's bloody told you!

 

Haha! The great Babylon has spoken 

Let him have his moan bless him. 

He can spend his day talking about our 'naff, crappy, shit' performance, while I'll spend mine basking in he glory of being top of Group G.

We all know we haven't reached the heights of last year - that's obvious. But we don't need it constantly rammed down our throats and taking the gloss of yet another famous win in the CL.

 

[Max Power]

2 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

Haha! The great Babylon has spoken 

Let him have his moan bless him. 

He can spend his day talking about our 'naff, crappy, shit' performance, while I'll spend mine basking in he glory of being top of Group G.

We all know we haven't reached the heights of last year - that's obvious. But we don't need it constantly rammed down our throats and taking the gloss of yet another famous win in the CL.

 

You can enjoy the win and our position in the group as well as be concerned about the direction of the team so far this season surely?

[The Horse's Mouth]

23 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

And here's the thing.

It seems some on this thread are more bothered about the performance than the result - just bizarre.

So many want their cake and eat it. Greedy, entitled and unrealistic.

Football is a results business whether we like it or not. If people want to see the beautiful game every week, possession football and sexy pass completion stats - go follow Arsenal.

Last season we massively over achieved and set the bar SO high that the expectations now are through the roof.

How many posts on here start "Good result last night...BUT...(insert moan about performance).

When we look back on this CL campaign in years to come, we won't be discussing performances. We'll be discussing goals, clean sheets, results and points won. I don't want to tell my grandkids we failed to qualify for the last 16 in our one and only attempt at the CL - but at least we played some nice stuff though..

I feel proud as fvck to be a Leicester fan today. As Kasper said, 'we're traditional slow starters and performances will improve', so why can't people just be happy we're top of the group and rewriting history?

Constant fvckin moaning and worrying on here is doing my nut in. Keep the faith. 

 

We're so greedy & entitled because we don't live in blissful ignorance?  For me at least, it's not about playing tika taka sexy liquid football. I'd just like us to improve on keeping the ball and stop wasting possession because it's been a huge weakness of ours this season and why we've been trounced by the big boys. There's no need for us, 1-0 ahead to be still mindlessly hoofing. 

[Tommeh]

14 hours ago, Koke said:

 

It's 1 game mare. He was good tonight but let's not ore tend he hasn't been poor in many others. If he keeps this up I will put some respect on his name.  

9 years, 340 games, 59 goals and 3 league titles yet he's still trying to earn your respect?

 

I swear so many people don't deserve this incredible team we've got. 

 

 

 

 

You probably won't see anything like this ever again, milk it, enjoy it and f'cking get behind them. 

[Tommeh]

13 hours ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

If you're not genuinely happy, thrilled, proud and excited of what we've achieved so far in our FIRST EVER champions league campaign, then you never will be. I actually feel sorry for you.

Get off your fvckin entitled high horses, remember who we are and where we've come from, and realise we may NEVER experience this again. 

There's Derby, Forest and even Man U and Chelsea fans who'd give their right arm to be in the CL this season.

Well they're not. And we are. 

And you can pull apart our performances and criticise the opposition all you want, but you ain't gonna spoil my once in a lifetime enjoyment of al this.

 

Thread should have ended here. Superb post. 

[Izzy]

3 minutes ago, Max Power said:

You can enjoy the win and our position in the group as well as be concerned about the direction of the team so far this season surely?

Of course you can. We all know we've had a tough start this season - that's plain to see. Some choose to panic and be concerned, others keep the faith and trust in the Don and the team to get it right. We can moan all we want about the performance last night but we kept a clean sheet and we won the game. Expectations are so high that it seems winning matches in our first ever CL campaign still isn't good enough for some.

[Izzy]

6 minutes ago, Tommeh said:

Thread should have ended here. Superb post. 

Bless ya mate. And I'd give you a dozen rep points for your previous post but I've ran out! 

[Babylon]

10 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

Haha! The great Babylon has spoken 

Let him have his moan bless him. 

He can spend his day talking about our 'naff, crappy, shit' performance, while I'll spend mine basking in he glory of being top of Group G.

We all know we haven't reached the heights of last year - that's obvious. But we don't need it constantly rammed down our throats and taking the gloss of yet another famous win in the CL.

 

Once again your brain doesn't seem to be able to compute the fact people can be perfectly happy and thrilled with points gained and sitting top of the group, but didn't particularly enjoy seeing the ball sail 40 feet to one of their players every other kick.

 

Saying we didn't perform very well is hardly a moan, it's stating a fact like the sky is blue and your mentality is that of an 8 year old, totally incapable of separating thoughts and feelings. And you aren't "letting people have a moan", you're telling them to go an support Arsenal, that they are "bizarre", "Greedy, entitled and unrealistic"... for saying we didn't perform very well. Sort your head out.

 

You say you'll spend your day basking in glory, when all you've actually done is come on here and moan at people discussing a performance.

 

[Monsell1976]

33 minutes ago, Babylon said:

We'll all just ignore the fact we were fairly crap for long spells and happy clap along like there was nothing wrong.

 

There is nothing bizarre, greedy, entitled or unrealistic about people expressing their opinions on what was a pretty naff show over all. You are allowed to be happy with a result and not happy with a performance, it's not mutually exclusive. Just as you can be happy with a performance and unhappy with a result if you play brilliantly and lose.

 

We aren't 10 years down the line, we're the next day... In 10 years I might just remember the result, but today I remember both with the passage of time not having greyed things out. So I'll talk about the performance if I want to.

 

Coming in the thread telling people what they should and shouldn't be saying, when they are actually more than reasonable points is far more "bizarre" than saying the performance wasn't that good. Telling people to "go and support Arsenal" because they dare point out we're better than the shit show that was served up first half is pathetic, grow up.

I Agee, let's not make last night more than it was.

Great result, great to be top, but a below average performance, against an average side.

Play to that standard Saturday and another defeat will follow.

Dont know what it is, I would suggest a change in mentality or lack of confidence, but we look beatable every game, and something isn't clicking this year.

[Izzy]

7 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Once again your brain doesn't seem to be able to compute the fact people can be perfectly happy and thrilled with points gained and sitting top of the group, but didn't particularly enjoy seeing the ball sail 40 feet to one of their players every other kick.

 

Saying we didn't perform very well is hardly a moan, it's stating a fact like the sky is blue and your mentality is that of an 8 year old, totally incapable of separating thoughts and feelings. And you aren't "letting people have a moan", you're telling them to go an support Arsenal, that they are "bizarre", "Greedy, entitled and unrealistic"... for saying we didn't perform very well. Sort your head out.

 

You say you'll spend your day basking in glory, when all you've actually done is come on here and moan at people discussing a performance.

 

O.K. mate. I've said my piece and had a lot of support from like-minded posters.

This exchange obviously isn't going to end well, so I'll step out while you continue discussing the performance.

Have a nice day 

[Guest bennytwohats]

We did have a spell of 15-20 minutes or so around the 60 minute mark where we got the ball on the ground and looked sharp and incisive. It's there, we just need to get that out!

 

I have seen quite a lot of praise for Drinkwater on here but for me he was the most guilty last night of hoofing it, along with the defenders. I felt that there was a lack of anyone wanting the ball in the midfield as whenever we got the ball it seemed half of our players would drop deep and hoof, the other half would sprint up the pitch to try and get on the end of it, which wasn't working - we needed someone utilising the space in the centre and providing an option to link defence to attack along the ground. I feel Okazaki could have played a better link between midfield/attack or that DD/the wingers needed to come infield a bit and play the ball along the ground and wait for the space to open up. When we actually managed that we did better.

 

Positives are Mahrez taking his goal very well and showing glimpses, defence looking organises and resilient. Kasper - phenomenal save at 90 minutes.

 

 

I'm all for being positive and delighted with our position. I think on the other hand we are looking like we may/should qualify from our group which means tougher opposition. I think we do need to pick up the quality if/when that time comes. That doesn't mean I'm not absolutely loving this moment right now.

 

I think I, and many, would just like to see us give the best possible account of ourselves and see how far that can take us. So far we are flying in the CL without being our best, which is great. But I would be gutted to see us limp out of the knockouts playing like we did last night when we all know we are capable of a much higher level of performance than that.

[AdamLcfc81]

40 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

Haha! The great Babylon has spoken 

Let him have his moan bless him. 

He can spend his day talking about our 'naff, crappy, shit' performance, while I'll spend mine basking in he glory of being top of Group G.

We all know we haven't reached the heights of last year - that's obvious. But we don't need it constantly rammed down our throats and taking the gloss of yet another famous win in the CL.

 

Spot on. Good post

[kingcarr21]

26 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Once again your brain doesn't seem to be able to compute the fact people can be perfectly happy and thrilled with points gained and sitting top of the group, but didn't particularly enjoy seeing the ball sail 40 feet to one of their players every other kick.

 

Saying we didn't perform very well is hardly a moan, it's stating a fact like the sky is blue and your mentality is that of an 8 year old, totally incapable of separating thoughts and feelings. And you aren't "letting people have a moan", you're telling them to go an support Arsenal, that they are "bizarre", "Greedy, entitled and unrealistic"... for saying we didn't perform very well. Sort your head out.

 

You say you'll spend your day basking in glory, when all you've actually done is come on here and moan at people discussing a performance.

 

The sky isnt actually blue