Match Ratings : Watford 2-1 Leicester City - Vote Now

[Guest the fox]

5 hours ago, Chico1958 said:

Ron-Robert Zieler - 6/10

Could do little about the goals, but Leicester missed the reassuring presence of Kasper Schmeichel. Made a good save from Roberto Pereyra’s header.

Danny Simpson – 5/10

Both of Watford’s goals came from Leicester’s right, as Pereyra got the better of Simpson in the opening stages.

Wes Morgan – 5/10

Looked unsettled by his sides’ slow start, making some clumsy tackles and clearances. Beaten in the air by Younes Kaboul at set plays on more than one occasion.

Robert Huth – 6/10

Uncertain at times but still the Foxes' most solid defensive presence.

Christian Fuchs – 5/10

Had a nightmare time up against Nordin Amrabat and Daryl Janmaat. Replaced by Jeffrey Schlupp in the 68^th minute.

Riyad Mahrez – 6/10

Gave Carlos Zuniga a hard time in the first half but couldn’t reproduce that in the second half. Great penalty to bring Leicester back into the game.

Daniel Amartey – 5/10

Tidy in possession of the ball without making a mark on the game.

Danny Drinkwater – 5/10

Lost the ball in the build up to Watford’s opener. Tried hard to inspire his team with some probing forward balls early in the second half.

Marc Albrighton – 5/10

Put in his usual shift but failed to make an impact on the game. Replaced by Ahmed Musa in the 78th minute.

Shinji Okazaki – 5/10

Like Albrighton, there was no shortage of effort before he was taken off for Demarai Gray.

Jamie Vardy – 6/10

Hassled the Hornets back four and won a penalty from Miguel Britos. Faded away in the second half as Watford's defiant defence sat deep.

Substitutes

Jeffrey Schlupp – 6/10

A bright performance off the bench. Coped better than Fuchs with Watford’s attacking threat, and also made a couple of penetrating forward runs.

Demarai Gray – 4/10

Booked for dissent. Offered little else.

Ahmed Musa – 5/10

Couldn’t inspire a late Leicester comeback.

 

I think this a fair assessment from what I've read, saw and listened to.......................HITC

Oh look. A fair rating to every one with a good input instead of the 1s and 2s. 

[Rileigh84]

I love Ranieri to bits. He delivered us the impossible, and I still have faith in him. The guy has rarely put a foot wrong in his 30 years as a manager, only having been relegated once and spending 2 thirds of his career finishing in the top 6 of every league he's ever managed in...

That said, he simply has to start taking action with this side. He calls himself a tactician yet so far this season shown an unwillingness to change tactics from hoof-ball up top - perhaps it's the players not following his orders. Perhaps last season's counter attack approach suited the likes of Drinkwater and Vardy and made them look like better players than they are (don't get me wrong, Drinkwater has been our best player for us this season, but I'm talking about their ability to break down a defence). Teams has seriously found us out now. Every one knows if they sit back and counter us the win is in the bag - because we can't break sides down. If by chance we score first, it plays into our hands as the opposition have to attack us and then we look a better side as we can counter and play to our strengths, but at present unless we score first we are so bereft of ideas in the final third its unbelievable.

I don't like to criticise Claudio, but it is his responsibility to get this team playing football and figure out a way to adapt to the opposition. Is he at fault for not going all out in the Summer to bring in the quality we need? maybe, maybe not, can you blame him for wanting to give the side who won the league the chance to prove themselves at the very top? He must be regretting not going all out for Adrien Silva and N'Zonzi - for me, both those two would change our side completely - Silva breaks down defences and pops up with goals, N'Zonzi is exactly what we're missing in the middle... it's make us a better team almost instantly.

[Dan]

We have seriously got to try and take some of the defensive strain off Mahrez. He could get away with it a bit more with Kante there. While I don't think he's as bad defensively as made out by some, it clearly suits him more to keep him attacking. It's completely nullifying the undoubted brilliance he has.

[Rileigh84]

2 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

We have seriously got to try and take some of the defensive strain off Mahrez. He could get away with it a bit more with Kante there. While I don't think he's as bad defensively as made out by some, it clearly suits him more to keep him attacking. It's completely nullifying the undoubted brilliance he has.

How about a 3-4-1-2?

 

 

GK - Schmeichel

CB's -  Hernandez - Morgan - Huth

RWB - Albrighton - great crosser of the ball and did great there at the end of 14/15

LWB - Fuchs - another wand of a left foot and his natural position is wing back.

CM's - Drinkwater & King / Amartey / Mendy when fit

AM - Mahres - in a free role to roam

ST's - Vardy & Slimani - Vardy for the knock on's, Slimani to get his head on Fuchs and Marc's crosses.

 

Seems a lot of the league are starting to revert to something similar - look at Chelsea? The alternative would be switching the front 2 and AM, to a front 3 with two wing attackers in Musa and Mahrez and Vardy / Slimani up top. Obviously Musa and Mahrez would need to stay up top which would suit them both from what I have seen - similar to how Liverpool are playing at the moment too.

 

[ZeGuy]

57 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

We have seriously got to try and take some of the defensive strain off Mahrez. He could get away with it a bit more with Kante there. While I don't think he's as bad defensively as made out by some, it clearly suits him more to keep him attacking. It's completely nullifying the undoubted brilliance he has.

Indeed. I think his bad choices when attacking (against Watford in the second half there was a golden opportunity to equalize and yet he made the worst possible call) come for the fatigue he's accumulating with the constant back-tracking. It's clouding his vision. He also has to run way more with the ball to the goal in much tighter spaces. He's undoubtedly frustrated. I was surprised to see him punching the ground as he wasn't given a free kick last saturday since he's usually not the emotional type on the pitch.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

On 20/11/2016 at 13:37, Fox92 said:

Because he's doing the work of two players. Trying to win the ball back and trying to create... No wonder he's making mistakes. We need a proper defensive midfielder to win the ball back.

 

Kante let our players flourish so much and now we're missing that.

 

Drinkwater was no worse than any other player yesterday and I can certainly pick two or three that were worse.

I didn't say he was the worst player, I disputed giving him a man of the match award when he wasn't our best player on the pitch by any stretch. Calm down.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

On 20/11/2016 at 13:37, Fox92 said:

Because he's doing the work of two players. Trying to win the ball back and trying to create... No wonder he's making mistakes. We need a proper defensive midfielder to win the ball back.

 

Kante let our players flourish so much and now we're missing that.

 

[Fox92]

55 minutes ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

I didn't say he was the worst player, I disputed giving him a man of the match award when he wasn't our best player on the pitch by any stretch. Calm down.

I know that. My point was about looking exhausted and mistakes in general. We need a quality ball winning midfielder for him. When/if he's suspended or injured we're left with King and Amartey in midfield, it's absolutely criminal. 

[inckley fox]

On 21/11/2016 at 11:49, Rileigh84 said:

I love Ranieri to bits. He delivered us the impossible, and I still have faith in him. The guy has rarely put a foot wrong in his 30 years as a manager, only having been relegated once and spending 2 thirds of his career finishing in the top 6 of every league he's ever managed in...

That said, he simply has to start taking action with this side. He calls himself a tactician yet so far this season shown an unwillingness to change tactics from hoof-ball up top - perhaps it's the players not following his orders. Perhaps last season's counter attack approach suited the likes of Drinkwater and Vardy and made them look like better players than they are (don't get me wrong, Drinkwater has been our best player for us this season, but I'm talking about their ability to break down a defence). Teams has seriously found us out now. Every one knows if they sit back and counter us the win is in the bag - because we can't break sides down. If by chance we score first, it plays into our hands as the opposition have to attack us and then we look a better side as we can counter and play to our strengths, but at present unless we score first we are so bereft of ideas in the final third its unbelievable.

I don't like to criticise Claudio, but it is his responsibility to get this team playing football and figure out a way to adapt to the opposition. Is he at fault for not going all out in the Summer to bring in the quality we need? maybe, maybe not, can you blame him for wanting to give the side who won the league the chance to prove themselves at the very top? He must be regretting not going all out for Adrien Silva and N'Zonzi - for me, both those two would change our side completely - Silva breaks down defences and pops up with goals, N'Zonzi is exactly what we're missing in the middle... it's make us a better team almost instantly.

 

Where was he relegated, out of curiosity? Are you counting the season Atletico went down after he last? I'm most probably missing something.

 

And yes, he needs to roll his sleeves up now. I don't know about Silva, but I was very keen on N'Zonzi having seen a bit of him for Seville. He seems to have continued to develop as a player. I suppose it's sensible for a month or so to focus on what we've got, though, and I'd have thought you could fashion a handy 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 from that set of players, and fix at least a few of our issues. Hopefully without creating too many new ones.

 

I also hope, contrary to some fans, that we keep one eye on the future. There are young players out there within our range who can do a job at this level, as we've discovered in the past, and our starting eleven is quite an old one right now. I imagine trying to strike this balance, and perhaps not having done a great job of it (yet), is one of our current problems. But we have to be careful that we're not just constantly topping up on players who are the wrong side of 27.

[Rileigh84]

On 22/11/2016 at 14:42, inckley fox said:

 

Where was he relegated, out of curiosity? Are you counting the season Atletico went down after he last? I'm most probably missing something.

 

And yes, he needs to roll his sleeves up now. I don't know about Silva, but I was very keen on N'Zonzi having seen a bit of him for Seville. He seems to have continued to develop as a player. I suppose it's sensible for a month or so to focus on what we've got, though, and I'd have thought you could fashion a handy 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 from that set of players, and fix at least a few of our issues. Hopefully without creating too many new ones.

 

I also hope, contrary to some fans, that we keep one eye on the future. There are young players out there within our range who can do a job at this level, as we've discovered in the past, and our starting eleven is quite an old one right now. I imagine trying to strike this balance, and perhaps not having done a great job of it (yet), is one of our current problems. But we have to be careful that we're not just constantly topping up on players who are the wrong side of 27.

He was relegated in his second ever management role back in 1987-88 - managing Serie C1 side Puteolana in Italy - he finished 17th and only managed to win 12% of games. He left Atletico in 19th but to be fair to him Atletico were in serious trouble when he joined due to the fact they'd been done for tax evasion and had extreme debts so they sold off a lot of their key players while he was there - they did finish runners up in the Copa Del Rey that season though.

 

When he joined I put together this infographic detailing his entire career finishes etc.As you'll see, in the most part its very impressive. His sides do have a habit of having 1 good season followed by a mediocre one though (See stints at Napoli, Fiorentina & Roma most noticeably). He's had a lot of hard luck too - being laid off for finishing 2nd to PSG in France with Monaco, same thing with Juventus but finishing 3rd, with Roma it was 6th after finishing 2nd the season before, Chelsea it was 2nd and the semi's of the UCL... I'd say he'd been harshly treated.

Anyway... here it is.