Were the cracks starting to form last season?

[Struwwelpeter60]

8 hours ago, Churchill said:

Cast your mind back to late Feb early March last season not long after the great victory at Man City away, all of a sudden we weren't sticking 3 or 4 past teams and the performances were not as great as they had been. Five 1 nil wins on the bounce but no one cared because hey we were top of the league and destined to be premier league champions, but had we been found out? I believe we had been found out but we managed to grind out results and be defensively solid thanks to one man Kante, but the chances started drying up but luckily for us that once chance we did create we took.

 

Now Kante has gone it seems we are still playing the same way even though teams have found us out but it isn't working as we have no replacement and the average back four are being exposed, leaking goals and not creating chances, were the cracks being covered up because we were top of the league and nicking 1-0 wins? I think so and I think its about time we changed the system.

Do you really think, that we were "defensively solid thanks to one man Kante"?

Look at the numbers and think again:

Season 16/17 (after 12 games): goals conceded - 20

Season 15/16 (after 12 games): goals conceded - 20

 

It seems, that with or without Kante we were/are shipping  goals.

 

Btw: During the "Great Escape" we conceded only 7 goals in 9 games.

Without Kante.

 

The big difference between this and last season (after 12 games) is not the

performance of our defence, but that of our offence:

 

Season 16/17: goals scored - 14

Season 15/16: goals scored - 25

 

[Struwwelpeter60]

28 minutes ago, Costock_Fox said:

I might be wrong but hadn't Walsh pretty much gone when we signed him? 

 

Walsh left in July, we signed Kapustka in August.

Kapustka was presented on 3 August. Walsh signed up with Everton on 21 July.

The question is: who made the contact with the player/his agent and when did he do it?

I mean, normally it takes weeks, sometimes even months, to arrange a transfer.

If Ranieri wanted Kapustka, it is hard to explain, why he doesn't play him.

And what about Musa?

Read again what Ranieri did say in the last few months about Musa and Kapustka.

Leicester City assistants Steve Walsh and Craig Shakespeare agree new deals        BBC  8 May 2016

Ten weeks later Walsh departed for Everton.

Why? What happened in the meantime?

[NotTheMarketLeader]

8 hours ago, Churchill said:

But by then both Swansea and Everton were just seeing the season out with nothing to play for, as you said teams made it difficult for us because they had worked us out. This season looks so negative because we are trying to play the same way without our best player who we sold to Chelsea and it isn't working without him.

Look, why try to lessen last season's success by basically saying we were shit after Man City?

 

We are looking poor now - agreed.

 

Last season teams knew how we played and it made not a blind bit of difference - we didn't go defensive, others did to try to negate our strengths and we won the league by 10 pts.

 

We increased our lead or at least maintained it at the top over the final weeks of the season. 

 

Yeah - cracks were appearing! 

[weller54]

No Rachel thread.. 

= more cracks? 

[weller54]

We abandoned her.. 

And we're getting our comeuppance! 

[Corky]

No, they weren't. We might've changed the style of play slightly but we still defended set-pieces and shots properly, we fought for everything and generally were an absolute bastard to play against. This year has been completely different.

[SystonFox]

7 hours ago, AmarteyAndChill said:

Not sure if this has been said but we got very lucky towards the end of last season. Jack rodwells miss from 5 yards against Sunderland and Schlupps penalty against West Ham and maybe that free kick that could of been a penalty against United (even though I didn't think it was a foul, the ref could easily have awarded one). We deserved to win the league but we did get our rub of the green last season. 

Jack rodwell missing is not luck. That's down to jack rodwell being not very good at finishing. 

 

Schlupps pen against West Ham is not luck. It was soft I agree but he got himself into a position to draw a foul, he did so and the ref went for it. 

 

Luck is the ball bouncing in off Chris woods face at Watford in the championship. A total freak of nature event that nobody caused to happen. Right time right place bang on luck.

 

 

[brucey]

Here are some quotes from Jonathan Northcroft's excellent book Fearless. Make of them what you will.

 

- Pearson put his ‘team behind the team’ at the centre of Leicester’s architecture. He made Walsh not just scouting head but assistant manager, a very rare move. This created total buy-in between coaching and recruitment.

 

- Huth signed for Pearson, just before he was sacked. And then the first signing Ranieri pushed for was a rival centre-half, Yohan Benalouane.

 

- The owners gave Ranieri funds to land his prime transfer target in the summer transfer window. Gökhan Inler, a Turkish-Swiss midfielder of pedigree, arrived from Napoli.

 

 

Also a decent read, a humblebrag from Walsh: http://www.evertonfc.com/news/2016/10/04/wealth-of-experience

 

[Donut]

35 minutes ago, brucey said:

Here are some quotes from Jonathan Northcroft's excellent book Fearless. Make of them what you will.

 

- Pearson put his ‘team behind the team’ at the centre of Leicester’s architecture. He made Walsh not just scouting head but assistant manager, a very rare move. This created total buy-in between coaching and recruitment.

 

- Huth signed for Pearson, just before he was sacked. And then the first signing Ranieri pushed for was a rival centre-half, Yohan Benalouane.

 

- The owners gave Ranieri funds to land his prime transfer target in the summer transfer window. Gökhan Inler, a Turkish-Swiss midfielder of pedigree, arrived from Napoli.

 

 

Also a decent read, a humblebrag from Walsh: http://www.evertonfc.com/news/2016/10/04/wealth-of-experience

 

We won the Premier League by 10 points.

 

Make of that what you will. Speaks louder than any of your quotes.

[ozleicester]

2 hours ago, weller54 said:

We abandoned her.. 

And we're getting our comeuppance! 

The evil mods!

 

 

But in all honesty i dont undertsand why the "Rachel threads" have been banned, they are harmless, amusing and (IMHO) an enjoyable part of our great escape and title win.

 

WHY mods???  WHY??????????

[CosbehFox]

9 hours ago, Struwwelpeter60 said:

Kapustka was presented on 3 August. Walsh signed up with Everton on 21 July.

The question is: who made the contact with the player/his agent and when did he do it?

I mean, normally it takes weeks, sometimes even months, to arrange a transfer.

If Ranieri wanted Kapustka, it is hard to explain, why he doesn't play him.

And what about Musa?

Read again what Ranieri did say in the last few months about Musa and Kapustka.

Leicester City assistants Steve Walsh and Craig Shakespeare agree new deals        BBC  8 May 2016

Ten weeks later Walsh departed for Everton.

Why? What happened in the meantime?

Ranieri openly watched Kaputska with the head of the Polish FA during the Euros

[weller54]

7 hours ago, ozleicester said:

The evil mods!

 

 

But in all honesty i dont undertsand why the "Rachel threads" have been banned, they are harmless, amusing and (IMHO) an enjoyable part of our great escape and title win.

 

WHY mods???  WHY??????????

Pathetic isn't it!? 

One wrong word or comment gets a 24/48hr ban! 

Rachel was used and abused!.. 

Hmmmm!!! 

[cruzFOX]

I don't think those were cracks appearing last season but battle scars.  Teams were trying their best to neutralize our style of play.  I'd agree they managed to prevent us from thrashing them but couldn't handle our sheer determination & will to fight to the very end and win or not lose.  Leicester  & Spurs were the two consistently hungriest teams all season.  

[lgfualol]

10 hours ago, Struwwelpeter60 said:

Why? What happened in the meantime?

Big job offer, more money, responsibility and closer to family at Everton

[NotTheMarketLeader]

9 hours ago, brucey said:

Here are some quotes from Jonathan Northcroft's excellent book Fearless. Make of them what you will.

 

- Pearson put his ‘team behind the team’ at the centre of Leicester’s architecture. He made Walsh not just scouting head but assistant manager, a very rare move. This created total buy-in between coaching and recruitment.

 

- Huth signed for Pearson, just before he was sacked. And then the first signing Ranieri pushed for was a rival centre-half, Yohan Benalouane.

 

- The owners gave Ranieri funds to land his prime transfer target in the summer transfer window. Gökhan Inler, a Turkish-Swiss midfielder of pedigree, arrived from Napoli.

 

 

Also a decent read, a humblebrag from Walsh: http://www.evertonfc.com/news/2016/10/04/wealth-of-experience

 

What are you saying with regard to this thread?

 

Im going out on a limb here in respect of the above seeing as there needs to be some reading between these lines where many a cryptic clue you scatter within.

 

You wish last season never happened and that Pearson was never sacked, that we finished 14th under him, we

never won the league, but the main thing is we have Nigel as our manager, to this day.

 

Cuz Nige is the best and Ranieri is shit.

 

Move on man ffs.

 

Apologies if I have the wrong end of your stick.....so to speak.

 

 

 

[Guest]

I blame the owners, they are useless and needed to give us 100mil spending budget to buy Wayne Rooney.....Bazinga

[Churchill]

12 hours ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

Look, why try to lessen last season's success by basically saying we were shit after Man City?

 

We are looking poor now - agreed.

 

Last season teams knew how we played and it made not a blind bit of difference - we didn't go defensive, others did to try to negate our strengths and we won the league by 10 pts.

 

We increased our lead or at least maintained it at the top over the final weeks of the season. 

 

Yeah - cracks were appearing! 

I'm not trying to lessen last seasons success at all, it was brilliant and something the players should be proud of. All I'm stating is at a certain point in the season the chances dried up n we defended like there was no tomorrow! And it seems we are still trying to play that way this season but without a ball winner in the middle (Kante) it doesn't seem to be working.

[Churchill]

14 hours ago, Donut said:

The cracks were showing because we went on a long run of winning games 1-0 that wrapped up the title.

 

I think im done with this forum and the horseshit posts that sully ever thread.

Maybe saying the cracks were showing was a little over the top, but do you agree the performances were not as great? Pretty similar to this season but because we were getting the results no one cared including myself.

[dynamark]

Northcrofts book is a very good effort .One blazing error I cannot remember the exact  game mid season when Mahrez megged someone and realised he couldn't get another step in so he scuffed/sliced the ball sideways to Ulloa who tapped in .Northcroft said 'Mahrez mishit his shot'

Great read though and keeps it alive

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

On Walsh, you have to consider what changed between May and July.....

 

Given his track record you would think he had free run at the transfer department, but clearly he didn't. Inler and Benalouane, weren't his (previously I reported Inler was Walsh's, this is incorrect and I highlight my error). During the summer we had a list of targets but some weren't pursued, Gueye the prime example, Deeney and Bolasie the others. Someone or a combination of people were throwing their weigh around and stopping these targets being pursued. 

 

This is just his transfer, what about his off the field influence, Vardy speaks warmly of his encouragement along with Shakey.

 

Last year we had the perfect combo of differing views to allow balance and ensure all ideas were considered. Currently the manager and DOF have become more and more powerful and the backroom team marginalised......

 

So in short, yes the cracks were starting to appear last season. Well in May anyway.

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

14 minutes ago, dynamark said:

Northcrofts book is a very good effort .One blazing error I cannot remember the exact  game mid season when Mahrez megged someone and realised he couldn't get another step in so he scuffed/sliced the ball sideways to Ulloa who tapped in .Northcroft said 'Mahrez mishit his shot'

Great read though and keeps it alive

that's a matter of opinion rather than an error, my opinion was that he scuffed his shot and got a little bit fortunate, yours was he was slightly more in control than that, but hey ho....

[zealot]

13 minutes ago, dynamark said:

Northcrofts book is a very good effort .One blazing error I cannot remember the exact  game mid season when Mahrez megged someone and realised he couldn't get another step in so he scuffed/sliced the ball sideways to Ulloa who tapped in .Northcroft said 'Mahrez mishit his shot'

Great read though and keeps it alive

You mean the awesome 'flip-flop' bit of skill before the pass to Ulloa versus Stoke? That was one of my favourite bits of skill from a Leicester player EVER - far from a mishit shot!

[brucey]

2 hours ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

What are you saying with regard to this thread?

 

Im going out on a limb here in respect of the above seeing as there needs to be some reading between these lines where many a cryptic clue you scatter within.

 

You wish last season never happened and that Pearson was never sacked, that we finished 14th under him, we

never won the league, but the main thing is we have Nigel as our manager, to this day.

 

Cuz Nige is the best and Ranieri is shit.

 

Move on man ffs.

 

Apologies if I have the wrong end of your stick.....so to speak.

 

 

 

Nope. Was more trying to demonstrate Walsh's importance in his judgement about potential recruits being better than Ranieri's (as we would expect). I'm indifferent re Pearson. Last season would never have happened without Ranieri but I think he (like Pearson) is significantly worse without Walsh. Particularly as Walsh also had significant input as assistant manager in game strategy.

[brockmyster]

15 hours ago, Struwwelpeter60 said:

Do you really think, that we were "defensively solid thanks to one man Kante"?

Look at the numbers and think again:

Season 16/17 (after 12 games): goals conceded - 20

Season 15/16 (after 12 games): goals conceded - 20

 

It seems, that with or without Kante we were/are shipping  goals.

 

Btw: During the "Great Escape" we conceded only 7 goals in 9 games.

Without Kante.

 

The big difference between this and last season (after 12 games) is not the

performance of our defence, but that of our offence:

 

Season 16/17: goals scored - 14

Season 15/16: goals scored - 25

 

I think you are vastly underestimating how crucial kante was to our playing style last year. He didn't really start games at centre mid properly until about 6/7 games, takes a while to settle into a side and build a chemistry up and then once he had after roughly about those 12 games we were a much more solid time as they had all worked out how to play as a unit, something we lack this season.

 

Kante allowed drinkwater and mahrez much more freedom to concentrate on driving us forward and doing it quickly, kante could pick the ball up anywhere on the pitch and offload it to someone more capable to passing, or even drive it forward, all this happening in just a few seconds leaving teams completely caught out. The opposite happening this season with it taking 10 seconds for some players to even pick a pass, without space automatically created players like Vardy just look like rabbits in headlights as he doesnt know how to create it himself. The goals at watford would not have been conceded if Kante was playing that is for certain.

 

Without him we need to find a way to solidify our midfield and protect our aging centre backs, he was that crucial to the title win.

[Churchill]

1 hour ago, brockmyster said:

I think you are vastly underestimating how crucial kante was to our playing style last year. He didn't really start games at centre mid properly until about 6/7 games, takes a while to settle into a side and build a chemistry up and then once he had after roughly about those 12 games we were a much more solid time as they had all worked out how to play as a unit, something we lack this season.

 

Kante allowed drinkwater and mahrez much more freedom to concentrate on driving us forward and doing it quickly, kante could pick the ball up anywhere on the pitch and offload it to someone more capable to passing, or even drive it forward, all this happening in just a few seconds leaving teams completely caught out. The opposite happening this season with it taking 10 seconds for some players to even pick a pass, without space automatically created players like Vardy just look like rabbits in headlights as he doesnt know how to create it himself. The goals at watford would not have been conceded if Kante was playing that is for certain.

 

Without him we need to find a way to solidify our midfield and protect our aging centre backs, he was that crucial to the title win.

Completely hit the nail on the head, we have lost that drive in the middle that can take 2 or 3 players out of a game. Check our goals last season and see how many times Kante was heavily involved.