Bournemouth 1 - 0 Leicester Post match thread

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, adam said:

after 20 minutes we had 17% of the possession, there was nothing even about that first half.

We always surrender possesion always have.. bar that what did they do? Nothing didn't create anything.

[tyfox]

27 minutes ago, Struwwelpeter60 said:

To change the system, you need the right personnel.

With Drinkwater, Mendy and James obviously not

fit to play tonight, what other system could he

have played?

1-1-8  

[Struwwelpeter60]

3 minutes ago, lcfceaves said:

Not just tonight, all season. When Drinkwater comes back in, it'll still be 442. 

Two years ago, when we were rock bottom, Pearson changed the

system almost every week. Did it help? No!!

Between 29.11. (QPR) and Boxing Day (Spurs) we lost six in

a row. In those games we played 4 different formations: 442 (3X),

451, 433 and 4411. The result was always the same. We lost.

The 442 formation is not the  problem (last season we won the

title with it ).  Players win games, not formations.

[filthyfox]

24 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

The best thing about tonight was the fact I was home by 10.15. 

Am now tucked up in bed in Weymouth. Our away support is bloody brilliant.

[ZeGuy]

27 minutes ago, Sammy said:

I thought there was a significant change in tactics today, which I am going to try and give credit to Claudio for. He made both strikers drop deep when defending which lead to a 20/30 yard gap in between Bournemouth's midfield and defence. This should have been excellent for us on the counter attack, with space given to Mahrez and Slimani on the ball and Vardy allowed to run at or beyond a defender (as the Bournemouth CBs split to try and play the ball). This was extremely clever IMO and could see signs of it working with Vardy's dash in behind early on, and I know conceding possession can be frustrating but it could have worked. The goal changed this however as the game completely changed and we seemed to rush things.

 

THE PROBLEMS with what Ranieri tried for me was that we didn't have the creativity. The two CMs were useless and getting the ball to the feet of either the wingers or strikers and our defenders' technical ability is limited which meant this wasn't as effective as it could've been.

 

I know this result is disappointing but I'm glad i saw a change, even if it was slight, today. We have quality in Drinkwater, Mendy and Schmeichel to come back in and if Ndidi and a new CB work for us in January I'm confident about the remainder of our season... but please please please STOP SHORT CORNERS

I agree with this point. You can add to that the inability of any midfielders to make more than a 5-yards pass forward without either giving it to the opposition or the public, which is absolutely criminal at this level. There is abolutely no other option other than go through the wings which makes it desperately easy for ANY opponent to shut us down. 

 

Not only the strikers dropped deep but so the midfielders (edge of the box as soon as the ball was lost). I saw a team split in half in the offensive as well as the defensive phases. The amount of time Bournemouth's midfielders had to build-up their attacks was insane. Especially in the first half. With a better finish it should have been at least 2-0 down. Against a better team, it would have been a slaughter. That also increased the distance to cover for the wingers which exposed badly Hernandez and Fuchs. I can't count how many times their fullbacks got through. Which reminded me that ours lamost never crossed the half line. That's prehistoric football. In these conditions you can't decently hope for a win, unless you get a penalty, a lucky cross in or Mahrez puts something out of his hat.

 

 

[inckley fox]

Man City played into our hands. It was fun to believe that the same set of players who'd been repeatedly sub-standard were suddenly much-improved, but tonight suggests that they weren't.

 

We looked out-thought more than we looked out-played. In his interview on Saturday, Ranieri said that the players preferred 4-4-2, and seemed lost with three in the middle, so he was just going along with the consensus. But, looking at the general air of apathy for the first hour of the game, I'm not sure how much of a vote the players have earned in the matter.

 

Of course, if they're all doing their best, as Ranieri claims, then the natural conclusion is that they are either not good enough (very hard to believe) or he isn't (again...). Or, more likely, that he's lying. 

 

And I don't think too many people are over-reacting here. We can't hit the reset button because of the Man City game and ignore the fact that we've won 4 points from 6 games, which is relegation form. It'd be nice to see the manager also acknowledging that there's a need for changes which go beyond tweaking personnel. For Ranieri to remind us, at some point, that he's actually doing something other than just turning up, playing the same team, same formation and saying everything's fine when we lose.

[inckley fox]

8 minutes ago, Struwwelpeter60 said:

Two years ago, when we were rock bottom, Pearson changed the

system almost every week. Did it help? No!!

Between 29.11. (QPR) and Boxing Day (Spurs) we lost six in

a row. In those games we played 4 different formations: 442 (3X),

451, 433 and 4411. The result was always the same. We lost.

The 442 formation is not the  problem (last season we won the

title with it ).  Players win games, not formations.

I see your point, but the day he switched to 3-5-2 worked out pretty well for us. It wasn't Marc Albrighton and Marc Albrighton alone who saved us from relegation. And it probably wasn't Pearson calling a journalist a ***** either. So maybe switching to a 3-5-2 would be a place to start.

[Anish]

54 minutes ago, Struwwelpeter60 said:

To change the system, you need the right personnel.

With Drinkwater, Mendy and James obviously not

fit to play tonight, what other system could he

have played?

Mendy was on the bench. I don't understand why James would be unfit either. He returned on Saturday. 

 

It's clear our midfield has no drive or invention or creativity. We needed one of James or Mendy to mix it up and give more support to our forwards tonight. Those two midfielder have something else in their locker that King and Amartey lack, but they will never get match fit or sharp if we keep them on the bench or out of the squad.

[MattCan]

I would have played James instead of Slim/Shinji. But Ranieri said the players wanted it this way ???!!!

[STUHILL]

This 4-4-2 has to stop now. I don't care if the players prefer it because they know it! It is failing and so are they. If they really wanted Claudio to keep it, they should have proved it by making it work. Now he must come in and say enough is enough. I gave you the opportunity to keep it this way, but now we must change. He also needs to be braver in his team selection and not be afraid to change a winning team. Gray and Okazaki should have started tonight. 

 

Man City flattered us. They were so exposed at the back and left huge holes for our usual pointless floated balls, to actually work. We could function with barely a midfield, because the long ball to Vardy and Mahrez was effective for once. Tonight we played a well organised team, and we had no answers. They overran our midfield and easily dealt with our hopeful hoof balls. 

 

I think he has and still is, putting too much faith and trust in the players. He needs to get tough on them and make these changes now. They may not work, but at least we can all see that he is trying something new. We are woefully short of quality too. I often thought we may regret not just paying some release clauses for targets in the summer or signing more players at the risk of pushing some of the current ones out, and that seems to be the case now, as we seem to have such a shortage in midfield and defence. 

 

January is going to be a huge window for us and Claudio. We need to be very active, with moving unhappy players like Ulloa and Schlupp on, and bringing in 3-4 top players. It will cost us, but the long-term aim of staying in the Premier League is more important and we do already have a lot of young talent that can develop for us over the next few years. 

[ozleicester]

Our two best players of this season have been out, add to this that other sides have worked us out, add to this luck not quite running with us,add to this focus on the champions league, add to this the loss of Kante.

 

We will come good and survive

[turtmcfly]

18 minutes ago, Anish said:

We needed one of James or Mendy to mix it up and give more support to our forwards tonight. Those two midfielder have something else in their locker that King and Amartey lack

What is it people have seen with respect to Mendy that makes them think he's even half decent? I suppose given the limited game time he could be the next Iniesta, but 10 minutes of 'hmmm maybe not as shite as I thought' just before the injury is the best I can come up with. And what exactly do you think is in Mendy's 'locker' that isn't in King's or Amartey's -  a Mr. Big Legs 2015 medal?

[Struwwelpeter60]

12 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

Gray and Okazaki should have started tonight. 

As I have already pointed out in this thread: Okazaki started 8 PL

games this season and he and Gray played the full 90 minutes

at Porto. Did it help?

NO

I mean, Okazaki is a striker. Right?

2 goals and zero assists in 669 minutes. That is not

very impressive.

[daddylonglegs]

Not being funny this is getting really, really boring now.

 

Players only give a shit when it's on TV against a big team. Feel really sorry for the fans that went tonight, for Ranieri to play 4-4-2 again away from home is new levels of stubbornness.

Pathetic, pathetic performance. But its beginning to look more and more like they don't care.

[ajthefox]

1 hour ago, Parafox said:

we are rightly a laughing stock. When Chelski faltered last year at least they had some credibility to deflect the criticism, we have nothing

Except a premier league title.

 

But yeah, lets sell our everyone and sack the manager and change formation. 

[daddylonglegs]

7 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

Our two best players of this season have been out, add to this that other sides have worked us out, add to this luck not quite running with us,add to this focus on the champions league, add to this the loss of Kante.

 

We will come good and survive

It's not like we're 5 or 6 games in.. we're dangerously close to half way into the season and what ahve we got to show for it?

 

One good performance against City and literally nothing else. How much longer can you claim that these players and 4-4-2 will 'come good'

[STUHILL]

Just now, Struwwelpeter60 said:

As I have already pointed out in this thread: Okazaki started 8 PL

games this season and he and Gray played the full 90 minutes

at Porto. Did it help?

NO

I mean, Okazaki is a striker. Right?

2 goals and zero assists in 669 minutes. That is not

very impressive.

We all know Okazaki's limitations as a striker, but as we saw so often last season, he gives us an amazing energy and links the midfield to attack so well. He has arguably been one of our best performers this season alongside Drinkwater. He was fresh after not starting against Man City and he would have dropped deeper and helped the midfield be more competitive.

Albrighton looked knackered from the off, and Gray gives teams another flair player to worry about, other than Mahrez. He was also fresh and I personally believe, is one of our best players still. 

It's all hindsight really but I would have had both those players starting tonight. 

 

 

[daddylonglegs]

68% passing accuracy. Three times as many fouls as Bournemouth. 

 

We cannot play football to save our lives. I dont care what anyone says about how 'great' we are at home... 

 

Against City we got lucky in that they defended like statues and allowed us to ship the ball to Mahrez (the only one on our team with a good first touch & pass).

 

How has he got away with playing 4-4-2 again tonight? What has to happen in order for him to admit it won't work?

 

We've got ONE POINT from 7 away matches! That is absolutely disgraceful form.

[Vardinio'sCat]

 

I thought this was a Shinji game, not a Slim one. Against passing sides Shinji works well, but tends to get bypassed by more direct sides (like vs WBA). Also, I would see him being more important away from home, where Slim's goal threat isn't as important. And Slim certainly put a shift in on Saturday, but it is hard to do that twice in 74 hours (even whippet-lean Vardy struggles to manage it).

 

Was disappointed not to see Kasper, Drinky.or Mendy, but I thought this was a tight game. They won the first half and we won the second. We had more shots and lots more corners, and Bournmouth were not comfortable with our bombardment. but we just couldn't score. Also, Zeiler is just not what the boys are used to, and it is costing us loads.

 

We just got beat away from home against an average side in decent form, and they really only squeaked it. That was us last season, just squeaking it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Monsell1976]

 the keeper, how the **** did he not save it, the rebound shot was straight at him, come back kasper, I will never moan about your kicking again, at least you can make saves

[Struwwelpeter60]

2 minutes ago, daddylonglegs said:

One good performance against City and literally nothing else.

That is simply not true.

We also played well against Arsenal, Tottenham, Swansea, Burnley

and Palace. And we won 4 of our six CL games.

I know, it is hard to believe, but this team has, so far, produced

7 clean sheets in this season: 3 in the PL and 4 in the CL.

Last season, we had also only 3 clean sheets after 15 PL games.

Although we had Kante.

Last season, we won won most of our games by one.

This season we are losing the same games by one.

Why?

 

I am convinced, that those additional 6 CL games are one of the

main reasons for our poor PL form. Most of our players are not

used to such a heavy workload

Our strength last season was not our technical proficiency

(it never was), but our fighting spirit,our ability to overpower

other teams. This season we seem to lack the necessary

energy to do it again.

 

Btw: Is it really coincidence, that we didn't lose any of the games

        against the PL teams, that also play in the CL?

[VLC86]

2 hours ago, tyfox said:

1-1-8  

I've got your number.

[Rileigh84]

I'll start with the caveat. I trust in Ranieri to turn things around, and I'd stick with him until the day we're mathematically down if it came to it.

With that said, the buck stops with him. Theres an element of the players letting him down but it's clear we're tactically inept. We're predictable and have no plan B. We defend deep, win the ball, and lump it hopefully forward... our opposition picks up the ball and we repeat the process. There's literally nothing more to our game than that, 5 year olds in a school playground can do that. So I have to ask, where is Ranieri's 'Italian tactical way' he insisted on adding to our game? We can't string 3 passes together, worse still, we don't even try to. At least under Pearson when we were struggling we were playing well and more often than not we were unlucky to lose - at the moment we deserve everything we get. What frustrates me is there really is no plan B, Ranieri's not even attempted to try something different - plan A has been found out, and unless every team comes to us with the kind of arrogance Pep did with Man City - teams will sit deep and cope with our unimaginative forward play all day long. In fact, unless we get lucky enough to score the first goal - meaning our opponents have to push forward to find a goal themselves, it's difficult to see us score from open play.

Our corners are poor. Our free kicks are poor. Those god awful throw-ins - I mean, have we actually ever scored from one of those long throws? I keep hearing its a good weapon to have, but is it? I can't think of an occasion its worked?

 

The recruitment team have to take a long hard look at themselves. I don't want to be too harsh because I think in last season's free-flowing counter attacking team players like Musa and Slimani would probably enjoy a lot more success. Particularly Musa. But right now Musa looks like an expensive Lloyd Dyer, only I feel Dyer had a better end product than Musa, which is saying something. Slimani is technically poor, but put the ball into the box and he'll bag goals - problem is, he's constantly having to play outside the 18 yard box with the ball at his feet - because we're simply not pushing far enough forward to accommodate him sitting in the area. The gulf between midfield and attack tonight was unreal - 1-0 down with 10 minutes to go and we still only had Okazaki and Vardy in the box with King and Amartey practically on the half way line still. It'd be harsh to judge Mendy at this point, but the fact remains we did not strengthen where we needed it most - it Kanté did the work of two men we should be buying at least 2 quality centre midfielders, especially with the added UCL games. We didn't bring in any technical quality - we're awful on the ball. It drives me mad that teams that have come up recently like Bournemouth and Boro are so much better on the ball than us.

 

These are thing's a manager should address. Everyone else can see it. The same way everyone else can see Schlupp shouldn't be anywhere near the first team. So I guess there is much fault at Claudio's door. But for me, because of last season, he's got a free pass. He can take as much time as he needs to get it right because we owe him that much. He delivered the impossible and for that, we owe him time. Besides, who the hell are we going to get in? Allardyce? I'd rather take my chances with Ranieri than suffer big Sam. Besides, he should get to see out the UCL campaign at the very least regardless of league form, We're champions, we may not be playing like it, but we have that in us. Lets keep the faith and hope for another miracle!

[Struwwelpeter60]

14 minutes ago, Vardinio'sCat said:

We just got beat away from home against an average side in decent form, and they really only squeaked it. That was us last season, just squeaking it.

Even last season we were unable to beat them.

Away (1:1) and at home (0:0).

Apropos: Last season at Bournemouth we played

in a 4141 formation, with Vardy as sole striker and King

as sweeper in front of our back-four. 

[Bayfox]

4 hours ago, Blue Ed said:

We need to buy at least 3 new central midfielders...Amarty and King just don't seem to be able to support the team.

No point. He only plays 2.