What do people expect?

[Ian Nacho]

It's the way it is. Football is a game of fine margins and one shot being an inch or two different to what it was will changes fans opinion on the performance from a crap one to a decent one. People just need to be realistic. We are going to lose games. 

[Freeman's Wharfer]

The frustration comes, I think, because we at times look capable of seriously challenging the top 4 but then, at others, we can fail to beat poor Watford/Palace/Huddersfield/Bournemouth sides.

 

With the title win we were given a glimpse of what could be and it's hard to reset expectations in light of that. Any other year we'd have been happy enough with a narrow defeat at Anfield and being 8th at New Year.

 

That's not to say that those new expectations are wrong however. Expectations keep standards high and if we're suddenly to accept being nearly men or midtable plodders again then we shouldn't be too upset with relegation eventually.

 

We have to aspire to evolve and increased expectation is part of that.

[HybridFox]

1 hour ago, chapero82 said:

why do we always kick it out for a throwing at every kick off! 

Been watching the Tigers down at Welford Road 

Edited 30 December 2017 by TK95

[winteriscoming]

We need to win against Huddersfield can't really understand taking both vardy and mahrez off at the same time. We don't have the strength in depth I would happily take finishing where we are now. 

[chapero82]

15 minutes ago, TK95 said:

Been watching the Tigers down at Welford Road 

That’s exactly what I think when they do it  

[sylofox]

2 hours ago, Col city fan said:

I was having a family dinner today whilst the match was on, so didn't get to read much of the match thread or contribute to it. But, as usual, what I was reading was really positive when we scored, to utter doom and gloom when we conceded and especially when they got the winner.

Now I'm reading in the post match thread that some people are wanting Puel out!

WHAT....DID...PEOPLE....REALISTICALLY....EXPECT.....TODAY?

Most of the pre match predictions were of us to get hammered, with score lines of 3-1,4-1 (I had that) and good old Scouse with his 9-0.

We were leading until the second half ffs! We kept out an on-form, free-flowing side, playing all four bloody strikers and went down to a late goal (surprise surprise) to win a very good game of football.

Did any of you really imagine that we would hold out after approx 50 mins when they equalized? With the back four we were playing, at Anfield, in front of a buoyant home crowd?

I think people need to get real. If you genuinely believe we were going to go on to win that match today, you're spectacles are ridiculously  blue tinted.

We need to get through this difficult run of games, beating Huddersfield at home next, get Silva into the equation, and give Puel the time he needs to shift some of the bloody rubbish in this squad, and start to properly rebuild it.

The level of animosity toward a team that was reduced in strength and playing away against a team bang in scoring form, is not proportionate to losing just 2-1

Get a sense of bloody perspective, give the new manager time to build HIS squad of players and then properly judge.

Personally, I don't envy him. The club has signed some stinking players in recent times.

Well what can I say Col that's fvcked your 1 to 5 rep points average up CONGRATULATIONS

[Dr The Singh]

2 hours ago, Col city fan said:

I was having a family dinner today whilst the match was on, so didn't get to read much of the match thread or contribute to it. But, as usual, what I was reading was really positive when we scored, to utter doom and gloom when we conceded and especially when they got the winner.

Now I'm reading in the post match thread that some people are wanting Puel out!

WHAT....DID...PEOPLE....REALISTICALLY....EXPECT.....TODAY?

Most of the pre match predictions were of us to get hammered, with score lines of 3-1,4-1 (I had that) and good old Scouse with his 9-0.

We were leading until the second half ffs! We kept out an on-form, free-flowing side, playing all four bloody strikers and went down to a late goal (surprise surprise) to win a very good game of football.

Did any of you really imagine that we would hold out after approx 50 mins when they equalized? With the back four we were playing, at Anfield, in front of a buoyant home crowd?

I think people need to get real. If you genuinely believe we were going to go on to win that match today, you're spectacles are ridiculously  blue tinted.

We need to get through this difficult run of games, beating Huddersfield at home next, get Silva into the equation, and give Puel the time he needs to shift some of the bloody rubbish in this squad, and start to properly rebuild it.

The level of animosity toward a team that was reduced in strength and playing away against a team bang in scoring form, is not proportionate to losing just 2-1

Get a sense of bloody perspective, give the new manager time to build HIS squad of players and then properly judge.

Personally, I don't envy him. The club has signed some stinking players in recent times.

Family dinner being you, Cattermole, Amertey and White Dee?

 

If so why was I not invited, you said I was family

[Kitchandro]

I think people expect us to try to win a football match. That really isn't too much to ask. That is the bare minimum I expect, I don't care if it's home or away, and I don't care if we're playing Liverpool, Barcelona, Man City reserves or Corby.

 

What we're seeing right now is someone who wants draws. He is very happy to sit in, take what we've got, and if we nick a goal then great, we'll sit as deep as possible and defend for 90 minutes. And if we concede, we won't show any urgency. We won't show any urgency until we're behind and there's less than 15 minutes left. Even against Palace at 1-0 and 2-0 down, there was no urgency at all.

 

But put simply I expect to see a team that tries to score goals. A team that tries to keep clean sheets is not worth watching and isn't acceptable.

 

Anyone who thinks this squad is too poor for this utter moron to do better with is an idiot and not really worth my time. If you want to see my thoughts on that matter see my earlier posts from today, I'm not going to try and explain it again.

 

If you do read those posts then you will see why I don't consider the last few performances remotely acceptable (Man Utd was borderline despite it being a decent result).

 

If people expect the sort of football we are serving up at the moment then they should be ashamed. Our standards should never drop that low.

 

 

[worthosoriginals]

6 minutes ago, Dr The Singh said:

Family dinner being you, Cattermole, Amertey and White Dee?

 

If so why was I not invited, you said I was family

bet he gave a gherkin and 2 pickled onions to cattermole.

[oadby.fox]

I think people are right to be a bit miffed in general given the recent string of results but wanting Puel out is a bit ridiculous.

 

He has made some strange decisions at times but I actually like that he is looking to mix it up and find different starting 11's that might work against different sides etc.

 

The ill feeling isn't so much about losing 2-1 today, it's more about surrendering to Watford and bending over for Palace. A lot of fans want to see the club move forward (perhaps too quickly after the title win) and we definitely have a chance to do so. I'm looking at the table now and thinking that we should or could have been in the mix for 5th place. We perhaps don't have the squads of Arsenal or Tottenham but there isn't any reason why we can't compete and thinking back there are many games which I personally feel we could have got more points from. (Arsenal, Liverpool (home&away), Stoke, Watford, Crystal Palace and perhaps West Ham) We didn't have to win all of them but could have so easily done much better. To only take two points from all of those games isn't great especially when in winning positions. 

[RumbleFox]

People saying "we started well then rolled over" I think show a massive lack of respect t Liverpool and maybe a slightly simplified view of football.  If you think you can just attack a team like Liverpool (one that cost far more than ours) without response I genuinely think you are a little deluded.  In general money talks and we just cannot compete.  Liverpool are a very, very good team at present, especially at home and today was not a bad result.  Of course we can moan and criticise but it has to be CONSTRUCTIVE and it never seems to be on here.  To want Puel out is absolutely mental.  Fans scream for loyalty and then show none in return.  He needs time and, if after that, he has not done a good job then of course his position can be questioned.

 

I actually think we are doing OK.  We are 8th.  I think what people forget is that if we finished 8th it would be one of our best finishes in most of our lifetimes.  When we won the league it was a freak.  We are actually a top half Premier League team.  How often in the last 20 years have we been able to say that?

 

X

[Col city fan]

6 minutes ago, worthosoriginals said:

bet he gave a gherkin and 2 pickled onions to cattermole.

 

[waylander]

35 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

 

Interested to hear your thoughts on armartey col . Had a far better game than I was expecting against that attack.

[Wymsey]

Expect Musa and Ulloa to leave during the upcoming transfer window.

Sign another experienced right-back.

Reach the final of the FA Cup.

Remain unbeaten at home for the rest of the season.

[Gerard]

1 minute ago, waylander said:

Interested to hear your thoughts on armartey col . Had a far better game than I was expecting against that attack.

 

I was at the match and thought Amartey done well today especially since I thought his Leicester career might be over when he got sent off against Man Utd. By all accounts that Benfica right back we're linked with is mediocre. I'd rather we either bought a potential top class right back or just give Amartey a run in the team for a couple of months and he should sink or swim on his performances over this length of time.

[inckley fox]

3 hours ago, Col city fan said:

I was having a family dinner today whilst the match was on, so didn't get to read much of the match thread or contribute to it. But, as usual, what I was reading was really positive when we scored, to utter doom and gloom when we conceded and especially when they got the winner.

Now I'm reading in the post match thread that some people are wanting Puel out!

WHAT....DID...PEOPLE....REALISTICALLY....EXPECT.....TODAY?

Most of the pre match predictions were of us to get hammered, with score lines of 3-1,4-1 (I had that) and good old Scouse with his 9-0.

We were leading until the second half ffs! We kept out an on-form, free-flowing side, playing all four bloody strikers and went down to a late goal (surprise surprise) to win a very good game of football.

Did any of you really imagine that we would hold out after approx 50 mins when they equalized? With the back four we were playing, at Anfield, in front of a buoyant home crowd?

I think people need to get real. If you genuinely believe we were going to go on to win that match today, you're spectacles are ridiculously  blue tinted.

We need to get through this difficult run of games, beating Huddersfield at home next, get Silva into the equation, and give Puel the time he needs to shift some of the bloody rubbish in this squad, and start to properly rebuild it.

The level of animosity toward a team that was reduced in strength and playing away against a team bang in scoring form, is not proportionate to losing just 2-1

Get a sense of bloody perspective, give the new manager time to build HIS squad of players and then properly judge.

Personally, I don't envy him. The club has signed some stinking players in recent times.

So I'm guessing you weren't especially focused on the game. The reason I say this is that, when you do appear to be watching a game and it doesn't go well, you are usually among the first to slate us for blithely accepting bad results against top sides - often quite rightly. I can only surmise that someone at your dinner party was a calming influence today.

 

We've attained one point from a possible twelve. A lot of people had been highly confident that Puel had put us on the right track and now they're wondering whether they were a little premature. We're among the top eight sides in terms of expenditure and our place in the top eight is clearly going to be at risk if we keep surrendering leads and defending as poorly as we are of late, be it against stronger sides or weaker sides. We know from history that you can't brush these blips under the carpet, because our two most recent blips have led to managers being fired.

 

Half of the sides to go to Anfield this year have got something out of Liverpool which, in the context of the points we blew against Watford and Palace, means that this is a bigger disappointment than it might usually be. It was by no means unrealistic to think we were still in the game after 50 minutes, as you suggest. 

 

So no, this isn't 'animosity', at least not for the most part. It's people pointing out that we're surrendering leads and manifesting defensive frailties which can't go on. It's people worrying that our manager doesn't act quickly enough within games, but perhaps makes too many changes between them. It's people not looking at games in isolation, but rather in a context which makes them more worrying.

 

Puel tried some quick fixes with Leicester. One of these was bringing Mahrez into games more by employing Gray as a second attacking threat, offering support by attacking full backs, providing quality supply through Iborra - and these quick fixes have thrown up problems of their own. Can we afford to have three players (Iborra, Gray, Mahrez) in the side against top sides, who don't close down very well defensively? Do Maguire and Morgan need more protection? Are our full backs effective enough in attack?

 

Another quick fix was in trying to make us a side which doesn't need to score 2-3 goals a game in order to win - something multiple players have alluded to recently - and yet we appear to be very much a side that needs to seek the second and third goal. In spite of this, you only had to look at the positions Ndidi, Iborra and Albrighton were taking up today when we were a goal up, and Liverpool were on the half-way line, to see how intent we were on sitting deep. Before Babylon starts, it wasn't always a case of us being driven deep, this was a case of players - under no pressure to sit deep whatsoever - choosing to do so as a default. Meanwhile our attacking mids weren't closing down, and yet we chose not to bring Okazaki on. When we did make a change, we took off our top scorer and top assist provider - the two guys who made our only goal today - and subsequently conceded, then failed to find a respose. You couldn't find a better example of a failed substitution if you tried.

 

I agree that we shouldn't be slating Puel for failing to find that quick fix and yes, he has a tough job, yes he should be given time to both determine a new way forward and find the personnel to fulfil it. But there are questions arising for which he'll have to find answers, and saying 'well what do you expect?' is one of the singularly most pointless things anyone could possibly bring to the disussion.

 

On the plus side, I'm sure you agree that Amartey had a fine game today.

[Beechey]

1 hour ago, Kitchandro said:

I think people expect us to try to win a football match. That really isn't too much to ask. That is the bare minimum I expect, I don't care if it's home or away, and I don't care if we're playing Liverpool, Barcelona, Man City reserves or Corby.

 

What we're seeing right now is someone who wants draws. He is very happy to sit in, take what we've got, and if we nick a goal then great, we'll sit as deep as possible and defend for 90 minutes. And if we concede, we won't show any urgency. We won't show any urgency until we're behind and there's less than 15 minutes left. Even against Palace at 1-0 and 2-0 down, there was no urgency at all.

 

But put simply I expect to see a team that tries to score goals. A team that tries to keep clean sheets is not worth watching and isn't acceptable.

 

Anyone who thinks this squad is too poor for this utter moron to do better with is an idiot and not really worth my time. If you want to see my thoughts on that matter see my earlier posts from today, I'm not going to try and explain it again.

 

If you do read those posts then you will see why I don't consider the last few performances remotely acceptable (Man Utd was borderline despite it being a decent result).

 

If people expect the sort of football we are serving up at the moment then they should be ashamed. Our standards should never drop that low.

 

 

I swear every time I read one of your posts, a small part of me dies. You're here stating some points from our worst game of the season as if it happens on a weekly basis, when it doesn't.

I genuinely don't know what Puel's done to piss you off, but it must have been really bad for you to be this angry.

 

We've scored 19 goals in 12 games while Puel has been manager (we scored 12 before he was manager, 25% of that coming against Arsenal alone). When looking at teams not part of the 'top 6', we've scored 14 in 8 games. You're really trying to justify your absurd assumption that we don't try to score goals? We've won or drawn 67% of our games under Puel (won 41.6% and drawn 25%), hardly playing for draws are we?

 

We score 0.2 fewer goals per game currently than we did in the Premier League winning season. Our issue is our defence, so why should that not be his priority? Logic dictates it absolutely should be.

 

Everyone knew the Christmas period was going to be really tough, and if you're ignoring that, then that's an issue with you, and not the club.

Edited 31 December 2017 by Beechey

[waylander]

Did you try the scouse pie. Nice new stand they have although the brickwork is shocking looks like a bunch of dole dossers did it. Great to see some of the he fans appreciating and improved performance against a top draw attack.

[Redouane]

It's all part of the football watching experience. Imagine how boring it would be if you didn't feel the roller-coaster of emotions, from extreme joy to extreme disappointment. 

[bpfox]

what people expect is a team that can pass the f***king ball and hold on to it like 95% of the other teams in the premier league. this kicking the f**k out off the ball and not been able to string 4-5 passes going forward is crap for what there getting paid, if u cant pass or hold the ball get rid of them, sick of watching us play like some all age team.

[Col city fan]

5 hours ago, inckley fox said:

So I'm guessing you weren't especially focused on the game. The reason I say this is that, when you do appear to be watching a game and it doesn't go well, you are usually among the first to slate us for blithely accepting bad results against top sides - often quite rightly. I can only surmise that someone at your dinner party was a calming influence today.

 

We've attained one point from a possible twelve. A lot of people had been highly confident that Puel had put us on the right track and now they're wondering whether they were a little premature. We're among the top eight sides in terms of expenditure and our place in the top eight is clearly going to be at risk if we keep surrendering leads and defending as poorly as we are of late, be it against stronger sides or weaker sides. We know from history that you can't brush these blips under the carpet, because our two most recent blips have led to managers being fired.

 

Half of the sides to go to Anfield this year have got something out of Liverpool which, in the context of the points we blew against Watford and Palace, means that this is a bigger disappointment than it might usually be. It was by no means unrealistic to think we were still in the game after 50 minutes, as you suggest. 

 

So no, this isn't 'animosity', at least not for the most part. It's people pointing out that we're surrendering leads and manifesting defensive frailties which can't go on. It's people worrying that our manager doesn't act quickly enough within games, but perhaps makes too many changes between them. It's people not looking at games in isolation, but rather in a context which makes them more worrying.

 

Puel tried some quick fixes with Leicester. One of these was bringing Mahrez into games more by employing Gray as a second attacking threat, offering support by attacking full backs, providing quality supply through Iborra - and these quick fixes have thrown up problems of their own. Can we afford to have three players (Iborra, Gray, Mahrez) in the side against top sides, who don't close down very well defensively? Do Maguire and Morgan need more protection? Are our full backs effective enough in attack?

 

Another quick fix was in trying to make us a side which doesn't need to score 2-3 goals a game in order to win - something multiple players have alluded to recently - and yet we appear to be very much a side that needs to seek the second and third goal. In spite of this, you only had to look at the positions Ndidi, Iborra and Albrighton were taking up today when we were a goal up, and Liverpool were on the half-way line, to see how intent we were on sitting deep. Before Babylon starts, it wasn't always a case of us being driven deep, this was a case of players - under no pressure to sit deep whatsoever - choosing to do so as a default. Meanwhile our attacking mids weren't closing down, and yet we chose not to bring Okazaki on. When we did make a change, we took off our top scorer and top assist provider - the two guys who made our only goal today - and subsequently conceded, then failed to find a respose. You couldn't find a better example of a failed substitution if you tried.

 

I agree that we shouldn't be slating Puel for failing to find that quick fix and yes, he has a tough job, yes he should be given time to both determine a new way forward and find the personnel to fulfil it. But there are questions arising for which he'll have to find answers, and saying 'well what do you expect?' is one of the singularly most pointless things anyone could possibly bring to the disussion.

 

On the plus side, I'm sure you agree that Amartey had a fine game today.

Wow. Even for you that’s an exceptionally arrogant post. You must be a hoot to work with.

I say once more, given the two squads and the circumstances yesterday, just about nobody gave us much chance. Just read the prematch and the prematch score line, threads.

Therefore, ‘what do you expect’ is a perfectly fair question and has received some perfectly fair responses. Now, on Monday, I EXPECT us to beat Huddersfield.

I won’t get into any debate on Amartey, despite being baited, cos I didn’t watch the game.

[RumbleFox]

5 hours ago, pmcla26 said:

All of your posts seem to be about how we don't show enough intent and don't attack enough yet we've scored more goals than anyone outside the top 6. The days of lumping it up to the big man for the little guy to run on to are gone, we're in a transition stage right now under a new manager and it will take time to get used to.

How dare you try and use logic and statistics.  X

[Bunyip]

I expect Puel to be gone in the close season. All this silly talk about transition period ? We can't afford a transition period we are three losing games away from being in a relegation fight. His substitutions would have been laughable were it not for the points lost because of them. Southampton did not sack him for no good reason, he has now reverted to exactly the kind of football they got rid of him for, negative defensive and an absolute bore to watch.  

[ozleicester]

They were better...much MUCH better than us, we didnt "sit back"... we were "forced, hammered, pummeled and driven" back.

 

[CosbehFox]

10 minutes ago, Bunyip said:

I expect Puel to be gone in the close season. All this silly talk about transition period ? We can't afford a transition period we are three losing games away from being in a relegation fight. His substitutions would have been laughable were it not for the points lost because of them. Southampton did not sack him for no good reason, he has now reverted to exactly the kind of football they got rid of him for, negative defensive and an absolute bore to watch.  

Did you watch us against Watford? For thirty five minutes we absolutely ripped them to bits. Showing an incredible confidence swagger at times. 

 

You say three games from relegation zone - we win three more games for the rest of the season we stay up. We are seven points ahead of where we were last season.