Leics 0- Soton 0 post match thread.

[HankMarvin]

Just now, ZeGuy said:

We got the money but not the fame nor the means to be a top club. Money isn't everything. We're nowhere near to be one right now. We're in transition, just at the beginning of a very difficult way with no guarantee at the end. Unless you can think in terms of years, there is no point to go any further and you're bound to be disappointed.

 

You can't keep on sacking managers after a couple of months. It proves that you have no vision, no plan. You won't attract any good player or manager, keep losing your best one and just bought yourself a one way ticket to relegation.

Its not a couple of months.

You also cant attract good players or mangers if by the 17th game of next season we show the same form and are cut adrift.

 

Its a results business unfortunately a manager can say all the right things but if his approaching relegation form in his last 17 games and the season continues to fizzle out then just talking a good game and tactical evolution wont be enough to save him his job.

[Tielemans63]

Wish people would stop saying 'we've got nothing to play for' - we have the third highest finish in the club's history to play for.

[Rigga]

The last 3 games have been torturous to watch.

From the first kick where we always boot it out of play for a throw in to the last kick which is usually sideways / backwards.

 

Our best winger it seems is instructed to go into a congested midfield where he takes the ball of the back four and more often than not with a wall of opposition players in front of him.

 

Our full backs overlap and put aimless crosses into our 5ft 9 striker

 

and all of this at the most leisurely and pedestrian pace possible 

 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[ZeGuy]

1 minute ago, HankMarvin said:

Its not a couple of months.

You also cant attract good players or mangers if by the 17th game of next season we show the same form and are cut adrift.

 

Its a results business unfortunately a manager can say all the right things but if his approaching relegation form in his last 17 games and the season continues to fizzle out then just talking a good game and tactical evolution wont be enough to save him his job.

There is litterally no way for you to know where we'll land next season. It has been a long game tonight on that we can all agree, but it's not necessarily what we'll see next season. It all depends on who he will bring this summer.

 

He's burned what remained of credit tonight I'm afraid and if he doesn't finish strongly the last 4 games, he's probably gone. No matter how good his ideas were.

 

 

[Dawko]

9 minutes ago, Beechey said:

One that has to choose between Albrighton, who has experience in that general area and Danny Simpson. Which full back played as a right winger in this game?

Did you not see Simpson running into the oppositions half in the last few games and promptly losing the ball and becoming more and more frustrated and disillusioned because some idiot told him he should play more as a wing-back?

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Painful isn't it.

[MC Prussian]

1 hour ago, ZeGuy said:

You can't deny that the title did a lot of damage by raising the expectations of many here. I don't need to have been there for 20 years to notice the shift. I watched as much Leicester vids as I could find on the net prior to the great escape and the title. I'm directly aiming at the people that still think we can play like in 2015/16 and they ain't no windmills. That style is dead and buried wether they want it or not. We can have it on the menu but it's not the main dish anymore. 

 

Oh I remember it and very well at that. I remember the underwhelmed reactions and how people were already dead set against him as he was appointed, although he didn't even manage one game. How the Soton effect made way in the mind of many. They kept quite as long as we won. And now that's a wave of "told ya so".

 

I prefer to put things in perspective and never considered this season to be anything but a transition with very likely no tangible results. Sure we could have been in Europe but look at who's above us? A team coached by one manager for a couple of seasons, who had the time to print his ideas and model the team as he wished.  We changed the way of playing, what was absolutely necessary and it's unsurprisingly a hit and miss right now. Of course I'm not pleased by what I see, but still waiting for the next season, and a transfer window to judge Puel.

 

Well, it didn't.

As shown by the responses in the "Where will we finish this season?" thread before the start of the campaign.

Again, why trying to paint a false picture? Why the persistence to go with your theory?

 

Of course, we can still play like under Ranieri. If we knew how and when to play like it.

 

And the reservations about Puel have now proved to be right, haven't they? It's history repeating - for the past five months or so, we've been playing like Southampton 16/17, Mk.II.

Again, why trying to point out the obvious with regards to the fans' reaction? Do you think fans find it funny or are entertained by what they see? Did you hear the boos tonight after the final whistle? I mean, I didn't like to hear that, but it was only logical. Seems to me you're desperately trying to swim against the current, just for the sake of it.

 

So, on one hand you "never considered this season to be anything but a transition with very likely no tangible results", yet here we are, still in 8th spot, eight points behind Burnley, in reach of a Europa League spot. We've squandered so many chances of making that 7th spot ours, highly likely playing Europa League next season. Did we really want to get there? I doubt it. Blimey, don't tell me how to feel about the club I've supported for 20 odd years! I've been through all the highs and lows (mostly lows), and right now, Puel shows an immaculate talent to piss me off more and more with each passing game.

 

You don't change the playing style during an ongoing season, that's what's very frustrating (among other things about this squad, manager and season).

 

My patience wears thin with Puel, and I can't see the owners sticking up much longer for him. All this talk about a "vision" for this club whilst we're enduring a rather bad spell - brought upon by the manager in parts - borders on the delusional.

Edited 19 April 2018 by MC Prussian

[Dalmacija FC]

Anyone questioning the performance of Ndidi simply does not understand football.

 

There is no better player in the league at breaking up play as well as he does, not even Kante. What an absolute mammoth performance tonight, he won 6 tackles, made 6 interceptions and won 6 headers. That is genuinely as good as you will see from anyone in the league, that is genuinely superb.

 

Vardy, Mahrez and the other attacking players didn't do their jobs tonight. The back 4 and Ndidi did absolutely everything asked of them but were let down by what was in front.

[Guest MattP]

Never been so bored at a football match. Two crap teams who didn't look like scoring.

 

Feel for the fans who go without having a few beers/time with people they enjoy the company of.

[MC Prussian]

19 minutes ago, ZeGuy said:

We got the money but not the fame nor the means to be a top club. Money isn't everything. We're nowhere near to be one right now. We're in transition, just at the beginning of a very difficult way with no guarantee at the end. Unless you can think in terms of years, there is no point to go any further and you're bound to be disappointed.

 

You can't keep on sacking managers after a couple of months. It proves that you have no vision, no plan. You won't attract any good player or manager, keep losing your best one and just bought yourself a one way ticket to relegation.

Remind me again how we ended up with Claude Puel as manager?

 

And as far as "keep losing your best players" is concerned, our success was based on teamwork, where no player was "better" than the other.

I don't think losing a very good player is the end of everything, in particular when said player throws tantrums, trying to force a move. Sadly, the success has come with its downsides.

 

Maybe we need a period of disappointments again. The art is now to rediscover that lovely feeling and work as a unit, performing well on the pitch, playing good football, give the home fans something to cheer about.

 

Not happening under Puel right now. And for all the talk about patience with your manager, results matter.

[Gubbins]

1 hour ago, Finnegan said:

Heard a lot of discontent. Don't really completely agree with it. That was the most defensive 451 we've played against all season. It was pathetic from Hughes, they were well drilled and organised but made zero effort to win the game. 

 

Credit where its due, that's not easy to play against. We complain that we can't bring them down but not a lot of teams can, it's not straight forward.

 

I thought we worked pretty hard and played one of our best games in recent weeks. But we don't have Silva or Sterling or Aguero and we can't just twinkle toes out way through something that stubborn. 

We seem to be stuck in a style of play somewhere inbetween the two dominant styles of the division, the possssion heavy intense press used to varying degrees of success by the top six and the defend like mad and hit them on the counter used by most of the rest of the division. Puels first few games had a nice balance between the two but that now seems to have gone. It' hard to know what to do as our previous success with the counter attack has been sussed and copied by many teams leading to close stalemates when they play each other (probably the reason why the division has been so tight) so going back to purely that style wouldn't improve matters. On the other hand we don' have the quality of players to use fast intense interplay up top to break them down like man city/spurs/Liverpool. Regardless of who the manager is we should settle in for several seasons  of midtable mediocrity.

[Bert]

I thought we actually started quite brightly and the team suggested we were going all out. But once Southampton figured out what we were trying to do (about 20 minutes in) it all went very flat and we huffed and puffed our way through the game. Struggled badly to break down their every man behind the ball. They came with he clear intention of soak it up and hit us on the break, they just weren't very good at hitting us on the break, and bar a very good save from Hamer that's all they've offered. Don't think anyone deserved to win. We created a lot of half chances but they were defended so deep in numbers it was going to be hard to pick up any second balls especially when we didn't really have many men in the box. 

 

Diabate looked bright when he came on although he's reminding me of Gray a little bit. Looks like the player we want him to be when he comes off of the bench but flops when he starts. 

 

Thought we looked so much more solid and assured at the back with Dragovic in and Albrighton did little wrong at right back. 

 

Frustating to watch for long periods but that's what happens when a team plays against you the way Southampton did. 

 

Players now off until the weekend so I'm guessing they'll all be jetting off for a weekend of sun. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

21 minutes ago, alanf0x said:

Definitely not! Would much rather watch chillwell swing in pin point balls than a former international defender (and captain) defend properly for 90 minutes. 

At least Chilwell seems to be concentrating on his football, not trying to flog t-shirts and sorting his punditry career out for when he retires hey? 

[MC Prussian]

8 minutes ago, Dalmacija FC said:

Anyone questioning the performance of Ndidi simply does not understand football.

 

There is no better player in the league at breaking up play as well as he does, not even Kante. What an absolute mammoth performance tonight, he won 6 tackles, made 6 interceptions and won 6 headers. That is genuinely as good as you will see from anyone in the league, that is genuinely superb.

 

Vardy, Mahrez and the other attacking players didn't do their jobs tonight. The back 4 and Ndidi did absolutely everything asked of them but were let down by what was in front.

Normally, I'd agree.

Unfortunately, we've played against a Southampton side tonight that is facing relegation from the PremIer League, lost their previous four games in a row, hadn't won in seven and hardly ever came out of their own half.

 

Just another case of using the stats in favour of your own argument.

Or shall I bring up the amount of times Ndidi lost the ball in the middle of the park, either in a 1-on-1 or by passing it to a Saints player?

Well, that's when your stats come into play...

 

Two sides to the same coin.

 

Vardy was again very active up front and had his chances, unlucky more than anything. Same goes for Iheanacho in the first half especially. Whereas Mahrez only showed his class in increments, and never really got near the Southampton box. He was pretty anonymous.

Edited 19 April 2018 by MC Prussian

[Beechey]

2 minutes ago, Bert said:

I thought we actually started quite brightly and the team suggested we were going all out. But once Southampton figured out what we were trying to do (about 20 minutes in) it all went very flat and we huffed and puffed our way through the game. Struggled badly to break down their every man behind the ball. They came with he clear intention of soak it up and hit us on the break, they just weren't very good at hitting us on the break, and bar a very good save from Hamer that's all they've offered. Don't think anyone deserved to win. We created a lot of half chances but they were defended so deep in numbers it was going to be hard to pick up any second balls especially when we didn't really have many men in the box. 

 

Diabate looked bright when he came on although he's reminding me of Gray a little bit. Looks like the player we want him to be when he comes off of the bench but flops when he starts. 

 

Thought we looked so much more solid and assured at the back with Dragovic in and Albrighton did little wrong at right back. 

 

Frustating to watch for long periods but that's what happens when a team plays against you the way Southampton did. 

 

Players now off until the weekend so I'm guessing they'll all be jetting off for a weekend of sun. 

I loved Albrighton's drilled (on the floor) balls forwards he kept pulling off. Did it at least 4 or 5 times and hit his man every time.

[ARTY_FOX]

3 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

At least Chilwell seems to be concentrating on his football, not trying to flog t-shirts and sorting his punditry career out for when he retires hey? 

How dear he, our left back, not be an absolute assist machine... 

[ZeGuy]

2 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

Well, it didn't.

As shown by the responses in the "Where will we finish this season?" thread before the start of the campaign.

Again, why trying to paint a false picture? Why the persistence to go with your theory?

 

Of course, we can still play like under Ranieri. If we knew how and when to play like it.

 

And the reservations about Puel have now proved to be right, haven't they? It's history repeating - for the past five months or so, we've been playing like Southampton last season.

Again, why trying to point out the obvious with regards to the fans' reaction? Do you think fans find it funny? Did you hear the boos tonight after the final whistle? Seems to me you're desperately trying to swim against the current, just for the sake of it.

 

So, on one hand you "never considered this season to be anything but a transition with very likely no tangible results", yet here we are, still in 8th spot, eight points behind Burnley, in reach of a Europa League spot. We've squandered so many chances of making that 7th spot ours, highly likely playing Europa League next season. Did we really want to get there? I doubt it. Blimey, don't tell me how to feel about the club I've supported for 20 odd years! I've been through all the highs and lows (mostly lows), and right now, Puel shows an immaculate talent to piss me off more and more with each passing game.

 

You don't change the playing style during an ongoing season, that's what's very frustrating (among other things about this squad, manager and season).

 

My patience wears thin with Puel, and I can't see the owners sticking up much longer for him. All this talk about a "vision" for this club whilst we're enduring a rather bad spell - brought upon by the manager in parts - borders on the delusional.

Never meant to patronize about how you should support the team.

 

You have to start somewhere and this season was the perfect one: no pressure, no particular goal to achieve other than obviously not being relegated which wouldn't happen anyway with quality of the squad we have. The european spot was never a realistic objective to begin with. You don't hire someone to aim for Europe when you're in danger of being relegated. Sure it's a huge opportunity missed given the circumstances and it might leave a bitter taste, but all in in all it wasn't on the program. So it doesn't bother me that much.

 

Do not think just one second that the last games filled me with pleasure and I'm not swimming against the current just for the hell of it, I just stick to what I believe. Based on what I saw the whole season, I believe that he should be given a full season and a transfer window, before being hanged out to dry. As simple as that.

 

[Guest MattP]

1 minute ago, Beechey said:

I loved Albrighton's drilled (on the floor) balls forwards he kept pulling off. Did it at least 4 or 5 times and hit his man every time.

He is a credit to the club, been treated terribly - asked to play 4 positions in the last 6 months and well capable of doing them all.

 

Do hope we haven't ruined him.

[Beechey]

2 minutes ago, MattP said:

He is a credit to the club, been treated terribly - asked to play 4 positions in the last 6 months and well capable of doing them all.

 

Do hope we haven't ruined him.

Central midfield was the head scratcher for me

[alanf0x]

8 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

At least Chilwell seems to be concentrating on his football, not trying to flog t-shirts and sorting his punditry career out for when he retires hey? 

I think Fuchs could work in Leicester market selling jumpers all day every day and still be able to play a better game than chilwell 

[MC Prussian]

1 minute ago, ZeGuy said:

Never meant to patronize about how you should support the team.

 

You have to start somewhere and this season was the perfect one: no pressure, no particular goal to achieve other than obviously not being relegated which wouldn't happen anyway with quality of the squad we have. The european spot was never a realistic objective to begin with. You don't hire someone to aim for Europe when you're in danger of being relegated. Sure it's a huge opportunity missed given the circumstances and it might leave a bitter taste, but all in in all it wasn't on the program. So it doesn't bother me that much.

 

Do not think just one second that the last games filled me with pleasure and I'm not swimming against the current just for the hell of it, I just stick to what I believe. Based on what I saw the whole season, I believe that he should be given a full season and a transfer window, before being hanged out to dry. As simple as that.

 

When Puel was hired, we weren't "in danger of being relegated", we had just witnessed a very poor start to the season. Jeebus, talking about trying to rewrite history!

I can live with missing out on the Europa League also, but not under these circumstances, trailing so closely behind Burnley (for a short while even leading them), then letting it all slip away.

That is not acceptable, but to claim that "it wasn't on the program" after all the time we spent in touching distance of Burnley remains your theory.

Of course, there's still the slight chance of it happening still, but our form sadly says otherwise.

 

I'd like Puel to stick around also and to be a success at this club, he just makes it very hard for me to believe in him and his vision right now. And given his record with Southampton, he, the club and us have every right to be (very) concerned.

[LestaAl]

That was a poor match after a hopeful 15 mins at the start.

i welcomed the changes but nothing much came from them and tactics were poor. Puel does not seem to have a plan B.

Vardy had slim pickings and we are wasting him most of the time.

 I wanted to boo at the end of the match. But am too polite!

i am beginning to worry about next season with our poor form and quite frankly who wants to watch how we play now.

 

Puel will take us back into a relagation scrap and will then get sacked by Christmas .

 

...just maybe I’m wrong - I do hope so....

 

[Mark - Reading]

2 hours ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Same shit different week albeit SLIGHTLY improved by the fact we played a team who set up for a point.

Move the ball around well in the middle of the park and create pretty much nothing. We had a few chances but we'd have had more chance scoring from 40 yards. 

 

Boring boring boring. 

4 wins in 17? Here's to praying rafa gets sick of Mike Ashley by the end of the season. 

 

If not I'd even consider a gamble on a lesser known manager just to avoid this boring crap every week. I put off plans to watch that shit. No doubt I'll make the same mistake again.

 

First game I’ve just not bothered with this season; I watched the game on Bein Sport and let my brother go in my place. I would still be driving back to Reading had I come up and based on that performance trying to wake myself up with lots of coffee

 

27 seasons I’ve had a ST, Before tonight I’d missed 4 games in the last 5 seasons, I am so fed up at the minute we are that boring and stale I just can’t be bothered anymore.

 

Listening to his after match on the radio that was clearly not the game I watched on tv, good opening 10 minutes soon plunged into normality

 

As for a double sub in the 91st minute, I am assuming it was that dull he dozed off himself and woke up when the tannoy man said “3 minutes” thought ****, better get someone else on

 

 

[Blue Ed]

23 minutes ago, Jacnah said:

A well considered, articulated and helpful post - thanks for coming

Well here's the thing. We've got to many players who'se roles are not defined in the team at the moment and for me it's effecting their game and the ultimately how we are playing on the pitch. They look short of confidence but this looks like it stems from the fact that they are not clear on what they are doing on the pitch. 

 

This creates the debate here. Do we say he's not good enough because he should play to the strengths of the players that we have or do we say, this could be the start of a new era at Leicester and give him the chance to get in the payers that can carry out the game plan he wants it could really build an exciting team and style of play.

 

Mahrez, is he coming in deep and playing a creative midfielder or is he suposed to be sticking out wide to play an attacking winger role. at the moment he's trying to do both. Some games it pays off but not enough anymore and when it doesn't work for him we look bad. He obviously wants away from the club so lets shift him and move on.

Silva, Currently I don't know what his suposed to be bringing to the team. I'm not convinced at the moment he's as creative or has the vision of Iborra, or the passing and positional skill that Dinkwater had.

Nacho, I think I was a bit harsh in saying he should be sold but I would like to see him linking the play up and linking up better between with Vardy plus scoring more. Slimani I thought did well in that role and Sinji does.

Gray. Gray is crap

 

These are good players (apart from Gray) but they are not fitting into Puels style of play that he wants, selling them will give Puel the opportunity to bring in or develop key players in these positions to fit his game plan, Obviously could be wrong in the long run with what he is trying to do but the teams he has built have had quick and direct wingers who can double up as strikers and the first player he has bought Diabate I guess fits into that mould and looks good. Have a look at Govou that he had at Lyon. Ben Arfa at Nice, massive players similar in style to Diabate

 

The other notable absence from our team that Puel teams have all had at the moment is an attacking central midfielder or Centre Forward at both clubs he bought in players who had fierce shots and shooting ability Juninho Pernambucano at Lyon and Eduardo at Nice. If he spots players like that for Leicester in the summer we'll be entertained for sure.

 

I'm a fan of his style, it's not working out yet, obviously, but I'm excited by the teams and players he had in France to say lets give him the space and funds to go out and get the team he wants.

[foxtillidrop]

I sit on row D and can tell from the body language of the players that they don't believe in his methods. No urgency and we let teams re-organise themselves before we even think about making a forward pass.