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CosbehFox

The "do they mean us?" thread pt 2

By CosbehFox, in Leicester City Forum

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mozartfox

mozartfox

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11 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Recent - Ghezzal for Mahrez (perhaps a bit harsh on Ghezzal)

Past - Hard to beat Akinbiyi / Benjamin for Heskey.

Junior Lewis for the laundry lady? 

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Bunyip

Bunyip

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21 hours ago, Corky said:

They mentioned our title win in previewing the game on Five Live, saying we didn't have the weight of expectation on us that Liverpool have.

 

Now that is true but I think people are underplaying how much we wanted to win it. If we'd finished second we'd have been gutted despite the season being amazing and unexpected. It was our chance and to have lost it from the lead we had would've been our biggest regret.

Spot on. I actually hated those last few weeks because I had that terrible feeling that we would succumb to the pressure and each game nearer was torture for me. I remember that night Hazard slotted the equaliser, those last few minutes were hell, but when the whistle went I sobbed. I even had a stress boil on the back of my neck through it.  To finish second would have been such heartbreak just to know that it was our best and only chance of ever getting our name on the trophy. But we did it ! I still shake my head, but absolutely revel in it and will to my dying day. No one can take it away from us and to cap it all it was the greatest league win in the history of football anywhere in the world. Sometimes dreams do come true.:scarf:

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majaco

majaco

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1 hour ago, Langston said:

No idea if they were similar players but my old boy has always hated a bloke called Tommy English that we took from Cov in exchange for Jim Melrose?

Melrose was fantastic some games.  I'd forgotten that Tommy English was forgettable.

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Buce

Buce

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19 hours ago, trabuch said:

I think Claudio played the media and the players perfectly too. It was the most perfect and beautiful storm.

 

And it will take the spuds a long time to get over the fact that it was (in their tiny deluded minds) their best opportunity to win the league to win anything, for a very long time (ironically since they beat us in the League Cup). Let them imagine that teams rolled over for us (if it can help them stop being so bitter). We all know that's bullshit. 

 

 

Regrettably, not true - they won the League Cup in 2008, beating Chelsea.

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Bunyip

Bunyip

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2 hours ago, mad biker said:

Was there not a deal taking Paul Kitson to Derby and us ending up with Ormondroyd and Gee ?  :-)

Yes but it worked out in our favour, we got promoted beating Derby at Wembley in that year's playoff final  ( Ormonroyd's header being saved and Wash tapping it in ) And Kitson did nothing with his career and won nothing. 

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Anglodanglo

Anglodanglo

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56 minutes ago, Bunyip said:

Yes but it worked out in our favour, we got promoted beating Derby at Wembley in that year's playoff final  ( Ormonroyd's header being saved and Wash tapping it in ) And Kitson did nothing with his career and won nothing. 

I remember Gee's right foot being a hammer

 

 

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ScouseFox

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On 03/01/2019 at 22:10, Corky said:

They mentioned our title win in previewing the game on Five Live, saying we didn't have the weight of expectation on us that Liverpool have.

 

Now that is true but I think people are underplaying how much we wanted to win it. If we'd finished second we'd have been gutted despite the season being amazing and unexpected. It was our chance and to have lost it from the lead we had would've been our biggest regret.

as other replies probably say, we had much more pressure on us than any other team ever probably has. we were in a once in a lifetime (past and future) position. liverpool and man city will challenge for all 4 trophies again next year, like they are this year and like they did last year. 

 

the actual 90 minutes of football every week from about january until may was completely and utterly unbearable. i wanted to be literally anywhere else in the world than have to deal with the idea that we might have messed it up. 

 

no pressure, i wish 

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Blue ROI

Blue ROI

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http://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/1983-84-leicester-v-southampton-match-abandoned.html

 

As Leicester prepared to meet Southampton at Filbert Street on October 15, 1983, there would have been vastly different expectations for anyone associated with both clubs. Rooted to the bottom of the table, Leicester were winless in their eight league matches. In contrast, Southampton were sitting pretty.
 
 

Second in Division One, Lawrie McMenemy’s Southampton knew a win, coupled with a Liverpool victory at West Ham, would see the Saints hit the summit. With Leicester’s abysmal record at the start of the season, there was a strong chance that come the conclusion of the match, Southampton would be looking down on the rest of the league.

 
It didn’t quite turn out like that. In fact, both teams would end up leaving empty handed after the match was abandoned with just 22 minutes played. Heavy rainfall left the playing surface resembling a paddy field in places, as players and officials struggled to cope with the conditions.
 
Captured on Match of the Day, the fixture started off relatively sedately. But with the rain lashing down, and the wind picking up, soon the action started to take on a comedic slant. With the ball beginning to stick in the puddles forming on the pitch, playing football became a challenge.
 
A torrential downpour during the match proved too much for the already saturated surface, as the mere task of dribbling and passing turned into a farce. Referee Robert Nixon halted proceedings at one point to discuss the situation with his senior linesman, before deciding to carry on regardless.
 
Cheers could be heard amongst the crowd of less than 9,000 at Filbert Street, as play restarted, yet with John Motson describing the pitch as “virtually unplayable”, chances of the match finishing looked slim.

 
 
Players attempted to take the pitch out of the equation by going aerial, although Kevin MacDonald’s back pass to keeper Mark Wallington was thumped so hard that it almost went out for a corner. MacDonald would later find himself struggling to dribble the ball through the shallow end, before releasing Gary Lineker to take on Mark Wright.
 
Both future England internationals ended up sliding towards the advertising boards like tobogganists, as every slip, mistake, failed pass and dribble, and splash was furiously “waheyed” by the amused spectators.
 
The high point of the comedy was undoubtedly Steve Lynex performing the breaststroke after being fouled by Steve Moran. “A little swimming gesture by Steve Lynex as he fell, as if to indicate that’s the only way to get through,” Motson noted. “It’s all something of a lottery,” he added, as the show continued.
 
All good things have to come to an end, though. After Lineker twice failed to take the ball with him in quick succession, and players thrashed around at the ball hopelessly, Nixon had seen enough. “The referee has had to bring it to an end, and frankly I’m not surprised,” said Motson.
 
Nixon, Milne, and McMenemy would later appear on the pitch, discussing the prospect of resuming the match. But with rain continuing to fall, the outlook seemed bleak. Ground staff prodded forks into the surface in a desperate attempt to drain some of the water. It was a fairly pointless act.
 
Milne looked far from happy as he left the pitch, and let out his frustration after the abandonment. “We could have cleared the ground given time,” he complained, although the Express’ David Emery didn’t share this optimism.
 
“If he really can find sweepers of that calibre, Milne should snap them up...perhaps then Leicester would not have conceded 12 goals at home this season already,” Emery noted, also describing Filbert Street as a duck pond.
 
Milne was not the only dissenting voice, with groundsman Steve Welch adamant that Nixon had made a mistake, stating that the playing surface was fit by 3.55pm. Maybe Milne and Welch were sensing the chance of a rare Leicester win on a pitch that certainly levelled the playing field.
 
The Mirror’s David Moore also felt Nixon had made an error, but at least match official had one supporter in Jimmy Hill. “It was clear there was no alternative other than to abandon the game,” the presenter said on Match of the Day.
 
Leicester would win the rematch at the end of November, part of a sixteen match run that saw them lose only two league matches, and eventually they avoided relegation. Southampton finished the season as runners-up to Liverpool, but suffered the agony of an FA Cup semi-final defeat against Everton.
 
In total, Southampton would play 51 matches during the 1983/84 campaign. But it is those 22 minutes at Filbert Street in October 1983 that stick in my memory, making for entertaining viewing, and reducing professional footballers to the level of the paying spectators and the television audience.
 
Sometimes football can be a bit too serious, and there is not enough room for a few “waheys” and levity in the crowd. Assuming you had not paid good money to watch just 22 minutes of football, Leicester City v Southampton proved that football could occasionally provide a refreshing break from the norm.
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urban.spaceman

urban.spaceman

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Time running out for Claude Puel’s quest to galvanise Leicester

Stuart JamesFri 18 Jan 2019 16.00 GMT

Leicester may sit eighth in the Premier League but the football has largely been stodgy and their manager’s attempts to forge a new possession-based identity are not bearing fruit

 

Claude Puel believes punters betting on him to be sacked are losing a lot of money. Claude Puel believes punters betting on him to be sacked are losing a lot of money. Photograph: Plumb Images/Leicester City via Getty Images

Another week, another audience with Leicester City’s manager, and another question about his future. “It’s a common thread, all press conferences, I cannot manage these rumours,” Claude Puel replied, smiling. “It’s often we have a lot of bets about my future. But I’m sorry for lots of people who made this bet because they lost a lot of money.”

Puel remains the favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his job, which may come as a surprise to those whose knowledge of Leicester begins and ends with their position in the table: eighth. The assumption that tends to follow is that any disgruntled Leicester supporters have ideas above their station, fuelled by that 5,000-1 triumph three years ago, and now expect to challenge for the title every season.

The truth is rather different and has more to do with what they are paying to watch. To put it bluntly – and many Southampton supporters will probably be nodding their heads when they get to the end of this sentence – the football at home has been dull under Puel on far too many occasions to remember.

As for the results, it is hard to sugarcoat statistics that show Puel’s record is worse than the man who was sacked to make way for him. Craig Shakespeare averaged 1.38 points per game, Leicester scored more goals than they conceded while he was in charge and they won as many games as they lost. Puel averages 1.35 points per game, Leicester have lost more matches than they have won under him and their goal difference is negative.

Bearing in mind that Shakespeare was told to clear his desk after eight months because the club felt “a change is necessary to keep the club moving forward – consistent with the long-term expectations of our supporters, board and owners”, it is little wonder Puel’s position continues to be the subject of so much scrutiny. Where, say his critics, is the progress?

An alternative take would be – and there are fans who remain firmly behind Puel – that the 54-year-old should be cut some slack. Those with a foot in the Frenchman’s camp say he deserves credit for giving youngsters a platform to thrive – Ben Chilwell in particular – that the loss of Riyad Mahrez to Manchester City last summer should not be overlooked, and that allowances ought to be made for the emotional fallout in the wake of the helicopter crash in October that claimed the lives of five people, including Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester’s owner.

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The reality is that Leicester were unconvincing on the pitch before that tragedy. Indeed, Puel was straying into slightly awkward territory last week when he rounded on his critics and suggested that people had short memories when it comes to what the club has been through. “It was a fantastic feeling to move on and respect the memory of Vichai and his dream,” he said. “Now we have some things and words about finishing seventh or eighth, it is crazy. People forget quickly.”

The focus on the league position is a red herring – Puel did not lose his job at Southampton because they finished eighth; it was the style of football, the lack of goals – only 41 in 38 matches – and his failure to galvanise the fanbase and players that did for him. The similarities at Leicester are striking.

Leicester have scored only 13 goals at the King Power Stadium all season, they have lost three of their past four home matches, including back-to-back defeats against relegation strugglers Cardiff and Southampton, and were dumped out of the FA Cup by Newport County a fortnight ago.

 

Puel during his Leicester City press conference on Thursday. Puel during his Leicester City press conference on Thursday. Photograph: Plumb Images/Leicester City via Getty Images

Arguably as worrying as all the facts and figures is that even now, 15 months after his appointment, it is hard to discern any clear identity in the way that Leicester play under Puel. On the day he was presented as manager, Puel talked about how it was “difficult for Leicester to have been playing for three or four years with a counterattack and just this system. It’s important to have other answers … my work is to build the players up to have these options and solutions.” Yet if it was Puel’s intention to turn Leicester into more of a possession-based team at times, or at the very least make the players comfortable with an alternative approach, there is no evidence it has worked.

For Southampton’s visit last Saturday, Puel started with three defensive midfielders against a team in the relegation zone. Despite playing with an extra man for 45 minutes and enjoying 72% possession, Leicester struggled to create chances and resorted to pumping hopeful crosses into the area that played into the hands of Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek. Remarkably, those two Southampton defenders headed the ball clear as many times (14) as Jamie Vardy touched it in 90 minutes. Forget the superhero outfit that Leicester’s leading scorer wore to training on Thursday; a stepladder would have been more use against Southampton.

The way that match panned out was predictable in many respects. Leicester’s win ratio under Puel is as low as 29% (W9 D9 L13) when they have more of the ball than their opponents. It climbs to as high as 50% (W10 D3 L7) when they surrender possession, which is why facing Chelsea and Manchester City in the space of four days around Christmas suited them. That is not to take anything away from those results – hugely impressive 1-0 and 2-1 victories respectively – but more to illustrate how playing on the counterattack remains Leicester’s best hope of picking up points.

A game at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday is a blessing for that reason and it would be no surprise if Leicester get a positive result. Yet even if that turns out to be the case, the debate about Puel’s future is unlikely to go away and it would be naive for anyone to think Leicester’s board have not been asking questions of their own. It feels as though it has got to the stage where a parting of the ways is inevitable in the summer at the latest, when the potential availability of Brendan Rodgers and Rafael Benítez alters the managerial landscape. Perhaps the bigger question is whether the bookies will be forced to pay out before then.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/18/claude-puel-leicester-premier-league#comment-124838809

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AlloverthefloorYesNdidi

AlloverthefloorYesNdidi

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Posted (edited)

First thought: he says we have a negative goal difference. Not in the PL we dont so he must be including cup games..?

Wonder what Shakespeare's gd was in the pl, with Mahrez aswell

 

What I hate most about that article is it mentions Mahrez along with the helicopter crash, then disingenuously sweeps it all away with one brush saying the form was bad before the crash, which has nothing to do with Mahrez whatsoever

Edited by AlloverthefloorYesNdidi
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