Post Match: City 0 - 1 Cardiff

[UniFox21]

5 minutes ago, Nod.E said:

Easy.

 

Change to 433.

 

Pereira Maguire Soy Chilwell

 

Mendy Maddison Iborra

 

Gray Vardy Albrighton

 

Next question?

Did you see how much Albrighton was lagging near the end. Guy was dead on his feet 

[Bunyip]

2 minutes ago, manders86 said:

I would blame the recruitment that has happened since we were champions. 

 

 I don't think recruitment is in many managers areas of responsibility these days.  Certainly not that of Slimani, Musa, Silva, Iheanacho, etc.

Then he should have come here under his own terms and conditions stating he gets to say the players he wants. Any manager so hamstrung is not really a manager at all and can't possibly function in the correct manner.  

[Dan LCFC]

So, so predictable.

[kingfox]

3 minutes ago, foxinsocks said:

We lost control of the game coz puel had no idea what to do.

We lost the game.  ..not coz they scored a great goal. ... but coz we created nothing... esp after half time.

 

Hamza decision was ridiculous.

Grey has not kearned to mix up his decision making. He takes the ball with head down and is a tactical deadend... he needs to sort his decision making out and shoukd be nowhere near the furst 11. 

Pipper is right ghezzel is league one at best.

Nacho is finished 

 

It turns out we beat chekski and man city in spite if puel  .... its tine for Puel to go.

Someone's downed 10 pints after that loss.

[UniFox21]

What summed up the entire game was Cardiff bringing on a striker and their centre forward moving to right back

[Nod.E]

2 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

Did you see how much Albrighton was lagging near the end. Guy was dead on his feet 

Fair point. Bring Simpson on for him then and Play Pereira further forward. So many options in there better than what we ended up with.

[blaaklint]

1 minute ago, UniFox21 said:

What summed up the entire game was Cardiff bringing on a striker and their centre forward moving to right back

Paterson is primarily a right-back, he only really started playing up front last season. Not sure if that makes it better or worse.

Edited 29 December 2018 by blaaklint

[The Doctor]

10 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

It's very fashionable at the moment for people defending Puel and some of his decisions to take a good swipe at Vardy along the way, as if to say 'all you guys who think this isn't good enough, well, your hero's not up to much right now, so why not blame him instead?'. I'm quite uncomfortable about this Puels Vs. Vardy feeling that's growing, and it's even more evident in posts like this than it is in many posts from the 'Puel Outers'.

 

Vardy obviously wasn't responsible, and hasn't been (just like Iheanacho hasn't been, for the most part), responsible for the woeful lack of supply when our five man midfield comes up against a side that sits deep to snuff out the counter. We're talking about a guy who's played three games in a week, with an injury, at almost 32, scoring in one of them and ploughing a lone furrow with plenty of enthusiasm, and few opportunities today. He's also, as a footnote, one of the greatest figures in our club's history, and was almost singularly responsible for keeping the manager in a job last season. And as for slating the fans who booed the decision, well, if he'd stayed on we'd most likely have gone 1-0 up in the event of winning a penalty. So they have a point.

 

I'm not a Puel Outer (to sack your manager who took over a 14th placed side a year ago, finished 9th, has us there or thereabouts now, in a transitional season, after what happened to our Chairman, and our previous two results, would be insanity) but I'm not going to pick sides either. When Puel gets something wrong, it's easier for everyone if we acknowledge that something went wrong, without lambasting him or anyone else for it.

 

A case in point: Whatever any of the critics say, the line-up made sense today. It's also true that lots of sides, especially ones who counter effectively, suffer weird results when inferior sides sit deep. But when it became clear late in the first half that it wasn't working out, why didn't we tweak things? Why didn't we press a little higher, which is what all the top sides do when sides are eliminating the possibility of a quick counter? And why can't we Puel-inners acknowledge that the subs didn't work out? Why didn't we deal with the shortcomings of our two defensive DMs? Or the fact that Gray, for instance, was so wasteful?

 

The pro-Puel argument would be a lot more convincing if we could concede that, at times, he didn't get it right, and yes, he made some fairly clear errors. If we acknowledge this, we can fix it. If we stubbornly insist that it was Vardy's fault, or back-biting traitors, or general laziness, or bad luck, or a single moment of brilliance, or Maddison's penalty-taking, then we don't get anywhere.

 

So what are the solutions if they're not 'crush the traitors' or 'sack the boss'?

 

If it's personnel, then we have other options than Gray, Maddison, Mendy, Ndidi, Silva, Iborra, Ghezzal, Albrighton for midfield, which is where we're struggling in these games. And I take the view that, as much as Gray and Maddison can look wonderful on the ball, they're not necessarily what we need to break sides like Cardiff down. For my part, I'd love to keep Barnes out on loan all season, but our five-man midfield struggles to play at any sort of tempo, on or off the ball, when we play sides who sit deep. So we can tweak our game plan, or our formation, or we try different options. Either the system or the personnel needs to change, so if we don't want to lunge into the transfer market, why not use what we have at our disposal, in Barnes?

 

And, if I were Puel, I'd accept that when we look good this season, it's because we play like Leicester, rather than like Puel ideally wants us to play. These players, including the ones he's championed, struggle to play the way he'd like them to play for a large percentage of games. That doesn't mean we stop trying to play possession, and aim to hit deep-sitting sides on counters which simply won't work, but in a game like today we should have pressed a lot better.

 

A little more adaptability within games, and being a little faster to accept when something isn't working, might be the key to Puel staying on.

 

But the blame game, that's definitely not the solution. And Puel would lose, too.

This isn't a Puel in or out thing, this is a simple fact, Vardy was shite today. Looked a yard short of everything and saw more passes bounce off him than get controlled. Pretending that this is about Puel vs Vardy rather than admitting the latter had a very poor game by any standard, let alone his own high standards is utterly daft and shows far more of an agenda than you're accusing me of

 

No manager can justify leaving the worst player for either side on the pitch in case we get a penalty.

 

Nor is there any pro Puel poster denying he makes mistakes, we're generally frustrated with things but think that we need to not throw the baby out with the bathwater

Edited 29 December 2018 by The Doctor

[Foxesmints]

1 hour ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

As said in other thread Puel can **** off, so fed up of his teams inability to break teams down and all the dropped points at home. I actually wish we'd lost to Chelsea and City so he'd be gone now 

It's so called "fans" like you that need to f*** off' not Puel.

[UniFox21]

Just now, Nod.E said:

Fair point. Bring Simpson on for him then and Play Pereira further forward. So many options in there better than what we ended up with.

Felt Ghezzal provided some good sparks, minus the bit that lead to the goal.

 

*But on that, Ref had been flagging those types of fouls all game so part of me understands why he went down*

 

 

[fuchsntf]

18 minutes ago, La-li-lu-le-lo said:

What a crock of steaming ‘oss shit that was. Back to the drawing board, slow, lethargic, no tempo, no creativity and wasteful in front of goal. It’s alright stepping up to beat teams like Chelsea and Man City (who both largely played into our hands) and slipping up against crap like Cardiff. Puel’s tinkering is getting tedious, and a pattern is starting to emerge.

Whether Puel was going to tinker...we don't know!!!!

as some of the squad was carrying a virus...It put Choudry,Morgan and Evans..out!!  Which other players  were hit???

though the selected should of been enough!! So you can't get on Puel S back for tedious tinkering...plus others were quite happy with the selection..

 

seems you want to carry the Puel-club around,and hit him no matter what...!!!

 

 

[Bob Weasel Fox]

6 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

So, so predictable.

Yep

[Frost]

11 minutes ago, fuchsntf said:

What haven t you understood by Choudry being ill,!!!!

by all means have an opinion,but only after you have collected all the information...

Quite a few of the squad...including some gameda y players were or are ill.......

 

we should of won,yes!!! But the fault lays by the players.....

Puel literally said in his post-match press conference that Hamza wasn't creative enough to play today.

[Ric Flair]

46 minutes ago, UPinCarolina said:

Fair criticisms, but I take issue with the idea that transfers are at his discretion. If he’s really on thin ice, who in their right mind would let him make those calls?

I think he decides if we " need " new players but not necessarily who they are each time, it's an agreement between the various parties. I worry he's content with the lack of options in central midfield and attack.

[steflcfc]

This is what football is all about, highs and lows.

Man City don’t have a divine right to beat us like we don’t Cardiff.

 

They sat back, their keeper kept them in the game, and a wonder strike with pretty much only attempt flew in the top corner got them 3 points.

Similar circumstance like when we played Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, harrassed and took our main chance and came away 1-0 winners with a bit of luck.

 

Todays game just highlights the limitations within our squad.

We seriously lack creativity in the middle of the park, Mendy and Ndidi dont have anything to offer attacking wise.

 

We looked to Mahrez before and now we are relying on Maddison in his first season in the Premiership and it’s a big ask of him to be our only outlet.

 

Puel knows this....and I’m sure he is looking to get this area of the squad sorted.

 

Changing Puel isn’t the answer, we will still have the same limitations with this squad for a few transfer windows yet, so this stop start performances will continue.

 

Im happy to give Puel time to get the balance of the squad right and things will fall into place given time.

 

 

 

[Cropwellfox]

Baffled by Puel’s comments post match, language barrier allowing.... his claim that Choudhury didn’t play because he wasn’t creative whilst giving ndidi and Mendy a full 90 was just bizarre. I think he’d have a bit more warmth with the fans if he came out and admitted he got it wrong occasionally which he clearly did today. Perfect opportunity to try something different today and wasted the chance completely 

[Ian S]

5 minutes ago, fuchsntf said:

Whether Puel was going to tinker...we don't know!!!!

as some of the squad was carrying a virus...It put Choudry,Morgan and Evans..out!!  Which other players  were hit???

though the selected should of been enough!! So you can't get on Puel S back for tedious tinkering...plus others were quite happy with the selection..

 

seems you want to carry the Puel-club around,and hit him no matter what...!!!

 

 

For goodness sake Hamza was not ill,he was left out for tactical reasons!

Puel  confirmed it himself in the press conference so actually get all your facts right before coming out with more of your drivel.

[fuchsntf]

50 minutes ago, hebangsthedrums said:

A penalty he took abysmally (again) other than that he made a chance and drove forward a few times. Not sure how that warrants motm ahead of the two cb's and rocardo. I would like him to be as good as everyone seems to think he is but don't see it.

I don't think he is poor,but I do agree that he has a better reputation that he hasn't yet earnt!!!!

but he could of should of won this game for us....penalty of no penalty,just a showing of normal football sense...

like many he's young,but like many finding it hard in bring something home consistently.....

[fuchsntf]

1 minute ago, Ian S said:

For goodness sake Hamza was not ill,he was left out for tactical reasons!

Puel  confirmed it himself in the press conference so actually get all your facts right before coming out with more of your drivel.

Good goodness sake Puel did mention he was ill!!!

[splinterdream]

Playing Hamza allowed Mendy or ndidi to support Maddison more, that's what Hamza brought to the table imo 

[ARTY_FOX]

A typical case of got points they didn’t expect so they couldn’t be arsed to turn up. Very very very poor today. Slow and lethargic nobody really put everything they had into the game. Just really really disappointing after some good results. I’m not strictly puel in or out but he does himself no favours sometimes 

 

 

I was all for the people booing vardy being taken off (I didn’t boo but yes it was abit shit) but why boo Iheanacho coming on. Those that did should be ashamed . 

[cityfanlee23]

1 hour ago, HankMarvin said:

How do you know they wasn’t booing the decision to take Vardy off

How do the fans know that Vardy wasnt nursing a niggling injury for the last 3 weeks and was better off being subbed? How do the fans know that Jamie has said he doesn't feel he can play a full 90 or that at half time said he was feeling stiff etc etc? How do the fans know how the incoming player feels knowing there is boos all around the pitch when he's replacing someone. The fans know **** all from the stands but are still happy to literally boo our players and manager, they booed Vardy in his first season, they slated him when we got promoted and said he wouldn't cut it, I even remember rumbles of discontent at our owners in the early stages. Our fans are a ****ing shambles at times. 

[Hammo]

That performance was inexcusable.

 

All the positivity from the Man City win wiped out in one fell swoop. Players and manager should be ashamed of themselves. Another big let down under Puel, who seems incapable of devising a plan to beat defensively-minded teams at home. But Maddison, Gray and Ghezzal take more blame than him today.

[Ian S]

4 minutes ago, fuchsntf said:

Good goodness sake Puel did mention he was ill!!!

No he left him out for tactical reasons, it has been discussed in detail on local radio because it was seen as so bizarre a statement.

[turtmcfly]

29 minutes ago, Nod.E said:

Easy.

 

Change to 433.

 

Pereira Maguire Soy Chilwell

 

Mendy Maddison Iborra

 

Gray Vardy Albrighton

 

Next question?

 

Not sure how that would have stopped Soy and Vardy from having 'howlers' (I am sure the former just flat out didn't have a 'howler' anyway). It wasn't the formation at fault for Vardy's touch, or Albrighton blowing by the end of the first half. But of course if those two hadn't started...

 

I'd argue the only thing Iborra is the answer to is the question 'who was that handsome man who just had the ball nicked off him again'. He's the very opposite of 'urgency', which would be fine if he'd shown any real quality, whereas he's been pretty much anonymous. 

 

I just cannot understand why people can't look at the previous two games and see two mentally expensive 'front sixes' have the same problem against us that we had against Cardiff. Today we had 14 shots, 7 of which were on target, and a penalty. It's so not the 'utter shit' it's being described as.

Edited 29 December 2018 by turtmcfly