Post Match: City 0 - 1 Cardiff

[Guest MattP]

Genuinely the worst side I've seen us to in the top flight. Such a let down from last couple of games.

[Nickfosse]

2 minutes ago, sishades said:

Nobody expects this, however we do expect professional footballers to be able to pass a ball to someone a few yards away, we do expect someone to be able to put a penalty away, we do expect our team to at least show those who paid  to attend this dross some effort, a bit of guile and not put in appaling performances like today.

It wasn’t appalling. Massive over reaction to an unexpected defeat as per usual.

[SixtiesFox]

Sorry - not intending to dis your considered arguments but using hypotheticals to meet an agenda is something that’s happened a lot on here recently. But understand you were making valid points.

 

I would disagree with that statement though. I think Puel will be given until the end of the season unless we suddenly get dragged into a relegation battle.

 

Fair enough, Shiv. We all have an agenda and that is what's best for our club. Where we differ, is how best to achieve that. Puel is certainly a bit of an enigma but I fear that his stubborn refusal to change his overly-cautious approach in order to break down lesser teams will be his downfall. Cardiff were there for the taking today but the chance to capitalize on momentum built after two fabulous wins was spurned with little more than a whimper. You could feel the air being sucked out of the King Power. It seems like he is his own worst enemy at times.

[Nickfosse]

1 minute ago, David Hankey said:

Vardy is only as good as the service he gets and today he didn't get that. All top strikers are the same.

One on one with the keeper and 3 on 2 fast break and free header from a corner?

[Arriba Los Zorros]

15 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Massively disappointing result, especially given the missed penalty. This game felt like a massive opportunity to turn the corner and get everyone pulling in the same direction so it's a big shame to have played so poorly and lose. But hey ho that's Football and we are not the only team to have had a disappointing result over Christmas.

 

Leicester City as a team are a great counter attacking side but can't break down a well drilled defensive team. Burnley, Crystal Palace and now Cardiff have shown this among many other sides over the last 12 months. What is especially galling is that we don't seem to be making any progress in our efforts to improve the possession based game we are trying to introduce. Given our young team and transitional period, inconsistency in results is to be expected, but I can't really recall a game in a long time (if ever) where we dominated and assuredly put away another team when playing the 4231 possession game. Even in the Huddersfield home game our goals were from breakaways. Really it comes down to either not having players good enough to play it, not having a coach good enough to implement the ideas or a combination of the two.

 

Realistically this is going to be the story of the rest of our season. We will pick up enough points to be safe and will probably be fighting right down to the final day for league position ranging anywhere from 7-12th. But I still can't really see how we are going to suddenly reach the next level in terms of performances and thus results with the current setup. We've either got to invest in more players at the Ricardo level of all-round game or change our tactics. Otherwise this type of game will continue to happen, which it has done for over a year now. Hence why everyone is so frustrated even when we are still in a decent position.

Another good post as usual. I think it's becoming clear that Puel for all his good points bringing through young players and impressive  counter attacking play, cannot set up a team to play at home vs defensive teams, he hasn't looked capable of it once during his time here and that. And for that reason he is not the man to change our style to a more possession focused game. Possession has to lead somewhere.....

[DerbyshireFox]

10 minutes ago, sishades said:

Nobody expects this, however we do expect professional footballers to be able to pass a ball to someone a few yards away, we do expect someone to be able to put a penalty away, we do expect our team to at least show those who paid  to attend this dross some effort, a bit of guile and not put in appaling performances like today.

There’s a fair few who do I’m afraid. Today was not lacking in effort at all, lacking in energy definitely. Guile I accept, but that was not appalling by any stretch, certainly not as good as the last few games but by no means appalling 

[Monsell1976]

2 hours ago, RonnieTodger said:

Weird situation.

 

The performance was absolute dogshit, but I find myself getting far more fed up with the absolute ****** that sit in the stands. Imagine singing “you don’t know what you’re doing” to a guy who’s just beaten Chelsea and Man City. 

 

The downbeat reactions are pathetic. The only noise our fans make are groans and I can’t be arsed anymore. Whilst I agree that Puel isn’t the answer, at least get behind the team. Over the last two games, they’ve earned a bit of ****ing support if they’re struggling against Cardiff.

 

Instead we’ve just got a bunch of angry freaks in the stands.

 

As for Puel, he won’t be sacked after those 2 wins but I’m pretty sure he’ll go at the end of the season, so what’s the point? 

 

Good post, agree puel will probably go in the summer, we will see after this window, as he’s saying we are not buying, when it’s clear we need strengthening in certain areas, pure speculation by me, but that would point to, your gone puel, the new man gets the money in the summer.

[Monsell1976]

11 minutes ago, MattP said:

Genuinely the worst side I've seen us to in the top flight. Such a let down from last couple of games.

? They were absolute dog shite, but you could just feel that they would nick it.

 People slate warnock but he’s got some shite players, but his style of play could keep them up

[Clever Fox]

56 minutes ago, Fosse93 said:

Ricardo was immense today.

Yes he was, And he should have taken the penalty. 

 

With the Game The Cardiff keeper was having I just new Maddison was going to miss.

[Leicesterpool]

5 minutes ago, Clever Fox said:

Yes he was, And he should have taken the penalty. 

 

With the Game The Cardiff keeper was having I just new Maddison was going to miss.

Maddison I don't think wanted to take, he took the ball to Iheanacho to take, who didn't fancy which left Maddison who I'm not sure as took a pen at all. 

[StriderHiryu]

Just now, Arriba Los Zorros said:

Another good post as usual. I think it's becoming clear that Puel for all his good points bringing through young players and impressive  counter attacking play, cannot set up a team to play at home vs defensive teams, he hasn't looked capable of it once during his time here and that. And for that reason he is not the man to change our style to a more possession focused game. Possession has to lead somewhere.....

Yes but also consider that with our current squad it’s possible that no coach can get us to perform with a possession based approach. Who are our most technical players? Probably Maddison and Ricardo who signed this season. Someone earlier in the thread compared us to Liverpool but they’ve only become so good after appointing one of Europe’s best coaches and then signing the most expensive CB in the world, the second most expensive GK and an entirely new front three. Oh and it’s taken them several seasons before getting to the elite level. 

 

Questioning our tactics is fair. Clearly we aren’t good at it so why bother? But then if that’s our attitude we’ll never progress as a team or club. 

 

Personally I think it’s good to try and change our style. Note that does not necessarily mean keeping the manager. If by the end of the season we still can’t break down stubborn teams then it might be worth changing to a different coach who has similar ideas (youth, possession, technical play). But this sort of transition won’t happen overnight! Inconsistent results are inevitable.

 

Where I’m disappointed is that we don’t see many good performances against smaller teams. Say we’d beaten Palace 4-0 with great football but then lost today... sure it would be frustrating but it would still give us hope. The problem is with Puel is that we could get to the end of his contract and still be tenth and struggling to beat teams at home. I think the only game where we’ve really looked fantastic was Diabate’s debut match in the FA Cup last year against lower league opposition. That was where we looked incredible and I was hoping we’d see at least a few more games like that since then. 

 

I’d still give Puel till the end of the season but I just can’t see how games like this will stop happening. We’ve either got to buy someone in the window (doubtful) or change things up. It’s a shame that Hamza was ill today because I’d like to have seen us try the 433 again today in a game where we have most of the ball. At least it would be trying something new. 

 

Rome wasn’t built in a day. But at the moment it feels like Rome is like the Crossrail in London that has been in development for 8 years and has just been indefinitely been delayed again!

[inckley fox]

1 hour ago, The Doctor said:

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

Fine, he didn't set the world alight without a great deal of supply. But you wanted to single him out in your post as being worse than Gray, Maddison, and that to me is a huge over-simplification of what happened and what's happening.

 

Firstly and most obviously it's overlooking the wider problems. The fact that Vardy is, more than any other individual in the squad, the person most responsible for Puel still being in a job over a period of time. And that, no matter who we've played up front, they've suffered from a miserable lack of supply whenever any side - usually an inferior team - snuffs out the option of the counter. 

 

More than that, though, you're singling him out by saying he was the worst player for either side, which he certainly wasn't. If your diagnosis after that game - which was symptomatic of many of our other games this, and last, season - is that our striker (and, over Puel's reign, our best player) is our obvious problem, rather than the shape, the two defensive mids, the approach play, or the five man midfield which in games like this always seems to struggle to create, then we'll go round and round in circles until Puel is fired. If we play Iheanacho, Okazaki, Gray, Slimani or anyone else up there, they'll find it (and have found it) tough too because of our set-up when we're required to take the game to the opposition.

 

And it's not the first time, by any stretch, that I've seen Vardy singled out when, of all the many possible reasons for our failure, he's a good way down the line. In this case, it's clear to see that he's one of the lesser reasons for our loss simply because if we'd have kept him on for 10 more minutes we'd most probably have gone 1-0 up, regardless of how tired he may have been or how unsuited to the game he was. So how he's high on the list of culprits for a result which unfolded after he left the field is beyond me.

 

Is this an unsubstantiated conviction that the old guard are ganging up on Puel to undermine him? Is it that you're focusing too much on the single most obvious shortcoming in our game (i.e. lack of goals = our goalscorer isn't good enough)? Because I don't get how anyone could think that the supply for Vardy was anywhere near adequate today, nor for the bulk of games we've played this season at home and against mid-lower table opposition. 

 

We have a few serious issues, the most obvious of which is our midfield's inability to create ample chances for anyone - any striker, any midfielder - when sides sit deep. As graceful as Maddison looks at times, we simply don't play slow build-up football effectively, and aren't willing to switch quickly to a high press when it's not working. I'm a Puel-Inner, like you I believe, and I agree with most of your analysis but I can't go along with the singling out of Vardy. And sadly, I think that's a common trait of many fellow Puelites.

[Sunbury Fox]

Wasn't at the game today so had to make do with a stream, which I admit doesn't always give you the best perspective. Taking that into account my overriding impression was that Cardiff simply wanted it more. They threw their bodies in the way of shots, closed down relentlessly and ran further and harder than us. If you fall to match the work rate of your opponent, you will most likely lose even if you have better players. 

[harpendenfox]

1 minute ago, Sunbury Fox said:

Wasn't at the game today so had to make do with a stream, which I admit doesn't always give you the best perspective. Taking that into account my overriding impression was that Cardiff simply wanted it more. They threw their bodies in the way of shots, closed down relentlessly and ran further and harder than us. If you fall to match the work rate of your opponent, you will most likely lose even if you have better players. 

Possibly best illustrated by Bamba winning the ball which bounced back from Madders peno, basically straight back to Madders who dithered allowing Bamba to slide in

[volpeazzurro]

22 minutes ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

Another good post as usual. I think it's becoming clear that Puel for all his good points bringing through young players and impressive  counter attacking play, cannot set up a team to play at home vs defensive teams, he hasn't looked capable of it once during his time here and that. And for that reason he is not the man to change our style to a more possession focused game. Possession has to lead somewhere.....

Give him a decent non defensive midfielder and another decent striker and he may be able to oblige. Silva , Iborra and Iheanacho are none of the above. Hopefully the summer transfer season will address this.

[inckley fox]

1 hour ago, Fosse93 said:

Ricardo was immense today.

Agreed. As someone else said, I think he was our most creative player and taking Gray off for Simpson earlier in the game could have allowed him a more advanced role, while also disposing of a largely ineffective player and increasing our physical presence against a side that wanted to bully us.

 

Puel's analysis seemed to be that our creativity was lacking, rather than our battling qualities. So on came Ghezzal and Iheanacho for two of our more workmanlike players. While I understand his team selection and understand the logic of removing tired players, I can't help but think he got that wrong.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Looking on the bright side...

 

* More possession

* More shots

* More shots on target

* More corners

 

So we shouldn't be too disappointed today  #Positive #NonAgenda 

[harpendenfox]

Ricardo is arguably our most effective attacking force at the moment as well as being a great defender. Just superb. I think he had 3 shots on goal today.

[H.a.r.r.y]

why are the Cardiff fans so obsessed with the English?

 

[shiv]

40 minutes ago, SixtiesFox said:

Sorry - not intending to dis your considered arguments but using hypotheticals to meet an agenda is something that’s happened a lot on here recently. But understand you were making valid points.

 

I would disagree with that statement though. I think Puel will be given until the end of the season unless we suddenly get dragged into a relegation battle.

 

Fair enough, Shiv. We all have an agenda and that is what's best for our club. Where we differ, is how best to achieve that. Puel is certainly a bit of an enigma but I fear that his stubborn refusal to change his overly-cautious approach in order to break down lesser teams will be his downfall. Cardiff were there for the taking today but the chance to capitalize on momentum built after two fabulous wins was spurned with little more than a whimper. You could feel the air being sucked out of the King Power. It seems like he is his own worst enemy at times.

Agree with you, it was definitely a missed opportunity with Everton losing. But I think the best time to assess Puel would be at the end of the season. Whilst only marginal we have improved our points tally compared to this stage last year! 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

 

[KFS]

Also, fvck you Sol Bamba. Absolute car crash for us at times and today he turned out a performance worthy of a top 6 defender.

 

He wanted that badly.

[mucfox]

1 hour ago, Nickfosse said:

I stood up and applauded the substitution. Vardy had an absolute shocker of a game I’m afraid and deserved to be taken off.

Vardy exchanging for Nacho is an absolutely NO GO. A striker lives from his midfield. Jamie got a single pass from Maddison, nothing else. Jamie is our only dangerous striker. Nacho can nothing with the ball. With Jamie we would have won today with a penalty. Thats it. And I would not be surprised if Vardy finally has enough of Puel's system and he will be gone in January and all the Foxes fans and Foxes Talkers will cry...me too

[Sindidragon]

4 hours ago, Glorious Leicester Fan said:

I totally agree. I felt sorry for both Maquire and Soyuncu; both were full of intent, bring the ball forward. The problem was that there was no one who was capable/willing in midfield to accept the pass. On a related issue, although I admire and encourage our attacking LB/RB, I do believe they hide our frailties in the wide positions.  Today, Ricardo seemed to be particularly irked, shaking his head at the debacle he was witnessing.

Exactly there was no one in midfield capable of driving forward and CREATING something. Puel is to blame because in summer we should have signed a creative midfielder and a big striker.

[Nickfosse]

Just now, mucfox said:

Vardy exchanging for Nacho is an absolutely NO GO. A striker lives from his midfield. Jamie got a single pass from Maddison, nothing else. Jamie is our only dangerous striker. Nacho can nothing with the ball. With Jamie we would have won today with a penalty. Thats it. And I would not be surprised if Vardy finally has enough of Puel's system and he will be gone in January and all the Foxes fans and Foxes Talkers will cry...me too

I love Vardy as much as any Leicester supporter but I’m afraid he was very poor today and really can’t complain about being taken off. He blew a one on one, headed over from a free header from a corner, inexplicably went right to Ghezzal when Maddison was wide open on a fast break, and his touch was poor throughout. Throw in he’s nursing a groin injury and would  have played 3 games in a week, the substitution was entirely justified.