Southampton Home post match, 1-2 loss.

[Thrill Bert Fox]

5 hours ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

A truly dreadful performance this afternoon. Just watched the "highlights" again on MOTD, which rubbed it in.

 

Apart from our goal and the one cleared off the line in the 1st half, what did we actually create? A deflected long shot by Maguire and Ndidi's late half-chance header - plus I remember another low long shot easily saved by their keeper?

That's after a whole second half encamped in their half, playing against 10 men....

 

It was a committed, organised defensive performance by Saints. Never easy to break down a team defending that well. But our lack of chances and lack of shots on target shows our desperate lack of creativity against a deep, organised defence.

 

- What the hell was Mendy thinking with those 2 challenges? Not just bad mistakes (which can happen to anyone), but completely amateurish attempts at tackles - positioning/body shape all wrong

- I almost forgot Vardy was playing, and that dive was embarrassing (never thought it was a penalty live, but didn't realise that it was a clear dive)

- Not a match to suit Vardy, but that shows the madness of (a) not having a different type of striker in the squad to bring on; (b) keeping manoeuvring for aerial crosses into the box when we had nobody to win them. Even an aging, fading Ulloa would have got on the end of something there - or Ndidi, if we'd pushed him further forward.

- A number of players must have had their worst performance of the season: Mendy, Vardy, Ricardo, Chilwell?

- Much of our passing first half was shockingly bad - persistent unforced errors. Accuracy improved second half, but not to much purpose - and still some dreadful misplaced passes under no pressure

- We seemed so slow to seize fleeting opportunities for long shots from the edge of the area

 

Also, was Claude trying to use a different central midfield formation in the first half? Much of the time, Mendy seemed to be on his own as back man with both Choudhury & Ndidi further forward. If so, it really didn't work as Saints kept getting possession in acres of space in front of our defence yet we created nothing going forward first half hour, when Saints weren't sitting back.

 

That really was one of the most dysfunctional team performances I've seen in a long time.

That pretty much sums it up for me - the players seemed to be lacking any confidence at all. Could it be that Claude’s style is telling players not to makes mistakes (negative mindset) rather than go out and express yourself and play above your ability (positive mindset). I saw him have a real go at Barnes after a few mins - and not in an inspirational way.

 

I really don’t know the answer but do know he does not inspire me as a life long fan or make me look forward to coming and watching exciting football. I would swop our style of football with Wolves any day.  Claude you are draining out all of my enthusiasm for football and I only hear snippets 3/4 times a week - I do hope he generates more passion when he coaches the players. Oh and we seriously need to sort out the club recruitment policy some really poor buys over last couple of years.

[funkyrobot]

1 hour ago, WigstonWanderer said:

We huffed and we puffed but ultimately we’d already blown our own house down by gifting them 2 goals. Never mind, I’m sure we’ll do better in the next few games  

As always we will play with great intensiteee and with great qualiteee despite sometimes appearing not to. We will lose whilst displaying this great intensiteee and great qualiteee but it will be because we are unlucky. 

[fazzyfox]

1 hour ago, Thrill Bert Fox said:

That pretty much sums it up for me - the players seemed to be lacking any confidence at all. Could it be that Claude’s style is telling players not to makes mistakes (negative mindset) rather than go out and express yourself and play above your ability (positive mindset). I saw him have a real go at Barnes after a few mins - and not in an inspirational way.

 

I really don’t know the answer but do know he does not inspire me as a life long fan or make me look forward to coming and watching exciting football. I would swop our style of football with Wolves any day.  Claude you are draining out all of my enthusiasm for football and I only hear snippets 3/4 times a week - I do hope he generates more passion when he coaches the players. Oh and we seriously need to sort out the club recruitment policy some really poor buys over last couple of years.

Agree about the lack of expressing themselves. When you've put ten crosses in and they've all been headed out by their big number 4 then why cross it an 11th time. I was screaming "run at them, take them on", you're not going to beat the man every time but I don't mind that, one in two or three occasions you will and then you're in or you'll draw a foul. Overload an area with 2v1 or 3v2, draw people out of position instead of resorting to shots from outside the box and crosses to static marked players. We were trying to thread it through the eye of a needle but were too desperate and panicky to do that with enough accuracy. I hope Barnes is given encouragement to take people on as this seems to be a big part of his game.

[RODNEY FERNIO]

That first goal would not have happened if he played Simpson …… but he drops him so very little cover for Ricardo.

Why ???

[lgfualol]

1 minute ago, RODNEY FERNIO said:

That first goal would not have happened if he played Simpson …… but he drops him so very little cover for Ricardo.

Why ???

Probs cus Simpson struggled against Newport and Ricardo has previously been our best player at RB. 

[dyanmark]

Not read the full thread but did anyone see how Kasper made three of his(I'm trying to score)crazy clearance in the first few minutes the third of which led to the Mendy brain fade.He  has to stop taking these risks and stop knocking crosses into his own net -please.

Like many not enjoying watching at present cautious possession based game seems to have robbed the payers of all desire and flair.Maguire and Chilwell jogging forward having a think and then passing back.Chilwell still cannot pick a cross.Allbrighton was on a different wavelength forgot Vardy was playing (although he is isolated).

Cannot see much in the way of points from  next 4 games sadly.

[FrankieADZ]

after yesterday game, it makes me wonder how many goals we've let in this season that have come from our own mistakes and such, as for me, both goals from Saints came from our own mistakes,

 

game as a whole was meh, the usual fair we tend to serve up against ones who are fighting for something, just reminded me of games last season at home against Newcastle and West Ham, where we didnt turn up and just looked half arsed and got beat

[Blanchflower78]

Saints fans reiterated what we all know after the game, they can't abide him and his style. One picked out Choudhury in first half who instead of playing Vardy through quickly went safe to Albrighton out wide. Players stop looking for that pass under him as it's all about retention of ball. 

 

We need to end it now.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Col city fan said:

I genuinely wonder whether Top will sack him after today. We couldn’t equalise, at home, against 10 men with a full strength side

No excuses today.

 

I really don't get this idea.

 

I'm really upset with the loss and those against Cardiff and Newport - they are not good enough But we are where we should be after half a season in the 7th to 10th range, so clearly we're also getting points against teams that we shouldn't.

 

I've always believed that team building takes time after a change and tbh our champions team was almost at the end of the line when they won. They needed to be cleared out then but of course we couldn't because they were legends - so we sacked the manager....... and the next one.

 

Then we got Puel, I'd have liked Blanc but the club chose Puel and I believe they should now stick with him UNLESS we get dragged into a relegation battle (which we won't). He is managing an almighty change at the club. a change that has to be made because our old players are finished. We tried the route of buying expensive established stars and we failed, so we've gone the route - a more sustainable route - of buying young potentially talented players and then building them into a team. It takes time and obviously not every player is going to work out...and there are going to be setbacks but yesterday - in our poor loss - we had Ben Chilwell 22, Ndidi 22, Choudhury 21, Maddison 22, Gray 22 and Barnes 21. Other than that we had Maguire 25, Ricardo 25, Mendy 26, Ghezall 26. Then coming through in the squad we have Soyuncu 22, Amartey 24 , Iheanacho 22, and then the likes of Josh Knight, Sam hughes, Benkovic. Yesterday it was the older players who actually were the most disappointing Vardy 32, Kasper 32, Wes 34, legends because of the win but maybe it's time to move them out along with Okazaki 32, King 30, Jakupovic 34, Fuchs  32, Simpson 32 as well as the no longer young players Silva 29, Iborra 30 whom we've decided to let go.

 

If you look at the facts you can see the massive transition that LCFC are making, we need patience and we should be very happy that with such a massive upheaval in the club we are still in the top half.

 

Come on Leicester Fans, we're better than we're acting at the moment. We don't need a new manager (unless an absolute gem wants to manage us). We need patience and the team and club need supporting.

[chris_lcfc_85]

If iheanacho had done the same as vardy today he'd be absolutely slated on here. Ghezzal was better than Albrighton today but he'll be slated too.... does make me laugh 

[Claridge]

15 hours ago, inckley fox said:

Just like the people blaming Vardy for our lack of attacking threat, I think we'll be charging down a dead-end street if we start telling ourselves that Kasper Schmeichel is a serious problem. I could go through half of the first team, and a dozen other issues, before I started panicking over those two. Not because they're legends and I've got their posters on my bedroom wall, but because there are more obvious flaws right now.

I don’t blame vardy at all.I just don’t think kasper has been very good this year and his at times shocking distribution is causing us problems.

[RODNEY FERNIO]

35 minutes ago, lgfualol said:

Probs cus Simpson struggled against Newport and Ricardo has previously been our best player at RB. 

I meant play Simpson AND Ricardo like at Everton

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Blanchflower78 said:

Saints fans reiterated what we all know after the game, they can't abide him and his style. One picked out Choudhury in first half who instead of playing Vardy through quickly went safe to Albrighton out wide. Players stop looking for that pass under him as it's all about retention of ball. 

 

We need to end it now.

Choudhury was the star of our team. He passed forward and he didn't lose the ball. Passing to Albrighton is good - it pulls the central defenders out of position and we know he'll get the ball in. Passing to Vardy this year has been a waste of time, he's either offside or more than usually he has the first touch of Ahmed Musa. Vardy should be ashamed that our team had 24 shots on goal yet he was transparent. He's been the biggest disappointment of the season. 19 games and only 4 goals from open play.

[lgfualol]

4 minutes ago, RODNEY FERNIO said:

I meant play Simpson AND Ricardo like at Everton

Oh right, I wouldnt have been opposed to that either. Albrighton had a stinker. Ricardo is probably our best attacking player at the moment, we may as well play him further up the pitch.

[reynard]

18 minutes ago, FIF said:

Choudhury was the star of our team. He passed forward and he didn't lose the ball. Passing to Albrighton is good - it pulls the central defenders out of position and we know he'll get the ball in. Passing to Vardy this year has been a waste of time, he's either offside or more than usually he has the first touch of Ahmed Musa. Vardy should be ashamed that our team had 24 shots on goal yet he was transparent. He's been the biggest disappointment of the season. 19 games and only 4 goals from open play.

I don't know if you were at the game yesterday but though Vardy was poor the service to him was non-existent. And to say that passing to Vardy this season has been a waste of time is utter nonsense. As for the biggest disappointment of the season, there are  several in front of him for that award.

1 pass one chance v Everton and he scored 3 points instead of 1

1 pass once chance V Chelsea and he scored 3 points intead of 1

Quick pass to Vardy V Man City and he puts in the perfect cross for Albrighton to score. Again 2 points gained.

 

Without Vardy it is highly probable we would be at least 6 points worse off right now.

Sorry the guy tends to score most of the penalties he takes, I had forgotten they don't count. Shame he wasn't on the pitch to take one v Cardiff or we might have got another point.

passing to Albrighton yesterday was an utter waste of time. He was generally too far behind the attacking play and had one of those halves where nothing went right for him.

 

In fact the way we were set up from the start invited Southampton on to us and allowed them to dictate the tempo of the match. For this the manager must take repsonsibility.

 

Of course it easy to scapegoat certain players, easy to blame Vardy or Kasper or Ghezzal. The truth is we don't start some games with enough consistent attacking players on the pitch and very few who offer anything reliable in terms of goal scoring. The manager, I grant, can only play who he has available, but good managers use their squad to the best of that squad's ability. Is Puel doing so? I am not convinced.

[Blanchflower78]

34 minutes ago, FIF said:

Choudhury was the star of our team. He passed forward and he didn't lose the ball. Passing to Albrighton is good - it pulls the central defenders out of position and we know he'll get the ball in. Passing to Vardy this year has been a waste of time, he's either offside or more than usually he has the first touch of Ahmed Musa. Vardy should be ashamed that our team had 24 shots on goal yet he was transparent. He's been the biggest disappointment of the season. 19 games and only 4 goals from open play.

I agree Vardy needs to do more but the point the guy was making to me was Choudhury was happier to roll the ball sideways 10 yards than attempt to pick out Vardys run and space opened up. 

It's fair to criticise Vardy but when the players behind him choose safety rather than trying to open up what more can he do. We are all bored out of our minds watching this football. Forget league position, we are a mid table side at best. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, reynard said:

I don't know if you were at the game yesterday but though Vardy was poor the service to him was non-existent. And to say that passing to Vardy this season has been a waste of time is utter nonsense. As for the biggest disappointment of the season, there are  several in front of him for that award.

1 pass one chance v Everton and he scored 3 points instead of 1

1 pass once chance V Chelsea and he scored 3 points intead of 1

Quick pass to Vardy V Man City and he puts in the perfect cross for Albrighton to score. Again 2 points gained.

 

Without Vardy it is highly probable we would be at least 6 points worse off right now.

Sorry the guy tends to score most of the penalties he takes, I had forgotten they don't count. Shame he wasn't on the pitch to take one v Cardiff or we might have got another point.

passing to Albrighton yesterday was an utter waste of time. He was generally too far behind the attacking play and had one of those halves where nothing went right for him.

 

In fact the way we were set up from the start invited Southampton on to us and allowed them to dictate the tempo of the match. For this the manager must take repsonsibility.

 

Of course it easy to scapegoat certain players, easy to blame Vardy or Kasper or Ghezzal. The truth is we don't start some games with enough consistent attacking players on the pitch and very few who offer anything reliable in terms of goal scoring. The manager, I grant, can only play who he has available, but good managers use their squad to the best of that squad's ability. Is Puel doing so? I am not convinced.

Being at the match you see some things that I miss on the TV but you also miss somethings I see on the TV. It doesn't make you superior. I certainly hope that you weren't one of the thousands of supporters who behaved so disgustingly towards their team and club. Vichai would be turning in his grave.

 

Vardy is a legend. one of the greatest players we've ever had and one of the greatest stories the League has ever had.

 

This season he is poor.

 

You can keep making all the excuses you want and whilst lack of service is true sometimes it certainly isn't all the time. And when the service isn't there you have to do something else not lose concentration and stand offside or wave your arms around, throw a mardy or get your wife to tweet bad things about the club.

 

How you can say he didn't have the chances against Southampton or Cardiff is very amusing. I realise he didn't but when lesser mortals in the team are piling in crosses and shots (I think 24 in both games) Vardy should be ashamed that he isn't getting himself shots or attempts. His first two touches yesterday were worse than a cross between Ahmed Musa and Slimani, both times he tried to control the ball and it ran yards ahead of him. And that has been his story most of the year.

 

He started unfit and not ready to play - even though he didn't really appear in the world cup and he took a long holiday. then his frustration earned him a red card (which cost us) and a ban and apart from a run of 3 or 4 games he has been , for him, poor, very poor. He's lost his control, he isn't making as many runs and he hasn't been converting the chances he has had - which I mostly put down to a lack of control. It would be better for him and for the club if he went to Chelsea this week. Although what he really needs is a very poor relegation side who sit with ten men behind the ball hoping not to concede and try to score on a fluke break. southampton need a striker he should apply.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Blanchflower78 said:

I agree Vardy needs to do more but the point the guy was making to me was Choudhury was happier to roll the ball sideways 10 yards than attempt to pick out Vardys run and space opened up. 

It's fair to criticise Vardy but when the players behind him choose safety rather than trying to open up what more can he do. We are all bored out of our minds watching this football. Forget league position, we are a mid table side at best. 

Mid table is what we are. That is far better than most of our history. If you think we're a Champion's league challenging team (which is the step up from mid table) you are going to be disappointed for the rest of your life. Howe/Dyche/Benitez/latest name on the list are not going to bring you that (and they aren't even interested in managing our club).

 

Apologies for not replying to anyone else:  You have reached the maximum number of posts you can make per day.

Edited 13 January 2019 by Guest

[lcfcell]

Have any of the players posted anything on Instagram/twitter? Can we read too much into that? 

[reynard]

4 minutes ago, FIF said:

Being at the match you see some things that I miss on the TV but you also miss somethings I see on the TV. It doesn't make you superior. I certainly hope that you weren't one of the thousands of supporters who behaved so disgustingly towards their team and club. Vichai would be turning in his grave.

 

Vardy is a legend. one of the greatest players we've ever had and one of the greatest stories the League has ever had.

 

This season he is poor.

 

You can keep making all the excuses you want and whilst lack of service is true sometimes it certainly isn't all the time. And when the service isn't there you have to do something else not lose concentration and stand offside or wave your arms around, throw a mardy or get your wife to tweet bad things about the club.

 

How you can say he didn't have the chances against Southampton or Cardiff is very amusing. I realise he didn't but when lesser mortals in the team are piling in crosses and shots (I think 24 in both games) Vardy should be ashamed that he isn't getting himself shots or attempts. His first two touches yesterday were worse than a cross between Ahmed Musa and Slimani, both times he tried to control the ball and it ran yards ahead of him. And that has been his story most of the year.

 

He started unfit and not ready to play - even though he didn't really appear in the world cup and he took a long holiday. then his frustration earned him a red card (which cost us) and a ban and apart from a run of 3 or 4 games he has been , for him, poor, very poor. He's lost his control, he isn't making as many runs and he hasn't been converting the chances he has had - which I mostly put down to a lack of control. It would be better for him and for the club if he went to Chelsea this week. Although what he really needs is a very poor relegation side who sit with ten men behind the ball hoping not to concede and try to score on a fluke break. southampton need a striker he should apply.

Of course I'm not superior. I agree he's been poor but yesterday the crosses were on the whole woeful and mostly didn't get past the first man. Vardy needs the ball played more quickly and he needs his side to break play up further up the pitch.

Unfortunately we have a manger who doesn't play that way despite the fact that we have players who have real pace and who actually perfom better playing that way. And before you say so I do know he is trying to change our method of playing to a supposedly more sophisticated way.

As to Vardy yesterday, in the first half he was the only player trying to close down their defenders. One time he actually partly blocked the keeper's clearance but as usual there was no other player close enough to pick up the ball. Not only was he devoid of any meaningful service but for the entire first half was almost completely isolated, this at home aginst a team in the relegation zone missing around 5 key players. And this is pretty much the norm.

 

He may of course not be 100% fit but then we seem to have no other options. I agree with you that if Chelsea did come calling , if I were him I would leave. Then we would be in a right mess.

And no I wasn't one of those booing but I can see why people felt entitled to do so. Vichai had a dream but I'm pretty confident it wasn't to see the dross served up against Cardiff, Southampton and Newport.

 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

1 hour ago, chris_lcfc_85 said:

If iheanacho had done the same as vardy today he'd be absolutely slated on here. Ghezzal was better than Albrighton today but he'll be slated too.... does make me laugh 

Nacho would have been much more suited to yesterday's second half but Puel's assistant The Fans wont have him coming on for home games

Edited 13 January 2019 by AlloverthefloorYesNdidi

[reynard]

Just now, AlloverthefloorYesNdidi said:

Nacho would have been much more suited to today's second half but Puel's assistant The Fans wont have him coming on for home games

Come on. Do you really think Puel takes a blind bit of notice of what the fans say or think when coming to selecting the team or making changes? If so he should go now. Like or dislike any manager they must be make the decisions without taking notice of the fans.

Apologies if I'm missing your irony!

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

4 minutes ago, reynard said:

Come on. Do you really think Puel takes a blind bit of notice of what the fans say or think when coming to selecting the team or making changes? If so he should go now. Like or dislike any manager they must be make the decisions without taking notice of the fans.

Apologies if I'm missing your irony!

This is funny.  A few on here were saying Puel is wrong for saying the boos are "none if his concern"

[lgfualol]

11 minutes ago, lcfcell said:

Have any of the players posted anything on Instagram/twitter? Can we read too much into that? 

They rarely do after a loss.

[lcfcell]

1 minute ago, lgfualol said:

They rarely do after a loss.

 

Oh really? I thought there is a few that do