West Ham Home - Post Match Thread (4-1)

[Corky]

Really enjoyed that, from the first minute we were at it, had lots of energy and the movement was great, virtually all players contributed positively, only downside was losing two players to injury but hopefully not too badly.

 

Think they felt they had to put on a show and did that, players recently criticised like Barnes, Perez and Chilwell all stepped up, Ricardo was back to his best, Tielemans looked heaps better and Iheanacho did a good job in place of Vardy, superb play to win the penalty.

 

Yes, they were awful but we didn't let them settle and four goals was about right for the evening.

[UniFox21]

42 minutes ago, Corky said:

Really enjoyed that, from the first minute we were at it, had lots of energy and the movement was great, virtually all players contributed positively, only downside was losing two players to injury but hopefully not too badly.

 

Think they felt they had to put on a show and did that, players recently criticised like Barnes, Perez and Chilwell all stepped up, Ricardo was back to his best, Tielemans looked heaps better and Iheanacho did a good job in place of Vardy, superb play to win the penalty.

 

Yes, they were awful but we didn't let them settle and four goals was about right for the evening.

Youri seemed back to his commanding best, throwing instructions around and appearing more confident than previous games.

 

Will say a negative was our almost need to play from goalkicks, we invited way too much pressure on ourselves at times.

 

West Ham were a weird team, looked way more threatening with Antonio and Haller up top, than the defensive game they tried to play.

[Blue ROI]

Top drawer last night.

 

Other than an icy 3rd quarter it was superb from us. You knew from the very start that we were out to prove a point.  

 

Not quite as perfect as Southampton but up there with Newcastle. Even for all the talk of how well West Ham were playing by BT Sport in the Second Half we were still hitting them with wave after wave of attack. Although the 3rd quarter gives us an idea about what we could be facing into at Villa Park next week. No harm in getting a preview of it. 

 

Very pleasing that we had like for like replacements for the 2 injuries. Hopefully Vardy will be back. That said could be an argument that he hasn't been as effective against the Bus Parkers latey.

 

Barnes and Perez have taken a bit of flack so it was good for both to get on the scoresheet. Nearly everyone was on song though. West Ham were god awful no doubt but we looked ready to take on the world again last night after a month of indifferent displays. 

 

All in all a very good nights work. And the added bonus of results going our way.

Edited 23 January 2020 by Blue ROI

[urban fox]

The fact that we were forced into two unplanned substitutions when we were playing well, and one of them to our talisman at that, you would have never known from the way we took them apart. Shows what a great squad we have, and that everyone is tuned into the way that we are playing. It is the sign of a great side when you can loose two players who were both having a blinder in the space of a few minutes and not notice.

Obviously Vardy was always going to be the main concern when he went down holding his thigh with nobody near him. The fear was palpable and never had I heard an entire stadium go so quiet before. Mendy too was having a good game and really felt for him. Hopefully neither injury will be anything serious.

[cruzFOX]

Hallelujah!!! Well done foxes on a much deserved win. After the last few weeks the team has reacted and in unison too. This win really needed to happen to halt the slide.

Hope Brendan can get the players to build on that win and take the confidence into the upcoming games.

really nice to see Ndidi back! Ricky is just fantastic when he’s at the top of his game. Barnes is now finally becoming the attacker we all knew he was. Trial by fire maybe.

sad to see Vardy injured. Freaky maybe it was him trying to boot that ball into the crowd And over did it. Med team need to work a miracle and get him back to speed. Anyway let’s takd the points and push on now 👍🏾👍🏾

[NaijaFox]

Even West Ham fans didn’t think theirs was a pen in a million years (sample from their forum).

https://www.kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=176901&start=420

 

Edited 23 January 2020 by NaijaFox

[mabrah]

6 hours ago, Countryfox said:

I’ve just realised that when Vardy goes off I don’t in the slightest think that Nacho will come on and let us down ...   in fact I think he is a brilliant replacement !   

On last night's display, you might say he's a better fit in our attacking unit than Vardy. They are different players (says he, stating the obvious) and Vardy's game is not Nacho's and we play accordingly to Vardy's strengths - whether it's a long ball over the top, or one slid down the channel. Nacho sort of 'fits in' better with our tricky, quick interchange stuff. A number of times, he was almost static but in the right place to play the 1st time, one-two etc.

 

If he keeps playing as he is, he certainly won't weaken the side in Vardy's absence but he does change the game we'll play.  

[wardyfox86]

11 minutes ago, mabrah said:

On last night's display, you might say he's a better fit in our attacking unit than Vardy. They are different players (says he, stating the obvious) and Vardy's game is not Nacho's and we play accordingly to Vardy's strengths - whether it's a long ball over the top, or one slid down the channel. Nacho sort of 'fits in' better with our tricky, quick interchange stuff. A number of times, he was almost static but in the right place to play the 1st time, one-two etc.

 

If he keeps playing as he is, he certainly won't weaken the side in Vardy's absence but he does change the game we'll play.  

I'm coming around to agreeing with this. He's a massive confidence player, but I'd say when he is so, he is a more natural finisher than Vardy and tends to link play better.

 

If he played a full season in our system I'd guess he'd have as many goal contributions as Vardy, but likely more evenly distributed between goals and assists. 

[mabrah]

2 minutes ago, wardyfox86 said:

he is a more natural finisher than Vardy and tends to link play better. 

I agree with the latter but I really don't want in any way, shape or form want to sound as if I'm being critical of Vardy, or rating them one against the other. They have different styles and that suits different styles of play. 

 

Against a team that comes at you and leaves space then Vardy's the man to get in behind. Against a parked defence, Nacho looks like he might be better suited to play the kind of interchanges that pull defenders out of shape and create just a little bit of space.

 

I dunno, I'm chasing thoughts at the moment based purely on some passages of play I saw against West Ham - Perez's goal for instance. I'm not offering it as conclusive nor basing a season around it! But I do like this new look Nacho, playing in a team better shaped for his natural abilities.

[Countryfox]

9 minutes ago, mabrah said:

I agree with the latter but I really don't want in any way, shape or form want to sound as if I'm being critical of Vardy, or rating them one against the other. They have different styles and that suits different styles of play. 

 

Against a team that comes at you and leaves space then Vardy's the man to get in behind. Against a parked defence, Nacho looks like he might be better suited to play the kind of interchanges that pull defenders out of shape and create just a little bit of space.

 

I dunno, I'm chasing thoughts at the moment based purely on some passages of play I saw against West Ham - Perez's goal for instance. I'm not offering it as conclusive nor basing a season around it! But I do like this new look Nacho, playing in a team better shaped for his natural abilities.

Well let’s just settle on my original point ...   if JV goes off or isn’t playing Nacho is a more than able replacement ...    and isn’t that a big turnaround from previous seasons ...   

[Guest An Sionnach]

10 minutes ago, mabrah said:

I agree with the latter but I really don't want in any way, shape or form want to sound as if I'm being critical of Vardy, or rating them one against the other. They have different styles and that suits different styles of play. 

 

Against a team that comes at you and leaves space then Vardy's the man to get in behind. Against a parked defence, Nacho looks like he might be better suited to play the kind of interchanges that pull defenders out of shape and create just a little bit of space.

 

I dunno, I'm chasing thoughts at the moment based purely on some passages of play I saw against West Ham - Perez's goal for instance. I'm not offering it as conclusive nor basing a season around it! But I do like this new look Nacho, playing in a team better shaped for his natural abilities.

To me its two partnerships Vardy - Barnes. :  Perez - Iheanacho. That's gives two different approaches depending on the opposition's prefered defensive setup.

[mabrah]

1 minute ago, Countryfox said:

Well let’s just settle on my original point ...  

Sorry, wasn't intending to divert away or disagree. Just using it as a starting point to chase my own thoughts!

[Countryfox]

1 minute ago, An Sionnach said:

To me its two partnerships Vardy - Barnes. :  Perez - Iheanacho. That's gives two different approaches depending on the opposition's prefered defensive setup.

I think they are all interchangeable ..  and you can add Gray to that ..

[Countryfox]

2 minutes ago, mabrah said:

Sorry, wasn't intending to divert away or disagree. Just using it as a starting point to chase my own thoughts!

Yep and I agree with you ...  but some will no doubt see this as a slight on Vardy and then there’ll be about 2 pages arguing over nowt ...   

[Grebfromgrebland]

We seem to score a hatful of goals when vardy isn't in the side.

[Countryfox]

21 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

We seem to score a hatful of goals when vardy isn't in the side.

Would that be Jamie Vardy ..  the top scorer in the premier league by any chance ? ...   

[fox_favourite]

24 minutes ago, Grebfromgrebland said:

We seem to score a hatful of goals when vardy isn't in the side.

Maybe it was due to teams concentrating on planning to stop Vards. When he's not in the team, they lose their focus which then frees up others to ope them up? 

Edited 23 January 2020 by fox_favourite

[mabrah]

3 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

Would that be Jamie Vardy ..  the top scorer in the premier league by any chance ? ...   

Yep, that's him. The one who was on the pitch when we put 9 past Southampton - and he only got 3 of them.

[Haywood_6]

My favourite part of the night was probably the huge roar when Ndidi came on. You just can't help but love the guy 

[StanSP]

9 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

We've already scored 52 goals this season, which is seriously impressive. We scored 68 in 15/16 so I would be quite surprised if we didn't beat that tally.

 

 

Here's a look at our squad and I think this is seriously impressive. In 15/16 we were carried by Mahrez and Vardy, but this season we have a really good all round contribution. Perez and Barnes' numbers are picking up, Maddison has been very good, Ricardo absurd and don't take for granted contributions from Chilwell, Nacho, Tielemans and even Dennis Praet. For me this is the best all round Leicester team we've had maybe ever. So many good players all over the pitch that can do serious damage. 

 

It does perhaps show though that next season we need some additional attacking options on the bench. Gray always seems to do well when he comes on, but stats wise he and Albrighton are rather lacking. Both are still solid players but when teams like Liverpool have Shaqiri on the bench it shows the level of depth we lack.

 

Anyway it's still very positive reading!

The first thing I said to my dad when Vardy eventually went off was that I hope it's a sign to whoever that we do need more depth there. Yes we have managed without him but it's not a long term solution to have just Perez, Gray, Kelechi as options. Especially with another European tour that we're destined for next season...

 

For the rest of the season regardless if Vardy is back or not it's time that players like Barnes, Perez, Tielemans, Kelechi, even Maddison added to their goal tallies  

[Spiritwalker]

Last nights penalty looked soft at the time but I‘ve just watched the highlights and it’s shocking, their player

shoulder barges Wilf then throws himself to the ground. What’s the point in VAR.

Barnes was great last night, it felt like he would make something happen every time he was on the ball.

 

 

[ithuriel]

6 minutes ago, Spiritwalker said:

Last nights penalty looked soft at the time but I‘ve just watched the highlights and it’s shocking, their player

shoulder barges Wilf then throws himself to the ground. What’s the point in VAR.

Barnes was great last night, it felt like he would make something happen every time he was on the ball.

 

 

Its a joke as it currently stands, the Mee non penalty against Burnley when it was clear arm to ball and that joke of a penalty given last night.