Potential of this Leicester City team.

[Spudulike]

10 hours ago, Koke said:

 

This team is far more talented. Only players from 15/16 who walks into this current side is Mahrez. Even the great Kante have a battle on his hands for his spot. 

 

I love Robert Huth, the big beautiful German bastard, but nobody can tell me Huth is more talented or better footballer than Evans or Soyuncu.  Ricardo is a million times better than Simpson. And Drinkwater can't hold a candle to Tielemans. Some will take offence to what I'm saying but Im sorry, the talents at our disposal now is far greater.

 

@StriderHiryu is correct. The competition was much weaker back then. 

Kasper might get in. 

[deanolegend1989]

1 hour ago, RumbleFox said:

It doesn’t make sense but neither did that season. If I had to stake everything I own on the match I’d bet on the 15/16 team. To say the current team is better after a decent 8 games seems mad to me. On paper they seem better I agree but 15/16 team were a force of nature. Sometimes a team is more than the sum of its parts. For me the 15/16 teams beats the current one. X 

Yeah I agree. 20/21 is the best squad we’ve ever had but 15/16 is the best team we’ve ever had and I’d back 15/16 if everything I own was riding on it.

I think this teams defence is much stronger though but the 15/16 team is so much better and more dangerous in attack and always seemed a threat in any game.

This team Is solid and a great back 4 but limited attacking wise.
I think this team is a very horrible team to play against but ultimately I fear our lack of creativity and quality will see us be inconsistent and low blocks will cause us to lose quite a few games. 15/16 in comparison would always be a threat. If teams pushed out we’d be too powerful, if teams sat in then Vardy and Mahrez were an absolute nightmare to mark still and the raw pace power and pure skill was to much, and if they could cope at times, Kante would just press the life out of you.

I think if the 15/16 team had Forfana and Ricardo in the back 4 it would be nearly impossible to score against and unbeatable.

 

[deanolegend1989]

34 minutes ago, shailen said:

I get this. The 15/16 team was tactically set up brilliantly but the trio of Kante, Mahrez and Vardy were the reason we won it then. 

 

I still don't think Mahrez gets the credit he deserves and for me after Messi he is the best dribbler in world football. Man City don't utilise him like they should as his ability in tight spaces and also on the counter attack is phenomenal. He truly is world class and if we still had him in our team we'd be up there with Liverpool and Man City. The Vardy Mahrez partnership still remains our best combination ever. 

I think both Mahrez , Vardy and even I’m realising recently Kante don’t seem to get the credit they deserve. Yes clearly people rate them, but these 3 were in the best 5/6 players in world football that year.

No disrespect to the rest of 15/16, I love them all, but let’s be honest, they were and still are, good/decent pros but without the sprinkle of world class, would of been struggling to stay up.

This team is 100% times better as a squad, but the reason 15/16 would win is purely because in football, depth keeps you more consistent at your level, but absolute elite players win you trophies and titles. Now we have a strong squad of 5-8/10 players = a very good team.

15/16 we had 4-6/10 players but 3 at 9.5/10+ so that team has a higher ceiling despite on paper being not as good ‘all round’.

 

Our 15/16 reminds me of Liverpool under Benetez. Largely a very ‘average’ team that would never win a thing but Gerrard Alonso etc they had a few 9.5/10 players that can carry an average team to elite levels , but not consistently because football is a team game.

 

Our 20/21 team is imo clearly better overall but might lack a higher ceiling due to not having the xfactor. If we had Mahrez for Under Kante for a Mendy and, although he’s improved in the brain as a footballer no doubt about it, the prime Vardy of elite athletical fitness, power and raw pace, we would take the title and europa league double.

[deep blue]

1 hour ago, shailen said:

I get this. The 15/16 team was tactically set up brilliantly but the trio of Kante, Mahrez and Vardy were the reason we won it then. 

 

I still don't think Mahrez gets the credit he deserves and for me after Messi he is the best dribbler in world football. Man City don't utilise him like they should as his ability in tight spaces and also on the counter attack is phenomenal. He truly is world class and if we still had him in our team we'd be up there with Liverpool and Man City. The Vardy Mahrez partnership still remains our best combination ever. 

I agree with this re Mahrez. Some of his first-touch passes to Vardy were incredible. He's been comparatively wasted at Man C;  his contribution in the 15-16 team were far more vital than anything he's done at Man C, where he's been a bit part (albeit, a very talented one).  You could almost say that, with his signing, his biggest worth to Man C was in depriving us of his talents and reducing our ability to compete with the big boys.  Unfortunately, it took us too many seasons to improve the technical ability of our squad to the level that would have brought out Mahrez's abilities even more.

[fuchsntf]

11 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Are demise started pre Christmas for me, not merely just after the lockdown. Norwich, Southampton, Manchester City and Liverpool were all approached poorly from a tactical sense for me. Anyway, it's over now and the future is bright 🌞 

[HighPeakFox]

It is interesting but ultimately it's a fruitless debate. We'll never know and I'm happier that way. 2015/16 was beyond incredible, I love the current squad. 

[Strokes]

3 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

This doesn't make sense, actually. I think that the current team would probably work them out tactically.

Well they’ve had 5 years revision and some good inside knowledge, so you would bloody hope so.

[Sampson]

2 hours ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Yeah I agree. 20/21 is the best squad we’ve ever had but 15/16 is the best team we’ve ever had and I’d back 15/16 if everything I own was riding on it.

I think this teams defence is much stronger though but the 15/16 team is so much better and more dangerous in attack and always seemed a threat in any game.

This team Is solid and a great back 4 but limited attacking wise.
I think this team is a very horrible team to play against but ultimately I fear our lack of creativity and quality will see us be inconsistent and low blocks will cause us to lose quite a few games. 15/16 in comparison would always be a threat. If teams pushed out we’d be too powerful, if teams sat in then Vardy and Mahrez were an absolute nightmare to mark still and the raw pace power and pure skill was to much, and if they could cope at times, Kante would just press the life out of you.

I think if the 15/16 team had Forfana and Ricardo in the back 4 it would be nearly impossible to score against and unbeatable.

 

Calling the other players 4-6 out of 10 players is patently absurd.

 

Too many in this thread have been talking to too many Spurs or Arsenal fans who seem to think we just got lucky in 2016 or our players weren't that good or the league was weak.

 

Take Wes Morgan for example - he was hands down the best defender in the country that season. He was 9/10 every single game and didn't put a foot wrong all season. Now I even see some Leicester fans make out as if Kate, a defensive midfielder, was somehow single handedly responsible for being so good defensively that season - as if Kante somehow telepathicaly told Morgan (or Simpson, Huth or Fuchs) where to stand, where to block, where to win tackles. Our back 4 that season were absolutely sensational at every this- their positioning, winning balls in the air, closing down space, last ditch tackles or blocks when they needed to - none of that is down to Kante, players make their own desicions about where to stand and what to do.

 

Soyuncu and Evans are very very good players don't get me wrong but neither has had a season as consistently as Morgan and Huth that season where they turned up every single game. Saying they're much "more talented" is irrelevant to whether or not they'll  actually win you more games of football over a 38 game season.

 

There's a lot more to football than being "good on the ball".

[Sampson]

12 hours ago, Koke said:

 

This team is far more talented. Only players from 15/16 who walks into this current side is Mahrez. Even the great Kante have a battle on his hands for his spot. 

 

I love Robert Huth, the big beautiful German bastard, but nobody can tell me Huth is more talented or better footballer than Evans or Soyuncu.  Ricardo is a million times better than Simpson. And Drinkwater can't hold a candle to Tielemans. Some will take offence to what I'm saying but Im sorry, the talents at our disposal now is far greater.

 

@StriderHiryu is correct. The competition was much weaker back then. 

And zero players from the current side walk into the 2015-16 side.

 

You put Ricardo in for Simpson for example and you either leave much bigger gaps or the right hand side or you have to neuter Mahrez.

 

The whole point of Simpson being there was to have an extremely good defensive right-back who could allow Mahrez a free role without having to make Mahrez track back and defend - same reason you had an excellent defensive winger in Albrighton on the other wing who could drop back and help out the midfield when Mahrez joined the attack.

 

The 2015-16 side worked together perfectly as a team and each balanced each other's strengths and weaknesses. And they had incredible mental strength when the going got tough and the big games came around - something this side has yet to show they have - in fact last season they showed the opposite and bottled the big games.

[RumbleFox]

5 hours ago, UHDrive said:

I wish I could agree but the 15/16 season was pure counter attack both dribbling facing forward and with kasper hoofng the ball to Vardy. We play classy one touch two touch on the floor football now and with arguably better players.

I just can’t agree with that, though disagreement is nothing bad. That team beat all before them. Everyone knew what they would do yet no one could stop them. This thread sounds a bit like all the other fans/teams/pundits sounded that seasons. “Leicester won’t keep it up”. “They’ll get figured out soon”. “They’ll fall away soon”. No one figured that team out, they won the league. Is there an argument that the current team is more talented, of course! Are they a better team? Not in my eyes. Reading this thread and the same old statements made makes me think if this team rolled up to the play the 15/16 team with their “better players” and “to find them out tactically” then Okazaki, Mahrez, Huth and co would have eaten it all up and laughed all the way home after a victory. X 

Edited 13 November 2020 by RumbleFox

[UHDrive]

8 minutes ago, RumbleFox said:

I just can’t agree with that, though disagreement is nothing bad. That team beat all before them. Everyone knew what they would do yet no one could stop them. This thread sounds a bit like all the other fans/teams/pundits sounded that seasons. “Leicester won’t keep it up”. “They’ll get figured out soon”. “They’ll fall away soon”. No one figured that team out, they won the league. Is there an argument that the current team is more talented, of course! Are they a better team? Not in my eyes. Reading this thread and the same old statements made makes me think if this team rolled up to the play the 15/16 team with their “better players” and “to find them out tactically” then Okazaki, Mahrez, Huth and co would have eaten it all up and laughed all the way home after a victory. X 

You've answered the point there. You cant have a more talented team without them being better. The 15/16 season was a one trick pony and we tried the same method the year after and it failed, why? Because everyone knew what we were doing and simply blocked us in. The current team has multiple ways of playing against various different teams. The 15/16 didnt have that.

[RumbleFox]

9 minutes ago, UHDrive said:

You've answered the point there. You cant have a more talented team without them being better. The 15/16 season was a one trick pony and we tried the same method the year after and it failed, why? Because everyone knew what we were doing and simply blocked us in. The current team has multiple ways of playing against various different teams. The 15/16 didnt have that.

Of course you can have a more talented team individually that isn’t as good a “team” as another overall. And no one found that team out, the “year after” the team didn’t have Kante. The 15/16 team in its pomp would, in my opinion, have beaten this one. I’m surprised any Leicester fan would ever question the utter brilliance of that once in a life time, dream making bunch of absolute beautiful heroes. X 

Edited 13 November 2020 by RumbleFox

[Babylon]

7 minutes ago, UHDrive said:

You've answered the point there. You cant have a more talented team without them being better. The 15/16 season was a one trick pony and we tried the same method the year after and it failed, why? Because everyone knew what we were doing and simply blocked us in. The current team has multiple ways of playing against various different teams. The 15/16 didnt have that.

You can have more talented individuals doesn't make it a better team. 15/16 won the league, it's not even a debate the moment which is the better team. When it got tough last season this lot folded like a pack of cards. 

[Guest Markyblue]

Think the present squad is great and exciting times and when they win the premier league ill start comparing them to the 15/16 team until then its all pointless. 

[UHDrive]

8 minutes ago, RumbleFox said:

Of course you can have a more talented team individually that isn’t as good a “team” as another overall. And no one found that team out, the “year after” the team didn’t have Kante. The 15/16 team in its pomp would, in my opinion, have beaten this one. I’m surprised any Leicester fan would ever question the utter brilliance of that once in a life time, dream making bunch of absolute beautiful heroes. X 

What I'm saying is our club in particular. Clubs like man utd, arsenal, spurs got it all wrong in terms of mixing personalitys.

[deanolegend1989]

12 minutes ago, RumbleFox said:

Of course you can have a more talented team individually that isn’t as good a “team” as another overall. And no one found that team out, the “year after” the team didn’t have Kante. The 15/16 team in its pomp would, in my opinion, have beaten this one. I’m surprised any Leicester fan would ever question the utter brilliance of that once in a life time, dream making bunch of absolute beautiful heroes. X 

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve always found that lazy cliche of ‘people found us out in 16/17’ as one of the most stupidest things I’ve heard. We lost our engine, the whole thing changed.

I mentioned before it reminded me of Liverpool under Benitez, also in this case, they nearly won the league, lost Alonso(the engine) then were miles off next year. Suarez left, same thing again. Easy throw away comments to say ‘people found us out’ or ‘they didn’t want it as much’ or other similar crap I hear.

[TRAD-DAD]

The only way to judge the 15/16 side against the latest side is if the new side accomplish what they did. And if as has been said on here that the title winning side were not as skillful as the present side then it just makes it all the more astonishing  that they did it.

[deanolegend1989]

11 minutes ago, TRAD-DAD said:

The only way to judge the 15/16 side against the latest side is if the new side accomplish what they did. And if as has been said on here that the title winning side were not as skillful as the present side then it just makes it all the more astonishing  that they did it.

Much as I’m for the 15/16 > 20/21 team. That’s still an unfair arguement.

To not compare them until they win the league is impossible. It was a different league, harder stronger league now. If 20/21 we won the FA Cup/Europa League double and came 2nd on GD in the league, are we still not able to compare because they haven’t won the league yet?

[TRAD-DAD]

23 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Much as I’m for the 15/16 > 20/21 team. That’s still an unfair arguement.

To not compare them until they win the league is impossible. It was a different league, harder stronger league now. If 20/21 we won the FA Cup/Europa League double and came 2nd on GD in the league, are we still not able to compare because they haven’t won the league yet?

Yes but football is a results driven game. No one remembers a very skilful side unless it wins something. Everyone will always remember the title winning Leicester side simply because they won it.

[UHDrive]

2 hours ago, TRAD-DAD said:

Yes but football is a results driven game. No one remembers a very skilful side unless it wins something. Everyone will always remember the title winning Leicester side simply because they won it.

For me it's not about a results driven game, it is all about what you can bring to the table in terms of entertainment and excitement. 

Our 15/16 team had an ordinary/solid defence, a great midfield and superb attacking players in vards/mahrez. We were very lucky we had no injuries otherwise we never would have won it. 20/21 is different, its quick, sharp talented players who can go onto a pitch and play triangle with such ease like Tielemans whereby hes hes already lining up his next pass. I vote for the 9-0's, the 2-5's, Newcastle 5-1.

 

The thing is, the 15/16 season at king power was torture simply because of possession stats being around 30% for the season (not sure on that figure) and therefore for me it wasnt enjoyable. What's changed now is our overall talent and squad depth and ability to control games by playing on the floor. 

[fuchsntf]

On 12/11/2020 at 19:46, Steve Earle said:

Allison, VVD, Robertson, Salah, Mane for sure. TAA & Firmino possibly but that’s debatable!

Nothing you have said,just bouncing  off your post...

 

The reason Mcity & L'pool, end up in higher positions than us....is because they are better than us,individually & Team are stronger than us..

Their squad and direct fringe players are that notch in Quality better than us....Picking out individuals doesn't mean we can grab the  plaudits headlines,

We have only one Way to prove how better our players are, is do what those Two Teams do consistently every season...Plus on Bad days Grind out

winning performances...& Not worry 3,6,10 months afterwards ,how we Play against just the Top 4-6...!! 

Then carry the blind totally irrelevant moaning into the Next season...

 

All manager trys something for several games,It doesn't work...he & the team hopefully  learns,then take in the injuries or bad form, there is little space to reset

these are some of the reasons why its hard to Climb into those covetted consistent Top 6 positions...

Fans have to understand its the chasers ,who are always needing to change or Experiment to find that "configuration"

or consistent Plan b + c.  The top teams have more Player Ressources ,so any Type of  changes can be balanced out...

 

Last Season was Rodgers First Full season & still did better on Choice of  selection & formation,than what came from within this forum...

We started this First  part of the season,with Major injuries,with a tight budget, the players & Management have proven

their Flexibility ,growth & developement potential..

Last Season has gone....There is nothing to learn from repeatingly returning to it,to try & prove totally irrelevant points..!!

 

ps. For Any team/club...dont underrate the Effect of covid, on mental,difficult & attitude,

Social problems & trying to Keep a balance carrying into various bubbles...

The fans have to give themselves & their Team & Opponent a bit more Space & patience.

Though Good honest critic/plaudits of the Major organisations on their actions Handling their responsibilties during Covid,should Take

more preference...than trying to Analyse anything to do with Form & performances of individual teams...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 14 November 2020 by fuchsntf

[KingsX]

"Potential" my ass.  We're already right at the summit. 

 

 

 

 

 Not sure how to take this.  Did Alan Shearer ever kick him in the head?

[foxile5]

6 minutes ago, KingsX said:

"Potential" my ass.  We're already right at the summit. 

 

 

 

 

 Not sure how to take this.  Did Alan Shearer ever kick him in the head?

Rangers in sixth makes this entire thing redundant. 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

15/16 was totally out of the blue.

If we'd finished sixth that season we'd have been overjoyed.

If we finish sixth this season there'll probably be a angry meltdown.

We've come a long way, baby...

[Steve Earle]

It’s good enough to win silverware. Let’s hope they do - any of the three trophies still a at this season would be bloody marvellous!