Slavia Prague Post match - 2-0

[fazzyfox]

The fact that our one requirement of UEFA is to send competent officials to the first leg and they didn't has been swept under the carpet completely by the coverage. Let's have that 90 minutes again, this time with correct rule following procedures in place and they wouldn't live with us. Every time Madison or Barnes put two strides together they hacked them down. Just shameful of Hamza in the second leg to replicate their diving policy but that's one instance vs 20 of theirs.

 

2nd leg we never got going, couldn't get out, worryingly players weren't offering themselves for the ball or showing much movement, they looked shot (that' an "o" by the way). Also that line up just didn't gel, combinations that are new just didn't work, I presume Amartey and Under have met each other but it didn't seem like it, don't know if it would have made the difference but to not have Nacho because of something so stupid was a sickener. There's one of there players with his arm  and elbow across Thomas's neck / face for their first goal last night which you'll never get blown up on, it happens all the time and Thomas didn't even appeal and I wouldn't expect him to to but how different was it to Nacho's yellow card? 

 

As for Vardy not looking sharp he got in behind them 3 or 4 times last night and when he looked to cut it back....nothing, no one with Maddison or Barnes instinct to be up with play and find space around the edge of the box. 

 

Regarding the selection at least there weren't ticket buying fans in there, imagine spending £50 and finding some of the best players are on the bench. If we lose to Arsenal it would have been pointless but there clearly was a science to it with the way Harvey was warming up knowing he was coming on at 60 mins all premeditated. 

[HighPeakFox]

1 minute ago, fazzyfox said:

If we lose to Arsenal it would have been pointless

A lot of very valid points, but the quoted one isn't true, and I fear now that everyone is putting all their chips on this one game.

[Col city fan]

20 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

A lot of very valid points, but the quoted one isn't true, and I fear now that everyone is putting all their chips on this one game.

It’s bound to happen HPF

We play a weakened side last night because of our league aspirations

What none of us now want to see is a poor showing against the Gooners

A perfectly fair response from many of us 

Edited 26 February 2021 by Col city fan

[mozartfox]

It is totally amazing the amount of coverage our 'defeat' is getting all morning on Talk Shite.  Had we won it would have been F-All.   Jason Bourne sent them message listing out the players we have out injured, but according to the Peterborough Bell-end aka Adrian Dipstick (who replied to JB) he said we were only missing 2 key players. 

[norwichfox]

13 hours ago, LestaAl said:

Lucky shirt being retired after this game for retraining..😏

Rename it "Lucky Premier League Shirt"

[Ricey]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Certainly demonstrated quite why we need another AM, as without Maddison and this no disrespect to Youri, the gap between midfield and attack is massive.

Maybe it is bridged by our best fullbacks, but we never saw this enough last night. 

To be fair, our second choice is Praet (injured), third choice is probably Perez (injured) and our fourth choice is arguably Iheanacho in a slightly different role (suspended).

 

Add to that the fact our full backs had be rested because of recent injuries and Rodgers didn't have much choice but to pick a fairly negative team. Under in theory should have offered the some of the directness and creativity that Barnes offers, but unfortunately he was absolute dog shit.

[Haywood_6]

Slavia were no mugs and they did a job on us. We've got a lot of injuries and had no creativity in the team or attacking intent. Under and Albrighton were just embarrassing. And Tielemans is not a number 10. Rodgers has done a lot right this season, but last night he got it wrong. Time to focus on the league now. Big game against Arsenal.

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, Ricey said:

To be fair, our second choice is Praet (injured), third choice is probably Perez (injured) and our fourth choice is arguably Iheanacho in a slightly different role (suspended).

 

Add to that the fact our full backs had be rested because of recent injuries and Rodgers didn't have much choice but to pick a fairly negative team. Under in theory should have offered the some of the directness and creativity that Barnes offers, but unfortunately he was absolute dog shit.

Not disagreeing at all, am in total agreement actually, but further depth would have been helpful and I am sure we attempted to do so.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

The big disappointment for me was how long it took Rodgers to try something else other than Youri in the 10 role, literally anyone would have done better because they would have had Youri feeding them. I really expected him to change it at half time when it took until 80 mins to bring Tavares on and drop Youri back and by then we were 2-0 down.

 

He even admits post match that he got it wrong.

 

"Rodgers, who was missing the injured James Maddison and banned Kelechi Iheanacho, started with 13-goal Harvey Barnes on the bench with Youri Tielemans in a more advanced position but admitted his decisions failed to pay off".

 

 

It took the bloke 12 minutes to make a sub after they scored, was he even bothered?

[Wortho]

The whole team were poor last night. What I especially was disappointed with was Under's performance, there is no way will be signing him. It's a shame because he is very talented 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

The morning after and I'm still horribly disappointed to say the least. We just didn't look at all interested. Horrible horrible mentality from so many of our fans to think we're above this tournament and we somehow have a divine right to be in the CL. Yeah we've got injuries but we had a proper chance to win some European silverware and it's just gone begging. And a very large portion of the fanbase seems happy as long as we can just get in the CL next year where we'll encounter the same issues again. Round and round we go, it screams of Tottenham in blue shirts. The expectations have changed in line with the resources the club has at it's disposal and we can't just hide behind tired excuses as to why we keep bombing out of knockout tournaments in particular. 

 

The club is entering a crucial couple of years. We have the best squad of players the club has ever assembled. We have possibly the best all round manager the club has ever had and one of the best in the division. Both the players and the manager are ambitious and want to win actual trophies, if we can't match that they'll go to places that can. We are still reliant on Vards and whether we like to admit it or not he's on the downwards slope, got some left in the tank but it's a matter of time. We also need to capitalise on the good period we're going through, expand the ground and build a legacy on this period. 

 

It's so difficult but again last night was another contributing factor to this season being not particularly enjoyable despite overall doing well on the pitch.

[HighPeakFox]

4 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

 Horrible horrible mentality from so many of our fans to think we're above this tournament and we somehow have a divine right to be in the CL.

Who actually thinks either of those things, and more to the point, what does the mentality of a percentage of our fans actually matter, really?

 

I know it's been said elsewhere, but this season is weird like no other. You might be right, we may have same issues in ECL next season (assuming we qualify), but then we might not suffer the spate of injuries, and the qualification might have enabled us to not sell our assets and grow the squad. THAT'S why qualifying for it is so important.

[sheffield_fox]

5 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Who actually thinks either of those things, and more to the point, what does the mentality of a percentage of our fans actually matter, really?

 

I know it's been said elsewhere, but this season is weird like no other. You might be right, we may have same issues in ECL next season (assuming we qualify), but then we might not suffer the spate of injuries, and the qualification might have enabled us to not sell our assets and grow the squad. THAT'S why qualifying for it is so important.

Very good points. 

 

You've actually made me feel a but better about it there. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

5 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Who actually thinks either of those things, and more to the point, what does the mentality of a percentage of our fans actually matter, really?

 

I know it's been said elsewhere, but this season is weird like no other. You might be right, we may have same issues in ECL next season (assuming we qualify), but then we might not suffer the spate of injuries, and the qualification might have enabled us to not sell our assets and grow the squad. THAT'S why qualifying for it is so important.

It's the disparaging attitude towards the EL that annoys me. A large chunk would rather just make up the numbers in the group stages of the CL than get deep into the EL. It's the same loser mentality that places league position above winning domestic trophies. 

 

When does the "journey" or the "process" arrive at a destination? 

[Always Next Year]

I fear last night’s selections  and tactics will be repeated when we play Man Utd in the FA Cup. Rodgers idea of having 3 or 4 regular players on the bench and then bringing them on after 60mins when we are struggling or have gone behind doesn’t work in important games. I can hear some of you cry that players need to be rested, fine if that’s the case then why are they even on the bench, surely if they are that worn out they should not be in the squad.

Loads of people also pointed out that we where to slow in getting forward, this can be seen in most of our games we play well for 15 to 20 mins then drop off. Playing out from the back is fine but by the time our back line has finished playing me to you and you to me 4 or 5 times our opposition have everyone behind the ball.

We need to change the way we play, to many teams have worked us out and sit back knowing we can’t break them down then hurt us on the counter attack and it costing us valuable points.

[HighPeakFox]

1 minute ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

It's the disparaging attitude towards the EL that annoys me. A large chunk would rather just make up the numbers in the group stages of the CL than get deep into the EL. It's the same loser mentality that places league position above winning domestic trophies. 

 

When does the "journey" or the "process" arrive at a destination? 

Well, I was all for the EL, and many still are. Let said 'large chunk' think differently, it won't harm you  

 

As for the second point, even winning stuff is not the end. Football doesn't stop when you win the league, as we know. The process is to build the club and improve the infrastructure and staff quality, thus improving overall results and increase the chances of winning trophies. Surely you're not against that?

[HighPeakFox]

Anyway, let's look at the bright side - it would take some efforts for Mendy to be blamed for this one.

[Tom12345]

7 hours ago, Nalis said:

Completely agree. They had a solid gameplan over the 2 legs and beat us with 2 well taken goals. 

 

They will do well to keep hold of Sima, he was excellent over the two games.

They didnt fear us and stuck to their game plan. Even after going up by a goal, they didn’t “manage” the game like Rodgers would. On the other hand, Rodgers “managed” the two legs since the first minute. We played with fear and set up like they were Barcelona, whereas instead Slavia should have been the one doing that given in theory they were supposed to be the big underdog. Hamza, Ndidi, Amartey, Evans, Soyuncu all on like we need to defend for life against Barcelona and Lionel Messi??? Such negativity. We didn’t give it a go and lost. If we had given a go and still lost, no issue and would be proud of the boys. But it is hard to swallow when we play with fear at home against Slavia.

Edited 26 February 2021 by Tom12345

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Just now, HighPeakFox said:

Well, I was all for the EL, and many still are. Let said 'large chunk' think differently, it won't harm you  

 

As for the second point, even winning stuff is not the end. Football doesn't stop when you win the league, as we know. The process is to build the club and improve the infrastructure and staff quality, thus improving overall results and increase the chances of winning trophies. Surely you're not against that?

Of course not, but when do we decide that we've built to a suitable level and we're going to try and win a knockout competition, even at the expense of league position?

 

For me, a good time to try and win some silverware would be when the club has one of the best training grounds in the world. When it has it's best ever player in the history of the club leading the line. When is has central midfielders consistently touted as up there with the best in the world in their respective roles. When it has the best ever central defensive partnership with one of Europe's best young talents waiting in the wings. When is has one of, if not the best, ever goalkeeper to play for the club with over 400 caps. When it is consistently producing top talent out of the academy with Leicestershire lads tearing the league up. When it has a manager that is the envy of 90% of teams in the league. 

 

Oh hang on a second. 

[HighPeakFox]

2 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Of course not, but when do we decide that we've built to a suitable level and we're going to try and win a knockout competition, even at the expense of league position?

 

For me, a good time to try and win some silverware would be when the club has one of the best training grounds in the world. When it has it's best ever player in the history of the club leading the line. When is has central midfielders consistently touted as up there with the best in the world in their respective roles. When it has the best ever central defensive partnership with one of Europe's best young talents waiting in the wings. When is has one of, if not the best, ever goalkeeper to play for the club with over 400 caps. When it is consistently producing top talent out of the academy with Leicestershire lads tearing the league up. When it has a manager that is the envy of 90% of teams in the league. 

 

Oh hang on a second. 

So do you assume we're at our peak now? That we cannot do better?

[Sol thewall Bamba]

3 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

So do you assume we're at our peak now? That we cannot do better?

Never said that, but I'd like to know what other resources you feel we need to win a trophy? 

[RowlattsFox]

As a side note, and this may be completely wrong, but has Barnes ever had an impact from the bench? In recent memory this season he has looked woeful when coming on. Doesn't happen too often I guess, as he's nailed on starter more often than not.

 

Our passing and touch was atrocious last night, can't remember the last time we kicked the ball out of play so much, everyone was at it. 

[HighPeakFox]

Just now, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Never said that, but I'd like to know what other resources you feel we need to win a trophy? 

Greater depth, fewer injuries, more experience. You talk about some fans' mentality - the mentality I find hard to understand is the one that cannot see that this is a work in progress, and that the current squad is massively depleted and on its arse. Something had to give - and it gave last night. I'm not pleased about it, but progress is gradual and rarely linear. One bad result and a proportion of the forum lose their minds and panic. Which they are entitled to, of course, but I'm here to counterpoint the panic.

[Fightforever]

Buy Sima as a Vardy understudy.

[turtmcfly]

55 minutes ago, Babylon said:

It took the bloke 12 minutes to make a sub after they scored, was he even bothered?

 

There's the 'stands to reason' school of thought that starting with Barnes, Ricardo and Castagne would have made big difference. Then there's the observational school that notes what happened for the 35 minutes they were on the pitch, which look a lot like the previous 60, with the same 1-0 scoreline.

 

For me the game in a nutshell was Luke Thomas' attempt at a block for their second goal, where he appeared to make himself as small a target as possible. In the reverse situation last night (if we'd managed to manufacture it) there would have been two or three Slavia players putting their testicles in danger.

 

Not a pop at Luke - it was same mentality throught the team. I didn't feel last night was about being complacent. There just seemed to be a completely different level of 'interest' in winning from the two sides.