FA Women’s cup: Man City V Leicester city Quarter Final.

[Pliskin]

Quarter Final action for the ladies today. 

[drumbeat]

Blimey, I didn't realise they'd progressed to the quarters aleady! Is it a reschedule of last season's competition? I've lost track 

[Pliskin]

13 minutes ago, drumbeat said:

Blimey, I didn't realise they'd progressed to the quarters aleady! Is it a reschedule of last season's competition? I've lost track 

I think it’s a reschedule from last season! 

[sacreblueits442]

...we are still trying to play the ball with our wrong foot!!!

  Man. City having all the possession but not looking all that special. 

  We need someone breaking  from midfield when we try to go forward, Sigsworth with a thankless task.

  Would be good to see Devlin playing in the middle. 

[sacreblueits442]

...hard to watch this!!!

It really is about doing the basics and they can't!!

 Absolutely crazy decision  to blindly play the ball out of defence. What are they coaching these players. 

[sacreblueits442]

Glad to see they have moved to two upfront!!!

[Phube]

Just can’t hold on to the ball at all… 

[st albans fox]

I know we are playing a weakened side. Are Man City doin the same ? 

[drumbeat]

Going to be a tough season this one. It's a real step up and there's going to be games where they are outclassed and outplayed. They'll get results I reckon, just need to keep the spirits up and hang in there.

[weller54]

1 hour ago, Phube said:

Just can’t hold on to the ball at all… 

..been watching videos of the men?

[Pliskin]

To me, it’s a mixture not having the players to compete at this level, and the manager being way, way out of his depth. I think the three year plan will end in tatters, really can’t see how they’re going to stay up this season? 

[sacreblueits442]

12 hours ago, Pliskin said:

To me, it’s a mixture not having the players to compete at this level, and the manager being way, way out of his depth. I think the three year plan will end in tatters, really can’t see how they’re going to stay up this season? 

....they have scored once this season, I am not sure when they are going to score again!!!

This is a pretty awkward situation, Morgan has developed the club and a family is very much running the Women's side of the game. Removing Morgan from his post impacts on the foundation of this area of the club. A compromise could be getting someone in to work alongside in order to help with tactical and conditioning as it is clear we need to take a long look at the gap between the existing quality in the Premier League.

  Big part of our problem is the obvious lack of pace throughout the team and our lack of appetite to compete.

Edited 30 September 2021 by sacreblueits442

[Ian Nacho]

We look to be bobbins this year. 

[oxtonfox]

6-0 ouch - what's up with the team? 

[davieG]

With little knowledge of this just watched a few games but it looks like with so many changes they've knocked the heart and comradeship out of the team. It takes time for some players to gel but with so many it will take a lot longer if it ever gets there. 

 

Will need a lot of managerial skills to get the cohesion back both carrot and stick and a fair bit of psychology assuming the players are good enough to start with.

[Pliskin]

9 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

....they have scored once this season, I am not sure when they are going to score again!!!

This is a pretty awkward situation, Morgan has developed the club and a family is very much running the Women's side of the game. Removing Morgan from his post impacts on the foundation of this area of the club. A compromise could be getting someone in to work alongside in order to help with tactical and conditioning as it is clear we need to take a long at the gap between the existing quality in the Premier League.

  Big part of our problem is the obvious lack of pace throughout the team and our lack of appetite to compete.

Agreed. But it doesn’t help when some players are getting the very basics wrong, some of the girls aren’t even controlling a football properly when receiving a pass. There’s a monster gap between the bottom of the league and the top. A full strength Man City team look extremely impressive when they’re at full pelt, likewise with Chelsea. 
 

There’s massive gaps in the team too. Watching it we’ve got a decent spine, however we lack any kind of productivity from wide areas. The full backs and wide players just don’t seem to be able to produce, so you get Sigsworth pointlessly running channels in an attempt to create something, and Flint gets isolated. Can’t see why Devlin isn’t getting more game time, she looks lively when she comes on. 

[phoneticerror]

1 hour ago, oxtonfox said:

6-0 ouch - what's up with the team? 

I think the team is the same; it’s just that last season they were up against worse teams. I’ve not seen our keeper dive for a ball all season, just watches the ball slowly trundle by her.

[phoneticerror]

10 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

....they have scored once this season, I am not sure when they are going to score again!!!

 

And that was a very mediocre goal.

[PhillippaT]

3 minutes ago, phoneticerror said:

I think the team is the same; it’s just that last season they were up against worse teams. I’ve not seen our keeper dive for a ball all season, just watches the ball slowly trundle by her.

[sacreblueits442]

....Morgan said in an interview that Lambourne came in due to the injury of Levell in the previous game!!!

It was clear Levell was struggling to get around on one leg, why didn't he take her off at the time. She is obviously his #1 Keeper but he chose to exacerbate an injury knowing a big came was coming in a few days time. Lambourne's last game apparently was this time last year, against Manchester City!

   It begs the question which is the better keeper, and has Lambourne been out due to injury. 

[davieG]

https://www.lcfc.com/news/2275436/morgan-lessons-learned-from-cup-exit

 

Morgan: Lessons Learned From Cup Exit

LCFC WOMEN

Published 2 hrs 1 min ago

4 MinutesReading time

Jonathan Morgan says LCFC Women must be more consistent in their performances after Wednesday’s defeat to Manchester City in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup.

- LCFC Women exited the rescheduled 2020/21 Vitality Women’s FA Cup at the quarter-final stage
- The Foxes were beaten 6-0 by Manchester City at Academy Stadium on Wednesday
- Jonathan Morgan was disappointed with the second half after a promising start in Manchester
- The manager believes the team must start learning quickly to compete at the highest level

Last season’s rearranged quarter-final tie was all square at the interval, but once Khadija Shaw converted within 60 seconds of the restart, the Citizens produced a ruthless second-half display at Academy Stadium, scoring a further five goals.

While pleased with the way the Foxes set up in the first half, Morgan knows that they must apply themselves better throughout the contest in order to start picking up more positive results.

“First half, we were fantastic,” he told LCFC TV in his post-match interview. “We stuck to the plan, it worked, we caused Man City no end of problems in terms of how to break us down.

“We knew we’d have to concede possession in this game because they are a quality team. Irrespective of them having players playing out of position, they’ve got such a depth of fantastic players.

 

“We went in at half-time and we highlighted two stats to the girls, one of them being that they had 13 crosses in the first half and we needed to stop those. And then in the second half, we conceded from five crosses.

“After goal one, the girls lost focus and lost shape and that’s something we’ve got to get better at really quickly because we can’t keep conceding goals in quick succession. We need to ride the storm out sometimes and that game could have been a little different. I’m not saying we would have won, but it definitely could have been more respectable if we had stuck to our guns.

“The game isn’t 45 minutes long, it’s 90 minutes and we offer no excuses. We spoke about it just now with the girls, it’s something we’ve got to work on and learn from.”

Five changes were made to the team, with goalkeeper Demi Lambourne handed her first start of the campaign. The shot-stopper recovered from two serious injuries to feature from the start in a competitive match for the first time in 12 months.

Academy graduate Mackenzie Smith, meanwhile, made her full debut after appearing as a substitute in City’s previous two Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixtures and Morgan was delighted to see both of them out on the pitch.

It’s just consistency and being mentally tougher. That’s what we’ve got to focus on. We have to grow and develop them, not just physically but mentally as well. We’ll continue to do that and this will be another lesson learned.

 

The manager explained: “Kirstie Levell has unfortunately picked up a bit of an injury from the West Ham game so we opted to rest her and see if we can get her back for Sunday. Demi [Lambourne] did fantastically.

“It’s a proud moment to see her come back from two very vicious injuries. She showed so much confidence and I’m just disappointed that maybe we weren’t able to be a little bit stronger for her throughout the game.

“It’s always a proud moment when you’ve got a 16-year-old making her full debut. Macca (Mackenzie Smith) is one of the most professional girls in the squad.

“She’s young but she’s hungry, she learns, she listens, and her energy levels are fantastic. She’s definitely got a bright future ahead of her. We’re proud to have her.”

Focusing on the positives, Morgan believes there are aspects of Wednesday’s performance that can be taken into their return to league action, as Leicester aim to collect their first points of the season. The Foxes welcome Tottenham Hotspur to King Power Stadium on Sunday (2pm BST kick-off).

 

Manager Jonathan Morgan provides his reaction to Leicester's Vitality Women's FA Cup Quarter-Final defeat to Manchester City.

“The season is still young and we’ve found another way of being difficult to break down,” he added. “It’s just consistency and being mentally tougher. That’s what we’ve got to focus on. This is one of things you get with a young squad.

“We have to grow and develop them, not just physically but mentally as well. We’ll continue to do that and this will be another lesson learned.

“Against West Ham, we just weren’t there, we weren’t at the races. But the disappointing thing about tonight is that we truly were. We were competitive, we were compact, everything we worked on in the couple of days between the games we executed in the first half and that’s what makes this one so much more disappointing than Sunday.

“We definitely have to focus on the fact that we do concede goals quickly and consecutively in the games and it’s something that our girls need to learn very quickly if they are to compete at this level.

“We’ll go back, we’ll let the girls digest tonight. We’ll focus on Sunday now. I think there will be a few changes made based on what we want to do against Spurs, but we’ve just got to make sure now that we do something to kick-start this season.”

[drumbeat]

16 hours ago, Pliskin said:

To me, it’s a mixture not having the players to compete at this level, and the manager being way, way out of his depth. I think the three year plan will end in tatters, really can’t see how they’re going to stay up this season? 

I did wonder at that possibility, without any disrespect to him.

 

The club have been loyal and stuck with him, as he's earned the right, so far dues. No complaints there from me at all. 

 

The step up to WSL is huge and the top teams there are streets ahead, both in terms of players and coaching staff. I feel the best we can hope for is that we stay brave, hang in there and be positive - despite being comprehensively outplayed from time-to-time. I think we will get results and hopefully that'll be enough to keep us up. It's going to be a learning curve, that's for real.  

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

2 minutes ago, drumbeat said:

I did wonder at that possibility, without any disrespect to him.

 

The club have been loyal and stuck with him, as he's earned the right, so far dues. No complaints there from me at all. 

 

The step up to WSL is huge and the top teams there are streets ahead, both in terms of players and coaching staff. I feel the best we can hope for is that we stay brave, hang in there and be positive - despite being comprehensively outplayed from time-to-time. I think we will get results and hopefully that'll be enough to keep us up. It's going to be a learning curve, that's for real.  

The whole club is run by his family.

 

Sacking him would be incredibly awkward. It's the equivalent of top being our manager.

 

Going to be interesting to see how they handle it.

[drumbeat]

3 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

The whole club is run by his family.

Yes, and arguably the only reason there is a team at all. So, as you say, that does make matters "awkward" 

 

Have KP provided any technical and/or coaching staff to assist? I genuinely don't know.

 

 

Edited 30 September 2021 by drumbeat

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

6 minutes ago, drumbeat said:

Yes, and arguably the only reason there is a team at all. So, as you say, that does make matters "awkward" 

 

Have KP provided any technical and/or coaching staff to assist? I genuinely don't know.

 

 

Don't know specifics but.....a training ground and lots of funds for new players.