Leicester 1-0 Sunderland Post Match Thread.

[ozleicester]

didnt watch the game... so a win is a good result... Perhaps that what it takes to be a City supporter this year, just wait for the results.

[ARM1968]

21 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

I think the one thing that can be said is that it was a gritty performance, which is how you need to win games at this stage of the season. 

It was a gritty performance, but that was unnecessary. We had them on the ropes and then just stood back and let them come to life. Only their lack of quality and some luck saw the 3pts come our way. We’re playing a much better team on Saturday, what we showed last night won’t be enough. 
 

I’m hoping having Vesty back and Ndidi around will help. Also wary that Enzo threw Ndidi in to the mix out of desperation, but he seems to have come through ok.  All we can do is keep the faith and hope we iron out the rough patch. 

[BertFill]

1 minute ago, ARM1968 said:

Also wary that Enzo threw Ndidi in to the mix out of desperation

I don't think desperation comes in to it at all. I think he was just giving Ndidi twenty minutes as part of getting him back up to speed because we've missed him hugely and are going to need him for the rest of the season.

[ARM1968]

Just now, BertFill said:

I don't think desperation comes in to it at all. I think he was just giving Ndidi twenty minutes as part of getting him back up to speed because we've missed him hugely and are going to need him for the rest of the season.

You’re probably right. 

[Pliskin]

6 minutes ago, ARM1968 said:

It was a gritty performance, but that was unnecessary. We had them on the ropes and then just stood back and let them come to life. Only their lack of quality and some luck saw the 3pts come our way. We’re playing a much better team on Saturday, what we showed last night won’t be enough. 
 

I’m hoping having Vesty back and Ndidi around will help. Also wary that Enzo threw Ndidi in to the mix out of desperation, but he seems to have come through ok.  All we can do is keep the faith and hope we iron out the rough patch. 

I do agree. Yesterday although a win, was arguably worse that our previous three games. Hopefully it boosts confidence, but it’s not ideal entering such a crucial stage of the season. 

[ARM1968]

Just now, Pliskin said:

I do agree. Yesterday although a win, was arguably worse that our previous three games. Hopefully it boosts confidence, but it’s not ideal entering such a crucial stage of the season. 

Nope it’s not, you’re right. As fans we know last night was shite, bar the opening 10-15mins. As someone who played football a lot and at a fair level, I know that games last night don’t build confidence, if anything they sap it. You know you got away with one, and that sticks in the back of your head. We’ll soon see anyway. A win against Hull will lift the clouds a bit, IF we can win. 

[RowlattsFox]

Seen a few people describe it as gritty but I don't think it was. A 1-0 away win doesn't automatically classify as gritty. Last 10 minutes was chaotic and unnecessarily last ditch. If they had any sort of creativity about them they would have scored. 

 

The irony is that we have so much more control of the game when we are attacking, passing around the back 4 and keeper is not control. 

 

 

[ceebeefox]

Watched the game through my fingers, breathed a massive sigh of relief, then watched the last 15 of the Ipswich game. Pace, drive, passion, absolute night and day from our game. We are too soon out of the prem. The saying it’s better to travel than arrive comes to mind, that excitement  that was in the Ipswich ground we just can’t get, be it style of play or arrogance and entitlement amongst our lot.

[Ormondroyd8ftTall]

5 minutes ago, ceebeefox said:

Watched the game through my fingers, breathed a massive sigh of relief, then watched the last 15 of the Ipswich game. Pace, drive, passion, absolute night and day from our game. We are too soon out of the prem. The saying it’s better to travel than arrive comes to mind, that excitement  that was in the Ipswich ground we just can’t get, be it style of play or arrogance and entitlement amongst our lot.

It's really hard not to, but I don't think we can really compare our atmosphere or season to theirs. After all this is a teams that should not have been relegated last season.

 

Ipswich fans are enjoying a season of disbelief and dreaming, very much similar to us 15/16. Whereas, rightly or wrongly, we are the Man city of that same season in terms of stature and squad in this division.

 

I just fear that if we drop off 1st place, our fans won't back the lads and instead go the opposite way.

[BertFill]

Last night Doyle was way more of a threat on the left wing than Mavididi was.

 

Lots slagging of KDH but I thought Mavididi, especially second half, had an absolute stinker.

 

 

Edited 6 March by BertFill

[ARM1968]

6 minutes ago, BertFill said:

Last night Doyle was way more of a threat on the left wing than Mavididi was.

 

Lots slagging of KDH but I thought Mavididi, especially second half, had an absolute stinker.

 

 

They ALL did, again. First 10-15 mins Doyle was putting in killer passes. Mavadidi had his full back on toast. We scored and everything just fell away into nervous and needless chaos. 

[Jon the Hat]

1 hour ago, ozleicester said:

didnt watch the game... so a win is a good result... Perhaps that what it takes to be a City supporter this year, just wait for the results.

I was up early as I have a cough, so watched about 30 mins.  We looked as tired as I felt!  Should have gone back to bed.

[Chrysalis]

10 hours ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

I don’t think we took our foot off the gas. We just, as is becoming usual, missed chances. Either the final ball was wrong, the chance missed or the move stopped by the ref.  

We played for about another 5-10 mins after we scored then that was it, very bizarre game.  In the second half it was backs to the wall.

How some think we would be an ok outfit in the EPL is beyond me.  Even the LCFC TV guys couldnt hide their thought son what they were seeing.  They thought it was a confidence issue why the team stopped playing.

[AjcW]

As an aside, Chris Rigg is going to go for an insane amount of money in a few years  

[Les-TA-Jon]

12 minutes ago, Chrysalis said:

We played for about another 5-10 mins after we scored then that was it, very bizarre game.  In the second half it was backs to the wall.

How some think we would be an ok outfit in the EPL is beyond me.  Even the LCFC TV guys couldnt hide their thought son what they were seeing.  They thought it was a confidence issue why the team stopped playing.

Let's worry about the PL when we get there. 

 

And yeah it probably is a confidence issue? This team is a mix of older pros, players who got disastrously relegated or are young and never played at this level. 3 losses on the bounce and seeing the gap tighten is bound to affect them. 

 

You can't just 'be' more confident. It comes from regaining form and results. Last night's the first step in that. 

[Ric Flair]

Still concerned about Enzo's in game management, after the Bournemouth game I thought he'd have taken confidence of the fringe players being motivated and capable to make their mark in games for us when needed but he's still reluctant to make changes.

 

Someone else said it, but Hamza looked to be injured and yet he kept him on and it will be of no surprise if he's now out for the weekend.

[suffolk fox]

That was such a painful watch.  Slow, boring, ambling walking football, no drive, no passion, no determination.  Summed up by our woeful 2nd half performance.  We get a corner with 5 minutes to go we routinely pass it back to our goalkeeper?  Wtf?

 

Too many players not on it again.  What the hell has happened to KDH?  Fatawu our best player, reward subbed off.

 

Hermansen great save granted, 1st half thought he was trying to give Maresca an assist with a nod on, the amount of times his kicks went straight into our technical area.

 

We are staggering our way to promotion, painfully.  (It may well still go boobs up).  Personally sick of Enzo ball thwe amount of times we try and pass it around in our final 3rd is frightening.  If in doubt kick it out.  Not Lcfc players we will pass it across our own area for gods sake.

 

Maresca said post match our players were tired.  I watched the last 20 minutes of the Ipswich game.  A team that has played the same amount of games as we have.  They have everything we don't, drive, passion, commitment, positive forward thinking, forward passing, quick movement and effort.

 

Sadly, we have none of that.  Enzoball, it bores me to death.

[BertFill]

5 minutes ago, suffolk fox said:

Fatawu our best player, reward subbed off.

He could hardly walk when they came over at the end, maybe that's why he was taken off.

[suffolk fox]

1 minute ago, BertFill said:

He could hardly walk when they came over at the end, maybe that's why he was taken off.

Neither could Choudary last 15mins he stayed on?

[ClaphamFox]

4 minutes ago, suffolk fox said:

That was such a painful watch.  Slow, boring, ambling walking football, no drive, no passion, no determination.  Summed up by our woeful 2nd half performance.  We get a corner with 5 minutes to go we routinely pass it back to our goalkeeper?  Wtf?

 

Too many players not on it again.  What the hell has happened to KDH?  Fatawu our best player, reward subbed off.

 

Hermansen great save granted, 1st half thought he was trying to give Maresca an assist with a nod on, the amount of times his kicks went straight into our technical area.

 

We are staggering our way to promotion, painfully.  (It may well still go boobs up).  Personally sick of Enzo ball thwe amount of times we try and pass it around in our final 3rd is frightening.  If in doubt kick it out.  Not Lcfc players we will pass it across our own area for gods sake.

 

Maresca said post match our players were tired.  I watched the last 20 minutes of the Ipswich game.  A team that has played the same amount of games as we have.  They have everything we don't, drive, passion, commitment, positive forward thinking, forward passing, quick movement and effort.

 

Sadly, we have none of that.  Enzoball, it bores me to death.

Our players DO look knackered. The three-week gap between the Hull and Bristol City games will give us a great opportunity to rest them. I didn't see the Ipswich game but Leeds apparently looked dead on their feet last night too - their fans are very concerned about their game on Friday.

 

Enzoball can be great to watch but it can also be boring to watch - especially when the players aren't fresh enough to play it properly. We just need to somehow get the win on Saturday and then refresh ahead of the next league game.

[CosbehFox]

2 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Our players DO look knackered.

Hamza barely a sniff - now played 390 minutes over 13 days. 

[FerrisBueller]

Couldn’t watch it last night, just watching the highlights. Christ we should have been 3-0 up after 20 mins.

[Balj]

I think we can bang on about the style of play but it’s not going to change and if it did adapting to a new style with our centre half’s will be more dangerous at this stage. Vesty has been a huge player for us this season and with Winks our best passer and it’s directly down to the style (definitely not his ability to defend).
 

If we are going to play like this in the run in we need Madividi (dear god he’s been awful) and Fatawu to actually stretch defences not constrict midfield by constantly coming inside (especially as Justin can’t overlap to save his life) and the midfielders to speed it up from the half way line. Ricky and Ndidi are much needed as our late presence in the opposition box is non-existent and they can make those runs. As much maligned as he was Casedei would have been invaluable to us of late.

 

I’m not sure if we will go up (because of the better form of teams around us) but either way our squad is not fit for this style so in the Championship or EPL we need major work if Enzo stays.

[TheGoldenGod]

4 minutes ago, FerrisBueller said:

Couldn’t watch it last night, just watching the highlights. Christ we should have been 3-0 up after 20 mins.

That must have been where the highlights ended surely? Cause F'all happened after that. Dross!

[Ric Flair]

The style of play wasn't the problem last night, we just played badly after a bright start. 

 

I don't take much notice of fans grumbling about our philosophy when we are poor, they'd be doing the same under an array of different types of tactics. Fans hate poor performances especially on the back of a run of poor results (where certain performances were much better).

 

My focus is more on what Enzo can tweak / get better at. It's a mystery why he's stopped making 3+ subs around the hour mark to apply the same intensity as he did in the 1st 15-20 games and he needs to move heaven and earth to learn the art of getting his team to be more clinical. Certain managers have that knack and its not just down to the quality of a player. For all Brendan's faults, his teams score a higher % of goals from chances than the average decent manager.

 

And finally, I hope this comes with experience but he needs to tweak his methods that drum in to his team that when you are chasing a game and you're not creating much that there's some variation in the patterns of play. More aggression is needed, I'm quite surprised for an Italian manager that we are the way we are in terms of mentality but again that may change in time.