WBA (a) 1-1 Leicester Post Match thread

[Pliskin]

3 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Yes it is a quandry as either of these 'forwards' still leaves a massive reliance on our wingers for goals. 

I agree. I think with Daka, he can occupy the centre backs. Even with his limitations his press and running in behind will cause issues. This then frees up space for the CAM, the box to box and the wingers to exploit. At the moment, Ayew is constantly clogging that part of the pitch by Being there humbling around and not helping to advance the play. 
 

Problem is, it goes against Marti’s philosophy, and would probably make us more transitional. 
 

Od personally prefer that, because with Mavididi and Fatawu were designed to be a transitional team. 

[JJohn]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Both are poor and have different weaknesses. 

Daka is quick but cannot stick anything. 

Ayew can stick, but is slow. 

The squad we have impressively constructed contains few rounded players. 

Agreed. Both should be sold. Daka should've been gone for whatever the offer was in the summer. He's no better than any U21 striker would be.

[JJohn]

55 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

I agree. I think with Daka, he can occupy the centre backs. Even with his limitations his press and running in behind will cause issues. This then frees up space for the CAM, the box to box and the wingers to exploit. At the moment, Ayew is constantly clogging that part of the pitch by Being there humbling around and not helping to advance the play. 
 

Problem is, it goes against Marti’s philosophy, and would probably make us more transitional. 
 

Od personally prefer that, because with Mavididi and Fatawu were designed to be a transitional team. 

I think you are overrating Daka. What has he done since his initial exploit in Europe? Other than run around and miss shots.

[Pliskin]

3 minutes ago, JJohn said:

I think you are overrating Daka. What has he done since his initial exploit in Europe? Other than run around and miss shots.

It’s not about overrating…. It’s about what profiles will maximise our attack. 
 

At the moment, Ayew doesn’t, he is single handedly dragging down our XG. In doing so, he occupies the space that should be occupied by the ten, and doesn’t badly, he doesn’t get the ball out to the wingers, and whenever he does, he’s never in the penalty area to get on the end of anything. He doesn’t score or create, and he doesn’t even create space for the other attacking players to exploit. 
 

Daka presses really well, I think he will get you as many goals as Ayew, he would leave space for the ten to occupy, and his pace and threat running in behind will occupy the centre halves. Defenders love playing against players like Ayew, he’s slow and likes to battle, so it’s an easy day for them, Daka will chase everything, press and run in behind, which defenders don’t like, this then creates space for our other attacking players, like James, Fatawu Mavididi, Ramsey and Monga. 
 

Daka isn’t really much of an upgrade, but the profile he has will at least cause some problems for the opposition, mainly down to his pace. 
 

Ayew offers us nothing, and Carranza seems like he needs more time to settle in. 
 

It’s worth a try. If he’s willing to play Ayew who is completely ineffective, he has to be willing to try Daka or Carranza. 

[JJohn]

8 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

It’s not about overrating…. It’s about what profiles will maximise our attack. 
 

At the moment, Ayew doesn’t, he is single handedly dragging down our XG. In doing so, he occupies the space that should be occupied by the ten, and doesn’t badly, he doesn’t get the ball out to the wingers, and whenever he does, he’s never in the penalty area to get on the end of anything. He doesn’t score or create, and he doesn’t even create space for the other attacking players to exploit. 
 

Daka presses really well, I think he will get you as many goals as Ayew, he would leave space for the ten to occupy, and his pace and threat running in behind will occupy the centre halves. Defenders love playing against players like Ayew, he’s slow and likes to battle, so it’s an easy day for them, Daka will chase everything, press and run in behind, which defenders don’t like, this then creates space for our other attacking players, like James, Fatawu Mavididi, Ramsey and Monga. 
 

Daka isn’t really much of an upgrade, but the profile he has will at least cause some problems for the opposition, mainly down to his pace. 
 

Ayew offers us nothing, and Carranza seems like he needs more time to settle in. 
 

It’s worth a try. If he’s willing to play Ayew who is completely ineffective, he has to be willing to try Daka or Carranza. 

We may as well try out the U21 strikers as play Daka. He has proven he does nothing other than run around a lot. Surely we have a younger player who can do that, and who knows maybe they can do something more.

[JJohn]

https://thefosseway.net/2025/09/27/west-bromwich-albion-1-leicester-city-1-keep-on-drawin-on/

 

The Fosse Way. Simply the best Leicester City site on the internet.

[egg_fried_rice]

People are in a funny head space this season, judging by some of these comments. I don’t think I’m any exception to that.

 

I was actually in a bit of a mard at full time yesterday despite the late equaliser which got an angry rather than elated celebration out of me. I felt against such mediocre opposition and with such domination of the ball, we should have got a lot more out of the game.

 

But we did play relatively well. It was certainly our most coherent and consistent performance of the season despite the sloppy goal conceded against the run of play.

 

Soumare was decent enough last night. Progressed the ball well and didn’t let the game pass him by. I don’t think he’s the answer but on that single game basis, the criticism levelled at him is not warranted. Similar story with Ayew too, really.

 

The day after the night before, I’ve softened a bit, but still have some criticisms.

We’ve no central attacking threat. That is largely on recruitment, but Marti needs to stop persisting with players who are not offensively minded in offensive positions. JJ isn’t a 10 - not creative enough. He looks like a tidy player but needs to be playing deeper next to winks, who looked imperious last night.
 

Ayew needs to come out. He’s got a role to play for us, but leading the line ain’t it, and I’m not convinced playing behind the striker is either. Holding the ball up and winning fouls when we are protecting the lead late in a game is what we should be asking him to do. We have to give Daka a whirl, or get Carranza up to speed sharpish - anything to stretch the play and get someone in behind so we aren’t relying on some magic from our wingers - such an obvious ploy that they are getting double and even triple marked.

 

I absolutely hate Wout Faes. Hate him. Never hated a city player more in my life. He’s not a good defender and there is zero justification for keeping this wantaway clown in the team over a prized asset like Nelson.

 

I like the grit we have shown, and with a couple of personnel changes I feel we can really start to click.

[Pliskin]

3 hours ago, JJohn said:

We may as well try out the U21 strikers as play Daka. He has proven he does nothing other than run around a lot. Surely we have a younger player who can do that, and who knows maybe they can do something more.

I agree, we may as well. But we know Marti won’t. 

[Jobyfox]

3 hours ago, JJohn said:

I think you are overrating Daka. What has he done since his initial exploit in Europe? Other than run around and miss shots.

Daka is sh1t, but there is a big difference between him and Ayew.

 

Daka will drag defenders around and give space to our other attackers. He will miss a lot so will have a poor conversion rate against his xG. 
 

Ayew affects the shape of the whole team, which leaves additional responsibility on others to produce the miraculous. The important thing, however, is that his xG will be so low that he won’t even get the opportunity to miss in the first place. 
 

Everyone hopes that Carranza will come good but, if he doesn’t, we reluctantly should go with Daka. I don’t think a youth player is realistic. Expecting them to come in and carry a team could destroy their confidence, although using them like Monga as an impact sub is an option. Trouble is I’m not sure any of them are ready 

[Dan]

8 hours ago, Qwerty said:

What did Fatawu do to get a yellow at 90+5?

Basically **** all. The Carranza booking was astonishing as well.

 

The referee was an absolute disgrace. They're unbelievably bad in this league.

[gerblod]

On 26/09/2025 at 22:11, Pliskin said:

West Brom were dreadful in my opinion. 

Is that a back-handed criticism of City's performance? I think, given the ins-and-outs of the close season, we're going to have to be grateful for the results the lads have achieved so far. W3, D3, L1 and 5th in the table is better than I was expecting.

It's going to be a hard slog this season and to stay in the top six will be a battle. 

Funnily enough, for the first time ever in sixty-five years of supporting, I'm feeling the sharp pain of defeat a lot less than ever before. Maybe it's because I've accepted that until Top, Rudkin and Co. eff off we're going to dwell in this mediocrity. 

[Pliskin]

19 minutes ago, gerblod said:

Is that a back-handed criticism of City's performance? I think, given the ins-and-outs of the close season, we're going to have to be grateful for the results the lads have achieved so far. W3, D3, L1 and 5th in the table is better than I was expecting.

It's going to be a hard slog this season and to stay in the top six will be a battle. 

Funnily enough, for the first time ever in sixty-five years of supporting, I'm feeling the sharp pain of defeat a lot less than ever before. Maybe it's because I've accepted that until Top, Rudkin and Co. eff off we're going to dwell in this mediocrity. 

Not really, we were poor, but I didn’t think much to West Brom at all…. Though they were a poor side, that we should have dispatched of with a degree of comfort.