LCFC 2-1 Stoke, post-match thread

[Chelmofox]

7 hours ago, Pliskin said:

Most of that defence has eased this league before, and are international players. 
 

Player for player on paper this squad is still better than Stoke’s. 
 

It’s been said a million times that this side has glaring fragility, but int he same breath it’s got more than enough to be in the top cluster of teams in this league. 
 

What we’re seeing now is tactical problems, Marti’s philosophy isn’t working.

The general consensus was that we were going to get thumped by Stoke. They huffed and puffed and probably deserved a draw, but there are games we deserved more than we got.  It seems there is no making anyone happy even when we graft out a result. I would argue Stoke lost yesterday because they tried to play their own game and didnt exploit our weaknesses enough.  Majority of their chances came from us dicking about.  If they had pressed Vestergaard and Faes more they would have had more chances. Actually don't think Robbins did his homework on us enough, or he felt as a top 3 side they should come and play to their strengths rather exploit frailties. 

 

A take major issue with your first point:

 

7 hours ago, Pliskin said:

Most of that defence has eased this league before, and are international players.

 

First half of last season, this defense did well. 2nd half it got worked out, which is why we dropped points alarmingly and we worked out by lesser team.  

 

But Vestergaard is NOT a good defender. He got rinsed by Scotland only a few days a go and has been a defensive liability for years. He is the only international in our defense who gets some sort of regular game time for his country. Faes no longer features, Okoli fringe at best, and RIccy / Thomas as no where near international level.

 

Worth pointing out that after starting this season well, Riccy has been really poor. Worryingly way off the pace.

 

This is not the same defence Enzo had in that 1st half of last championship season.

[westernpark]

5 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

The general consensus was that we were going to get thumped by Stoke. They huffed and puffed and probably deserved a draw, but there are games we deserved more than we got.  It seems there is no making anyone happy even when we graft out a result. I would argue Stoke lost yesterday because they tried to play their own game and didnt exploit our weaknesses enough.  Majority of their chances came from us dicking about.  If they had pressed Vestergaard and Faes more they would have had more chances. Actually don't think Robbins did his homework on us enough, or he felt as a top 3 side they should come and play to their strengths rather exploit frailties. 

 

A take major issue with your first point:

 

 

First half of last season, this defense did well. 2nd half it got worked out, which is why we dropped points alarmingly and we worked out by lesser team.  

 

But Vestergaard is NOT a good defender. He got rinsed by Scotland only a few days a go and has been a defensive liability for years. He is the only international in our defense who gets some sort of regular game time for his country. Faes no longer features, Okoli fringe at best, and RIccy / Thomas as no where near international level.

 

Worth pointing out that after starting this season well, Riccy has been really poor. Worryingly way off the pace.

 

This is not the same defence Enzo had in that 1st half of last championship season.

I think at this level Vestegaard is a good defender. Obviously issues with pace aside.

 

I think you assessment of Stoke yesterday is bang on.

Edited 23 November 2025 by westernpark

[LCFCJohn]

3 minutes ago, westernpark said:

I think at this level Vestegaard is a good defender. Obviously issues with pace aside.

 

I think you assessment of Stoke yesterday is bang on.

He really isn’t! People are blinded by his ability to pick a pass. He is slow, has a lack of awareness, can’t win a header against guys a foot shorter than him and gets outmuscled by the same guys a foot smaller than him. He has been responsible for a number of goals against already.

 

Even the Stoke goal yesterday, the scorer had a free header from exactly the spot the left centre back should be covering and Vestergaard was nowhere to be seen.

Edited 23 November 2025 by LCFCJohn

[Roosters boots]

Anyone else hear “rocking all over the world” blaring out on the way out the ground ? The new announcer needs to stop that cringe 😬 

[JimJams]

6 minutes ago, Roosters boots said:

Anyone else hear “rocking all over the world” blaring out on the way out the ground ? The new announcer needs to stop that cringe 😬 

But he likes it....

[Pliskin]

1 hour ago, Chelmofox said:

The general consensus was that we were going to get thumped by Stoke. They huffed and puffed and probably deserved a draw, but there are games we deserved more than we got.  It seems there is no making anyone happy even when we graft out a result. I would argue Stoke lost yesterday because they tried to play their own game and didnt exploit our weaknesses enough.  Majority of their chances came from us dicking about.  If they had pressed Vestergaard and Faes more they would have had more chances. Actually don't think Robbins did his homework on us enough, or he felt as a top 3 side they should come and play to their strengths rather exploit frailties. 

 

A take major issue with your first point:

 

 

First half of last season, this defense did well. 2nd half it got worked out, which is why we dropped points alarmingly and we worked out by lesser team.  

 

But Vestergaard is NOT a good defender. He got rinsed by Scotland only a few days a go and has been a defensive liability for years. He is the only international in our defense who gets some sort of regular game time for his country. Faes no longer features, Okoli fringe at best, and RIccy / Thomas as no where near international level.

 

Worth pointing out that after starting this season well, Riccy has been really poor. Worryingly way off the pace.

 

This is not the same defence Enzo had in that 1st half of last championship season.

I don’t think thumped, because they’re just another poor championship outfit, I thought we would lose purely because of the system Marti deploys really hinders our attack..

 

The team look to me as if they don’t know what they’re being asked to do, we play when it’s not practical too, and then try to be direct when it’s not practical too, we never seem to get it right. The two goals however actually came from two breaks of play in the transition, and for me it highlighted how easily we can actually breach an opposition with the pace and ability we have on the counter. 
 

Id be happy if we were genuinely dog shit, but as easy as it is to dislike this team, there’s still enough quality within it to not be where we are. We should be competing at the top end of the table. 
 

I do respectfully disagree with the notion of the defence. Vestegaard, Faes and Ricardo all operated at this level perfectly fine at this level last time, and it is the same by and large, so there really are no excuses, I wouldn’t say they were sussed out, I think it was a combination of Enzo’s stubbornness and naivety on his set up that caused us to tail off rather than the individual ability of the players. 
 

There’s definitely fragilities within the team and potentially a hangover from last season, but surely a half decent coach would understand this, and deploy their tactics in a way that benefits the team? The threats we do have in the team, we don’t base our play around them, every time Fatawu and Mavididi get the ball, the game is at a walking pace, they’re having to generate their own momentum all of the time, and it’s one of the reasons neither of them are offering any consistency, they’re being expected to create something from nothing all of the time….. 

 

We’ve got to start looking at playing a slightly different way, yesterday proves that we can play through teams in less passes, and we can be effective in the transition, rather than triangles in our own half that eventually go back to the goalkeeper…..

 

I know all of the issues are down to Top and Rudkin, but that isn’t changing, and we can’t make wholesale changes to the squad either, because of them, so options are fairly limited… I’m not naive enough to think that what I think is actually the gospel truth it isn’t, we’re treading water, and it’s starting to look like a sink or swim situation…..

[Permafrost]

12 minutes ago, Roosters boots said:

Anyone else hear “rocking all over the world” blaring out on the way out the ground ? The new announcer needs to stop that cringe 😬 

Yep, sounded bloody awful on those tinny speakers. Tinpot on several levels.

Coincidence that Ric Flair mentioned ‘status quo’ in a post last week? 🧐

Probably be playing ‘Down Down’ come April.

[ajthefox]

3 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

He really isn’t! People are blinded by his ability to pick a pass. He is slow, has a lack of awareness, can’t win a header against guys a foot shorter than him and gets outmuscled by the same guys a foot smaller than him. He has been responsible for a number of goals against already.

 

Even the Stoke goal yesterday, the scorer had a free header from exactly the spot the left centre back should be covering and Vestergaard was nowhere to be seen.

The man was between Vestergaard and Faes, and then went behind Faes to our left. Quite odd to suggest Vestergaard is at fault for it and not Faes.

[LCFCJohn]

6 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

The man was between Vestergaard and Faes, and then went behind Faes to our left. Quite odd to suggest Vestergaard is at fault for it and not Faes.

I never apportioned blame solely on Vestergaard. I commented that as the left sided centre back, when you look at where the goal was scored from, that is the space occupied by the left centre half/left back. So you have to look at Thomas. You have to look at Faes as he was closer. But this also means Vestergaard was out of position (as was Faes).

 

It was all of them who didn’t deal with it.

[murphy]

19 hours ago, Long Eaton Fox said:

How can you comment if you haven't seen any of the game. I find ignorance like this incredible.

I've never been to the North pole but I know it's cold 

[ClaphamFox]

Apologies if it's already been mentioned, but I just been made aware that we've lost the second half 1-0 in our past five consecutive home games. Quite a record, that 

Edited 24 November 2025 by ClaphamFox

[oldbluefox]

4 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Apologies if it's already been mentioned, but I just been made aware that we've lost the second half 1-0 in our past five consecutive home games. Quite a record, that 

Tbh I look at other teams and they run around like butchers' dogs for the full 90 minutes whereas we look like we can't wait for the whistle to blow cos we've run out of steam. For a long time now I have wondered just how fit our teams are. With the up to date training facilities we have I think it's fair to expect better unless they are all sat in the coffee shop.

I will never forget Tielemans huffing and puffing to get back in his last season here and being overtaken by the ref!!! That was pretty disgraceful in my book.

[LCFCJohn]

4 minutes ago, oldbluefox said:

Tbh I look at other teams and they run around like butchers' dogs for the full 90 minutes whereas we look like we can't wait for the whistle to blow cos we've run out of steam. For a long time now I have wondered just how fit our teams are. With the up to date training facilities we have I think it's fair to expect better unless they are all sat in the coffee shop.

I will never forget Tielemans huffing and puffing to get back in his last season here and being overtaken by the ref!!! That was pretty disgraceful in my book.

Rodgers legacy that!

 

Our short comings are so obvious and so easy to fix, it’s incredible that we haven’t done so. Obviously all stems back to Aiyawatt who has allowed what Pearson built, where we were leaders in areas of sports science and fitness, scouting and psychology, to be pulled apart. 
 

It feels arrogant that we don’t think fitness is important, we don’t think a strong mentality it’s important. It doesn’t matter if our players are perceived to be superior (which they aren’t by any measure other than their pay packets), these are the reasons nearly every team we have played has looked better than us. 

[ourla]

I feel we are still papering over the cracks to be honest.

 

Nice to be away from the relegation zone though and hopefully the team is gaining some confidence from getting a couple of results.

[1972 Fox]

7 hours ago, ourla said:

I feel we are still papering over the cracks to be honest.

100% this.

[st albans fox]

11 hours ago, oldbluefox said:

Tbh I look at other teams and they run around like butchers' dogs for the full 90 minutes whereas we look like we can't wait for the whistle to blow cos we've run out of steam. For a long time now I have wondered just how fit our teams are. With the up to date training facilities we have I think it's fair to expect better unless they are all sat in the coffee shop.

I will never forget Tielemans huffing and puffing to get back in his last season here and being overtaken by the ref!!! That was pretty disgraceful in my book.

he went to villa and emery told him to lose weight 

didn’t pick him for two months, he looked like an athlete yesterday and that’s off the back of not being match fit after an injury.  

 

agree 100% with you

we never have any intensity for more than one phase of play