Plymouth post match

[Lillehamring]

I agree - I live in an area surrounded by United and Liverpool fans and never have any problem standing up to them - I love Leicester and always will, but this week has left a sour taste like rarely felt before. As much as any reason is the thought that it is no longer our club as much as MM's.

has it ever been? can't imagine there were to many fans feeling 'involved' when someone gave dave bassett the job!

[davieG]

I agree - I live in an area surrounded by United and Liverpool fans and never have any problem standing up to them - I love Leicester and always will, but this week has left a sour taste like rarely felt before. As much as any reason is the thought that it is no longer our club as much as MM's.

I don't feel it's ever been our club I'm just disillusioned by the people that end up running it, incompetence seems to be the byword for the 'owners' of LCFC and MM has proved as big a disappointment as any. I have absolutely no confidence in his ability to find a successful manager he can work with and his talk of 20 managers to get it right proves that he has no confidence in his own ability.

[sdb]

Not many teams will win at Plymouth this season. We had a terrible run-up to this game. A point is decent enough and 1 game without a goal does not mean the world is about to end. If we make a similar amount of chances against QPR then fair enough, but we shouldn't over-react so soon. We played quiet well.

[l444ry]

I don't feel it's ever been our club I'm just disillusioned by the people that end up running it, incompetence seems to be the byword for the 'owners' of LCFC and MM has proved as big a disappointment as any. I have absolutely no confidence in his ability to find a successful manager he can work with and his talk of 20 managers to get it right proves that he has no confidence in his own ability.

100% in agreement. Just as at Portsmouth, if Leicester do get any success it will be in spite of Mandaric not because of him.

[davieG]

Not many teams will win at Plymouth this season. We had a terrible run-up to this game. A point is decent enough and 1 game without a goal does not mean the world is about to end. If we make a similar amount of chances against QPR then fair enough, but we shouldn't over-react so soon. We played quiet well.

I can see QPR being busy in the loan market in the next two weeks

[Lillehamring]

100% in agreement. Just as at Portsmouth, if Leicester do get any success it will be in spite of Mandaric not because of him.

well, that's just ever so slightly convenient....

[l444ry]

well, that's just ever so slightly convenient....

Let me explain further as you seem to have missed the point. Mandaric's money and Mandaric's decisions are two separate things. One is very useful while the other is a liabilty.

[Fez of Mahrez]

100% in agreement. Just as at Portsmouth, if Leicester do get any success it will be in spite of Mandaric not because of him.

That is utter tosh. Look at where both clubs were when he took over. To say that Portsmouth are where they are "in spite of" Mandaric is ludicrous. You can disagree with the way he does things but if it wasn't for him they wouldn't have had Harry Redknapp as manager and they wouldn't have had players like Merson, Yakubu, Stone, Todorov et al.

I can see what you're trying to say but it's a naive way of putting it.

[davieG]

100% in agreement. Just as at Portsmouth, if Leicester do get any success it will be in spite of Mandaric not because of him.

I don't think I said that! I'm sure he'll eventually settle on a relatively decent manager and we will be relatively successful and that will be because of him, his money is a double edged sword it gives him the ability to improve the playing staff but also to be cavalier with his management recruitment.

I'm just know I'm not going to enjoy the journey, well not from the none playing side of the club.

[l444ry]

That is utter tosh. Look at where both clubs were when he took over. To say that Portsmouth are where they are "in spite of" Mandaric is ludicrous. You can disagree with the way he does things but if it wasn't for him they wouldn't have had Harry Redknapp as manager and they wouldn't have had players like Merson, Yakubu, Stone, Todorov et al.

I can see what you're trying to say but it's a naive way of putting it.

Interesting that you only refer to the Redknapp era when there were so many pitiful seasons before and after him, Fez. To make eight dire managerial appointments and live to tell the tale demonstrates very clearly his money allowed him to get away with his own abysmal judgement. If he had been an ordinary common or garden chairman he would have been drummed out of Portsmouth long before he struck it lucky with Redknapp.

[davieG]

From the Timesonline

LEICESTER CITY ended a week of trauma and turmoil in an appropriately depressing manner with this dreary draw. After seeing one of their teammates suffer two cardiac arrests during a midweek game before manager Martin Allen was given the sack 24 hours later, the Leicester players plodded ponderously around Home Park as though their minds were elsewhere.

It was fortunate for Leicester that Plymouth Argyle lacked any attacking ideas of their own and were guilty of an equally pallid performance. City have their excuses after a difficult week, but chairman Milan Mandaric will want to find a replacement quickly if he wants to avoid any repeat of yesterday.

Argyle were left regretting a missed opportunity to register their second league win of the season, although the inspirational display of centre-back Marcel Seip will have pleased manager Ian Holloway.

City’s midweek Carling Cup game was abandoned at half time after Clive Clarke suffered heart failure in the dressing room. Clarke is now recovering in hospital after the prompt actions of medical staff to revive the on-loan defender.

If that was not enough to contend with for the City squad last week, they then had to cope with the dismissal of Allen after three games in charge despite the side winning 4-1 last weekend. There was not much for Leicester’s temporary management team – academy boss Jon Rudkin, coach Steve Beaglehole and goalkeeping coach Mike Stowell – to be cheerful about early on.

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, on his first Championship start of the season, was particularly a concern for the visitors in the opening period and played a part in a flowing passing move that almost unlocked the Leicester defence on eight minutes. The Hungarian Akos Buszaky found Blake, who turned neatly and teed up David Norris, but goalkeeper Marton Fulop raced from his line to save comfortably.

Blake extended Fulop into a low diving save five minutes later, while at the other end Leicester struggled to provide much of a threat to Luke McCormick, the Argyle goalkeeper.

Blake looked as though he might open the scoring on 37 minutes, but after chesting down Barry Hayles’s aerial ball forward and running to within 12 yards of goal, the former Manchester United trainee was dispossessed by a perfectly-timed tackle from Patrick Kisnorbo.

Marcel Seip did a good job of containing fellow Dutchman Mark De Vries, the Leicester centre-forward, and the Midlands side had to be content with long-range pot shots. One of those from Bruno N’Gotty, struck low from 35 yards, was only inches wide of McCormick’s right post.

But unlike Leicester’s week, the first half was generally noneventful and the crowd were most animated only when Paul Connolly, the Argyle right-back, inadvertently hit the ball straight into referee Paul Taylor’s face.

The failure to sign former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is thought to have been crucial to the breakdown in the relationship between Allen and Mandaric, and it was easy to see why the former City manager was desperate to sign a striker. After failing to carve a single significant shot on target in the first 45 minutes, it did not take Leicester long into the second half to make a change in attack.

On came Carl Cort, who Newcastle deemed good enough to pay £7m for seven years ago, in an attempt to threaten McCormick. But when the danger came to Argyle’s goal, it was from defender Gareth McAuley, who headed Iain Hume’s 58th-minute free kick over. Buszaky tested Fulop moments later when he fired a 20-yard half-volley straight at the goalkeeper.

Cort was largely anonymous except for a shimmy and a blocked shot in the closing minutes for toothless City, unrecognisable from the side that beat Watford 4-1 a week ago.

Argyle ran out of ideas and time, with the City centre-back partnership of Gareth McAuley and Patrick Kisnorbo excelling.

Star man: Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Plymouth)

Player ratings. Plymouth: McCormick 6, Connolly 6, Seip 7, Timar 6, Sawyer 6 (Hodges 70min), Norris 5, Nalis 6 (Abdou 77min), Buszaky 6, Halmosi 5, Ebanks-Blake 8, Hayles 5 (Fallon 85min)

Leicester: Fulop 7, N’Gotty 6, McAuley 7, Kisnorbo 7, Mattock 6 (Porter 51min, 6), Hume 7, Clemence 7, Sheehan 5, Wesolowski 6, Campbell 5 (Kishishev 68min), De Vries 5 (Cort 51min, 6)

[Fez of Mahrez]

Interesting that you only refer to the Redknapp era when there were so many pitiful seasons before and after him, Fez. To make eight dire managerial appointments and live to tell the tale demonstrates very clearly his money allowed him to get away with his own abysmal judgement. If he had been an ordinary common or garden chairman he would have been drummed out of Portsmouth long before he struck it lucky with Redknapp.

Yes but he wasn't an ordinary chairman, was he? He was a man with money who offered them a way out of administration. You can't deny that he is more 'miss' than 'hit' with his managerial appointments but all I'm disputing is the idea that Portsmouth gained success "in spite of" him. You may split that into two areas - financial and decision-making - but the way you said it suggested they could possibly be in the position they are now without his involvement, which I feel is untrue.

And it's much the same here. We were heading for an awful season here without him and it's clear to me from watching our league games this season that he has attracted a quality of player that we haven't had since the O'Neill days.

Let's just pray he gets the right man this time. The reports about Reid, Megson and Roeder are terrifying me.

[l444ry]

Yes but he wasn't an ordinary chairman, was he? He was a man with money who offered them a way out of administration. You can't deny that he is more 'miss' than 'hit' with his managerial appointments but all I'm disputing is the idea that Portsmouth gained success "in spite of" him. You may split that into two areas - financial and decision-making - but the way you said it suggested they could possibly be in the position they are now without his involvement, which I feel is untrue.

And it's much the same here. We were heading for an awful season here without him and it's clear to me from watching our league games this season that he has attracted a quality of player that we haven't had since the O'Neill days.

Let's just pray he gets the right man this time. The reports about Reid, Megson and Roeder are terrifying me.

As a point of interest, would your view on Mandaric change much if he did appoint one of those?

[Geo V]

There are lots of clubs attack against tough opponents every week.

That naivety is arguably what cost a very good West Brom squad promotion last season. They probably had the best squad with some real quality players like Koumas, Kamara, Ellington, in addition to the ones that are still there now like Phillips, Gera and Greening. The also had a solid looking defence with departed Davies and McShane but they had far too many attacking midfielders in the team and too dodgy an attacking formation and thats what cost them in my opinion.

I personally didnt go to yesterdays game and didn't listen to it on the radio as I was out for most of the day but from what I have read this morning, it was a bit of a shocker of a game but we apparently were solid in defence and Fulop did well. Thats where the foundations always must start and not this free flowing care-free approach that hardly ever works. We do look solid at the back and the potential is there going forward to create chances and now Marco has signed lets hope we see more creativity and also, more consistency as we have shown some great flashes of forward player already this season.

All in all, a decent point considering all the madness that has passed us this week and we are now undefeated in 4. Bring on the QPR!

[Fez of Mahrez]

The failure to sign former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is thought to have been crucial to the breakdown in the relationship between Allen and Mandaric, and it was easy to see why the former City manager was desperate to sign a striker.

Incredibly bad journalism.

[Fez of Mahrez]

As a point of interest, would your view on Mandaric change much if he did appoint one of those?

I've got to admit it would. That sort of manager is a real bugbear of mine. I have no idea how they keep getting jobs. I think it's more a problem of perception because if you could look at their records, Reid did well with Sunderland and was in charge of a basket case at Leeds, Megson did well with WBA and was in charge of a basket case at Forest while Roeder's record with Newcastle wasn't that bad overall.

I'll continue to follow us both home and away and I'll get behind the team but I won't sing any of those names in connection with our club. I'd feel like a hypocrite to do so.

My support for Mandaric has all along been based on what I saw last season and the players I had to put up with watching last season. I was always ready for ups and downs and even if it goes badly wrong I will not be made to feel wrong by I-told-you-so merchants because we were going nowhere with no hope before Mandaric came along and his detractors are largely people who have taken for granted the fact we have players like Bruno N'Gotty, Stephen Clemence and even Carl Cort now where previously we had Alan Maybury, Andy Johnson and Elvis Hammond.

[Joe.]

I was too knackered to post last night, so these were my views on the game:

Overall, pleased with the point. It's a clean sheet against a decent team.

Kisnorbo, McAuley, N'Gotty and Fulop were fantastic. It would be hard to choose a M.O.M out of that lot really.

We didn't play brilliantly, but we had good spells of passing at times.

As far as 0-0's go, it was a decent game and I enjoyed it.

[Monk]

650 miles and 2 bags of skittles later I now feel awake enough to post!

Really enjoyed the day out, at one point it looked like we were going to arrive about half time due to traffic but some cracking tunes from Fez made the traffic ease and we made it in time. Good to see quite a few off the board there, inc. JTB. Kokopops wearing his childrens size 1993 playoff final T shirt drew stares to say the least ( or maybe it was the face he was branding a hat and a massive Jamaica flag with SAPPLETON taped across it!

As for the game, it certainly wasnt a dull 0-0 draw. Could have gone either way and overall Plymouth had the better chances, kept out by some really excellent defending and goalkeeping.

Hume had a very good chance which he dragged wide. Carl Cort looked sharp when he came on but didnt see much of the ball.

For the last 20 minutes we had our backs to the wall and barely left our own half. We just totally failed to push out when needed and just put ourselves under more pressure.

Fans were ok, same idiots that were at Palace singing the same 2 songs. There was 1 milan chant which I didnt join in for. No Martin Allen chants. 1 Clive Clarke chant apparently which I didnt hear.

Eventually got home at 1.20 am after leaving Wimbledon at 6.55 am. Hardcore.

[marbelladave]

I was too knackered to post last night, so these were my views on the game:

Overall, pleased with the point. It's a clean sheet against a decent team.

Kisnorbo, McAuley, N'Gotty and Fulop were fantastic. It would be hard to choose a M.O.M out of that lot really.

We didn't play brilliantly, but we had good spells of passing at times.

As far as 0-0's go, it was a decent game and I enjoyed it.

I assume you went to the game, I was only able to listen to the radio.

Barber and Rowett commenting on an over cautious approach and a defence sitting far too deep as being real problems. This seemed to leave our front guys very isolated, hence posing little threat. Did you see it that way?

I'm asking because at Palace, a game I did see, the back 4 played very deep indeed, they gave Fulop no space to come and claim balls played into the box, so the ball was bouncing about barely 10 - 12 yards from goal.

Even worse Weso and Clemence (and, to a degree, Sheehan) sat just in front of the defence which left a huge gap to our forwards who, largely unsupported, created very little from open play.

The performance at Plymouth sounded very similar, which suggests that this over cautious attitude is to be the norm away from the Walkers which is what really worries me!

If we are looking to make any kind of a push for promotion we need to be going to places like Palace and Plymouth and looking to force a win, we won't always get the 3 points but we should not just be settling for a point from the outset!

[Monk]

I assume you went to the game, I was only able to listen to the radio.

Barber and Rowett commenting on an over cautious approach and a defence sitting far too deep as being real problems. This seemed to leave our front guys very isolated, hence posing little threat. Did you see it that way?

I'm asking because at Palace, a game I did see, the back 4 played very deep indeed, they gave Fulop no space to come and claim balls played into the box, so the ball was bouncing about barely 10 - 12 yards from goal.

Even worse Weso and Clemence (and, to a degree, Sheehan) sat just in front of the defence which left a huge gap to our forwards who, largely unsupported, created very little from open play.

The performance at Plymouth sounded very similar, which suggests that this over cautious attitude is to be the norm away from the Walkers which is what really worries me!

If we are looking to make any kind of a push for promotion we need to be going to places like Palace and Plymouth and looking to force a win, we won't always get the 3 points but we should not just be settling for a point from the outset!

Yes we sat back to much in the second half but we were not as you describe above in the first half really. I think the reason was that Rudkins obviously told them not to lose the game. The important thing at this time is that we keep a stable ship and keep our heads high. We defended deep yes, but we also defended very very well indeed. 1st clean sheet of the season you have to take some heart from that!

[Joe.]

I assume you went to the game, I was only able to listen to the radio.

Barber and Rowett commenting on an over cautious approach and a defence sitting far too deep as being real problems. This seemed to leave our front guys very isolated, hence posing little threat. Did you see it that way?

Yeah I went to the game. For the first half, we weren't particularly good going forward and we were let down in the final third.

As for the defending deep, that wasn't really true for the first half, we were caught out actually by Barry Hayles, Kisnorbo only preventing the goal with a great tackle.

They were right though, our front men were given so little to do, big long balls lumped up to De Vries which he was expected to deal with. And whenever DJ got the ball he wasted it.

[Thracian]

Yes we sat back to much in the second half but we were not as you describe above in the first half really. I think the reason was that Rudkins obviously told them not to lose the game. The important thing at this time is that we keep a stable ship and keep our heads high. We defended deep yes, but we also defended very very well indeed. 1st clean sheet of the season you have to take some heart from that!

I'm never sure about Rudkin. He was up there at the play-offs final at Sunderland and we didn't play particularly well then either.

And he certainly doesn't sound like an all-action disciple of attacking football when he speaks on the radio.

.

[Monk]

I'm never sure about Rudkin. He was up there at the play-offs final at Sunderland and we didn't play particularly well then either.

And he certainly doesn't sound like an all-action disciple of attacking football when he speaks

.

Agreed, but realistically how long will he be in charge? We still started with 3 strikers on the pitch but didnt play that much of an attacking game.

Hopefully when we are sorted with a new boss we can start playing some attacking football

[Fez of Mahrez]

Looked like Beaglehole in charge from what I could see. He was the most prominent figure on the touchline.

[l444ry]

It was a good point. No need for all this selective scapegoating!!!