The positives of Saturday's result

[marbelladave]

I think you may be missing the point of this thread.

More like deliberately avoiding it...

Apart from the Yak getting a run out and scoring a decent goal, there were no positives that can be taken from that game...

[scott_gunnell]

By the way, how are the visitng fans finding life without cunningham?

[Babylon]

More like deliberately avoiding it...

Apart from the Yak getting a run out and scoring a decent goal, there were no positives that can be taken from that game...

Creating so many chances? Dominating possession?... plenty of positives, problem is people only see the other side of it. eg Missing lots of chances.

[scott_gunnell]

More like deliberately avoiding it...

Apart from the Yak getting a run out and scoring a decent goal, there were no positives that can be taken from that game...

Surely that’s not fair!!! Most people seem to agree the defeat came down to a moment. I hear we bossed things for most of the game which surely should suggest on most occasions a victory will come? 60% possession wins most games I believe.

[Haydos]

The problem is that we do not have a player capable of dominating midfield, either technically or physically. Such a player would be ably supported by any two of our existing midfield who would excell in that role, they could be 'rotated' or one of them could be dropped to the bench, which one would depend on the particular strengths of the player brought in..

Do you not think Wellens (Who has begun to show his capabilities recently) can continue to improve and fulfil this role?

Kingy's young and needs to have a bit more swagger about him I think. He has the best footballing brain in the middle of the park but more often than not he seems to lack the arrogance he needs to assert himself.

With regards to Abe, still adjusting? I'm not sure how long you can use that His game is impressive, a complete nuisance but he needs to improve his distribution and communication.

Just my 2 cents on the midfield but going a bit off topic now.

[marbelladave]

Creating so many chances? Dominating possession?... plenty of positives, problem is people only see the other side of it. eg Missing lots of chances.

It is, and has been for some time, my view that although we may dominate possession our attacking play is way too slow to be really effective, we get the ball to our strikers often enough and in the box these can be considered 'chances'. It is my contention that by the time the ball is played in the defence is set, our strikers well marked and often flat footed, the 'chances' thus created are fleeting and difficult to take which is why we score so few goals.

This has been the issue for most of the season, particularly away from home and I do not see it improving, so no I am not seeing any positives.

Surely that's not fair!!! Most people seem to agree the defeat came down to a moment. I hear we bossed things for most of the game which surely should suggest on most occasions a victory will come? 60% possession wins most games I believe.

Once again I have to say this is not a one off, conceding when we are 'bossing' the game happens all to often, both home and away, it is an issue that is easily addressed but I see no sign that anything is being done.

Once again I have to say that I am not being negative, I think we are just a player or a tactical switch away from being a very good side, so I am in that sense very positive...

[marbelladave]

Do you not think Wellens (Who has begun to show his capabilities recently) can continue to improve and fulfil this role?

Kingy's young and needs to have a bit more swagger about him I think. He has the best footballing brain in the middle of the park but more often than not he seems to lack the arrogance he needs to assert himself.

With regards to Abe, still adjusting? I'm not sure how long you can use that His game is impressive, a complete nuisance but he needs to improve his distribution and communication.

Just my 2 cents on the midfield but going a bit off topic now.

Wellens has improved considerably over the las few months, but is he strong enough to really dominate?

If he is then a tactical swich is all we need, give him the pivotal playmaker role, get him further forward and encourage him to get the ball to the front men more quickly, King and Abe should play deeper and give the center backs some cover, something they clearly need at this time.

Otherwise we need to bring in a more dominant player around which our existing midfielders can play.

[cc_star]

Wellens has improved considerably over the las few months, but is he strong enough to really dominate?

If he is then a tactical swich is all we need, give him the pivotal playmaker role, get him further forward and encourage him to get the ball to the front men more quickly, King and Abe should play deeper and give the center backs some cover, something they clearly need at this time.

Otherwise we need to bring in a more dominant player around which our existing midfielders can play.

Wellens is getting more and more immense as the team becomes more & more organised, the way him & Abe dominated ManCity's midfield shows just what they're capable of. King scores goals playing him deeper when he arguably contributes very little else to the team would render him pointless IMO.

Perhaps Wellens & Abe should shoot more, but arguably they'll then be taking the chance away from someone better placed. Although I do know what you mean about having a single dominating midfielder, it seem that we utilise Wellens & Abe in a role that was accomplished by someone like Neil Lennon on his own... As it stands though I think other areas of the team need improving before they're even considered.

[marbelladave]

Wellens is getting more and more immense as the team becomes more & more organised, the way him & Abe dominated ManCity's midfield shows just what they're capable of. King scores goals playing him deeper when he arguably contributes very little else to the team would render him pointless IMO.

Perhaps Wellens & Abe should shoot more, but arguably they'll then be taking the chance away from someone better placed. Although I do know what you mean about having a single dominating midfielder, it seem that we utilise Wellens & Abe in a role that was accomplished by someone like Neil Lennon on his own... As it stands though I think other areas of the team need improving before they're even considered.

The problem is that unlike you I do not see us becoming 'more & more organised', that is very much the point!

We had lots of possession and largely 'bossed' the game at Bristol, yet lost 2-0. That was back in November and on saturday we had lots of possession and largely 'bossed' the game against the bottom team in the division yet still failed to take 3 points. We are not moving forward and I see no positives in that.

King is a strange player, who does all his best work in the box, both ours and theirs. As we saw under Pearson he is a fine defender in our own area and I think our central defenders badly miss the covering and support he provided last season. Playing him further forward is the real waste, not only do you lose his defensive contribution but he is not a creative player in forward positions. In fact he rarely gets involved in the build up and hardly ever does something that is going to make chances for our forward players. His goalscoring suffers too, as the further forward he plays, the easier he is to pick up and the harder it is for him to score. He is at his best arriving in the box late and at pace and that is when he gets his goals, he can do this from deep, no problem.

The point that it takes Wellens and Abe to do one players job is very much to the point and the reason we always seem to be a man short in midfield. You have clearly identified the problem yet seem unprepared to grasp it and deal with it, until we do I do not feel that we will see any great improvement in our play.

[cc_star]

The problem is that unlike you I do not see us becoming 'more & more organised', that is very much the point!

We had lots of possession and largely 'bossed' the game at Bristol, yet lost 2-0. That was back in November and on saturday we had lots of possession and largely 'bossed' the game against the bottom team in the division yet still failed to take 3 points. We are not moving forward and I see no positives in that.

King is a strange player, who does all his best work in the box, both ours and theirs. As we saw under Pearson he is a fine defender in our own area and I think our central defenders badly miss the covering and support he provided last season. Playing him further forward is the real waste, not only do you lose his defensive contribution but he is not a creative player in forward positions. In fact he rarely gets involved in the build up and hardly ever does something that is going to make chances for our forward players. His goalscoring suffers too, as the further forward he plays, the easier he is to pick up and the harder it is for him to score. He is at his best arriving in the box late and at pace and that is when he gets his goals, he can do this from deep, no problem.

The point that it takes Wellens and Abe to do one players job is very much to the point and the reason we always seem to be a man short in midfield. You have clearly identified the problem yet seem unprepared to grasp it and deal with it, until we do I do not feel that we will see any great improvement in our play.

In the two games you mentioned there is the fact we progressed from a 2-0 defeat to an unlucky not to win 1-1 draw even in the scoreline that's surely progress?

Anyway, my accepting the point that perhaps Abe & Wellens are using two people to do one worldclass person's job is as about as far as we can go, to improve on that is going to take someone of Neil Lennon/Roy Keane/Patrick Viera's (when he was good, not now obviously) ability and they only come around once every how long? and how much would they cost, and what would the chance be of them coming to a mid-table Championship club?

You seem to think the next evolution of our side is to replace Wellens & Abe with someone (who probably doesn't exist) so we can switch to a 4-4-2 when that is a formation which offer offers very little flexibility in today's game where nearly all teams play 4-5-1 or a variation of it (4-3-3 or 4-4-1-1) I don't think there are midfielders around anymore who single-handedly grasp the game in the way that the players I've mentioned used to because all sides flood the midfield and play with either only 1 recognised forward or with two forwards but one of them who drops right back to only play a 'link role'

I seriously think there's far more wrong with our side (central defensive partnership needs work, plenty of work on the training pitch, Naughton sometimes needs to be reminded of his defensive responsibilities and although Weale is doing OK, he can be improved on) than a midfield which is doing a damn fine job of bossing games, creating chances and getting back and forward in numbers and generally seems to be a doing a really good job in most peoples minds.

[DanTheFox07]

I think sven is under a lot more pressure than all of think, let`s put things into perspective! our pitch was very poor after man city game and sven has asked for them to relay it and the owners have asked if it really needs to be done, sven told them that it would and now our owners have spent over £100,000 relaying our pitch and getting yakubu on big wages! to me this sends out a clear message that they want sven to get us promoted. So I believe that sven will be under a lot more pressure this year to deliever results. But I look at things postively, yeah we drew to a poor side, but we didn`t lose and dominated the game with only the post denying us the win really? hopefully when vassell and yakubu start playing together were gonna see a more clinical attack

[chavdonk]

The 6/1we currently are to be promoted, I'd have taken at the start of the season.

Another couple of decent loanees in should put us in a decent position for a promotion push.

We were 16/1 at the start of the season to gain promotion

[marbelladave]

In the two games you mentioned there is the fact we progressed from a 2-0 defeat to an unlucky not to win 1-1 draw even in the scoreline that's surely progress?

Anyway, my accepting the point that perhaps Abe & Wellens are using two people to do one worldclass person's job is as about as far as we can go, to improve on that is going to take someone of Neil Lennon/Roy Keane/Patrick Viera's (when he was good, not now obviously) ability and they only come around once every how long? and how much would they cost, and what would the chance be of them coming to a mid-table Championship club?

You seem to think the next evolution of our side is to replace Wellens & Abe with someone (who probably doesn't exist) so we can switch to a 4-4-2 when that is a formation which offer offers very little flexibility in today's game where nearly all teams play 4-5-1 or a variation of it (4-3-3 or 4-4-1-1) I don't think there are midfielders around anymore who single-handedly grasp the game in the way that the players I've mentioned used to because all sides flood the midfield and play with either only 1 recognised forward or with two forwards but one of them who drops right back to only play a 'link role'

I seriously think there's far more wrong with our side (central defensive partnership needs work, plenty of work on the training pitch, Naughton sometimes needs to be reminded of his defensive responsibilities and although Weale is doing OK, he can be improved on) than a midfield which is doing a damn fine job of bossing games, creating chances and getting back and forward in numbers and generally seems to be a doing a really good job in most peoples minds.

Score wise it might have been a progression, but performance wise, I think not.

Lennon was a fine player but bracketing him with Keane and Viera is stretching it somewhat.

Really I am making two points,

1) Our midfield is too samey with all three players doing many of the same things.

2) Our midfield lacks presence both technically and physically.

You appear to understand both these points and at least to a degree accept them but you will not take the next logical step and do something about it as it would involve real change.

They may 'boss' games, but the chanches they create are not clear cut (see earlier posts) and their support for our backline, particularly the central defenders, is negligeable.

Not good enough by half in my opinion!

[scott_gunnell]

It is, and has been for some time, my view that although we may dominate possession our attacking play is way too slow to be really effective, we get the ball to our strikers often enough and in the box these can be considered 'chances'. It is my contention that by the time the ball is played in the defence is set, our strikers well marked and often flat footed, the 'chances' thus created are fleeting and difficult to take which is why we score so few goals.

This has been the issue for most of the season, particularly away from home and I do not see it improving, so no I am not seeing any positives.

Once again I have to say this is not a one off, conceding when we are 'bossing' the game happens all to often, both home and away, it is an issue that is easily addressed but I see no sign that anything is being done.

Once again I have to say that I am not being negative, I think we are just a player or a tactical switch away from being a very good side, so I am in that sense very positive...

Another fair point and yes I have to say after chatting about it I am more on your way of thinking now. Only thing I will say is that the possession is good from Leicester on the whole, therefore once Sven gets the team on full concentration for 90 minutes it should mean away victories. FINGERS CROSS anyway ) Nice to debate with someone on here without being called a tosser. .

[scott_gunnell]

I think sven is under a lot more pressure than all of think, let`s put things into perspective! our pitch was very poor after man city game and sven has asked for them to relay it and the owners have asked if it really needs to be done, sven told them that it would and now our owners have spent over £100,000 relaying our pitch and getting yakubu on big wages! to me this sends out a clear message that they want sven to get us promoted. So I believe that sven will be under a lot more pressure this year to deliever results. But I look at things postively, yeah we drew to a poor side, but we didn`t lose and dominated the game with only the post denying us the win really? hopefully when vassell and yakubu start playing together were gonna see a more clinical attack

I would defiantly agree that Sven is under massive pressure but Sven has said on many occasions he prefers being in the ‘pressure cooker of football’. To be fair the owners are spending big money and leaving Sven to get on with it. So with football being the way it is today, Sven took on the job knowing the target and the pressure. So he is under pressure and I would agree he should be.

Sven coped as manager of Lazio and as Sven said, the Italian Media are worse than ours when a big team loses a game “They kill you” he said. Being manager of England didn’t crack him despite his private life invasion and losing to Northern Ireland and getting ripped apart for it in the papers. If he can handle that lot then he can handle the Leicester Mercury if they start to slate him .

I would say that so far it’s a fair job over his 14 league matches. Once he plugs the gaps here and there which should hopeful sort the away results out, I can’t see why Leicester won’t reach the playoffs.

Maybe Leicester will win the FA Cup. That would be nice. Hehe. Wake me up please

[scott_gunnell]

Hey, one thing that I would most of you agree on is that it’s good to have rich owners and a manager with 3 doubles in different countries.

Let the good times for your club roll on.

[YAK]

Yes there is a lot of positives to take out of the game baby elvis like a great debut goal for the yak and hopefully it won't be his last! Who reckons he will stay on?

[Kitchandro]

Yes there is a lot of positives to take out of the game baby elvis like a great debut goal for the yak and hopefully it won't be his last! Who reckons he will stay on?

Depends whether we go up or not.

[YAK]

Depends whether we go up or not.

Hopefully he will be a great signing

[Kitchandro]

Hopefully he will be a great signing

[ajthefox]

Score wise it might have been a progression, but performance wise, I think not.

Lennon was a fine player but bracketing him with Keane and Viera is stretching it somewhat.

Really I am making two points,

1) Our midfield is too samey with all three players doing many of the same things.

2) Our midfield lacks presence both technically and physically.

You appear to understand both these points and at least to a degree accept them but you will not take the next logical step and do something about it as it would involve real change.

They may 'boss' games, but the chanches they create are not clear cut (see earlier posts) and their support for our backline, particularly the central defenders, is negligeable.

Not good enough by half in my opinion!

This is a big point and something people are overlooking.

Apart from the sitter king missed which was down to a pass from Howard of all people, we didn't really create anything that clear cut on saturday, and when your goal scoring record is hardly great, you need to do more.

As saturday proved, we can't rely on king to come up from nowhere and poke one home every time we need a goal.

[shailen]

Positive - we didnt lose

Negative - we should have won

End of

[scott_gunnell]

Positive - we didnt lose

Negative - we should have won

End of

I think you should have said,

Positive - we didnt lose

Negative - we should have won

Now lets have a pint )