Wellens

[CKB]

Very poor today, he's on borrowed time surely? If other players have been booted out due to bad performances then Wellens has to be next or another bad game away at least..

[LCFC BEAST]

Not sure if this has been said already but....

[ScouseFox]

Wikipedia doesn't lie.

[CKB]

Wikipedia doesn't lie.

The whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me god!

[Guest Col city fan]

Wikipedia doesn't lie.

yeah it does

[CKB]

yeah it does

Wikipedia will see you in court!

[Guest Col city fan]

Wikipedia will see you in court!

bloody hell! cant you take a joke!!

[cc_star]

Jesus Christ

Fernandes was passed by as he has been quite a few games since Sven made him the current square peg in the round hole.

Yuki did nothing except run around

King was as ineffective as he has been this season since Sven changed things in the summer.

Wellens yet again was required to do everything, tackle back, do simple lay offs & killer passes

Until other midfielders start weighing in with a performance, Wellens will fall short of his own very high standards.

Since some improvement has been made in defence (although it was carved open a couple of times, but thanks to their 3 forwards being injured didn't capitalise on it) I hope the midfield receives some attention, we have too many similar players & no proper ball winner who could allow passing playets like Wellens to shine

[CKB]

bloody hell! cant you take a joke!!

Oh dear....

Whoosh and head spring to mind

[Guest Col city fan]

Oh dear....

Whoosh and head spring to mind

eh?

[CKB]

eh?

Do i really have to explain it? really??

Right

A: I was actually joking

B: It went right over your head

C: Hence the whoosh and head comment

Lesson over, i expect to have homework on my desk at 9 tomorrow morning!

[Guest Col city fan]

Do i really have to explain it? really??

Right

A: I was actually joking

B: It went right over your head

C: Hence the whoosh and head comment

Lesson over, i expect to have homework on my desk at 9 tomorrow morning!

hehe cheeky bastad...

[CKB]

hehe cheeky bastad...

You had a mare it's ok, even i do from time to time! ha

[RizLCFC]

I thought Yuki did his job quite well, he tracked back every time they came forward, fair enough he didn't have the best of games but compared to Wellens, King and Fernandes, Yuki did a decent job. I like him in the side in the holding role.

[The Doctor]

Not really paid close attention - are Wikipedia sue-ing Wellens?

[RizLCFC]

The thing what frustrates me with Wellens is he plays like he's Xavi or Fabregas, trying 'Hollywood' passes and crosses all the time, little flicks and back heels instead of a normal pass and this often results in him giving away possession. If he just stuck to the normal stuff rather than fancy he'd be a pivotal figure in the midfield.

[marbelladave]

Then Beckford can help make these type of balls possible by improving his movement (he doesn't have to hare around, just show some nous and intelligence with it). A lot of our long balls today occurred because our midfield had no forward option after a period of possession and ended up laying the ball back to the CB's/Kasper.

I agree that Beckford will do well given the 'service' however, it's not going to come on a silver platter for him because we don't attack with pace and make sufficient space to exploit him. He'll need to adapt his game accordingly.

Exactly, we played tippy tappy in our own half until the Cardiff defence was well set, then launched long balls forward in the strange belief that Beckford would be able to do something effective. Total bollocks, you can run about s much as you like but if the ball is hit from 40 yards into a set defence, you have no chance.

It's not beckford who needs to improve his game, it's our bloody awful midfield.......

This is all crap... Wellens is a victim of Sven's silly system.

He's the one player in our team currently who can control a game with his vision and his precise passing. Its a shame to see such a talented footballer reduced to the spectacle we saw today because he had no runners out wide to give the ball to.

I fear that we may have to drop our most talented passer of the ball to comply with the game that Sven is insisting on playing. As for Johnson... who of you really knows whether he's gonna be the answer to anything? He's getting fitter but is definately still carrying!

Who's gonna be blamed next? King for not scoring the goals he got last year? Vassell for not trying hard enough? Dyer cos he's apparently got a crap cross?

Wellens is not having his best season granted... but the stick he gets on here is ridiculous - I personally thought Fernandes today was absolutely fooking gash! why not have a pop at him too?

How about blaming Sven for filling the team with defensive midfielders?

now theres a thought?.....

If Wellens has a role it is as a playmaker in forward positions, but personally I do not think him anything like good enough. His attempts at 'quarterbacking' from a holding midfield role are laughable.

The problem remains that our midfield players are in the wrong positions and simply do not know the roles they are asked to play. King may score goals but is not a 'creative' player, so giving him the pivotal attacking midfield role is plain daft. Fernandez is a holding midfielder of Premiership quality so we play him virtually on the wing, Abe looked decent on the right last week but strayed inside far to much today all eminently fixable but we show no signs of doing so.

you dont watch the same games as I do then... last years player of the season? poor performance after poor performance? yep....

He was 'player of the season' for a decent spell against poor opposition in January and February, the moment we came up against the better sides in March and April he was nowhere to be seen. A flat track bully on his better days, a liability on others.

Jesus Christ

Fernandes was passed by as he has been quite a few games since Sven made him the current square peg in the round hole.

Yuki did nothing except run around

King was as ineffective as he has been this season since Sven changed things in the summer.

Wellens yet again was required to do everything, tackle back, do simple lay offs & killer passes

Until other midfielders start weighing in with a performance, Wellens will fall short of his own very high standards.

Since some improvement has been made in defence (although it was carved open a couple of times, but thanks to their 3 forwards being injured didn't capitalise on it) I hope the midfield receives some attention, we have too many similar players & no proper ball winner who could allow passing playets like Wellens to shine

Interesting take on our midfield woes, enough truth in the analysis to make you think for a moment but the idea that Wellens is in any way the solution to our issues is hopelessly misguided.

[Fox92]

Jesus Christ

Fernandes was passed by as he has been quite a few games since Sven made him the current square peg in the round hole.

Yuki did nothing except run around

King was as ineffective as he has been this season since Sven changed things in the summer.

Wellens yet again was required to do everything, tackle back, do simple lay offs & killer passes

Until other midfielders start weighing in with a performance, Wellens will fall short of his own very high standards.

Since some improvement has been made in defence (although it was carved open a couple of times, but thanks to their 3 forwards being injured didn't capitalise on it) I hope the midfield receives some attention, we have too many similar players & no proper ball winner who could allow passing playets like Wellens to shine

I really do agree with that. People need to look at this, this is what you call looking deeper into someone's game.

[Guest ttfn]

I really do agree with that. People need to look at this, this is what you call looking deeper into someone's game.

Well the post you're commenting on mentions we need ball-winners. We played 2 yesterday in Yuki and Fernandes.

I think we're playing the wrong formation for Wellens (and King for that matter). Sven tried to go 4-3-3 at the start of the season, a system which worked well for us last year, but we don't have the wide players to carry out the job effectively.

But if Wellens can't adapt to playing in the holding role in a diamond midfield (and I've seen little evidence he can, allowing Lallana and Whittingham the freedom of the pitch in 2 of our last 4 league games), then he has to be dropped. There is a general consensus on the forums that we have found a formation that suits us, and perhaps that means that the likes of Wellens are just going to have to wait until we either go 4-3-3 again or there are injuries.

[marbelladave]

Well the post you're commenting on mentions we need ball-winners. We played 2 yesterday in Yuki and Fernandes.

I think we're playing the wrong formation for Wellens (and King for that matter). Sven tried to go 4-3-3 at the start of the season, a system which worked well for us last year, but we don't have the wide players to carry out the job effectively.

But if Wellens can't adapt to playing in the holding role in a diamond midfield (and I've seen little evidence he can, allowing Lallana and Whittingham the freedom of the pitch in 2 of our last 4 league games), then he has to be dropped. There is a general consensus on the forums that we have found a formation that suits us, and perhaps that means that the likes of Wellens are just going to have to wait until we either go 4-3-3 again or there are injuries.

Disagree entirely, the diamond is not working for us at all, we have played a little better in recent games but in my view this has been because several of our better players have stepped up, hovever briefly and made a difference.

Against Forest it was Fernandez and Danns whose energy gave us a 2 goal lead, Nugent, Vassell, Abe, Peltier and Mills (at last) have all looked at times and this has been good enough on a number of occasions in recent weeks.

Yesterday we played a diamond yet our midfield was as poor as at any time this season, everyone had a poor day and we had no proper system or organisation to fall back on.

I don't mind us playing the diamond, but at least get our best players in their best position, to me this means Fernandez in the holding role and Danns at the forward tip, if Abe plays with the discipline he showed against Brighton then he can start on the right. No idea who to play on the left though.

Personally, and I really hate saying this, I think we are best suited to a flat 4-4-2, with Fernandez and King in the middle and Abe and Danns in the (not so) wide positions. Peltier and Konchesky have to get forward to provide the width so Fernandez and King in particular have to cover, Beckford leads the line with Nugent / Vassell playing off him.

Someting like this;

Schmiechel

Peltier--Mills--Bamba--Konchesky

Fernandez--King

Abe-----------------------Danns

Nugent--Beckford

[martyn]

I really do agree with that. People need to look at this, this is what you call looking deeper into someone's game.

Cut the psuedo football intellectual rubbish. Using other midfielders as an excuse for Wellens is not not looking deeper into his game, its staring straight ahead with some patented, Richie branded blinkers.

[davieG]

merc

Richie Wellens believes Leicester City must become more ruthless in front of goal if they are to convert good performances into victories.

City picked up a rare and valuable point after a 0-0 draw at the Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday, but the visitors created enough good goalscoring opportunities to have snatched all three points.

Lee Peltier had a header cleared off the line, while Darius Vassell struck the bar with another header late on as City finished strongly.

There were numerous other opportunities and Wellens also felt City should have had a penalty for a tug on Andy King when he was bearing down on goal in the close stages, but the Bluebirds held on.

City face another tough away trip tomorrow at in-form Middlesbrough, and Wellens said they must start converting their chances.

"We should have probably won (against Cardiff)," said Wellens.

"If one of those chances had gone in, it would have made it more comfortable for us.

"We should have had a penalty. I was right next to Kingy and I tried to play him in, but the lad was quite clever by tugging his shirt because he had to lean back when he shot.

"I think, if the referee had been in the right position, he would have seen it, but it didn't go for us.

"We knew that they would put us under a little pressure in the second half because you don't go to an away ground and not get under some pressure, but I thought we withstood that well and we could have won the game.

"If you go to a place like Cardiff and go a goal ahead, it makes it so much easier.

"You can start to knock the ball around and grow in confidence.

"When the game is on a knife-edge everyone is scared because they don't want to be the one who gives the ball away, but we battled away and not many teams will leave there with a point.

"I think we put three or four crosses into the box and we really should have taken those chances, and nicked the win."

Wellens said the fact City were now unbeaten in five games and had kept consecutive clean sheets in the Championship showed they were making progress.

"If you look at our last five games, the first half at Barnsley we were poor and we hold our hands up," he said.

"In the last 20 minutes against Southampton, you have to give them credit because they played really well, but now we have been comfortable in most situations in games. That is a sign of we are doing well."

Wellens added: "Those two home games we lost, against Reading and Bristol City, knocked us back, but if we had nicked one of those we would be in the top six now.

"We have had a bad start but we are now slowly clawing that back into a decent start."

[Ric Flair]

After the dogs abuse i've given Wellens these last few days, I wonder what the chances of him ripping one in tomorrow night? It's worth a ten spot to cloud over any embarrassment that comes my way.

[Guest Col city fan]

After the dogs abuse i've given Wellens these last few days, I wonder what the chances of him ripping one in tomorrow night? It's worth a ten spot to cloud over any embarrassment that comes my way.

To be fair you have hammered Richie. People accuse myself of being overly negative but rarely do I single out individual players for mass criticism. In the case of Wellens, unfounded IMO and I hope he plays tomorrow. He's not having his best season but, with the exception of Sol and Kasper, who really is?Wellens is now, and has been a good player at this level... I'd look at the reasons 'why' he's not performing at his best

To accuse any player of being 'crap' is a piece of piss to do..to analyse the reasons why they are underperforming requires more thought and effort.

[Fox92]

After the dogs abuse i've given Wellens these last few days, I wonder what the chances of him ripping one in tomorrow night? It's worth a ten spot to cloud over any embarrassment that comes my way.

To be fair you did give him abuse, as you said, which I thought was abit unfair seeing as the other midfielders did nothing more. Wellens has been a good player at this level for years, and some Premier League teams have looked at him, I mean he rejected Wolves to join Leicester, and all the games he has played in, I think the Cardiff game was his worse performance like most of the team.

As much as I love Richie though, the chances of him scoring against Middlesbrough are probably slim