Leicester 1-2 Crystal Palace Post Match Thread

[kingfox]

Kingfox we have scored in every game and some key players had off days yesterday ...it happens! NP said the same and with all due respect i feel he knows a lot more about his players and football than ALL of us , let's not write them off after one home league defeat eh?

I'm not writing them off, why the hell would I write them off.

It wasn't an off day yesterday, there is an obvious pattern that when we come up against physical midfield's in this division we lose.

All the other teams we have played we have had the upper hand, and all those wins we have had came against teams with midfield's similar to ours, with no defensive units.

We have lost four times in the league this season, three of which had defensive midfielders in their teams and midfielders which are over 6ft and built like brick-houses.

[Babylon]

But those teams as Col said had physical midfields Babylon, and we just happened to lose those games.

Like I said in my comment above yours, the majority of the teams we have played this season, have similar midfields to ours, and we have been able to boss those games; however when we have come up against Blackburn, Wolves and Crystal Palace, they all had big units in midfield.

Cardiff have done very well at home this season, but that's because they have goals in their side from all positions on the pitch near enough, they have centre backs in Hudson etc... who are always a danger from set pieces, they have goalscoring midfielders in Whittingham, Bellamy, Cowie, Smith, Noone etc... while Helguson and Mason will chip in with goals on a consistent basis.

Middlesbrough are third, our win against them was probably our best of the season so far, because they have real quality in midfield, McEachran is a great loan signing for them while they also have Leadbitter, Thomson and Haroun, Haroun is massive, while Thomson and Leadbitter are quite defensive, they have a real mix of physical, technical and attacking presence in their midfield. While Crystal Palace as we seen yesterday are up there for a reason, two great defensive midfielders, with two pacy wingers and a goalscorer in Murray. Blackburn have Etuhu and Murphy in midfield, which seem to be working again now, while Hull have a similar midfield to ours, but they can revert to Olofinjana when they come up against the more physical sides in the division.

It's just a coincidence that we seem to lose against the more physical sides in the division, we can't let it keep happening.

Well we dominated the blackburn game, so that's utter nonsense isn't it. Even thought we were told before hand they would rip is a new one in the middle they didn't. And for how much you say we were dominated against in the other two games we didn't let a goal in from open play in either of them, I believe all four goals were from set pieces.

And you can go on about other teams midfields as much as you want, because currently we sit second and have played more teams in the top half than any of them. So obviously they also srtruggle against teams even with their strong midfields.

[Bluetintedspecs]

I'm not writing them off, why the hell would I write them off.

It wasn't an off day yesterday, there is an obvious pattern that when we come up against physical midfield's in this division we lose.

All the other teams we have played we have had the upper hand, and all those wins we have had came against teams with midfield's similar to ours, with no defensive units.

We have lost four times in the league this season, three of which had defensive midfielders in their teams and midfielders which are over 6ft and built like brick-houses.

In your opinion, in my opinion that is too sweeping and generalised! NP said several players had off games by their standards and that's exactly how I saw it. Opinions Kingfox makes the game great but kneejerk reactions on FT do reach epedemic proportions over the slightest things.You and col have things about DMs I see the point but don't think we need to be that specific and we've primarily got the balance right between grit and creativity. I see yesterday as a mere blip!

[Dan]

Spot on Col.

But this is something we talked about at the start of the season, we tend to struggle against the more physical midfields and today was the first time our midfield got well and truly dominated this season, and we ended up losing, just goes to show that Drinkwater and King have flaws.

James and King looked pretty good in my opinion, but Drinkwater had a shocker Jedinak and Dikgacoi were just too good, too powerful for our little midfield.

Fully agreed sadly, it happened against Wolves and whilst they're not as weak as previous midfields, we've not had a genuinely strong midfielder in there for a long time, going 4-3-3 stopped them getting through but if anything it made us weaker going forward and Knockaert staying out wide was a mistake from Pearson to me, he's literally the only player we have who'd have been capable of doing anything through the middle because lets face it, I know we scored from one but we really are absolutely hideously bad in the air.

[reynard]

Well that was a waste of about £30.

We played shit today, too many players had off games, Knockaert, Nugent and Drinkwater were absolutely awful, Whitbread very poor as well, King did nothing, Vardy did nothing, De Laet was good going forward but lackadaisical at the back. The biggest problems though - we played crap as a team, lazy, poor movement off the ball, poor passing.

But worst of all Palace wanted it more than us. Like for example, how come the first time we attacked the ball in the box was in stopage time? Where was that desire for the previous 90 minutes? We took too long to really throw everything at them, for all our possession.

We started OK, should have been 2-0 up in fact but wasted 2 glorious chances, further adding fuel to the argument that we're not clinical enough up front and will need to dip into the transfer market. But after that, we just didn't show enough desire, we looked complacent and did not work hard enough as a team, whereas Palace did. In fairness, Nigel accepted we had too many players that weren't on it today, he did have a few digs at the ref which were fair but he admitted we got what we warranted today which was nothing.

But I can handle an off day, no need for panic stations there. But our fans should be fvcking ashamed again - I was stood in J today and was pleasantly surprised at how many were standing, but they were so pathetic vocally. L sounded like they were trying but near where I was it was dogshit. We're sitting top of the league and nobody is putting the effort in to join in with chants and create an atmosphere. They don't deserve to have a team top of the league, they deserve to support a shit relegation-fodder club.

Of course they were all fvcking laying into the ref at any opportunity, and they'd be the first to boo the team if we were midtable - but they aren't interested in being positive and getting behind the team.

It's no wonder I have only gone twice, and never in the East Stand since March, and I won't be going again for quite some time whilst we've got so many pathetic wankers supporting us. Palace fans weren't amazing today by any stretch but we made ourselves look really small time.

I'll be watching the Forest game on the TV.

Sorry to disagree but to say we were shit is just not accurate at all. We were not at our best but we were far from shit.

It is good to see you you having a go at the fans whilst just sitting on your backside watching the next match on Tv. If you want to see an improvement in the atmosphere get yourself down to the ground and try to change things from within rather than sniping from the sidelines.

[kingfox]

Well we dominated the blackburn game, so that's utter nonsense isn't it. Even thought we were told before hand they would rip is a new one in the middle they didn't. And for how much you say we were dominated against in the other two games we didn't let a goal in from open play in either of them, I believe all four goals were from set pieces.

And you can go on about other teams midfields as much as you want, because currently we sit second and have played more teams in the top half than any of them. So obviously they also srtruggle against teams even with their strong midfields.

We currently sit second because most of the teams we have played have similar midfields to ours, the games we have lost all involved the opposition having midfielders over 6ft and are physical.

Blackburn we didn't get dominated but I did say that, but they still had Etuhu who is 6ft2, and we still lost the game. Two of the teams we have lost against are currently in the top six, forget the top half, the top six, and on evidence when we have played Blackburn and Crystal Palace I can see why. Plus Wolves are on the fringes of the top six, and have been in there only a couple of weeks ago. Middlesbrough was our best win in my opinion, while the other teams we have beat are are all in different positions in the table, top half and bottom half.

In your opinion, in my opinion that is too sweeping and generalised! NP said several players had off games by their standards and that's exactly how I saw it. Opinions Kingfox makes the game great but kneejerk reactions on FT do reach epedemic proportions over the slightest things.You and col have things about DMs I see the point but don't think we need to be that specific and we've primarily got the balance right between grit and creativity. I see yesterday as a mere blip!

That's Pearson's comments though he can think that, and it just so happens they had an off game against Wolves we lost, we played well against Blackburn but still lost.

It's not a kneejerk reaction, I'm really happy how the team is playing but when we come up against physical midfields we struggle and lose, just look at our losses apart from Charlton and see what players Blackburn, Wolves and Crystal Palace had.

Dickson Etuhu - 6ft2

Tongo Doumbia - 6ft3

Mile Jedinak - 6ft2

Kagisho Dikgacoi - 5ft11(But built like a brick-house)

Now do you see the pattern and problem, all the other teams we have faced haven't had a midfielder over 6ft in their team, apart from Burnley with Chris McCann but as we know our side has all round better quality than Burnley's.

[brockmyster]

Wow that ref must be blind how we didnt get the handball on the line i do not know, how he didnt see kasper being flung across the box, and i can bet he didnt book the palace twat who tried to lay over the ball after the goal

[Bluetintedspecs]

Fully agreed sadly, it happened against Wolves and whilst they're not as weak as previous midfields, we've not had a genuinely strong midfielder in there for a long time, going 4-3-3 stopped them getting through but if anything it made us weaker going forward and Knockaert staying out wide was a mistake from Pearson to me, he's literally the only player we have who'd have been capable of doing anything in the middle because lets face it, I know we scored from one but we really are absolutely hideously bad in the air.

Now this is an area that frustrates me,I think we need to do some serious work on this especially looking at the amount of corners and crosses we pump in!

[Kitchandro]

Sorry to disagree but to say we were shit is just not accurate at all. We were not at our best but we were far from shit.

It is good to see you you having a go at the fans whilst just sitting on your backside watching the next match on Tv. If you want to see an improvement in the atmosphere get yourself down to the ground and try to change things from within rather than sniping from the sidelines.

I was down at the ground yesterday, trying to get some chants going, trying to join in with the few that were started in K/L, but to little effect. Nobody was interested, it doesn't matter what I do if no one joins in. I've done my best, as have a few others, but we're hopeless.

Fvck it, before this year I had a season ticket for 3 seasons, the atmosphere has got worse and worse and last year it was mostly pathetic. I excused us a bit because the team was underperforming but there's no excusing it this season. So forget it, I'm tired of wasting money to spend time with absolute retards. If you were one of those nobs in J yesterday, you start some chants, you try and generate an atmosphere, because I'm washing my hands of it for the forseeable future. And if you'd rather stand there in silence, fine, because I'm not going to try and rally anyone anymore - if we're sitting top/second in the league and you still can't show a bit of passion, there's no hope.

[Bluetintedspecs]

We currently sit second because most of the teams we have played have similar midfields to ours, the games we have lost all involved the opposition having midfielders over 6ft and are physical.

Blackburn we didn't get dominated but I did say that, but they still had Etuhu who is 6ft2, and we still lost the game. Two of the teams we have lost against are currently in the top six, forget the top half, the top six, and on evidence when we have played Blackburn and Crystal Palace I can see why. Plus Wolves are on the fringes of the top six, and have been in there only a couple of weeks ago. Middlesbrough was our best win in my opinion, while the other teams we have beat are are all in different positions in the table, top half and bottom half.

That's Pearson's comments though he can think that, and it just so happens they had an off game against Wolves we lost, we played well against Blackburn but still lost.

It's not a kneejerk reaction, I'm really happy how the team is playing but when we come up against physical midfields we struggle and lose, just look at our losses apart from Charlton and see what players Blackburn, Wolves and Crystal Palace had.

Dickson Etuhu - 6ft2

Tongo Doumbia - 6ft3

Mile Jedinak - 6ft2

Kagisho Dikgacoi - 5ft11(But built like a brick-house)

Now do you see the pattern and problem, all the other teams we have faced haven't had a midfielder over 6ft in their team, apart from Burnley with Chris McCann but as we know our side has all round better quality than Burnley's.

And that's why I'm glad Big Nige is our manager not you Kingfox, you'd be putting Drinky on the rack your obsession with Big Boys is a little concerning

[reynard]

I was down at the ground yesterday, trying to get some chants going, trying to join in with the few that were started in K/L, but to little effect. Nobody was interested, it doesn't matter what I do if no one joins in. I've done my best, as have a few others, but we're hopeless.

Fvck it, before this year I had a season ticket for 3 seasons, the atmosphere has got worse and worse and last year it was mostly pathetic. I excused us a bit because the team was underperforming but there's no excusing it this season. So forget it, I'm tired of wasting money to spend time with absolute retards. If you were one of those nobs in J yesterday, you start some chants, you try and generate an atmosphere, because I'm washing my hands of it for the forseeable future. And if you'd rather stand there in silence, fine, because I'm not going to try and rally anyone anymore - if we're sitting top/second in the league and you still can't show a bit of passion, there's no hope.

Never mind at least you tried.

I've been going for a long time and frankly we've never had the loudest support. Sometimes it has been good but mostly pretty quiet. Believe me Filbert street with 8000 in the ground wasn't exactly a hub of noise.

But don't give up going if everyone like you did then the club wouldn't be where it is.

[kingfox]

And that's why I'm glad Big Nige is our manager not you Kingfox, you'd be putting Drinky on the rack your obsession with Big Boys is a little concerning

Haha, you know him right

All you need to do is look at our results and the heights of the players i've mentioned compared to other teams.

Drinkwater has been quality, but we struggles against physical teams and that's a fact it happened last season, and it has happened this season.

I would start Drinkwater in every game, but against physical midfields, three in midfield is better maybe James, King and Drinkwater, or a defensive midfielder with Drinkwater and King playing in front.

[Babylon]

We currently sit second because most of the teams we have played have similar midfields to ours, the games we have lost all involved the opposition having midfielders over 6ft and are physical.

Blackburn we didn't get dominated but I did say that, but they still had Etuhu who is 6ft2, and we still lost the game. Two of the teams we have lost against are currently in the top six, forget the top half, the top six, and on evidence when we have played Blackburn and Crystal Palace I can see why. Plus Wolves are on the fringes of the top six, and have been in there only a couple of weeks ago. Middlesbrough was our best win in my opinion, while the other teams we have beat are are all in different positions in the table, top half and bottom half.

That's Pearson's comments though he can think that, and it just so happens they had an off game against Wolves we lost, we played well against Blackburn but still lost.

It's not a kneejerk reaction, I'm really happy how the team is playing but when we come up against physical midfields we struggle and lose, just look at our losses apart from Charlton and see what players Blackburn, Wolves and Crystal Palace had.

Dickson Etuhu - 6ft2

Tongo Doumbia - 6ft3

Mile Jedinak - 6ft2

Kagisho Dikgacoi - 5ft11(But built like a brick-house)

Now do you see the pattern and problem, all the other teams we have faced haven't had a midfielder over 6ft in their team, apart from Burnley with Chris McCann but as we know our side has all round better quality than Burnley's.

Stop bringing up the Blackburn game, it is horse crap to even bring that up as their midfield was shit and we were in control for 99% of the game, created more chances and should have won. It does not relate to the other two games in any way other than result... You will of course constantly attempt to link the results though as it serves your purpose.

[Guest Col city fan]

Kingfox we have scored in every game and some key players had off days yesterday ...it happens! NP said the same and with all due respect i feel he knows a lot more about his players and football than ALL of us , let's not write them off after one home league defeat eh?

I say to you again mate. Is it any coincidence all three midfielders had an 'off day' on the same day?

No of course not...

You're not really hearing this I don't think. I'm afraid they made us look poor. King, Drinky and Knocky, exceptional over the past few weeks suddenly looked like different players. Why? Because they were made to.

Exactly like at Wolves in the first half.

Does this make them poor players? No of course not? Does this make me think they and we are rubbish? No of course not. But I could see clearly yesterday that we were beaten for strength in the midfield as were at Wolves. So I point this out.

[kingfox]

Stop bringing up the Blackburn game, it is horse crap to even bring that up as their midfield was shit and we were in control for 99% of the game, created more chances and should have won. It does not relate to the other two games in any way other than result... You will of course constantly attempt to link the results though as it serves your purpose.

Still lost though Babylon.

Any team with a physical midfielder over 6ft we tend to lose, just look at the results and compare heights etc..

Then you will know i'm not talking crap.

[Guest Col city fan]

Shock horror Col and King bringing up DM's after the first defeat in seven. The Blackburn game we bossed the midfield for almost the entire game, so bringing that game up is it ludicrous as it bared no resemblance to the Wolves or Palace game. You yourself admitted that we bossed the midfield in that game I believe.

So far we've played over half the teams in this league (13... 8 of which are top half). And only really struggled in midfield for two of them (one and a half if you take into account we bossed wolves second half).

Shock/horror!

Babs appears to be slating someone for even daring to suggest something might need looking at if we are to beat the physically stronger sides. Or to even express an opinion that could be construed as even slightly 'negative'.

[Dan]

Sorry to disagree but to say we were shit is just not accurate at all. We were not at our best but we were far from shit.

It is good to see you you having a go at the fans whilst just sitting on your backside watching the next match on Tv. If you want to see an improvement in the atmosphere get yourself down to the ground and try to change things from within rather than sniping from the sidelines.

Wasn't really his point, I can see what you're saying but I can empathise with someone not paying absolutely obscene money for a game on TV when there really is a serious lack of support from fellow "fans", it's like the one thing that you'd go for when it's on TV simply isn't there.

[Dan]

Now this is an area that frustrates me,I think we need to do some serious work on this especially looking at the amount of corners and crosses we pump in!

We had 16 corners yesterday and didn't cause a single problem from one. That's simply nowhere near good enough and it doesn't surprise me, except the centre halves, De Laet (debatable) & King, we've got absolutely no aerial threat.

It says it all that we had 16 corners, how many of them came from Speroni saves? About 5 tops, they weren't scared to put it out for a corner simply because we were hopeless from them.

As for the lad saying a lack of height in midfield, how tall was Makelele?

[davieG]

I think it's a bit simplistic to say all 3 midfielders had an off day, Drinky certainly did but that was mainly down to his poor play rather than the impact of the opposition, they didn't make him miss place his passes most of which were unforced errors.

With Drinky having an obvious off day this inevitably affected the impact of King who I don't believe had an off day he just had less to work with.

As for Knocky it was inevitable that he would be sussed out so yes his performance was affected by the opposition but he's also his own worst enemy being incredibly greedy and failing to notice obvious openings, this has been regular with him but people have been blinded by the good stuff he does. He's main job now is to learn to be a team player without loosing his individuality.

That said I'm generally in favour of a 3 man (skilful) midfield which enables you to compete without the need for a less skilful out and out battler.

[reynard]

First up well done to Palace. By far the best team I've seen visit us this season. They attacked with pace and power and we simply couldn't handle it for 30 minutes.

However, despite being two down pretty much up until the last five minutes I still felt we were capable of getting a draw. This is an improvement on last season where we would have lost by 3 or 4. At no tome could I question our attitude and with beeter finishing I think we would have come away with something. I think there are positives to come from the game even in defeat.

However long term there a few concerns I have if we are to be serious promotion candidates.

1 Goals.

That is 1 vs Bham 1vs Brighton and 1 vs palace. Not a crisis but we need to be far more clinical in front of goal. We are creating enough chances to win just about every game but our strikers (Nugent possibly excepted) just don't look like scoring. Personally I think a new striker is a must if we are to continue our promotion push.

2 Central Defence

They were badly exposed yesterday. We won't often come up against such an efficient attacking unit but against quick attackers with good movement and the ball played quickly to feet they were simply awful. Only when James came on to screen the back four did they start to look comfortable. Not sure what we can do to offset this other than changing out midfield to cope better when the need arises.

3 Set Pieces

At both ends of the pitch we simply are not good enough. I'm really far from convinced that we defend them very well and how many corners have we had this season and how many goals have we scored from them. I question what goes on on the training ground. We need a new approach. Other teams use them better than we do.

4 Knockaert

We seem to quickly have become far too dependent upon him as a creative outlet. Yesterday he was found out. He likes to cut inside onto his left foot and yesterday they were waiting for him and just took it off him. I'm not sure where his best position is but he's been below par for the last two games. With Marshall out of form we do lack creativity from wide areas.

5 What is the point of Futacs?

Why did we sign this guy? Surely yesterday was the time to try him but no we bring on Schlupp who was not surprisingly very rusty if I'm being polite. If he can't even get on the pitch on a day like yesterday then I have to question what the point of having him in the bench is at all.

Don't get me wrong I'm pleased with how we are doing but we need to improve a lot to get promoted. It was an entertaining game played by two competent teams who both showed just how far they still have to go to reach the premiership.

[Bluetintedspecs]

I say to you again mate. Is it any coincidence all three midfielders had an 'off day' on the same day?

No of course not...

You're not really hearing this I don't think. I'm afraid they made us look poor. King, Drinky and Knocky, exceptional over the past few weeks suddenly looked like different players. Why? Because they were made to.

Exactly like at Wolves in the first half.

Does this make them poor players? No of course not? Does this make me think they and we are rubbish? No of course not. But I could see clearly yesterday that we were beaten for strength in the midfield as were at Wolves. So I point this out.

I really think on this one mate it's East is East................I get yours and Kingfoxes points, I just don't agree on it when i say Drinky and knocky were off their games yesterday I will usea Tennis analogy, how many unforced errors did they make? Really think about the game yesterday, stray passes, silly flicks and wrong decisions not influenced by their players that is why I sa they had off days more than being just outmuscled. I suppose we'll see next time we are in a Lilliput situation in a game but I will like kingfox be watching out for the big boys

[Bluetintedspecs]

I think it's a bit simplistic to say all 3 midfielders had an off day, Drinky certainly did but that was mainly down to his poor play rather than the impact of the opposition, they didn't make him miss place his passes most of which were unforced errors.

With Drinky having an obvious off day this inevitably affected the impact of King who I don't believe had an off day he just had less to work with.

As for Knocky it was inevitable that he would be sussed out so yes his performance was affected by the opposition but he's also his own worst enemy being incredibly greedy and failing to notice obvious openings, this has been regular with him but people have been blinded by the good stuff he does. He's main job now is to learn to be a team player without loosing his individuality.

That said I'm generally in favour of a 3 man (skilful) midfield which enables you to compete without the need for a less skilful out and out battler.

If you read my post reply to col davie G I think we are singing off the same hymn sheet, IMO it was a combo not just land of the giants syndrome!

[Guest Col city fan]

I think it's a bit simplistic to say all 3 midfielders had an off day, Drinky certainly did but that was mainly down to his poor play rather than the impact of the opposition, they didn't make him miss place his passes most of which were unforced errors.

With Drinky having an obvious off day this inevitably affected the impact of King who I don't believe had an off day he just had less to work with.

As for Knocky it was inevitable that he would be sussed out so yes his performance was affected by the opposition but he's also his own worst enemy being incredibly greedy and failing to notice obvious openings, this has been regular with him but people have been blinded by the good stuff he does. He's main job now is to learn to be a team player without loosing his individuality.

That said I'm generally in favour of a 3 man (skilful) midfield which enables you to compete without the need for a less skilful out and out battler.

Re final paragraph...

So am I...

However, I see no harm in having an option to mix it up when we need to.

To cater for any eventuality, so to speak.

[kingfox]

I really think on this one mate it's East is East................I get yours and Kingfoxes points, I just don't agree on it when i say Drinky and knocky were off their games yesterday I will usea Tennis analogy, how many unforced errors did they make? Really think about the game yesterday, stray passes, silly flicks and wrong decisions not influenced by their players that is why I sa they had off days more than being just outmuscled. I suppose we'll see next time we are in a Lilliput situation in a game but I will like kingfox be watching out for the big boys

You just wait and see, you might have to change your bluetintedspecs and buy some new one's.

Why did we make stray passes?, why did we make wrong decisons?

Because the likes of Jedinak and Dikgacoi pressured us into making those mistakes, the amount of times Jedinak and Dikgacoi closed Drinkwater down was ridiculous, they worked so hard, and made Drinkwater make loads of mistakes. Crystal Palace's midfield were the best midfield to come to the King Power this season, they were the better midfield and as you can see it was a problem, because we had to revert to three in the middle, because Jedinak and Dikgacoi were dominating us too much.

Same at Wolves, Henry got MOTM because he worked hard and closed the midfield down, Doumbia was just a tank could tackle, could pass, could defend and could attack, and Drinkwater and co couldn't handle him. The game opened up against Wolves in the second half, but was it really down to the central midfield?

No not really, as the player ratings show, Drinkwater was one of our worst players against Wolves because he couldn't cope with the physical presence of Doumbia and Henry, Knockaert made the real difference against Wolves not the centre of midfield.

[Kitchandro]

It seems pretty obvious Knockaert needs to play through the centre. He's ran things there in the games I've seen.