Chelsea 2-0 Leicester - Post Match Discussion

[AmyLGK]

The problem with the Cambiasso signing isn't the player, it's the amount of agents that have crawled out of the woodwork and no-one is sure who represents who. It's just taking time to cut through all the crap. Apparently the guy who is believed to be his actual agent was in London yesterday

 

Surely Cambiasso knows who his agent is????

[Crinklyfox]

We're all disappointed that Nugent didn't score when he was through on goal, but it was a good save and no striker gets them all.  Last season there was a lot of negative comment about Nugent which dried up every time he scored.  He's worth many millions less than a couple of Chelsea players who should have scored when they didn't.  NP is willing to start him and I trust NP's judgement.

[Haydos]

Chelsea fan in peace here.  Quite a few of you came round our forums before the match, top bunch you are.

 

You were very impressive.  I'd say the best performance I've seen from a promoted side at the Bridge in years.  If not for some poor finishing, and Courtois being some kind of human octopus, you could have got something.  You at least deserved a goal and a nervous finish for us.  Sure others have managed results, but usually with Spartanesque park the bus defending reminiscent of what we do to Barcelona.  You should be proud of your team today, and you belong in this league.  In fact I think you'll finish in the upper half of the table considering some of the dross you're competing with.  Play like that against Arsenal and you'll get a result, they can't handle teams disrupting their rhythm like we can.  That's how we batter them!

 

Best of luck with your season and welcome to the league.  Fully confident you're here to stay.

 

Cheers pal, always good to hear praise from opposition fans, especially title challengers. I think everyone's proud of the lads today. Hopefully we can keep up this mentality throughout the season.

[Haydos]

People keep calling for depth, but we already have depth. It's just been temporarily (very temporarily) wiped out through some pretty extreme misfortune.

 

If GTF was one of our backup options for CM then yeah fair enough but he isn't. Get players back fit and we're fine again. No need to panic buy because we're struggling for men for a few games.

 

Exactly, not often you'll have 3 CM's injured including your 2 first choice. Handling these two results proved we have decent strength in depth if anything.

 

We do need 1 more centre mid but we can handle ourselves.

[M0901]

The Nuge miss annoyed most, certainly. But as everyone reiterates we held our own in the first half. We play like that, as well as bringing in 2 or 3 new faces, there's no reason why we can't have a comfortable finish.

Knocky and Vardy straight in against Arsenal, I'd even keep Hammond in the side after his form. Can't help but think we need Drinkwater to play though, let him pull the strings.

[Corky]

Nugent's miss reminded me of McCormack's at Leeds last season, plenty of time, tried to place it but the keeper made a top save. It always looks worse when the player has time and space. He didn't need to look at the linesman however.

 

To write him off after the miss as not good enough all season is ridiculous though.

[shade]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2733008/Premier-League-team-day-Diego-Costa-Seamus-Coleman-make-XI.html

three leicester players in the team of the day.

[st albans fox]

Sun dream team ratings

Kasper, Morgan and Riyadh 7

Ulloa 5

Rest 6

Wes better than Liam ?

our midfield invisible?

At least the daily mail fella watched the game!

[MC Prussian]

at Roman Abramovich's sweaty armpits.

[st albans fox]

at Roman Abramovich's sweaty armpits.

 

all that money and no right guard !!

[Trav Le Bleu]

Nugent CANNOT start against Arsenal for me, or if he does, bring Chris Wood on at Half Time. You cant waste opportunities like those two, and i cant help thinking that wood would of scored those...

 

Maybe, but would he have been in the same position to recieve the ball as Nugent?

[Burbo17J2]

Maybe, but would he have been in the same position to recieve the ball as Nugent?

that is a fair point, but i think he would, and so would Vardy, i do think that Vardy or Chris would be a better option

[Dickov22]

that is a fair point, but i think he would, and so would Vardy, i do think that Vardy or Chris would be a better option

There's no way we could play Wood and Ulloa as a front two, they're far too similar.

[st albans fox]

that is a fair point, but i think he would, and so would Vardy, i do think that Vardy or Chris would be a better option

Wood is far less mobile than nuge and does not tackle back as much. We won't play ulloa and wood together. Will be interesting to see how Nigel plays once he has three fit CM players to choose from . will we go 4-2-3-1?

[PerfumePonce]

Swapping Nuge with Wood doesn't solve all the problems though. Yeah Wood could've probably finished it but would he have been able to get into that position in the first place? He's not as quick as Nuge. Unless he pulled off a goal like the one against Burnley.

Also you can't play 2 strikers in this league. Especially away from home. Although it looks like we do on the team sheet, Nugent as we know plays in the hole and puts in a lot of defensive work in that area. Obviously Vardy coming for Nugent would be the more obvious choice but I've got a feeling he won't hit the ground running either. Nuge will start putting them away eventually. Austin and Ings have yet to get one as well so there are a few who are struggling to make the step up. I'd keep him in. I think he'll learn from that. I know he did last season (or season before?) when he was shit for a bit (missed pen?).

[Burbo17J2]

Swapping Nuge with Wood doesn't solve all the problems though. Yeah Wood could've probably finished it but would he have been able to get into that position in the first place? He's not as quick as Nuge. Unless he pulled off a goal like the one against Burnley.

Also you can't play 2 strikers in this league. Especially away from home. Although it looks like we do on the team sheet, Nugent as we know plays in the hole and puts in a lot of defensive work in that area. Obviously Vardy coming for Nugent would be the more obvious choice but I've got a feeling he won't hit the ground running either. Nuge will start putting them away eventually. Austin and Ings have yet to get one as well so there are a few who are struggling to make the step up. I'd keep him in. I think he'll learn from that. I know he did last season (or season before?) when he was shit for a bit (missed pen?).

i do hope Nugent shows his class. I do like him and think he will score goals. But i think he would be better as an impact sub, especially if he misses chances like that, we cant afford to miss many opportunities in this league

[Guest Col city fan]

People keep calling for depth, but we already have depth. It's just been temporarily (very temporarily) wiped out through some pretty extreme misfortune.

 

If GTF was one of our backup options for CM then yeah fair enough but he isn't. Get players back fit and we're fine again. No need to panic buy because we're struggling for men for a few games.

 

I'm still unsure as to whether the 'depth' you talk about will be good enough?

Next Sunday we play against Arsenal.. and many are suggesting this will be a home win. And, of course, it could be.

But it will likely pitch King and Hammond against Ramsay, Wilshere, Sanchez and Cazorla (or a permutation of).

However well they have done so far, that doesn't give me confidence, I'm afraid, that we will win this game.

I'm in limbo with this at present. Both King and Hammond have done better than I thought they would. But will they perform consistently well at this level?

How things stand now, if we lose RDL, we play Moore at right back, if we lose Konch, then Schlupp comes in at left back.

It's all hypothetical but I wonder whether you (and others) will remain this confident if we only attain a couple of points from the first 6 games?

IMO we are thin in depth of squad, numerically.. and I still am unsure regarding the quality we have at the club if our 'first team' remains blighted with injury.

I guess time will tell but I believe we need additions and strong additions. I also believe we'll get some.

[foxes_rule1978]

we were not completely outplayed against a side that could and probably will win the league, the only disappointment was the fact we didn't take the few chances we had. In this type of game you really don't get many chances and not taking them you get severely punished.

[Stamford]

Well: it's just as well for you guys that the weather was against us in the first half! 

 

Another JM classic!

[Master Fox]

Just watched the first half. It's pretty evident our finishing and final delivery is not good enough.

Nugent was absolutely appalling. Mahrez needs to practice his shooting and corner taking. We played well in the first half but we never really looked like scoring. Schlupp would be such a great player if could learn how to shoot.

[Haydos]

I'm still unsure as to whether the 'depth' you talk about will be good enough?

Next Sunday we play against Arsenal.. and many are suggesting this will be a home win. And, of course, it could be.

But it will likely pitch King and Hammond against Ramsay, Wilshere, Sanchez and Cazorla (or a permutation of).

However well they have done so far, that doesn't give me confidence, I'm afraid, that we will win this game.

I'm in limbo with this at present. Both King and Hammond have done better than I thought they would. But will they perform consistently well at this level?

How things stand now, if we lose RDL, we play Moore at right back, if we lose Konch, then Schlupp comes in at left back.

It's all hypothetical but I wonder whether you (and others) will remain this confident if we only attain a couple of points from the first 6 games?

IMO we are thin in depth of squad, numerically.. and I still am unsure regarding the quality we have at the club if our 'first team' remains blighted with injury.

I guess time will tell but I believe we need additions and strong additions. I also believe we'll get some.

 

They did alright against Chelsea. We do need another CM but we're not in the worst position and it turns out they are both capable. If we didn't have decent depth we would have been slaughtered by Chelsea, not unlucky that we didn't come away with 3 points. 

 

I have to say I thought we would be on the end of a hiding playing 2 in the middle at the Bridge, especially with our 2 first choice CM's out but clearly Pearson had faith in King and Hammond as footballers. They might lack the same creativity and penetration that the James/Drinkwater pairing does but they clearly showed they can play some solid football yesterday.

[Guest Col city fan]

Just watched the first half. It's pretty evident our finishing and final delivery is not good enough.

Nugent was absolutely appalling. Mahrez needs to practice his shooting and corner taking. We played well in the first half but we never really looked like scoring. Schlupp would be such a great player if could learn how to shoot.

 

Our fans quickly run the risk of scapegoating David Nugent. We all know that he can score goals..he's been our top goal-scorer for the past two seasons. We also know that he can miss em.. and we've seen him spurn chances that other strikers may have taken.

But it is about supply. If our strikers are provided with very few chances, its likely they will miss more than they take.

Ulloa, for example, yesterday was praised for his work-rate and his tracking back. And rightly so. But Ulloa is, first and foremost, a striker and I can't recollect him having a chance yesterday?

Scoring goals is a team effort, a team thing. In the same way as defending shouldn't only be left to the back five, neither should attacking only be about our strikers taking chances. If we want to see Nugent, Vardy, Wood and Ulloa scoring enough goals this season, they must be provided with chances.

It's law of averages.. you give our strikers 5 chances, they'll take one or two. You limit them to 1 chance, they probably won't take it.

Against the Arsenal, I want to see our side getting forward quickly and providing our forwards with enough quality supply. Then they'll take them.

[Dickov22]

Our fans quickly run the risk of scapegoating David Nugent. We all know that he can score goals..he's been our top goal-scorer for the past two seasons. We also know that he can miss em.. and we've seen him spurn chances that other strikers may have taken.

But it is about supply. If our strikers are provided with very few chances, its likely they will miss more than they take.

Ulloa, for example, yesterday was praised for his work-rate and his tracking back. And rightly so. But Ulloa is, first and foremost, a striker and I can't recollect him having a chance yesterday?

Scoring goals is a team effort, a team thing. In the same way as defending shouldn't only be left to the back five, neither should attacking only be about our strikers taking chances. If we want to see Nugent, Vardy, Wood and Ulloa scoring enough goals this season, they must be provided with chances.

It's law of averages.. you give our strikers 5 chances, they'll take one or two. You limit them to 1 chance, they probably won't take it.

Against the Arsenal, I want to see our side getting forward quickly and providing our forwards with enough quality supply. Then they'll take them.

I don't think now is a time to judge our strikers- they've just played against the best centre half pairing in the division. Nugent was poor but is it fair to completely write him off? No. Ulloa did pretty well in the first half too. I'm more interested to see how our strikers do against the likes of Stoke, Swansea, Villa, Burnley, WBA etc.

Fans are always too quick to write players off.

[Burbo17J2]

I don't think now is a time to judge our strikers- they've just played against the best centre half pairing in the division. Nugent was poor but is it fair to completely write him off? No. Ulloa did pretty well in the first half too. I'm more interested to see how our strikers do against the likes of Stoke, Swansea, Villa, Burnley, WBA etc.

Fans are always too quick to write players off.

But we are not always writing them off, we are criticizing there performance which we are entitled to do, we all know that you have to take the chances you get and Nugent didn't do that yesterday

[Number 6]

Think Nugent is lacking confidence. Think he was hoping he was offside in a way to absolve responsibility. It was an excellent save and he won't be up against that calibre of 'keeper every week, but think most PL strikers would expect to put that away.