A little bit of reality?

[narboroughblue]

I was so disappointed with our summer business in the transfer market that I only ever expected 17th to be a realistic target.

Last year was built on DD and James in the middle of the park dictating games. Both didn't start the season due to injury (from memory) and I think this massively hurt us as others did well in a surprising start and our momentum from them two was lost and has never recovered. DD has been very disappointing and looks unfit and short on confidence.

During the bad run we chopped and changed personnel and formation forgot how to score and made some catastrophic mistakes. I think at that point most had given up.

Recent performances have given us some hope and yesterday aside I believed we could do it now it's that little bit tougher.

The last two weeks of this window is vital to add more quality but just as important is getting players back from injury and from the AFCON as we can't afford this many missing.

Still hope but as the last two decades of supporting leicester have taught me nothing will be easy. What I'm sure about though is that there will be ups and downs again this year just not too many that leave me feeling as low as yesterday though I hope.

[Raj]

I expected a dogfight all season but what we lack in quality i thought we would always make up for in hustle and bustle and not to make things easy for opposition.Thats why for me yday was a huge body blow as we really didn't show any of that.

Like Col said after 10 years it would be almost embarrassing if we went down without giving it our all in very possible game

I Dont mind losing(welll actually i hate it!)but show the opposition that we CAN do Atleast!

[bovril]

The problem has been the midfield. You see with the back four that they have grown into the Premiership. Last five games, goals conceded: 0, 2 (pens), 0, 0, 1.

The chopping and changing of the midfield (although a lot of it was forced on Pearson through injuries) has completely fvcked us over, we have 5 central mids and none of them have had the chance of building up any understanding with the other. The only midfielder we have with Premiership experience has started 3 games this season. I'm not in the 'Pearson out' camp but sometimes he makes decisions as odd as any manager I've ever seen at Leicester.

[PAULCFC]

For me it's the fact that we're only usually loseing by the odd goal that makes it so much more frustrating.Idon't think we're far off being a midtable side (like Stoke),but we need a player like Bojan yesterday (reminded me a lot of Silva for manc) everything seemed to go through him in MF.Just been looking at our remaing games and to be honest i think we'll be cut adrift at the end of Feb unless Pearson manages to get a few players in (LB,ACM,ST)

[Dan]

I expected it to be tougher, but I've been amazed at how badly some of our players have stepped up and it's even more gut-wrenching when you see Burnley, a team who have stuck with most of their players who, despite coming comfortably below us last season, have adapted to this league far better than we have.

 

Leicester had improved a lot lately I think - were it not for awful finishing against Newcastle and Villa we'd have beaten both by at least 3 goals but as a result had to settle for 1-0 - same against Spurs where nearly any other side would've taken three points having being so dominant for so long but we ended up losing, Liverpool where we were ridiculously unlucky to not win. I suppose you had the Hull game where we got away with it a bit ourselves although I thought we'd edged that game up until about the 70th minute.

 

Yesterday was quite a funny one - it was a far tougher game than most on here gave it credit for. I let blind optimism get the better of me and I said we'd win the game, but looking back, what chance did we really have with that team out? The XI who played yesterday have scored a combined seven goals all season. We were depleted in midfield and played a partnership that quite frankly was inconsistent at best in the Championship - we playing what was probably our 4th and 5th choices there. We were missing our best winger and you could argue on current form, our best two wingers - we were not playing our top scorer in favour of playing the ultimate one game wonder, and we were starting Nugent who, whilst he's contributed somewhat lately, isn't at the level of Kramaric, I am absolutely certain of that.

 

We were playing a front six of whom not a single one in my opinion would currently get into our strongest team, and we were playing a side known for their physicality, efficiency and in fairness to them, newfound ability to actually play a bit. An established side who have since their promotion, not once been in the relegation battle. We were firm, firm underdogs yesterday.

 

I think our strongest eleven could've possibly won the game but they'd still have been underdogs.

 

I do think the fact we've got such a hard run coming up made people, myself included, under-estimate how tough a fixture yesterday actually was.

[Matt]

I expected it to be tougher, but I've been amazed at how badly some of our players have stepped up and it's even more gut-wrenching when you see Burnley, a team who have stuck with most of their players who, despite coming comfortably below us last season, have adapted to this league far better than we have.

 

Leicester had improved a lot lately I think - were it not for awful finishing against Newcastle and Villa we'd have beaten both by at least 3 goals but as a result had to settle for 1-0 - same against Spurs where nearly any other side would've taken three points having being so dominant for so long but we ended up losing, Liverpool where we were ridiculously unlucky to not win. I suppose you had the Hull game where we got away with it a bit ourselves although I thought we'd edged that game up until about the 70th minute.

 

Yesterday was quite a funny one - it was a far tougher game than most on here gave it credit for. I let blind optimism get the better of me and I said we'd win the game, but looking back, what chance did we really have with that team out? The XI who played yesterday have scored a combined seven goals all season. We were depleted in midfield and played a partnership that quite frankly was inconsistent at best in the Championship - we playing what was probably our 4th and 5th choices there. We were missing our best winger and you could argue on current form, our best two wingers - we were not playing our top scorer in favour of playing the ultimate one game wonder, and we were starting Nugent who, whilst he's contributed somewhat lately, isn't at the level of Kramaric, I am absolutely certain of that.

 

We were playing a front six of whom not a single one in my opinion would currently get into our strongest team, and we were playing a side known for their physicality, efficiency and in fairness to them, newfound ability to actually play a bit. An established side who have since their promotion, not once been in the relegation battle. We were firm, firm underdogs yesterday.

 

I think our strongest eleven could've possibly won the game but they'd still have been underdogs.

 

I do think the fact we've got such a hard run coming up made people, myself included, under-estimate how tough a fixture yesterday actually was.

 

I was confident before the game yesterday up until about 2pm, as soon as I saw the line-up I knew we weren't going to win, I hoped for a draw based on the line-up but knew that'd be a big ask.

[Dan]

I was confident before the game yesterday up until about 2pm, as soon as I saw the line-up I knew we weren't going to win, I hoped for a draw based on the line-up but knew that'd be a big ask.

 

I put us to win but I was never particularly confident. Having seen the team I agreed but I don't know, I suppose pre-match I'm just not bothered enough. If I was that confident the whole occasion would be like yesterday I'd not bother going but under Pearson many a time we've outperformed most people's pre-match expectations so you never know.

 

I think it's time to admit defeat with some of these players. I'm looking at Konchesky & Vardy as much as anyone. Neither are good enough for this league.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

I was confident before the game yesterday up until about 2pm, as soon as I saw the line-up I knew we weren't going to win, I hoped for a draw based on the line-up but knew that'd be a big ask.

Same. I was confident until I saw the line up

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Matt]

I put us to win but I was never particularly confident. Having seen the team I agreed but I don't know, I suppose pre-match I'm just not bothered enough. If I was that confident the whole occasion would be like yesterday I'd not bother going but under Pearson many a time we've outperformed most people's pre-match expectations so you never know.

 

I think it's time to admit defeat with some of these players. I'm looking at Konchesky & Vardy as much as anyone. Neither are good enough for this league.

 

Oh i've been saying it for a while now, it dawned on me before Christmas, probably start of December time infact.

 

I've said it in the past and i've said it today somewhere already, not sure what thread but if (When ) we go down I want these players to be here next season, they got us promoted last season and I expect them to do the same next season, but should they get us promoted (Which isn't a given, it's easier said than done and there's no guarentee they'd get us promoted) I want a majority of them gone and rebuild for a Premiership season, they are not good enough a proved that, they've had their chance, for me they shouldn't get another chance in the Premiership with us, they blotted their copybook as far as i'm concerned.

[josh_baskin]

I think last weeks performance against villa gave many a false sense of relief, although we got the 3 points we performed pretty poor for only getting the one goal when we should had won by at least four goal margin.

[Lets Be having You]

A little bit of reality 

We are going down i'm sorry to say

[fleckneymike]

I think the 'reality' is that in our decade long absence we've forgotten how good even 'crap' players are at this level.

 

 

There we numerous posts claiming this side was as good as some on MON's (mainly from those who'd never seen it), people who didn't buy into the idea that mistakes were more ruthlessly exploited at this level, posters scoffed at what the experts predicted yet here we are bottom - and likely to remain so for at least another month.

 

Pearson has benefitted from this collective hubris, as our failure to strengthen has largely been forgiven because the vast majority of fans didn't feel we needed too much in the way of reinforcements either.

[st albans fox]

We don't have full backs that get forward. That puts us at a huge disadvantage compared to nearly all other PL teams. Because we only play two in the middle, we can't afford for our FB's to overlap. We're playing a different way to nearly everyone else and it shows. The reason we look better when Hammond plays is not because he is brilliant. It's because where he plays and what he does frees up other players to offer themselves for a pass. hey presto - we're playing football rather than hoofball.

Afraid I can only blame the manager for this. his tactics have not worked at this level and I feel a bit sorry for the players who are left to run around like headless chickens covering gaps all over the pitch.

[Jmd88]

I think every body expected more from the team. But the step up between the two leagues is bigger than any body could have thought. In the championship you can give the opposition 2/3 chances in a game and 9 times out of 10 they wouldn't score but in this league they will score at least one of those chances most teams all three.

James for me personally has been the better out of the 4 midfielders this season. DD ability wise is the best, the only problem for him is every game were always on the back foot and won't have possession for most off the game and that's is the best part off drinkys game. As you seen last season on the ball going forward he is my opinion one off the best at that role and if he played in a premier league team that was further up the table he would stand out week in week out.

Let's just hope they can turn things around and we will all be laughing at the end off the season about how much we slated the team at Christmas

[bovril]

Fleckers nails it as ever.

[MC Prussian]

I expected a little better, but looking at the table, there's not that many points separating us from safety.

Also, all three promoted teams are currently occupying the last three spots in the table.

 

Surprise, surprise.

 

Let's not forget that last season, it was all pretty even in the Championship until a late surge helped us gain some distance between us and the chasing pack.

My hope is that Pearson and the team can recreate that in the four and a half months to come until the end of this season.

[harpendenfox]

I harp back to when we played QPR, I said it was a must win game, must win because if we lost (Which we did) we'd go bottom and would not come off bottom people disagreed, it unfortunately seems I was right.

Well let's not give up all hope just yet eh chap?

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

In classic Coldplay style,

 

Nobody said it was easy

Nobody ever said it would be so hard.

 

Christ this is your soggiest post to date.

[the-blue-wildabeast]

Massive disappointment for me. I really thought we would offer more in games. I just think the balance isn't there and it comes down to Pearson. We have struggled for years at set pieces at both ends, yet it wasn't addressed. Everyone except it would appear Nigel knew Konch would make mistakes every game as he did last season. All our central midfielders are too similar. They will come short to collect the ball and pass it sideways and backwards all day, but none of them are mobile, quick, creative, tacklers or box to box players that will support the strikers. Again, wasn't addressed. Drinky is a decent player in that holding role, but needs a different type of player alongside him. Vardy can score goals, but no one is creating anything for him, no clever through balls etc, meaning he spends his time chasing long punts into the channels were he isn't likely to score, and it wouldn't surprise me if the new guy struggles from similar lack of service.

We are likely to start next season without Krameric, Ulloe, Mahrez, Cambiassio (out of contract), Knocky (out of contract) and probably Kasper.

[kingfox]

You look at Drinkwater & Vardy in particular and you have to ask yourself, how long did it take them to settle for us at Championship level. Drinkwater was bang average for us in his first 6-12 months , come a season & a half later he turns into one of our best players. Vardy was poor in his first season, he had a crap first touch & his finishing wasn't much better, come a season later after having a year to adapt to Championship level, he turns into one of our best players. Now you look at the Premier League and it's like the same scenario all over again for them two, they are both struggling to adapt to this level and like in the Championship, it could well take them a season to adapt to Premier League level; however right now we can't afford that to happen, we need better success on the pitch and we aren't going to get that, if we play Drinkwater & Vardy week in week out. 

 

I look at the squad now and we have chopped & changed with formations so many times, but there have been times when a midfield three say is our best option. In games like that do you scrap our wing play and leave out Mahrez & Schlupp, or do you go 4-5-1 then where does that leave Kramaric? We need to find a way to accommodate our best players, and sticking with his favourites & playing 4-4-2 week in week out might not be our best option.

 

While our performances also come down to the lack of consistency, we have played really well in recent weeks; however come yesterday we put in a bad performance & all the negatives come out again. Players have been so up and down this season, one week Morgan looks solid the next he looks shaky, one week James looks class the next he doesn't look up to it, Schlupp & Mahrez when on form they have been our two most dangerous players, but they have also put in some average performances this season.

 

Will buying players solve these cracks, I'm not so sure.  

[foxfanazer]

Expected better personally but it's all fine margins. We've had games where we've deserved more (not yesterday)

We need to learn that you get punished for pretty much every mistake you make in this league.

I'm still enjoying it and think people are fretting too much

[stingray]

a disappointing season seeing as qpr and burnley are above us. full backs are not up to it at this level, CBs too similar and Pearson seems to get into these multi-game depressions where he can't lift team out of losing streaks.

[StanSP]

Christ this is your soggiest post to date.

 

staying true to form

[Dr The Singh]

I said this would happen, I hate being right sometimes!! 

[Moonstomp]

I expected us to be in and around the relegation zone all season, not rooted to the bottom for weeks and months on end. 

 

I think we all knew we were going to be in trouble with such a poor summer in terms of transfers. Worryingly Pearson only seems bothered buying forwards now too, when it's midfield where we're desperately lacking.

As stated elsewhere on this post while we seem to be chasing more forwards we have no chance of providing them with the service they need unless we get a creative midfielder ....McCarthy looks like the one that got away now unfortunately ..... And we can all see we need the defence shoring up as shown yesterday when Konch was robbed by Crouch you just know that every game he will give the opposition an opportunity. Loyalty is very important from any employer however not when it doesn't help commercially. Loyalty to certain players who will continue to receive a great living regardless while the club could lose multi million pounds through relegation is just not good business sense. As a fan I will support whoever pulls on the shirt but I can see when they aren't good enough.