I’ve be interested to see what llorente could add to this side defensively. I’ve defended coops in the past, but he looks out of his comfort zone in this league to me. Everyone seems to have a hard on for Koch, and I like the lad but the amount of goals and near misses his poor defending of crosses/set pieces has cost us is adding up now... Irrespective of the first goal today.
Tough lesson but on another day the Bamford chance in the first minute or the Hernandez crossbar goes in and it’s a different game. Never easy when you go a goal down that early in the game and the PL is not very forgiving when it comes to missed chances and mistakes unlike the championship. Player ratings: Meslier - 6 - Didn’t do much wrong but he conceded 4. He did make a couple of decent saves too. Ayling - 5 - Looked okay going forward without creating loads but gave the ball away too much. Koch - 5 - Gave the ball away for the first goal and was always going to be hard after that. Does look assured on the ball and think he’s good value for money. Cooper - 5 - Got turned a few times and Vardy’s pace got the better of him but honestly what CB doesn’t struggle with Vardy’s pace? Didn’t think he did a great deal wrong and some nice long passes. Only the 2nd time he has played alongside Koch and no Phillips in CDM so the partnership can only get better. Dallas - 6 - Had some clever play and one twos with Harrison and Klich. Got the goal and was our best player tonight. Klich - 6 - Not as assured in the CDM role as he was against Villa and gave the ball away too much tonight but he never stops running and always puts a good shift him. When he’s not playing higher up the field we miss him, as someone else in the thread has stated we need to clone him to play all our central midfield positions. Costa - 5 - Very nearly an outstanding player. Some nice close control and touches with flashes of pace and skill but lacking end product. Hernandez - 5 - Terrible first half like the whole team, gave the ball away too many times. Hit the bar and was then subbed off. Couldn’t dictate play like he wanted too but feel like he is someone who always has a bit of magic so is worth keeping on. Will need his magic Saturday as Rodrigo is out again. Shackleton - 4 - This seems to be the thing with Shacks. He has an absolute stormer of a game, gets a start and is then nowhere to be seen. Again, gave the ball away too many times, wasn’t strong enough and didn’t show for the ball enough. Shame because one week there’s a player in there and the next nothing. Harrison - 5 - Seems to get the ball a lot but not do that much with it. Some wasted balls in, needs to improve it when he gets in good positions and holds on to the ball for too long. Some good defensive work though. Bamford - 5 - Could’ve and probably should have had at least 2. Header either side of the keeper and it’s a goal, better touch on the other chance and it’s a tap in and he slightly bottled it against Kasper but it’s one of those things. Strikers will miss chances and tonight we paid for them. Poveda - 5 - Looks threatening without actually doing much. Beats a man and then makes the wrong decision. Only young so hopefully he’s only going to get better and has looked promising every time he’s came on this season. Roberts - 4 - Made 1 good run that ended up going out for a goal kick. Didn’t create anything and added nothing to the game. We need better and is never getting into the team when we’ve got a fully fit squad. Alioski - 5 - Only given him a 5 as he didn’t really have much time for a rating. Got about a bit but it was too late by the time he came on. Tonight was calling out for Raphina or Rodrigo to make something happen when it was 2-1 so that was a shame. On to Saturday at Palace which will be another tough game.
Not our night tonight. The changes to our starting line up had a massive impact on our ability to move the ball and resulted in us repeatedly losing posssesion in the first half. After the break Bielsa played a masterstroke by overloading the wide areas, as a result we totally dominated by stretching the play and cutting out the midfield interplay which was previously causing us to lose the ball. Unfortunately Bielsa then had a brain freeze...WTF was he thinking taking Pablo off for Roberts just as we were looking the most likely ? Sorry Marcelo but had you waited another 10/15 mins we might have been level or even better.
Alright lads? ... don't be too down, you came up against a very rapid and effective counter attacking team tonight ... (just ask Citeh and Arsenal ) This league is brutal ...if you don't take your chances when you get them you will get punished. Lots of good points made on the thread - you'll do OK and Bielsa is clever enough to take on board what's happened tonight and take steps to ensure that it doesn't happen regularly. First season up is all about surviving and building ... then progressing next. Seen enough to suggest you will do both. All the best until we meet again
We've only lost to teams in the top six, so not all that bad. Next game away, sort of in London, but more like Croydon to me. These are the games that it would be good to get some points from. When are Phillips, Llorente, Raph and Rodrigo back?
Rodrigo hasn’t tested positive, he’s just been in contact with someone who has. I guess it depends if that someone is in the same house as he is living? If not surely if he is tested and it comes back negative it’s okay to return?
Very impressive from Leicester last night. It was exactly what I was afraid you would do to us. Thought at 2-1 it was anybody's game but you were so clinical on the counter. If it wasn't against my team it would have been a pleasure to watch! As you say.... it's all about taking chances when they come. Vardy is 33 now isn't he? He'll be missed when his powers inevitably start to fade with time. He'll be tough to replace on that form.
£1 million mate ... ... plus £450k for Riyad Mahrez and £6.5 million for Ngolo Kante... throw in an Italian manager that nobody gave much hope to ... there will be a film one day.
Koch was caught out by the rain soddened pitch and on any other day the ball would have reached our keeper, but maybe he should have realised this and just put the ball out. Var is a disaster and I'm not just saying that because of the penalty decision because we've benefited from var as well. While Bamford was fantastic against villa, he really should have scored at least one of his chances. As I've said before there is a fine line between winning and losing in this league and unfortunately if you gift your opponents a goal and your top scorer misses chances, it's game over. A bad day at the office, roll on palace.
