I thought we played very well gainst Brighton but the ball just wouldn't go in the bloody net - put it down to one of those games you're going to get during a season. Then we went to Wolves. They were poor and despite Deano's post match ramblings, we were by far the better side and thoroughly deserved the win. Middlesbrough and Derby, what happened? At the Riverside, we lacked concentration, gifted them their first goal, and then gone done by some real skill from Ameobi to be fair for their second. We plugged away doing more of the same until Malky changed it around, but all a bit too late. Against Derby, we were far too cautious on our own patch. We have the armoury to bury teams like that, but we gave them hope by allowing them to play their game - clog and rush. Leicester are a different story. You can't ignore their recent poor form, but to dismiss them because of it would be lunacy, and I doubt very much that Malky will. Conversely, that is my biggest worry. If Malky sets us up to counter their substantial attacking threat, he'll play into their hands and give them all the encouragement they'll need. He has got to put this demoralised Leicester side to the sword by putting them on the back foot from the start. If they keep us out and we just try to soak them up, we'll lose this one. Wes Morgan is a good CB. He's good in the air and surprisingly quick over the ground for a big man, but he wont have a prayer if we play the right personel and type of game. If Helguson runs out to start, I'll ****ing erupt. I'm also fearful that he'll put the Don in the middle as well at the expense of a true wide wide man to try to stifle them - if that happens, I fear a very long and hard night is in store. Marshy behind Connolly, Huds, Turner and Tayls should speak for itself at the back against the likes of Wood, Nugent and Kane - it's the 6 in front of them that's got to take the game to Leicester. For all his recent poor form, I'd still play Whitts in front of the back 4, with Gunnar, Kimbo, Noone, Bellers and Fraizer pushing Morgan and Co back. If they try to push up and hold a higher line, the pace of Bellers and Fraizer can do them with the right service. Malky has got us into this marvellous position doing it his way and perhaps some will say it's wrong to attempt any criticism. That shouldn't prevent supporters from airing their personal views on here whether he listens to us or not.
man i love reading your posts sparkey, so insightful! leicester will want to put their run of poor form to bed and what better way to do that than beating top of the league on their own patch. i agree if we have huds back our back 4 will be far more solid and should be able to contain the leicester forwards you mentioned. however, i disagree we should have whitts in front of the back 4, he should definitely play but we all know he does his best work further up the field. also leicester have a great attacking midfielder called knockaert who is a threat i think needs attention. i would like to see gunnar staying back helping out the defense, making sure this guy and others have no room to play, this would allow whitts to get further up and provide the lethal balls our lethal attack needs.
If we play half as bad against Leicester as we did against Derby they will hammer us. Mutch has to get a place in the starting line up. Sorry Gunnar has to be axed. If not Mutch then Cowie has to replace him. We have a strong squad and if you perform badly then you should lose your place. Gunnar had a shocker on Tuesday and for that reason should be back on the bench. Mutch is more gifted so id play him. Ability wise I dont think theres much between Cowie and Gunnarsson. Next Whitts - sorry hes been poor lately and on Tuesday in my opinion the worst player on the pitch. Again axe him. Not going to happen but id bring in Ralls , Kim with Mutch in a 3 man central midfield. Campbell up front on his own with Smith and Bellamy wide. We are starting to be far too predictable at home in a 442. Getting outnumbered in the middle. Time to do something different. Id start to question Malky if Gunnarsson and Whittingham both keep their places in a 4 man midfield.
Derby was the only game, out of those mentioned, that I felt we were disappointing. I thought after half-time and 10 mins in would come the change that was called for. We have the side and can put the set up in place to play in a number of different ways, so why give the other team any breathing space when we play at home? Leicester are having a nightmare, lets not disturb their sleep just yet, we don't want them waking up to find it's a beautiful day down here in Cardiff. Set about them and lets see who can score the most, to the victor the spoils.
This is not a must win game but we need to get back to winning way and put the chasing pack behind us. An ideal opportunity to do this on Tuesday and send a message to the other team in the top 6. We will have a more solid back four with Huds returning and more pace up front with Bellers hopefully starting. Whitts needs a kick up the backside as he's clearly not the player we're used to seeing, maybe Hilts is right but do you drop one of your best players in a match of this importance? Is Mutch fit? I think he'd be ideal in this game, a big lad who can mix it if need be and carry the ball.
If everyone had the players they wanted on the pitch then of course we would win...but we cant have 22 players on the pitch at the same time. It is hard to get the fans to agree who should play never mind the manager. The side we put out is the side that have to win it for us, the fantasy side that wins every game does not exist. Even the best players can have a bad game, you have to hope some of the less talented ones have the odd good game too. We have averaged 2 points a game so far and no other team has, we have the same players plus Frazier Campbell and with luck we will get the wins we need. It might be a lot tougher on the pitch than it looks from the stands, the sides we play have some good players too so you cannot always have things all your own way. This is a nervous situation and we are nervous, we dont know why we are nervous in our position but that dont help matters. We play one game at a time and no matter what the result we must move quickly to the next game. Only time will tell if we have done enough. jck
We have players who cant get a game. When we are playing well and winning they have to wait for their chance. They will have seen players put in a terrible performance. They should be banging the managers door demanding a game after the Derby performance. Whitts is struggling. The axe might do him good. Though playing with more support in the middle would help. Hudson and Bellamy coming back will make a big difference. Surely Mutch now comes back though? Ive a feeling it may be Cowie/Whitts in the middle on Tuesday.
I saw our signing of Mutch from Brum at the time as one of the best deals for a long time. Not sure whether it's just injury and lack of game time that's kept him out, but he's certainly not been the feature this season I thought he'd be. He's powerful and has got some skills going forward that Gunnar sometimes lacks, but Gunnar will put himself about in the box and his goals have been vital. I've thought Ralls could take on the Whitts role, but not in this one. Cowie in place of Gunnar would be a mistake and hand the initiative to Leicester. Conway could do with a turn on the bench - he was probably worse than either Whitts or Gunnar against Derby and gifted them their goal with a bad mistake. He didn't help out Gunnar much throughout the game either. Kimbo should replace him on Tuesday The only contention for me is either starting with Noone or Smithy. I think Smith will get the nod again though, preferred as the safer choice wide right - Bellamy and Fraizer through the middle. Classic 4-4-2 maybe, but it's the best option we've got at home against a decent side.
This is what's so good this season, the strength in depth of the squad. It means we've all got different ideas on who the starting eleven should be. My choice for Tuesday would be. Marshall Connolly Hudson Turner Taylor Gunnarsson Whittingham Noone Kim Bo Kyung Bellamy Campbell Subs. Lewis McNaughton Nugent Cowie Mutch Conway Gestede. Let Leicester worry about us. We can afford to have a go in this game after the poor showing of our rivals on Saturday, added to the fact that we only need to win five or six of eleven games. We should be able to forget any nerves and go for it.
Hampshire - that's exactly my starting eleven I posted posted in the OP - I couldn't agree more. It demonstrates a fearless approach that would set Leicester something to think about, rather than the alternative of us just worrying about what they can do. Malky needs to go for this one from the start not try to recover it at the death.
My only alternative would be on the bench. would we go for Cowie or Smith. I went for a 4 2 3 1 as I think we have been out fought at times in midfield recently.
Personally i think we have got to go out there with confidence against Leicester, get at them from the off, for that i would go with Noone to start and Mutch instead of Gunnar.
I suppose it's a question of the approach you take to give us the best chance of a result from the game - in the end, it's only Malky's that counts. He seems to weigh up whether scoring, or stopping the opposition scoring is the way to do it. From what we've seen all too often is he tends to pay too much attention to countering the other team rather than playing to our own strengths. Fans can fairly argue that our table position justifies his approach and it would be difficult to dispute that, but I've watched games at the CCS where we could have been out of sight instead of struggling to hang on at the death. Comfort zone is something we rarely do. Blackpool and Burnley are probabaly the only two games I've been totally relaxed watching. Malky has some immense talent at his disposal this season and it seems to me he lacks the confidence to use it, preferring to re-boot in "safe" mode rather than starting the full system. His starting lineup against Leicester will be very interesting. Go for it or more of the same? You could say as long as we get the right result, it doesn't matter, but it's time we stamped some authority on the visiting side rather than paying then too much respect.
Morning all Had a good weekend away apart from seeing Bournemouth lose to Donnie. Jesus!! Donnie are the biggest side I've ever seen on a football field with 2 6 ft 6 cb's a 6 ft 3 left back, 3 at 6 ft 2 in midfield and Paynter and Brown upfron both coming in at 6 ft +. Quinny at right back looked a dwarf. Needless to say their style was not a pssing game. What has happened there? They used to be a good footballing side. Bournemouth played all the football but lost to a 2 goal smash and grab. Anyway back on thread, apologies for digressing. I will go to the naughty step if required. What has happened with Mutch? He had injury problems at Birmingham but still seemed a good buy on the back of previous potential. He has had injuries with us but when seemingly fit has not been on our bench even or has played and looked poor. I suspect there is some deeper underlying injury problem and while he played for the Development Squad recently I can't see him starting tomorrow, bench at best. All of this is a pity as he is the tall box to box midfielder we have never had - and with a good degree of ball skill. I see the side as portrayed by Sparks and Hampshire but with Smith on the bench if Mutch is not fit or instead of Gestede and Getsede's place is under threat anyway as he won't drop HH completely. I really hope we get 24k plus tomorrow as this is a key game in our season. Hull could get within 3 points of us tonight by beating Burnley so a win for us is essential tomorrow to reestablish the 6 point gap and put us 8 points ahead of Watford and still with games in hand. The crowd can be the 12th man with strong vocal support driving the team forward.
We were so bad against Derby that there has to be changes to the set up and line up. We need more bodies in the middle. I like the look of Hampshire Blues line up but agree with Ronny and Gunnar to be replaced with Mutch. Noone is a bit of a risk but with a 5 man midfield we should have cover. Whitts will be very luck to keep his place and personally id let him and Gunnar sit on the bench. Ive a feeling the line up will be. Marshall Connolly Hudson Turner Taylor Kim Cowie Whittingham Smith Bellamy Campbell. Cant make game im off to Cheltenham for the racing cant believe this game got rearranged to this date. Whatever happens time for the team to perform and the fans to get behind the team. We werent great against Brighton but on another day we would have won. The Derby performances was unacceptable and its time for the team to put that one behind them. I hope those who come in whether its Cowie , Mutch , Noone make their claims to keep the shirt. If the likes of Whitts , Conway or Gunnarsson keep the shirt then I hope they put in a performance that justifys the managers backing.
It's certainly time we took advantage of what others are giving us, it's time to turn the screw and put a couple of wins between us and second place, even more so if Hull falter again tonight. A 3 point lead is not a cushion it is a false buffer which we must not ignore. Go for the throat with the games in hand and put down a marker.
Good luck for Cheltenham Hilts, Youll need it, although 1 winner should pay for the day. Leicester are on a low at the moment and MM needs to prey on that, all out attack from the off, and if we are lucky enough to get and early goal or 2 go for more and dont sit back. Although in reality i can see another nailbiter, hope its not another Derby performance though.
Huds returning will settle things down at the back, Bellars will be a huge influence and Campbell is getting fitter and is showing his class. This will be a cracking game despite Leicesters recent poor form and our mini-wobble, the last few occasions they have visited the matches have been epic. Malky has the benefit of a good squad of players this season and on most occasions his selections have been good, I don't expect big changes, whoever is selected should be up for this one, could be the best game of the season. We "outfoxed" them at their place earlier this season although some may argue we did a smash and grab job. They should be at the top with us and will want to prove they are worthy, really looking forward to this one.
Agreed NLLS - this should be the best game of the season, but Malky's mindset worries me. "They've got an experienced manager who's a good guy and someone that - a couple of weeks ago you saw it - at home to Blackburn, they destroyed Blackburn. "They've had a couple of sticky results, like us all, but they've got match-winners in their team and, like it was up there, it will be a really tough game for us. "We dug in and really had to do that to win that game and I don't see it being any different [this time]." Yes Malky, but before that Blackburn game of theirs, they got 1 point from 9. and since it, just another 1 point from 9 - that's 5 points out of a possible 21. Don't build them up into something they aren't. They're rocking - we need to push them over the edge. If your passing the same message to your players as you are to the fans, then they'll go on the pitch with the wrong attitude. Unless he's being very clever with his psychology, I can honestly see Helguson and Cowie starting for this one.
There is no way Helgusson will play. As long as Cowie isnt wide right id have no problem with him taking a spot in the middle of midfield. He wouldnt be in my 1st choice 11 but if Mutch isnt fully fit then Cowie deserves a place. I think Cowie will come in - if Helgusson starts id be stunned.
