You were naive against Arsenal. I love the way you Foxes play, with your open and attacking football, but that's exactly how NOT to play against Arsenal, unless you can match them for pace AND possession. Look at how the Spanners humiliated Arsenal... they closed up shop, frustrated them, wore them down, and then hit them on the counter. Arsenal are extremely fickle when they don't get their own way. Leicester, unfortunately, played to Arsenal's strengths. So, whilst I would agree that you didn't make Arsenal look good, what I would say is that you did make it easy for them to play the kind of game that they were always likely to win.
But he did change it though, didn't he? That's what matters. If Ranieri sorts out the defence, I'll be the first to give him recognition on that.
To be fair FF, I think you DID recognise that we played some good stuff last season AT THE TIME (you actually made comment about seeing some of the best football you'd EVER seen us play), but retrospectively you're choosing not to remember that, or more accurately, you keep selecting the handful of below average performances as examples of the norm, which they weren't.
Obviously it's all about opinions but I wouldn't say it was similar at all. We were set up to be harder to beat last time; that certainly wasn't the case yesterday.
I agree with this and, just to be clear, when I said we made them look good, that wasn't too imply they aren't good (they obviously are), but, as you said, we gave them a massive helping hand.
The issue is though Gangsta mate is that it took Pearson around 30 odd games to "change it" and turn it around. Would you give Ranieri such a luxury ...it appears not...you're grumbling about him after 7 games even though we are currently 6th.
Woah hold on....scratch that.....I just noticed we are down to 7th. That's a disgrace!!! Ranieri OUT.
I don't call for managers heads. I believe you live and die by your decisions, so you stand by someone if YOU select them. If there was one thing the owners did right in the Pearson sacking debacle, it was waiting until the summer and not doing it mid-season. I would expect us to stand by Ranieri, and assess our development next summer. What I'm finding frustrating is the very fact that it took Pearson so long to find the right formula in our squad and formation but now, defensively, Ranieri has gone back to square one. Ranieri is making the same mistakes and then some, despite having better options.
Going round in circles here mate so we shall agree to disagree (on some points not all!) What I'm sure we can both agree on, is that we want nothing but success for the manager, players and club as a whole. Hopefully we will win more than we lose over the course of the season and then let's see where that takes us.
We did play some good football towards the end of the season and I did acknowledge it ... but there has been a marked step up this season which you just refuse to see .. and when you have given any acknowledgement of our form you have put it down to evolution and have given the current manager scant if any praise for the way the team has performed (or perhaps I just interpret your comments incorrectly)... You are now criticising the way we are set up as not being resolute enough ... but seem to forget that we were quite often bloody awful defensively at places like QPR, Swansea, Palace, Spurs away last season ... (none of which, by the way, are in the 'selective below average prformances' I have mentioned before) ... We are indeed different - I really enjoyed Saturday's game despite losing ... I've heard it descrbed as the 'best game of the Premiership so far this season' from a number of presenters and pundits ... and not because we got 'hammered' ... because we gave a, lets face it, wonderful Arsenal side playing on top form a right good contest ... Football games often turn on small margins ... we could have gone in 3-1 up at half time with a bit more luck ... and Santi Cazorla could well have been on a yellow for the trip on Okazaki that led to Vardy having to go alone and Arsenal going straight up the pitch and getting a second .. (and may well have injured Okazaki to boot) Now there has been some criticism of Ranieri bringing King on (and hindsight is a wonderful thing) ... but he needed to counter their growing midfield dominance and Andy King has had a good start to the season and also carries a goal threat as shown very recently against West Ham ... Ranieri could also reasonably have expected Mahrez to get a lot better (he did in the last 10 mins but way too late) and push further up ... now personally I would have brought Inler on to give that extra midfield bite ... but now I'm just being picky ... I do believe that we will more games than we lose with the type of football we are playing - and therefore we will finish safely above the relegation zone. We do need to scrutinize our defence and being quite honest I think there are big questions marks over the Huth and Wes partnership in a 2 and also Kasper seems to have reverted to his indecisive flappy mode ... Maradona used his hand to outjump Shilton ... Sanchez, all 5ft 7" of him, beat Kasper in the air ... not very encouraging. But we move on ... I'm still enjoying the ride because it is fabulously entertaining.
... inadvertently you have just massaged the ego of the singularly biggest WUM of Arsenal board and posters on Not606 ... go and take a peak at the 'general' Prem board below the teams list... HIAG spouts more excrement that the sewage outlets at Skeggy
October will be the big test for us. I personally believe we will be challenging with the likes of Crystal Palace and West Brom in mid-table. Some believe we are good enough to challenge Southampton for European places. Others believe we will be with Norwich in the relegation zone. Next month is key to where we are.
I'd agree. ... would love to sneak into the top ten .. and if we can sort the defence out that might just be possible...
I'd say if we sort the defence it definitely will happen as we have excellent completion in midfield and up front. It's good that we have 2 players weighing in with goals too as hopefully one or the other will stay in form at one time. I'd like to see Ulloa get more game time or even Kramaric as Okazaki hasn't been getting on the scoresheet. He will no doubt need more time but I like Vardy and Ulloa together
Take a look..... looks good eh!!! Cmon Gangsta....even you must like this! http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/premier-league/top-scorers
From reading through the comments on this thread, some valid points have been made by both sides. However, the main question behind all the points that are being made seem to revolve around whether or not we would be doing better if Nigel was still here. And that makes all the arguments moot... Because we'll never know... Regardless of who our manager is, Leicester City are 7th in the Premier League... And the top two in the scoring charts are both Leicester players... Would we be 6th if we had Nigel instead? Would we have scored the same, if not more? Would we have conceded less? Who knows...? You can't prove it either way... So arguing is moot, and putting a dampener on our start because we obtained the same points from the same fixtures last year is just plain strange to me... We all aren't naïve enough to think that everything is rosy, but if you can't enjoy life sitting 7th in the Premier League after 7 games, with only one defeat, well, then I feel for you, I really do...
A marked step up on the team that put five against QPR, three against Newcastle and looked a match for Chelsea? No, I don't agree, and if there is, it's at the expense of a solid defence. I've addressed how it took us a long time to find the right combination, and why it's frustration that Ranieri has ignored that. Those that don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Tottenham, as I remember, is the only one of those game in which we had a back three, but there was some awful refereeing decisions in that game. That game, actually, is the game I regained my belief that we could survive, we were that good. The first of our seven wins followed in the next match. The London media like to see Arsenal at their best. Tell me something I don't know. Again, I have said there was nothing wrong with our first half showing and tactics (other than us stick with the same leaky defence, which was no surprise). The mistakes were in the second half... Again, as I've already said, I thought it was a crap decision at the time too. We weren't out of the game enough to justify weakening our attack; frankly it was a cowardly move and we were punished accordingly. I could have understood if Ranieri had started with five in the midfield, but doing it when we were losing was like shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted. Bringing on Ulloa and Krammy got us back into the game, but way, way too late. I really don't see why shoring up the defence will take away from our attacking prowess. We know it won't, we did it last season. We MAY survive playing how we are now, but I KNOW we'll survive if the defensive issues are addressed. Have to say, Kasper the least of my worries, but it wasn't his finest day, that's for sure. If Ranieri can allay my nagging concerns, I'd be right with you. On that I'm sure we all agree.
