I'd have taken a draw against Man City before the game. I thought the set up by Ranieri to put 5 in midfield was the correct one. When we are in the position we are at the moment he has to think of what we have to lose as much as what we can win. Man City are a side that can overrun you if you aren't set up right, and the manager had the choice of gambling everything, losing and ending the night third in the table with fewer points than the two teams above, or play it cautious (while still carrying a threat on the break) and at worst be second in the table and level on points with the leaders. I think the manager got it spot on. Let Arsenal and Man City keep making their mistakes against other sides and see if we can profit from that. The defence was magnificent again. Morgan was an absolute rock and they looked a solid unit. What a transformation from last season. I think Scotty from Star Trek would approve of Kante - he truly defies the laws of physics, Cap'n! Albrighton actually covered more mileage than him on the night, but it's Kante's speed off the mark to intercept and make tackles and then go on a sprint that sets him apart. It was great to see Drinkwater back and good that he didn't appear to get any reaction to the injury. The only thing I wish we would do is to not keep trying to play the killer one touch pass and giving the ball away. A second touch to improve the quality would give us more possession and stop the opposition countering. I'm sure it will be a resumption of normal service against Bournemouth. They can be a dangerous outfit but are the kind of team that we need to pick up 3 points from, while Man City have a tricky one at Watford and Arsenal have ...... Oh well, we can't have it all!
I don't think he had a very good game to be fair, but having him in there forced Man City to change their tactics and attack from wide positions, rather than Toure getting on our 18 yard line and scoring a worldy. Its also doing him no favours in regards to his Switzerland call-up. We are bringing him in against teams where we are expected not to have the lions share of the midfield, so he can't show what he can do. And for defensive midfielders, i don't think theres many in the entire league that will be able to outshine Kante at the moment, especially players that aren't playing regularly.
I thought Inler did okay last night. In fact, I would go as far to say he was better than Drinkwater in the 1st half. Yes, he gave the ball away at times, as did Drinky and Kante. It just seems to me that we have to have a "boo boy" (not saying he was booed last night) but just to have someone to moan about. Please look at the league table! Why the hell do some people feel they need to moan? Do they expect us to have a 100% pass completion rate every game?! Some people really need to have a reality check.
.. as I've said above.. thought he was pretty good from a footballing perspective.. just lacks heart currently.. hopefully he'll learn from the examples being set by others.... especially the little gem N'Golo Kante
Thats the problem with how well we have done over the last year, people are getting comfortable and accustomed to it. There WILL be a meltdown from some of our supporters out there when we lose 2-3 on the bounce and if we slip down to 6th god help us. lol
I don't think anyone is moaning; I think it's more of a mild anxiety. We all are aware that we are achieving far more than we could ever have hoped or expected at the start of the season, and we should be enjoying it - and mostly we are, but we still have those nagging doubts that come with being a long-time Leicester supporter. The position we are in brings its own pressure, but a much better pressure than being at the bottom. Last year we were in a position where we had nothing to lose by going for it; this season we have much to lose from where we are now. None of us wants to see us fall from top four. Our success has been built on a blend of all round effort, team spirit, determination and no little amount of skill. Our one-touch passing at times against Chelsea was sublime. The model we have isn't perfect but it's pretty darned effective when it works well. And it has worked well so far. We don't have to dominate possession. We have proved that possession stats mean nothing, particularly when that possession is used to move the ball aimlessly between the back four, and sideways and backwards in midfield; it just gives the opposition time to reset. All I was saying about the possession is that we are sometimes rushing it to try and get it to Vardy in particular too quickly when we aren't under any pressure on the ball, and we have time to take a second touch and improve the quality of the pass rather than it go astray. The style of play that has got us this far doesn't suit a slow build up, but it does seem to be taking its toll on the players at this busy time of the season. I don't want us to become a possession at all costs type of team, but sometimes you need to keep possession just to give players time to take a breather. The midfield seem to be either tearing forward to try and stop Vardy getting isolated down the channels, or tearing back because we have given the ball away - see the stats for Albrighton and Kante on Tuesday. This has not been a moan - merely an opinion. I don't expect us to achieve 100% pass completion, and no one on here has expressed disappointment in that area. It would be nice to get close to that, and maybe that should be next year's target. It might come in useful against the likes of Barcelona.
My apologies Bucks, i wasn't having a go at you, I was really talking about the posts you can read in the forums on Facebook. There really is some brain dead people who spout a load of s**t !! On here we do seem a more level headed bunch Sorry for the confusion
Oh don't get me started on FB Harborough! Sometimes I think I should just close my account! Both the Leicester City and Match of Day pages get so much ****e posted! To be fair a lot of fans are complimentary but some right tossers on them!
No need for apologies, Harborough. I hadn't taken it as a personal attack. I'm not into the Facebook/Twitter stuff so am only aware of opinions on this forum. Actually, since Gangsta went AWOL (he must be in rehab due to our current position!) , most of us seem pretty contented with life and are generally happy with the manager's starting XI and substitutions. Surely it can't last!
