Not sure I can last through too many more games like that! Good win at the end of the day, but the performance was very anxious and it seemed to transfer to the crowd. Maybe everyone was paying too much heed to the arrival of the new manager. The central defence looked pretty solid and great to keep yet another clean sheet, but did the midfield lack their normal intensity? They didn't seem to close the opposition down as quickly as they usually do and win the ball back. Maybe they didn't think Newcastle were much of a threat in possession. Drinkwater couldn't find a player in a blue shirt to save his life and we were back to the old habit of players receiving the ball unchallenged and still pinging it off first time to a team mate but it was often either head or chest high meaning it was impossible to control, or it was simply given away. Very professional for the last 5 minutes. I don't normally like to see time wasting stuff like that from other teams, but it was a good option for us last night. The other worrying thing is that Vardy doesn't look like scoring any time soon. Let's hope we can get another clean sheet in the next match and get Vardy ahead of Kane in the goalscoring chart.
We seemed to let Mitrovic pick up the long balls far too easily and sometimes under no pressure at all, don't know why we seemed to be playing so deep. No matter though, it possibly could be a grind until the end of the season with clubs adjusting to us now, trying to shut down Vardy and playing that bit deeper, will just haveto work extra hard to get the important goal. Our 2 below par performances seem to have come about after longer breaks, so maybe the amount of time between games isn't overly beneficial.
What happened was that we set up for a McClaren team and face one that had a competent manager instead. We allowed Mitrovic to get the ball and played deep because we wanted Newcastle to rush forward and give us space for the counter attack - aside from one Albrighton chance, they were much more organised and that didn't happen. The good thing about teams picking up Vardy is that it is allowing other people room to score - while both he and Mahrez have scored the majority of our goals, that then other guys have proven they can too is a good thing and if there is one thing that we are very good at, it is working extra hard.
playing badly and winning, I'm sure I've heard people say that's a sign of a team that does something......
