Rival watch

He was a Pep Guardiola signing for Bayern. I wonder if he'll move to Citeh next season?

 

Sunderland started very physically and seemed to have dragged Leicester into a bit of a kick fest of a match at the moment.
Leicester refusing to be intimidated by Sunderland's approach and are matching them physically.
Sunderland's passing is truly atrocious

 

If Leicester go ahead it's hard to see Sunderland coming back.

 

Better than Demichelis, at least. He's supposed to be able to play as a defender.

 

Their passing's poor, but I think that their set-up up front's what's causing it.
Trying to play direct balls into Defoe is lunacy.

 

When is the last time that Leicester have won from a losing position ??

 

Huth handling in the box, again. Not a penalty, for me

 

Could have been a penalty for Sunderland and imo should have been one for Leicester in a scrappy 1st half

 

You are not suggesting that their manager is clueless are you

 

Yedlin on Okazaki - definite pen

 

Thought that's what I said...

 

Luckily for Sunderland the ref forgets that he is allowed to play advantage

 

Allardyce generally knows what he's doing, even if I don't like watching much of it.
He plays direct football most of the time and picks players that suit it.
Defoe's happy to play off a bigger front man, but Borini's not that man.
Both of them would probably be more effective with a target man alongside them.

I'd also suggest that both of his fullbacks are actually wingbacks.
Yedlin and van Aanholt are both happy going forward and will run a lot, but can't defend.

 

Good chance for Sunderland and good save by Schmeichel.

 

He screwed up tactically against us at whl too.
Don't understand Yedlin ... looks clueless defending whenever I have seen him.
Agree re Defoe too

 

Good thing about Agent Defoe is that his strikes from outside the box are his
strong point.

 

I thought Sunderland have done well.

I also wonder how much the change in referee standards this season has enabled the Leicester surge. I really don't believe that much of their current heavy tackling would have been allowed last season. Not just Leicester of course, the whole league looks much more like it did 30 years ago with aggressive play much more prominent. Even our Deli Alli would have been carded more IMO.

The game standards have definitely changed this season, I'm sure of that.

 

Gonna miss the second half, just boarded a flight to Amsterdam. COYexS and Yedlin. JD hatrick please.

 

Genuine question, do you think that's a bad thing? In my opinion it's got far too soft in recent years and almost got to a point where it's non contact. I think it's good it's becoming a bit more contact allowed again, adds more spice to games and less cards. It should also let games flow motr

 

Keepers still get far too much protection.