I went to Leicester away and had no complaints about the result, they were the better team. I think we have improved since then but I've just seen the extended highlights of Leicester v Cardiff, Leicester looked a handful and really should have won. Our performance against Palace gives me hope but I do think this will be our toughest game for quite a while. Think it will be a good marker for how far we've come in the last few weeks.
Having attended the Leicester v. Cardiff game saturday it is now obvious that 2 significant things have happened since september. 1) Lesta are not playing as well as they were (even sone Lesta fans who i spoke to said the same and when Nugent fails to score they struggle to score goals) and 2) Hull City are far far better equipped and can win games without getting near there best. As was seen @ Derby on friday night. I expect Hull City to win the boxing day game. No championship game is easy but i dont see Lesta having the tools to unPick the Tigers lock. Nice booking taken by Meyler at Derby(his 5th) and is suspended for boxing day regardless of who he may be playing for. I was disapointed with the overall quality of the LC v. CC game but Lesta did miss enough chances to have won the game. So with Udders grabbing a late equiliser at Palace and thus sending Hull City back into 2nd spot for Christmass its all looking nice and dandy. All the results went our way this weekend. Roll on Boxing Day and Old Flat Tops return. Bring it on........
Dear Santa In the words of Kevin Bloody Wilson "where's my Fookin bike" but all will be forgiven if you deliver a favourable result against both Leicester and Leeds" anything more than draws would put the icing on MY Xmas cake. Ps.There's an extra mince pie for you if you provide the WIN against Krautheads team on Boxing Day.
If Leicester had had their shooting boots on they would have beaten Cardiff easily. I agree about Nugent, if we can keep him quiet we've got a good chance of beating them. I think Leicester will provide a greater test than Leeds, if we beat Leicester then I think it will be six points from those two games.
Leicester looks like one of those 50/50 games to me. I'm getting to the point where i expect to win against most sides. This one seems more of a hope than an expectation. Were in great form and playing at home though,so maybe i should have gone 55/45 in our favour.
Think Pearson had done his homework on our formation and snuffed out Elmo. He never got a look in. No doubt they will have had us watched at Derby. Regardless of form or talent, a lot will be decided by tactics and the managers' nouse.
Nigel Pearson so far is the only manager who has actually countered our system, and he did it brilliantly. Cardiff just played their way but Leicester changed up to counter us and it lead to us getting hammered, we where second best in all areas. Anyone who thinks it is an easy game and a definate three points is wrong, really wrong. NP is a good manager who found a way to play against us. However admittedly i think Bruce will find a way to stop it happening, personally that would be for us to play them at their own game, and let Brady and Elmo have more freedom and push them back with width, allowing us the space we didn't have in the away game.
I agree....but we didn't have Brady on the left that game with Hobbs backing him up....festa will have to worry about both sides of the pitch this time around. Elmo to rip them apart.
Leicester worked their nuts off that day all over the pitch and the chances of them not doing the same on Boxing Day seem slim. We never really had a period of dominance in that game and we were under pressure on the ball throughout. Can't see them not playing the same way again.
Agreed very much, the problem was the fact our full backs where pushed back meaning we sat far to deep and couldn't break. My theory is simple they did it to us, we need to do that to them, not let them attack us but we attack them and push them deeper. Also the fact Nugent tore Bruce a new hole that game and Bruce was shocking, Hobbs won't let that happen.
Until your last sentence I agreed, after that its bollocks. Nugent scored the first in the inside left position in between chest n Elmore. The second goal was **** defending from Koren, cross to the far post where chezzy Elmore n Faye were outmuscled by their cb. Nugent spent most of the game in the inside left position.
I think the Lesster and TWS games are our litmus test just as Lesster was Baaaaardiffs yesterday. Lesster will come and harry and harry and harry. It will be the highest tempo game we will watch at the KC this season. The result will be decided by two factors: 1. How quickly we can pass the ball accurately and how well Brady and Elmo can combat Knockhaert and Dyer (or Marshall if he gets the nod). 2. How well the referee performs. I've said before I think it's a failing of ours to be top of the fair play league and I think when we get a poor ref we get more than our fair share of bad decisions going against us. When the game is tight (as Lesster will be) that could be crucial. TWS is more straight forward, they will deploy every dirty trick in the book and with Brown, Becchio and Diouf they are absolute masters at doing it and getting away with it. Again we need a competent ref but we also need to be strong and patient. I would DEFINITELY play Faye in that game, we must counter Becchio and after the way he owned Davies earlier in the season, HE MUST PLAY. I've got a feeling that our big Kraut might well have an important part to play in these two games, whether that is from the bench or not, I'm not sure. Just got a feeling!
It pissed it down at Leicester which made our passing game more difficult and favoured theirs. Hopefully a drier and truer pitch on Boxing Day.
Both very hard home games lets not kid ourselves we are playing two good sides but we are a very good side so lets bring um on and they will both have a big following so our crowd has got to be the 12th man, we really have to get behind the lads it could make the difference
No it won't. Both managers will know exactly how the other team sets up and will do their best to combat it, but that's all they can do. If the players aren't good enough to combat it it won't matter one bit. Leicester will have their plan to beat us and we'll have ours, it can't go to plan for both teams though. Whichever team plays better and takes their chances will win. That's true. Our passing was absolutely ****ing shocking though, we just kept giving them it back over and over. If you can't keep the ball you lose the game regardless of tactics. Got to be better this time. As for Leeds, I'm not sure how they got good? They were absolute ****e when I saw them earlier in the season including against us, I guess a couple of loan signings have improved them a bit but as we know with Warnock in charge and the players Strov mentioned a lot will depend on how strong the ref is. If we had someone like Howard Webb last week we'll be fine but if it's a standard championship refereeing puppet they'll just do what they like and it will be very difficult for us.
Possible song for Boxing Day: Fox on the run You screamed and everybody comes a-running Take a run and hide yourself away errr ... maybe not.
Yes it will. I said a lot - not everything. Kenny Jackett ****ed up his formation against us and got hammered.
Bruce was ****e that day, really ****e. It wasn't just Nugent that tore him a new one, it was the whole team, no matter where the goals were scored. Boxing day will be tricky, as most Championship games are. If they score early, as we all know a NP team can sit on a lead and defend it for 85/90 minutes. If we get off to a good start then I can't see anything but a City win.
Kenny Jackett had a **** team and we had a good one who played very well on the day. Just like Leicester had a good team who played well on the day and we played very poorly.
We're a better team with a better manager. If we're serious about promotion we need to be winning games like these.
