Team V Bournemouth

We are carrying on our form from last season - sure Shakey won 5 on the trot but since then we have only won 3 league games.

We need to change this and it looks like that the change needs to be him.

 

Timewasting by Kasper in the 83rd min at 0-0.

Says a lot about how dire we have been.

 

Only a matter of time until we drop into the bottom 3. Looking very much like we will be going down if we stick with Shakespeare. Will probably change managers and stay up as per last year. Worrying though as it's the start of becoming a Sunderland or Palace, stinking out the premier league with ****e anti-football, sack the manager and scrape survival. That's a depressing future to witness....

 

Very nearly nicked it at the end with Mahrez weaving through and nearly putting Iheanacho in ... but that would have been criminal. Totally inept display ... we have now been thoroughly outplayed in midfield by Huddersfield and Bournemouth ... Shakey needs a serious rethink because we cannot keep hold of the ball and it doesn't matter how could your forwards are if you can't give them any service...

 

Thank god for the international break.!!!
Lots of stuff needs to be fixed..but mainly its the total and utter void in midfield.. ohhh and the lack of passion.. make no mistake if we dont win our next game we are totally sucked into the relegation battle and unfortunately the manager will obviously be under the spotlight.. feels like a long hard season already...

 

Absolute horror show. Our midfield in the first half was non existent and only luck kept us in it. Ndidi gets through a power of work and Albrighton gives everything but with that formation we are just two easy to play through. Some serious rethinking needs to happen in the next couple of weeks.

 

Absolute shocker. Looked like a team of strangers playing together. What the hell is going on
Bournemouth were a joy to watch. Quality on the ball All over the park. Cook had a tremendous game
They could have won that by 7 or 8. Daylight robbery we got a point but what the hell we'll take it and run
May be a point that keeps us up

 

Dire. Losing belief

 

The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We can't keep playing a version of the 4-4-2 that won us the title. In the centre of that midfield we had Kante and Drinkwater who won everything by energy, passion and no little skill and drove the team forwards. We are now trying to do it using Ndidi and King. It just isn't going to work. Forget the formation that won us the title. We have different personnel and we must move on. The trouble is that we still have someone in charge who is stuck in that mindset and has what appears to be very little creative imagination. We've bought Iborra and Iheanacho yet we have no idea how to use them. The same applies to Musa and Slimani.

If we can't defend the centre of the midfield with 2 of the players we currently have, which is where most of our defensive problems are coming from, then let's use 3. Go to a 4-1-4-1 or 3-5-1-1 with a dedicated holding midfielder - maybe Amartey is the only option we have at the moment. The other thing I would like to see is our main striker holding the ball up, holding off defenders and bringing supporting players into the game. Because Vardy lacks physical strength he cannot out-muscle defenders, and neither is he good at going round defenders to create chances for himself. I wonder whether he dictates too much the way we play, and why we give the ball away too easily by trying to find him with aimless out-balls.

We also have to address the possession problem. I've no problem having only 40% possession if the other 60% is wasted by the opposition passing the ball sideways and backwards. But we have to be able to keep the ball in all areas of the field rather than giving it away and being caught on the counter. That means getting players knowing where they should be to support the man in possession. Let's get coaches who understand what Guardiola and Joachim Lowe are doing and at least try to emulate that approach, but obviously tailored to our players' abilities, because at the moment, under the current 'system', we look like relegation candidates.