In his press conference today the Manager confirmed that McDonald and Anguissa are still out. Otherwise all okay. Won't comment on the other lot. other than to say they rested Hazard in last night's Euro game so that he'd be fit for Sunday. So we must have them scared. In the words of Ranieri when he joined, "I am the Tinkerman but I must tinker clever". And reckon that's all he'll do; a little bit of an adjustment with Joe Bryan coming in at LB. Will that mean moving Le Marchand to CB with Mawson? Very much doubt it. Personally thought Schurrle, playing at right midfield, was poor defensively against Southampton. The manager disagrees however, saying today "Schurrle's goals are important but tactically too, he is a very good player. In the last match, he was tactically very good". So no change there. The predicted line up then: ...........................Rico................. ....Christie....Odoi....Mawson...Bryan.. ..Schurrle....Chambers... Seri...Sessegnon.. ...................Cairney..Mitrovic..
Interesting. I thought Schurrle was working assiduously at the defensive side of his role, more so than I expected from him. I think there's a case for an unchanged line up, although I suspect that Bryan, if deemed match-fit, may be the exception to that.
Yeah, possibly a bit harsh since he covered a fair distance between the boxes on the right side. However, marked him down for two principle reasons - * When Christie went forward he ran diagonally forward towards their box, leaving our right side exposed. Rather he should have stayed more square covering behind Christie and/or giving Christie an outlet; * When defending in our third he was sideways-on to their man with the ball, rather than square-on. Consequently he was regularly beaten on the outside, flapping his right peg. In fact, he didn't make one tackle. That said, this was a new role for him and the Manager was also clearly content with his performance.
The man in the middle tomorrow lunchtime is Craig Pawson. please log in to view this image Yup, he didn't jibe with me either. Possibly because the last time we saw him was in January 2014 - the season he was appointed to the top flight as a ref - when we drew 1-1 with Norwich at Carrow Road in the FA Cup. The only player booked was John Arne Riise. The Sheffield Wednesday supporter has more recent history with Ranieri however. The year Leicester won the League Pawson controversially sent off Jamie Vardy and a furious Ranieri had to be dragged off the pitch when he confronted Pawson at half time. For the record, in his 10 games so far this season Pawson is well ahead of most with 40 yellows and 3 reds. [Shivers a bit since Mitro is only 1 yellow off a suspension and we wouldn't want to face Leicester on Wednesday without him] Pawson has also given 4 penalties in those 10 games.
No Schurrle, who felt a twing yesterday, but I'm curious as to what the formation is with StefJo coming in. Seri out on the right, maybe? I imagine it will be more of a 4-3-2-1, with Cairney and Sess playing off Mitro and a bank of three in front of defence (as Chelsea start with Hazard and Kovacic).
Team spirit and togetherness today. The quality of our passing could have been better at times. And the quality at set pieces was non existent, which was a shame with Kante marking Mitrovic. But hey ..
You have to assume that Seri is a wizard from a set piece in training, because he's been absolutely awful at corners and free kicks in games all season.
I think Seri had a poor game overall again today. We came out stronger in the second half and had we got that equaliser it would not have been undeserved. If we play with that same energy and commitment we will give Leicester a good game. Chambers by far had his best game and Rico kept us in it. The 12 o'clock kickoff doesn't help an atmosphere but didn't hear one song from the Chelsea fans, made our Riversiders sound loud.
I missed the game due to the Rangers game being on tv at the same time, typical. I was keeping an eye on the twitter updates and sounded like Chambers had another decent game, he seems to be thriving in this new midfield role. Read the Chelsea keeper had a few saves to make at 1-0 and we were giving it a good go. Dont think we really expected much from today points wise but sounds like some positives going forward. Another big chance midweek to get another win on the board.
It looks like we are improving, but unable to have watched or listened to the game today. Bring on Leicester, a must win game on all counts!
Chambers could be the new Chris Baird: a huge disappointment in his early appearances, but getting - and taking - opportunities to redeem himself due to his versatility. Bairdinho played full back, centre back and central midfield as well. Hopefully Chambers will go on to be as successful with us as his predecessor (another product of Southampton's youth production line, just to add to the similarities).
