Leicester (A) Post Match Thread

[cleavers]

I love how City fans want to do down everything we do, and in this case want a red card for Vinny, but in work this morning, with 4 others, 1 a closet rag, the other a rag, all to a person thought "no penalty", due to Stones being there from the main angle. That's even despite MoTD then managing to massage the replay, so as only to show Kopmany, Vardy and Ederson, and use an angle that foreshortens the camera view, to make it look like Vardy is almost on to Ederson.

 

[stonerblue]

Loved the sound of Kev's Thunderbastard rattling the net. What a goal!

His other smasher against Chelsea made a great 'clicking' sound as well when it flew into the net.

First 30 mins yesterday were full on frantic i thought. Players and ball fizzing about everywhere and The Prince was in the middle of it all oozing class and determination. Leicester were giving as good as they got but the 1 up front tactic left them with little else to try up front, especially as Delphinho was keeping Mahrez out of the game. We, on the other hand, always had 3 or 4 bombing forward on the breaks.
Ultimately we wore 'em out and, despite my in built fear of not being enough, once we went 2 up that was it from them. At home if they'd got 1 then they may have gone on to equalise, but great game management from us meant they hardly saw the ball never mind build up a head of steam.
Overall i thought City showed a bit of everything yesterday; skill, fight (Walker and Delph in particular), brains and brilliance.

 

[ojeme]

red all day long

Geniune questions: 1) if Stones was right beside Ederson when Kompay made tge tackle would that count as a goal scoring opportunity for Vardy? My answer would be yes.
2) would Vardy have been the last man? No.
3) would this have warranted a red card? No.

I know Stones was not that close to Vardy but even Vardy hadn't even touched the ball at that point and needed to control the ball travelling at speed. If I was a Leicester fan I'd feel disapointed that it wasn't given but I'd understand why it wasn't given and not make a fuss out of it.

 

[adr2.8i]

I missed the game but just watched the highlights on sky. My God we pummelled them!! Quite a difference in what I saw on MOTD, admittedly MOTD can.only show 5 mins worth as opposed to sky's full 30mins but what they showed was mighty impressive stuff from the lads. We look so well drilled, confident, skillful, quick, decisive, hard working, together, happy and hungry. I'm struggling to find new superlatives for this squad.

 

[lancs blue]

Geniune questions: 1) if Stones was right beside Ederson when Kompay made tge tackle would that count as a goal scoring opportunity for Vardy? My answer would be yes.
2) would Vardy have been the last man? No.
3) would this have warranted a red card? No.

I know Stones was not that close to Vardy but even Vardy hadn't even touched the ball at that point and needed to control the ball travelling at speed. If I was a Leicester fan I'd feel disapointed that it wasn't given but I'd understand why it wasn't given and not make a fuss out of it.

Yeah I would say that we couldn't really have complained if the ref had given a red card, it certainly wasn't 100% cut and dried either way, it comes into the "seen them given" category for me.

 

[kaz7]

The ref was really good,showed the difference between the celeb attention seeking ref and the new and fresh ones

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I know many City fans were rather nervous about this fixture after last year's debacle and I was very nervous indeed after two minutes .when Vinnie chopped Vardy down. I thought it was a red at the time and my impression was confirmed by replays of the highlights on the OS, but the only decision that matters is the ref's. Obviously Leicester's manager, players ans fans are convinced it was a straight red. It could have changed the game, though at least one paper was of the opinion that City were still good enough to have won with ten men. The Leicester Mercury was generous enough to agree that in the event it was a comfortable win.

I was alarmed when Stones had to go off and the prospect of having to cope without him is disturbing. I was not reassured by the sight of Mangala coming on or by what appeared to be his first contribution - a misplaced pass which went to a Leicester player 25 yards out - but he had a good game after that. Part of this was down to City's possession game and part to Walker and Delph - these two factors ensured that the actual defending that the CBs had to do was limited. Yesterday (once the first 3 minutes were over!) we didn't have to do any of that desperate, last-ditch defending that let us down so badly last season. Now we attack in number and defend in number.

Once we established control of possession yesterday our attacking play was again a joy to watch at times. Mahrez was reluctant again, as usual, to track back and City, and KdB in particular, exploited this ruthlessly. Simpson was terrified of Leroy's pace and trickiness and we caused havoc down that wing. Our first goal though was simply magical. It looked astonishingly simple, but combined so many elements that can only be the result of hours of practice even for players of the quality that we have. Brilliant. And the other feature of our play which impressed again, as in Naples, was the ability to take the heat out of the game. For a short period in the second half Leicester seemed to be getting a head of steam up and City just got possession back and had Leicester chasing shadows. Excellent game management, but again based on hours of training and the instinct to assess the demands of the game.

 

[ojeme]

I love how City fans want to do down everything we do, and in this case want a red card for Vinny, but in work this morning, with 4 others, 1 a closet rag, the other a rag, all to a person thought "no penalty", due to Stones being there from the main angle. That's even despite MoTD then managing to massage the replay, so as only to show Kopmany, Vardy and Ederson, and use an angle that foreshortens the camera view, to make it look like Vardy is almost on to Ederson.

Couldn't agree more. The tackle was a classic cynical/tactical/bad boy challenge you usually see when team A is counterattacking on the halfway line and team B are badly exposed and whilst the tackler in team B is not exactly the last man because other team members are running back offer support, he needs to make that tackle to avoid the worst. He gets a yellow but team A moan because they feel they should have gotten more from that chance had the cynical foul not been committed. I'm not exonerating Kompany as I feel his positioning shold have been better. However he more than made up for that incident with his performance for the rest of the game.

 

[br88]

That left foot of KDB is something very special. How many players are there who are genuinely two footed these days.

 

[OB1]

I've watched the whole game now & I was gobsmacked at how awesome we were. We couldn't have picked a worse time to be going there, just as they think they have 'turned the corner' & are full of confidence. Losing Stones as well as Otamendi. Two cbs who have barely played, a centre mid at lb. It was set up for an upset. Yet they were hanging on for a 0-2 at the end.

If I had to pick out any points of improvement, it would be the final pass or occasionally, last but one pass, because our build up play was so fantastic we could have scored ten if we had been clinical.

But so many top performances. How the fuck does Kompany just step in & play left & right cb & turn in a performance like that ? He just took over the role of main cb even when Stones was on the pitch. Can't accept his one big mistake was a red card challenge as for one Vardy didn't actually have the ball, he was running on to it, with Stones close enough for doubt.

The covering from Delph, Walker & Ederson was brilliant & helped the cbs. All the team were pretty much obviously excellent, but under the radar slightly, Jesus was fucking tremendous. So many great touches & runs.

I thought Mangala did really well but the defence is not quite as organised or secure, with him in it.

If/when Vinny gets injured, Otamendi will have to step up as a captain kind of figure & do plenty of talking, if Mangala is to play, otherwise it will go pear shaped.

Unfortunately, I had to watch the game on my computer - albeit a decent feed - and although I find that the most tense way to have to watch, I mostly just sat and marveled at how good we were from the off. Unquestionably our final ball could have been better and Vinnie had one poor moment plus KDB, Dinho, Manga, to name a few, made the odd slack pass but so much of our player was outstanding.

I commented early on in this tread about how quickly Vinnie gets up to speed; it is absolutely astonishing and it is easy to forget just how good he is. I thought his passing into midfield was as good as I've seen from him and he remains the king of the near post cut-out. We need him to stay fit and no one deserves some good luck with injury more than the man himself.

I think you under the radar comment about Jesus is very apt. I hadn't commented on it but did think during the game about how well he leads the line. He seems incredibly selfless for a young goal hungry striker. I think his ability to be Johnny on the Spot so often is a gift from the gods.