Leicester Post Match thread.

[flb]

I don't agree, yes they were good we were very poor. This is where decisions such as Sterling's penalty v Everton and the blatant one on Aguero away at Leicester costs you.

No doubt Leicester have also had bad decisions-to use that as an excuse doesn't wear mate. They are a very very good side , when you see them in the flesh you realise what a well organised side they are-simple give and goes saw them waltz through our midfield, we simply are not good enough mate and that's with the squad we have. You cant buy what they have-the will to run and run, fast on the counter. They fucking embarrassed us in our own back yard.

Be very refreshing if they won it, Norwich got close all those years ago only for Cantona to change it at Carrow Road-the days when Norwich turned over Bayern at the old Olympic stadium.

 

[supercity88]

Whilst there have been several poor performances this season from City, this game was probably one of the worst performances I've seen in the last few years. We weren't even in the game and it was frustrating considering how blatant Leicester's game plan was and how the whole world knew exactly how they'd turn up and play.

I've said several times that teams will figure Leicester out and they'll struggle. But it's poor management, and also poor performances that are allowing them to keep doing what they're doing. Leicester don't like the ball for more than a few minutes. They like to attack with pace and commit few players forward to ensure defensive solidity. Vardy is one of, if not the quickest player in the league. Mahrez, Albrighton etc also have plenty of pace. So Pellegrini picks Zabaleta, Otamendi, Demichelis and Kolarov as a back four?! That's one of his worst decisions yet. The slowest possible back four he could have managed. I know we've had injuries but at least by having Clichy and Sagna on we'd have some pace in order to better cope with their counter attacks. Instead Pellegrini wanted Fernandinho to cover the centre backs but with their width that left us far too exposed when our full backs were high up the pitch.

It's not just Pellegrini's poor tactics though. The players were abysmal. It left me feeling like we'd just seen the end of an era. We've been talking about whether Silva and Yaya are good enough, Demi is also ready to put his feet up but it actually looked like Yaya and Silva were done at this level. I'm hoping that's not the case with Silva but he was so ineffective. Leicester just muscled him off the ball time and time again. When wide he was too narrow and threatened little, when central Leicester just treated him like he was a little boy. It's the first time I've seen him look human on a football pitch. I'm hoping he just had an off day.

Yaya played one time passes back to our centre backs. When he spread the ball wide to Zabaleta, we had no winger there for an overlap and it was just so easy. We can blame injuries for a lot of it. No De Bruyne or Navas meant we were always going to be fairly lop sided. But we knew how Leicester would set up and we allowed them to do it so easily. We need to be smarter than that.

With Pep he'll expect us to keep the ball so well they never get a chance to counter. And 99 times out of 100 that will be the case. It's how he'd done things with Barca and Bayern. The games where they've been sloppy in possession include that drubbing by Real where they gave the ball away and were picked off as we were on Saturday.

It's a huge game this weekend. Win that and if Arsenal win we're back in it. Plus it's a huge confidence boost. The trouble is, Spurs have a young dynamic midfield and we just can't cope with that at all.

 

[Manci7y]

It's hard to comment on the game without getting emotional about the result or the way in which we were humbled by Leicester. Let's remember that this is not just Leicester, this is top of the league Leicester who have dismantled most teams in the league this season. They are not there because the rest of the league has played particularly badly, they are there because they deserve to be (at the moment).

The Game itself showed they had more desire and the tactics used were spot on. We had a lack of ideas and presence on the pitch and some of our players looked exhausted.

If any team deserved to win the league this year it is Leicester. They have had some luck with their lack of injured players especially compared to us but lets not take away from them what a cracking job they have done this season. If we don't do it then I would happily accept them as champions.

I am still firmly in the 'we can still win the league' camp and can't wait for them to lose away at the swamp seeing us go top. There's a lot of football to be played yet and shock results still to come. The difference that Vinnie will make simply being on the pitch soon will drag us limping over the line as Champions IMO.

 

[malkie]

^^^^^^^
Very well put '88

 

[crmcfc]

Butland? Schmichel? Not quite sure why you hate Hart so much but your talking complete and utter rubbish. Hart is as good as Lloris and Cech. Only De Gea has a slight edge. Possibly Forster. No other keeper is exposed by the suicidal defensive schemes that our manager employs. 4 one on one saves yesterday. 7 against Liverpool in November. There is only two reasons we are anywhere near a chance of the title and they are Joe and Sergio.

I don't hate Hart at all seems a top bloke and seems to actually care as I have said brilliant one on one's and it must be a nightmare playing in front of that back 4. I think the original post said he was the best keeper in the PL i just don't think he is and given reasons why. Oddly you seem to agree and have even thrown Forster in as a better keeper (really?) so I don't know where you are coming from.

 

[toddluvzgta]

Whilst there have been several poor performances this season from City, this game was probably one of the worst performances I've seen in the last few years. We weren't even in the game and it was frustrating considering how blatant Leicester's game plan was and how the whole world knew exactly how they'd turn up and play.

I've said several times that teams will figure Leicester out and they'll struggle. But it's poor management, and also poor performances that are allowing them to keep doing what they're doing. Leicester don't like the ball for more than a few minutes. They like to attack with pace and commit few players forward to ensure defensive solidity. Vardy is one of, if not the quickest player in the league. Mahrez, Albrighton etc also have plenty of pace. So Pellegrini picks Zabaleta, Otamendi, Demichelis and Kolarov as a back four?! That's one of his worst decisions yet. The slowest possible back four he could have managed. I know we've had injuries but at least by having Clichy and Sagna on we'd have some pace in order to better cope with their counter attacks. Instead Pellegrini wanted Fernandinho to cover the centre backs but with their width that left us far too exposed when our full backs were high up the pitch.

It's not just Pellegrini's poor tactics though. The players were abysmal. It left me feeling like we'd just seen the end of an era. We've been talking about whether Silva and Yaya are good enough, Demi is also ready to put his feet up but it actually looked like Yaya and Silva were done at this level. I'm hoping that's not the case with Silva but he was so ineffective. Leicester just muscled him off the ball time and time again. When wide he was too narrow and threatened little, when central Leicester just treated him like he was a little boy. It's the first time I've seen him look human on a football pitch. I'm hoping he just had an off day.

Yaya played one time passes back to our centre backs. When he spread the ball wide to Zabaleta, we had no winger there for an overlap and it was just so easy. We can blame injuries for a lot of it. No De Bruyne or Navas meant we were always going to be fairly lop sided. But we knew how Leicester would set up and we allowed them to do it so easily. We need to be smarter than that.

With Pep he'll expect us to keep the ball so well they never get a chance to counter. And 99 times out of 100 that will be the case. It's how he'd done things with Barca and Bayern. The games where they've been sloppy in possession include that drubbing by Real where they gave the ball away and were picked off as we were on Saturday.

It's a huge game this weekend. Win that and if Arsenal win we're back in it. Plus it's a huge confidence boost. The trouble is, Spurs have a young dynamic midfield and we just can't cope with that at all.

This


I could've commented much earlier. Very uninspiring performance and the worst for a couple of seasons.
We've racked up 6 losses already and the title is slipping out of our hands.

 

[BlueAnorak]

I don't hate Hart at all seems a top bloke and seems to actually care as I have said brilliant one on one's and it must be a nightmare playing in front of that back 4. I think the original post said he was the best keeper in the PL i just don't think he is and given reasons why. Oddly you seem to agree and have even thrown Forster in as a better keeper (really?) so I don't know where you are coming from.

Fair enough. Must have grabbed the wrong handle (as usual).
Forster seems to be be the bionic man since his comeback. His performances against West Ham and Arsenal were simply phenomenal.

 

[crmcfc]

Do you like anything about our club or players? everything you post is scathing

Not sure about that. "Rags playing well" "Rags would beat us if we played them tomorrow" you sound rag obsessed to me. Its about opinions, you have your rag obsessed opinion I have mine.

 

[kaz7]

Not sure about that. "Rags playing well" "Rags would beat us if we played them tomorrow" you sound rag obsessed to me. Its about opinions, you have your rag obsessed opinion I have mine.

Err we were watching and commentating on the rag and chav's game at the time lol
Whilst you are searching my posts you will see i don't call our players or manager cunts but you do that's why i asked the question

 

[BlueGirl62]

Celina looked good. One positive.

I thought the same, lots of energy and desire to get the ball.

 

[Ajm1985]

I thought the same, lots of energy and desire to get the ball.

Definitely. And a great delivery for the goal

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

It left me feeling like we'd just seen the end of an era.

Great post. I've not quoted all of it but highlighted this bit. It does feel like a line has been crossed doesn't it? We've seen us lose or go on a poor run before but there was always an expectation that we'd somehow turn it round. Yet Saturday felt different. It wasn't dissimilar to games like Blackburn in the FA Cup, where we were fired up with the possibility that we were going to do something after a disappointing season and then the rug was pulled from under us with a poor display and a realisation that we'd fooled ourselves.

The last two seasons we've been fooling ourselves that this is a trophy winning team that would inaugurate a dynasty of success and glory. And suddenly it's clear we're little better than we were under Hughes in the 2009/10 season, with a manager who has no answers to the questions other teams are asking us.

 

[Hung]

It seems like a long time ago, but the first half a dozen so games of this season, we were ripping up trees, blowing teams away and, crucially, not conceding goals. A lot has changed since then, but you have to bear in mind that we have had an injury list that no other team have had to endure. The 11 we have fielded since October have been very short of our best. We have missed arguably the best forward in the World and arguably the best centre back in the World for huge portions of the season. Silva has carried an ankle injury when he has played, Nasri, love him or hate him, gives us goals and creativity has been out long term, DeBruyne is out for three months and even players like Delph, Bony, Mangala and Navas who have been missing give out 'front liners' a breather. If we could field anything like our best 11, the league would have been won by now and we'd have crushed plucky little Leicester's bones to make our bread on Saturday. Unfortunately, the constant chopping and changing, despite 'man for man' having better players, has fucked us. Let's see what Arsenal look like without Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud, Cech, etc shall we? Or Leicester without Vardy, Drinkwater, Mahrez, Huth etc?
Get some players back, particularly key players and we'll be fine - take out 6 or 7 players, some of them World Class and we have a problem.

 

[super_city_si]

When I saw this lineup and formation before the game, I thought it might work. But why the fuck did he deploy them in a 442?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Reminder of your <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mcfc?src=hash">#mcfc</a> team for today with ten to go! <a href="https://twitter.com/NieldyMCFC">@NieldyMCFC</a> here providing <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cityvlcfc?src=hash">#cityvlcfc</a> updates for you. <a href="https://t.co/u07MWgvzSp">pic.twitter.com/u07MWgvzSp</a></p>&mdash; Manchester City FC (@mcfc) <a href="">February 6, 2016</a></blockquote>
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[Len Rum]

Great post. I've not quoted all of it but highlighted this bit. It does feel like a line has been crossed doesn't it? We've seen us lose or go on a poor run before but there was always an expectation that we'd somehow turn it round. Yet Saturday felt different. It wasn't dissimilar to games like Blackburn in the FA Cup, where we were fired up with the possibility that we were going to do something after a disappointing season and then the rug was pulled from under us with a poor display and a realisation that we'd fooled ourselves.

The last two seasons we've been fooling ourselves that this is a trophy winning team that would inaugurate a dynasty of success and glory. And suddenly it's clear we're little better than we were under Hughes in the 2009/10 season, with a manager who has no answers to the questions other teams are asking us.

The biggest disappointment for me is that despite all our injury problems and the coming to an end of the current teams life, we could still have won this mediocre league with a more tactically astute manager.

 

[East Level 2]

I thought Leicester were excellent. We weren't exactly sparkling, but they were so well set up to exploit our weaknesses and defend brilliantly that I think we might well have lost at our best.
Leicester are by far and away the best team in the league this season and by now it's only ignorance or arrogance that can blind someone to that.

I don't think anybody is blinded by the quality shown by Leicester, but plenty are at least partially blind if they can't see we've been struggling for a while and were lucky to get three points from relegation threatened Sunderland a few days earlier. And we failed to beat a Villa side that has been pretty much nailed on to go down for months. And then you have the totally inept performances against Liverpool and Stoke. Add in the fact (real fact not Rafa fact) that we haven't beaten a team in the top six and it's hardly great for a team with the quality of players we have.
Of course we've had injuries, but so many have been in training and warm ups that we have to look at our own training methods. We are the cause of many of our injuries.
Leicester was the culmination of all the bollox we've endured. It was the opportunity to make a statement and we failed to make it.
We've still got a third of the season to go and it's ridiculous to write us off. But Saturday was poor whichever way you choose to measure it.

 

[crmcfc]

Err we were watching and commentating on the rag and chav's game at the time lol
Whilst you are searching my posts you will see i don't call our players or manager cunts but you do that's why i asked the question

I should think not if you are a lady, have you not got any episodes of loose women sky+ instead of trolling blues on here. Most catch up and agree with me eventually....

 

[kaz7]

I should think not if you are a lady, have you not got any episodes of loose women sky+ instead of trolling blues on here. Most catch up and agree with me eventually....

 

[crmcfc]

Ha, ha. I think I flattered Kolarov by the way because at least he would useful if he was one!!

 

[Bluekiwi]

Of course we've had injuries, but so many have been in training and warm ups that we have to look at our own training methods. We are the cause of many of our injuries.

So are we spending too much time trying to develop super fit robots and not focusing on playing football?
I've been watching games on videos from the 60s & 70s where players were running themselves into the ground for 90 minutes; only one substitute; they were playing on bogs instead of grass; tackles were flying in hard and fast. Yet the same 11 played the following week again.
We must be doing something wrong with all this sports psychology, medicines; diets, gym work, etc. in the pursuit of the "perfect athlete".