Leicester City (Home) Tuesday January 1st

[seve]

3 hours ago, nogs said:

Hmm. Apart from the fact that Lamela doesn't play in the same position and Dembele is about to leave, everything about that post is spot on. 

If only Pochettino read this forum hey, Spurs might have a chance of being involved in the title race. 

Hmm if dembele does leave still a better player,winks plays in several positions that anyone else could fill, very one paced and very predictable, 

If every one was fit do you think winks would play. No is the answer therefore not top4 mf, potochino knows he is not in the title race, only you think they are.

[nogs]

14 minutes ago, seve said:

Hmm if dembele does leave still a better player,winks plays in several positions that anyone else could fill, very one paced and very predictable, 

If every one was fit do you think winks would play. No is the answer therefore not top4 mf, potochino knows he is not in the title race, only you think they are.

OK well you go tell Poch that after he has seen fit to give Winks 29 appearances this season, including minutes in all 6 Champions League games. And Spurs are second in the table, unless you reckon Liverpool have already won it I'd say that is very much in the title race. 

[Bailey]

On 01/01/2019 at 18:06, nogs said:

Good teams are as interested in stopping other teams scoring as they are scoring themselves. Just ask any Liverpool fan the difference that makes. Defensive set up is pointless if the players you are putting out there consistentky fuck up and concede soft goals. That then comes down to one of two things, either the players aren't good enough or they aren't being coached well enough. The jury is out on which it is, but right now we are nowhere near good enough defensively. 

I see nothing to suggest that we aren't looking to keep a clean sheet. What can a coach do about the Keane fuck up or the ball bouncing off Gomes' leg against Brighton? Both completely uncharacteristic mistakes.

On 01/01/2019 at 18:10, pete0 said:

I don't think it's the defence either. Coleman and Digne get caught now and again but it's the midfield that's the problem. We've conceded some very unlucky goals but at the same time we've been giving away chances that the opposition should've scored with the main game that comes to mind the Fulham one when they could have easily scored 3. Liverpool had Shaqiri one v one, and Pickford has enough motm votes to shows he's stopping good chances/we're giving them chances away. 

Spurs game was a one off I hope, they were just very clinical, every chance bar one went in. Another day it would have 'only' been three goals. City game was pathetic though we didn't make them work for it at all and that seems the biggest issue at the minute we don't make teams earn it, we gift it. Whereas we have to graft a lot harder to create our goals and don't capitalise on mistakes as clinically as we get punished for them. 

I agree re Coleman and Digne, probably the one "system" issue I would look at because they get too far forward when we don't have complete control of the ball, but in the same breath, we have players giving the ball away when we do have control (Walcott has caught Seamus out a lot in that regard).

We are going to concede chances against the Liverpool, Man City and Spurs of this world. We restricted them as much as any other side this season has. I am not saying we are perfect at the back either, there are still things we can improve on. It took Klopp 2 seasons and a £75 million CB and £50 million keeper to sort his defence out. It takes time and we did a lot of good, almost completely nullified one of the most effective counter attacking teams in the league despite having more possession but everyone seems to be looking at the negatives.

32 minutes ago, nogs said:

OK well you go tell Poch that after he has seen fit to give Winks 29 appearances this season, including minutes in all 6 Champions League games. And Spurs are second in the table, unless you reckon Liverpool have already won it I'd say that is very much in the title race. 

Dont quote me on this but I think Dembele was starting most games before he got injured. Either that or he just happened to be playing the games I was watching!

Fwiw though I think he has been playing really well whenever I have seen him. He has bulked up a lot this season.

[nogs]

1 hour ago, Bailey said:

I see nothing to suggest that we aren't looking to keep a clean sheet. What can a coach do about the Keane fuck up or the ball bouncing off Gomes' leg against Brighton? Both completely uncharacteristic mistakes.

I would hope we are trying to keep clean sheets you could barely call them professional footballers if they weren't! My point is that we're not good enough at it at the moment. I don't think you can completely excuse a coach for repeated individual errors, if that was the case we would never have sacked Martinez. There is a mental side to coaching and preparation too, the number of costly errors we're making suggests there's an issue there. That, or the players are just crap. 

[Hafnia]

1 hour ago, Bailey said:

I see nothing to suggest that we aren't looking to keep a clean sheet. What can a coach do about the Keane fuck up or the ball bouncing off Gomes' leg against Brighton? Both completely uncharacteristic mistakes.

I agree re Coleman and Digne, probably the one "system" issue I would look at because they get too far forward when we don't have complete control of the ball, but in the same breath, we have players giving the ball away when we do have control (Walcott has caught Seamus out a lot in that regard).

We are going to concede chances against the Liverpool, Man City and Spurs of this world. We restricted them as much as any other side this season has. I am not saying we are perfect at the back either, there are still things we can improve on. It took Klopp 2 seasons and a £75 million CB and £50 million keeper to sort his defence out. It takes time and we did a lot of good, almost completely nullified one of the most effective counter attacking teams in the league despite having more possession but everyone seems to be looking at the negatives.

Dont quote me on this but I think Dembele was starting most games before he got injured. Either that or he just happened to be playing the games I was watching!

Fwiw though I think he has been playing really well whenever I have seen him. He has bulked up a lot this season.

Every time we get a bad break in the box our defenders are the last to respond. Flat footed. 

Not good enough.  What's with all the centre half changes too? It's Like a kid playing FM on a pc and is just trying combos

[Wiggytop]

Watched the highlights on MOTD last night, the Leicester goal was a combination of two errors, Walcotts crap attempt to head it, and miss control from Keane, after that Vardy was always going to score from that position, its what he does. From my seat I saw what happened, but didn't register two consecutive mistakes. As ever fine margins, if JonJoes shot had gone in, we would have gone on to win IMO. We need to move on and get our heads right and be able to come back from conceding.

[seve]

18 hours ago, nogs said:

OK well you go tell Poch that after he has seen fit to give Winks 29 appearances this season, including minutes in all 6 Champions League games. And Spurs are second in the table, unless you reckon Liverpool have already won it I'd say that is very much in the title race. 

Well not what i think the great english bookmaker, city 13/8  shite 8/13 spurs 22/1 says it all.

Do you think if winks get injured it would seriously effect spurs chances of achieving there highest possible position, no not one bit, it would if a top 4 mf was out like erickson or ali.

The 3 spurs supporters i work with at best are thinking 3rd place after not spending a penny in the summer.

[Cornish Steve]

Changes we need to make, in priority order. 

1) Games are won and lost in midfield. We need a strong and creative partnership. For me, Gueye and McCarthy are it. Build around them. (Yes, I’ve changed my mind on Gueye. I was blinded to the negative influence of Schneiderlin.)

2) Give our youth a chance with some extended playing time. This means starting DC-L, Lookman, and Kenny for the rest of the season. 

3) Sigurdsson is a good player, but he really messes up our team structure and overall cohesiveness. I’d leave him out for a few games, and I suspect we’d improve. 

4) I’ve never believed Walcott was right for us. Sell him and Schneiderlin and deadwood in the January window. 

5) Demonstrate a little patience. 

[Bailey]

20 hours ago, nogs said:

I would hope we are trying to keep clean sheets you could barely call them professional footballers if they weren't! My point is that we're not good enough at it at the moment. I don't think you can completely excuse a coach for repeated individual errors, if that was the case we would never have sacked Martinez. There is a mental side to coaching and preparation too, the number of costly errors we're making suggests there's an issue there. That, or the players are just crap. 

I dont think we are bad at defending from open play. I do agree regarding your comments with Martinez and the mental side, but they are 'odd' errors at the moment rather than common ones. If it develops I will be right there beside you with my pitch fork! 

With regards to set piece defending, I am already there though. We did improve but its dropped off again in the last few games.

20 hours ago, hafnia said:

Every time we get a bad break in the box our defenders are the last to respond. Flat footed. 

Not good enough.  What's with all the centre half changes too? It's Like a kid playing FM on a pc and is just trying combos

The first part is almost always the case, attackers are more often than not going to have a head start. I do think it links in with fatigue and mental alertness though and therefore the lower on confidence players are, the slower they will react.

I agree with the 2nd paragraph completely. The argument is that if he doesnt try these things in games, he doesnt know if they will work. What happens if Conte never tried the 5 at the back at Chelsea for example? However I am hoping now he has had a little play around that he can settle down and start being more consistent in his team selection.

[Bailey]

Just to back up my point a little, I have found a good little website which talks about what would be expected from a given performance.

The Leicester match can be found here: https://understat.com/match/9402

I have copied two images, the first is the expected goals scored (xG) over the 90 minutes based on what was happening during the game. If you take out the goal which was a 0.33 chance of scoring, they would have had an xG of less than 0.5. I.e they were statistically unlikely to score based on the quality of chances they had throughout the game. It also shows that bar two chances in quick succession, we weren't much better!

 

The second image shows the stats from the game with a couple of interesting additions. First and foremost, 17 shots and only 2 on frigging target!

In terms of the interesting ones:

"Deep" is noted as passes completed with an estimated 20 yards from goal.

"PPDA" is noted as passes allowed per defensive action in the opposition half. This essentially shows how well you press, so on average we allowed Leicester 5.8 uncontested passes in our half.

"Xpts" is expected points based on that performance.

Another tab shows the shots on goal, who they were taken and assisted by and where on the pitch they were taken. In his short time on the pitch, Cenk registered 4 shots whereas DCL managed 1. I like the lad, but DCL just isn'tt effective as a starting striker.