For those who missed the match, congratulations. You just missed the worst home performance of the season. It could be down to focus on the Burnley match at the weekend, or maybe the manager's illness, but it was a poor team performance that got lucky to even grab a point. Here are my ratings for it:
Schmeichel: 7 - Showed a lot of spirit in the match and assisted the equaliser, although it looked like he could have done better with the Yeovil goal.
De Laet: 6 - Average; was able to use his pace better in defence than attack.
Wasilewski: 6 - He may look tough, but Miller had more pace and strength than him today. Not bad.
Morgan: 7 - Had a strong match and was left to marshal the defence pretty much on his own at the end after a bizarre substitution.
Schlupp: 7 - Threatening, particularly early on, but tired later. Should not have been put in the situation he was at the end when we went 3 at the back.
Mahrez: 5 - Had a stinker of a first half, at least kept going and was better in the second. Has had a lot better recently though.
Drinkwater: 7 - Didn't have the best of games by any stretch, but most of our play went through him.
James: 5 - Played like he hadn't met Drinkwater before in midfield. Far too many misunderstandings.
Knockaert: 7 - Often the only one able to link up play and provided drive and creativity late into the game.
Nugent: 4 - Did nowt and showed little sign of providing a threat on goal.
Vardy: 5 - Looked neutered and let the avoidance of yellow cards affect his game. Needs to put that attitude behind him and just go all out against Burnley.
Dyer: 6 - Right player to bring on, but taking off Wasilewski made everyone just look confused and unsure of what they were supposed to be doing. A random number generator would have created a more recognisable formation. Anyway, Dyer at least was quite lively and provided some much-needed width, although he should have been booked for a rather sad dive late on.
Wood: 6 - for a big man, he's pretty poor in the air. At least had the presence of mind to follow up the shots that came in, eventually bagging the equaliser from it.
Phillips: 6 - Got himself involved but the ball wouldn't quite fall for him.
Yeovil will go away feeling disappointed that they didn't collect a deserved three points, particularly since they had opportunities to get themselves a second. The fact that they left with only one, with a last minute equaliser, is perhaps an indication of why they are where they are. Still, they clearly have a chance of staying up if they continue to show that much spirit.
Player ratings vs. Yeovil
posted on 26/3/14
Certainly a frustrating night an hopefully just a blip. Credit to Yeovil, they got in our faces as we just didn't get any rythem to our game.
I guess this raise the question of whether we should make changes for Burnley? As well as Schlupp and Mahrez have done, should we revert to the team that got us in to such a strong postition and look to the experience of Konchesky and dyer?
I still don't feel Wasi has done anything to warrant losing his place, so Moore may have to wait longer.
The concern is that we were toothless in the midfield and up front last night. However, I don't expect Burnely to play like Yeovil, and I think James and the front two should retain their place.
One change or me would be to bring back Dyer. But if Nugent and our midfield continue to struggle against stronger teams, we may need to look at bigger changes.
Funny isn't it - we extend out run to 18 games unbeaten but it feels quite negative. I think it's because our form has dipped over the last few games.
Hopefully Pearson will get us back firing against Burnley.
posted on 26/3/14
Schlupp has earned his place against Burnley and did little wrong last night. In fact at times he looked like our biggest attacking threat. Mahrez has been very good recently but had a bit of a stinker last night so I think that's a tighter decision. There are one or two that are close calls, but overall I'd probably go unchanged.
By the way, on a day where nobody had a particularly great game, I choose Schmeichel for MOTM.
posted on 26/3/14
Knockaert and Schlupp were out two best players. Schmeichel did nothing wrong and of course was instrumental in the goal.
Mahrez was dreadful but it's his first poor game so we shouldn't be too harsh. Also thought Drinkwater had his worst game this season by some margin; as did James and Nugent.
posted on 26/3/14
We do have a weakness in our team in that we’re a bit one dimensional in terms of where the vast majority of our goals come from. They tend to be through balls to one of our front two or a midfielder if they continue their run. We score very few goals from free kicks, corners or long balls. Of course, we’re top scorers in the league, so it hasn’t been a big problem all season. If you can nullify our midfield, however, then the supply of balls to players running through dry up and so, effectively, do our chances of scoring a goal. The thing is that Drinkwater has hardly had a bad game this season and our midfield has rarely been nullified as it was frequently last season.
My one definite change for Burnley would be to bring Dyer back. That’s not because Mahrez has been our worst player over the last couple of games; far from it. I just think that Dyer may give us a different dimension to our play in that his pace will pull players out of position - even if there is no end product – and his direct style will give us a different dimension if plan A fails.
The other positions I might be tempted to make changes are Wood for Nugent and King for James, but at the moment I’d be inclined to stick for one more game before I twist as we are 17 unbeaten after all.
posted on 26/3/14
Dunge, mostly I agree with except some of your conclusions. Easily the worst performance of the season at home, but give credit to Yeovil who pressed high up the pitch and stopped us playing from the back for long periods of the game, with us having to resort to hoofball with the inevitable result of the ball being headed back up the pitch.
Despite how bad we were we created enough to win the game. It was no surprise to me that Yeovil tired and ended up desperately and in the end unsuccessfully defending. Although it did look as if we could be trying to score until midnight without success until Kasper took a hand in matters. A point was fair in the circumstances.
Mahrez was awful in the first half, but I'm heartened by the improvement in the second - I'll take that as him being on a steep learning curve against opposition who posed different problems for us.
I agree in part about Wood, he could do better heading, but it was noticeable that the ball generally stopped being thundered back over the halfway line by a header from one of their centre backs when he came on.
I don't think Yeovil will stay up, not because they did not show enough last night - they did - but instead just looking at the relative situation at the bottom. It seems as if it's going to be 3 out of 4 now Birmingham have won, and Charlton look in a much better position than anybody else down there, so it's Millwall, Barnsley and Yeovil for the drop for me. Things could change though.
posted on 27/3/14
Yes, congratulations to Mr Hollow-words, he is about to take his second team down to the 3rd tier! Don't think the Lions will bounce back as quickly as the Foxes.