As this article might appear to some like criticism I thought I would give it some context first: our efforts so far this season have been incredible and I don’t use that word lightly. I remember reading some article before the season started where ten out of ten pundits asked were all tipping Leicester for relegation. To be where we are now is so much against 99.9999% of everyone’s perceived wisdom (the 0.0001% is arro) you would have to say the achievement thus far is “incredible" - despite the fact I have to keep reminding myself that much of the season is still to come.
The reason I’ve said all that is because I’m now going to say that I was disappointed with our performance against Manchester United. It’s testament to how far we’ve progressed this season that we played the biggest club in Britain and I still felt disappointed with a 1-1 draw – not so much the result, but the performance. I actually felt that we could easily have beaten a very talented, very organised but, by their own benchmark, very ordinary United team.
The reason I felt we could have done better (in the second half) against Manchester United is I felt that they closed the space and stopped us breaking quickly. We, however, continued to look for the quick ball and only succeeded in surrendering possession. We’d invested so much effort into that first half that our energy levels could not be maintained to the same level in the second half, which could have been conserved with a greater amount of possession. In short I felt we needed a plan B.
Now we could sit back on what we’ve achieved so far this season and wait for our, almost inevitable, slide back down into mid table.
or.
We could see where we are in January and tweak the side to try and push on to pastures that would be greeted with even more incredulity.
It’s a delicate balance: tweak too much and you could damage what we’ve carefully built, but not to tweak at all might be to not take advantage of a unique position within our recent history.
If we are lucky with injuries and suspensions I think we can maintain our current form to some extent and have a very good season that exceeds almost everybody’s expectations, but dare we press for more? What would you change if we did?
I might get some support for Vardy. Someone who could hold the ball up and bring others into play and provide an alternative outlet. We do very well with the quick ball, but not always so good with the long ball. I like what Okazaki and Ulloa bring, to some extent, but wonder if bringing someone else in might help. Kramaric is obviously not trusted.
What else?
A goalkeeper who commands his penalty area? The down side of this is Schmeichel is often the person who starts quick attacks and is tuned in to our counter attacking style – although, for me, he wastes too many balls with hopeful punts up field. Even so attacks often start with him.
Anything else?
A defender or two?
A right back?
I guess the question I’m asking is, in January, do we stick or twist? and if we do twist by how much?
Twist or Stick?
posted on 1/12/15
TB - Charlie Austin is an excellent goalscorer, but I'm not sure whether he fits in to what we require of strikers. It'd be an interesting call though, and I'm surprised that nobody has snapped him up, even for £15m. You would have thought that someone - particularly in the bottom half of the table - would be desperate for his goals. In fact, I think he's got "Sam Allardyce" written all over him: Defend, defend, defend, one chance - goal.
Overall, I think the best tactic in January is similar to usual: Yes, look for what's around, but only buy someone who's better than what you have. Probably the most urgent position to address is goalkeeper because Schmeichel has neither backup nor competition, but the rest of the squad has a balanced selection of options across it. Essentially, there's no need to buy a squad player.
posted on 1/12/15
FFS - Benalouane has shown signs of being that player and I'd be interested to see him given a chance should one of the current incumbents get injured or (more likely) suspended. (At least before we go out and spend big money elsewhere, anyway.)
posted on 1/12/15
It really is a reflection of how far we’ve come in a very short space of time that I’d even question a draw against Manchester United. At the beginning of the season I would have been looking at this game as a loss and a draw as a massive point gained. Even now I think the result was a good one, but trying to sustain our current level of performance is a massive challenge. If truth be told we almost certainly won’t, because if we did then we’d be in the Champions League at the end of the season.
So we can either accept the decline as inevitable or gamble on the very small percentage chance that we could remain where we are. There is a strong argument that we shouldn’t risk disrupting what we’ve built for only a small chance of a return.
My worry, from the Manchester United game, is that if we lose key players we would need to adapt our playing style. Is the squad strong enough?
I’ll put my cards on the table and say that I would change very little, but if an opportunity came along to buy the right player I would take it. True Blue has already called it, but personally I WOULD buy Charlie Austin.
posted on 1/12/15
comment by Nevsaysagoal2city (U5194)
posted 1 hour, 34 minutes ago
Arro can't you see that kaspers our week link and we still need a younger competent CH ?
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No I don't think we need to replace Kasper but we do need better back up. Yes he has his faults but he has his plusses too and let's face it not many keepers are good at everything and if they are then they're not coming to us! Kasper is good enough.
I also think our defence is good enough and young enough too. Like Dunge said we have Benny whose not had a chance yet.
We only conceded two more than Spurs last season and we've signed Fuchs. Replacing RDL and Schlupp has made us a lot better and now we look comfortable and don't look like conceding from open play. If we continue to concede an average of one a game we'll have 45 in our against column, 10 less than last season. If we continue to score at the rate we have since April, we score 79, a plus of 34.
Joby - I get the impression that you think we can't sustain these performances because you think we're playing well?
Do you really think we've played well this season on the whole? I don't! I'd say we've underperformed in at least half of our games but managed to turn it on when we've needed to. We've played well in spells but in those spells we've been unstoppable.
I think there's a lot of room for improvement but one that I think will happen naturally as the players become more experienced, more mature and generally better players. It's been happening for three seasons and they will continue to get better or have they all reached their peak now and this is as good as it gets? No chance! Improvement is inevitable.
We're not playing like Southampton did, their perfomances to get them to the top were outstanding but that form can't be sustained. We're not doing that, we're grinding out results and finding different ways to win, something Southampton couldn't do. Does anyone see a perfomance like Southampton put in at the KP coming from Leicester this season? I don't!
Any player we sign would have to settle for being on the bench or not in the Matchday squad, we've already got too many.
posted on 1/12/15
You have to say Charlie Austin would improve the squad
posted on 1/12/15
Joby - I get the impression that you think we can't sustain these performances because you think we're playing well?
Do you really think we've played well this season on the whole?
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In answer to the question I think I would agree with you that we’ve played well in passages of play, but in those passages we’ve always looked capable of scoring more than the opposition. Even against Arsenal there was a passage when it looked like we could have been 2 or 3 goals ahead. I think we’ve achieved what we have by playing a style, which maximises the strengths of our players and with a sprinkling of genuine quality.
At the beginning of the season teams would have looked at the fixture against us as one to target for three points. Teams like Norwich and Bournemouth would have seen us as one of the teams they need to get points off to stay up.
Now I think that teams may set up to play us differently. Man Utd. were very effective at negating our game plan as you pointed out in an earlier post. Even if we are lucky with injuries and suspensions we may still need a plan B.
posted on 1/12/15
I'd aim big and show that we mean business. Go back in for Carillo at Sporting, Garay at Zenit. Players of that ilk in less 'fashionable' leagues.January will be a tough time to bring players like that in though.
posted on 1/12/15
If we were to sign anyone I'd like us to go for Milik and Linetty, two top quality Polish players. One of my mates is a Lech Poznan fan and he reckons Linetty is class. Polish players do alright in England too.
Joby - United are one of the very few teams that will be able to do that to us, who else has the capability? Teams have tried to nullify us and sit back and they've mostly failed because we're too good. Like you said, we play to our strengths and scoring goals, creating chances and playing fast attacking football is just what we do, it's not going to change and teams still won't be able to cope with us when we get on top.
We've only failed to score once in the last 24 games and have scored in 17 consecutive games, I can't see much changing.
posted on 1/12/15
Nev
Speaking of younger mobile and (key word in this case) 'competent' CHs, anyone know how Liam Moore's getting on at Brizzle?
What happened to him still seems odd, one minute he was the new big deal, the next booted into the long grass.
Wrong mentality, confidence shot, not up to PL standard, or maybe all three?
As for GK, maybe if we put arro on the case, we could tempt Loris away from a little club like Spurs
posted on 1/12/15
Yeah Lloris is quality but I don't speak French or cockney so I don't fancy my chances ha ha