Hopefully we can have a sensible debate on this one, but I found it interesting that England have adopted a similar formation to us over the last two games, and two Leicester players have had significant contributions in seeing us lose (Schmeichel and Tilly is case you were wondering).
With Praet coming on for the world number 1s, and Castagne surely featuring if he wasn’t injured I started comparing players.
If you actually look at our defence vs England, and then consider key players in other areas, I think there’s a genuine argument to say that we are a better team than them when both squads are fully fit.
Considering I used to believe England had a chance of being the world’s best, and when Guppy made the England team as a Leicester I honestly thought it was the greatest achievement for my club and the pride I had as he ran out and had an average game was incredible.
But now, I honestly wouldn’t want half that England team in my squad never mind first 11. Mings, Mount (don’t get me started on Southgates apparent love for him), Trippier, Rice, Winks. All decent players, but decent is where it ends.
I can’t believe the English game is in such a state that I think this. I also can’t believe Leicester are so good that I think this. Is it that it just happened that Leicester’s greatest team ever has coincided with England’s worst!!!
Good times for Leicester.
Bad times for England!
Are Leicester better than England?
posted on 16/11/20
Kante being a defensive midfielder is something that is often stated but isn’t true - a DM is considered someone who sits and that has always been the midfielder beside Kante. In truth he is a box to box midfielder whose main qualities are in terms of defensive characteristics.
posted on 16/11/20
comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 9 minutes ago
lucky kante isnt just a defensive midfielder than isnt it. thats why we've had matic and jorgino play behind him for chelsea and sat deeper.
It seems like you are just making things up to be honest. Ndidid hasn't dominated kante at all. Infact didn't kante score in a win against leicester.
Stop making things up, kante has gotten better since leaving leicester and won poty.
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I just looked at the games since Ndidi joined us and it’s actually played six, won one, lost one and drawn four.
Ndidi does boss Kante but whether you choose to agree with that or not is up to you. I know I watch their personal battle and pay particular attention to it and Kante is like a little school kid playing against Ndidi, he can’t get close to him because Ndidi just holds him off and his spider like legs just win the ball back. He’s just a far more physical player and considerably taller and stronger than Kante.
posted on 16/11/20
comment by Edinspur (U1109)
posted 17 minutes ago
Kante being a defensive midfielder is something that is often stated but isn’t true - a DM is considered someone who sits and that has always been the midfielder beside Kante. In truth he is a box to box midfielder whose main qualities are in terms of defensive characteristics.
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Now that I can agree with.
posted on 16/11/20
comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 26 minutes ago
"I guess the best test of “which team is better” would be to play Leicester’s title team vs this current one. Hypothetically of course."
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In what circumstance though? In a one-off friendly with nothing riding on it or with the pressure on to claim a big prize?
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Let’s just go for a competitive league game. Mid season, both teams fighting for the top 4.
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Best bet's a draw then. Puncher vs. counterpuncher. Could go either way.
posted on 16/11/20
comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 1 hour, 59 minutes ago
I see this has rather taken off with Arro back.
In response to a few things I've seen in both the OP and since:
- Are Leicester better than England? Personnel-wise I'd say probably not, with a few exceptions: Schmeichel, Tielemans, CBs are probably questionable and - personal choice maybe - but I'd have Vardy over anyone, including Kane. As a match, it's always difficult to tell with international football because the players spend more time together to build an understanding in their club teams. I might back Leicester to win a match right now, but with caveats of familiarity and form. If England were a club team and in a similar level of form, I think they'd be better. They have too many good attacking options not to be.
- Chilwell is better than Castagne; Castagne's started well, but we just didn't see the best of Chilwell last season.
- Kante is better than Ndidi. As much as Ndidi's ball recovery stats are excellent, there's a reason why the top clubs haven't been sniffing around and it's that he's pretty average on the ball.
- Maguire is not as good as any of our 3 first choice CBs and we always have had Man Utd's pants down with that price.
- This current Leicester City team is /not/ as good as the title winning side. Or at least, not yet. That's something that they're going to have to prove. Just because we'd rate the personnel individually higher doesn't mean that they're as good as a team. While it's true that the stars aligned for them, the mentality the title winning team had was phenomenal.
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I think this is a great post Dunge and I agree with most of it. The one bit I might take some issue with is:
"Chilwell is better than Castagne"
I don't think we could definitively state that at the moment as it's far too early to say.
Chilwell looks like he's started pretty well at Chelsea and is happy and in good form. His form for us, however, was characterized by mediocre performances and poor quality in the final third. We see now that this might be an issue of confidence and not just ability, but that might explain why so often he got to a position of attacking threat before looking backwards and failing to deliver any quality. That wasn't just last season and, as I said, his Leicester days were characterised by these issues.
Castagne has started well, but he's only a few games into his Leicester career. It's probably hard to make a comparison with BC at the moment as none of us have even seen him live. Similarly I will be interested to see how Chilwell gets on at Chelsea when the fans are back in the stadiums and there is a full and expectant crowd. Let's not forget that the best players have the attributes of a great mentality as well as great ability. Ben Chilwell was ok for us, but he wasn't even as good as Christian Fuchs apart from the advantage he had of pace and youthful athleticism over the latter.
posted on 18/11/20
Annoying thing with the chilwell situation is this - plays at Leicester everyone thinks he’s crap - moves to Chelsea and suddenly he’s the best left back in the country.
posted on 18/11/20
Put it this way, there’s not one Leicester fan that would swap chilwell for castangne and fofana. Guess everyone got a good deal all round
posted on 18/11/20
On topic, no Leicester wouldn’t beat England
posted on 18/11/20
comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 2 days, 4 hours ago
comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 26 minutes ago
"I guess the best test of “which team is better” would be to play Leicester’s title team vs this current one. Hypothetically of course."
--------
In what circumstance though? In a one-off friendly with nothing riding on it or with the pressure on to claim a big prize?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Let’s just go for a competitive league game. Mid season, both teams fighting for the top 4.
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Best bet's a draw then. Puncher vs. counterpuncher. Could go either way.
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It's the title winning team for me, it would be a perfect set up against the current side, they'd concede 70% possession and hit on the break. The evidence we have on the present side is they wouldn't be able to break down Ranieri's superbly disciplined defence and Rodgers wouldn't have a clue what to do about it.
1-0 to 2015/16.
posted on 18/11/20
To the OP, we'd have a decent chance against England as we usually play well against the better sides. Vards would need to get a couple though because Kane always scores against us ☺