Meant to write this the other day, so is a belated reflective article in parts
Kasper gonna be Kasperin’
Poor result against Everton but what an incredible second save that was from Schmeichel! If a goal hadn’t come from the rebound (why the f*** was Mendy of all players in front of Kasper!?) that would have been up there as my best ever Leicester save next to Kevin Poole versus Tranmere in the Play Off Semi Final at Filbert Street.
Fuchs was Fuched
I think it’s clear that Fuchs can’t play left back for us anymore. Great servant to the club but his role now, when needed, is as part of a back 3; a position that he has actually excelled in this year.
Less is more?
One thing I noticed against Everton, which invoked both praise and criticism in me, was Maddison coming extremely deep to get involved. I get that he is doing this to try to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and probably sees this as working on his defensive responsibilities and for that, I give him praise. However, it’s about winning the ball back higher up for him and , more importantly, I think it highlighted how subdued we are in central midfield when it’s Mendy and Tielemans. It also invoked the question - by going with 3 attacking outlets behind Vardy, are we actually trying to address the problem of creativity with the wrong solution? Winning the ball back higher, IMO, is the concern and having Ndidi back in his role will help this no end - but I also think Tielemans has got to continue working on being more oppressive and did leave me pondering whether another more robuste midfielder would, indirectly, actually allow the likes of Maddison and Barnes to be more influential.
Dead ball/Dead meat
It’s now not only a huge concern, it’s just simply inevitable in each game. I worry it is getting to the players and is becoming this self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, to be optimistic - I think it is influenced massively by the injuries we’ve had and the chopping and changing (often needed) of the back line.
Positivity
Just to balance everything a little - I’ve reminded myself of a few things. We had a really low end to last season and it really could have affected us mentally going into this season - I don’t think it has. If we win our next game, we are 2nd come Christmas Day - amazing. Even more amazing - we’ve done this with a ridiculous amount of injuries. Even more amazing - this has actually meant that several ‘squad’ players have come in and shone. When fully fit, our back line, IMO, has the potential to be the best in the league. The new training ground is good to go and the stadium extension is finally making progress. We must remember that we were a work in progress prior to the injuries - we had so many players 24 or under challenging for first team places and this is exciting. This work in progress has been impacted hugely by COVID and injuries. Stay positive
As a post script, just to look forward to tomorrow, I’ve added what I’m hopeful may be our starting 11
Kasper
Justin (for his age, he really is starting to excel)
Fofana
Evans
Castagne (fingers crossed)
Ndidi
Tielemans
Albrighton or Praet (I keep switching between wanting another body in the middle or wide)
Barnes
Maddison
Vardy
Talking points ahead of Spurs
posted on 19/12/20
Broadly agree with your points there KTF1.
Overall I think Rodgers deserves huge praise for the job he’s doing at our club, especially this season. The way he’s got us results with all the injuries deserves respect.
However, we have some issues that need ironing out. We still struggle against teams with a deep block, and we seem to have forgotten how to defend and take set pieces. It’s this we need to fix quickly.
I’m confident when our first choice full backs are fit we’ll offer a different threat going forward but we do need to work out how to stay defensively solid whilst opening up teams.
Not an easy task, and it makes me fear the worst vs Spurs. They are a team that set up exactly as we struggle against. I hope Rodgers abs the team surprise me again.
posted on 19/12/20
We've done incredibly well even forgetting the staggering injuries this Season.
I think Rodgers has got us playing above ourselves, we're overachieving yet many fans seem to see us as underachieving, in some games we could have done better but that's balanced out with some remarkable games like the Man City one.
Top six for me would be another incredible Season, to get a second Season top six would mean we can really see ourselves as breaking the old guard up a bit, an excellent team would have to have dropped out that Big 6 Club for us to have done it.
We can all moan and say how he's cokking it up each week but lets keep the credit rolling as well.
posted on 20/12/20
Regardless of the problems in the squad, my biggest bugbear is happening this season: Losing games at home to bottom half sides. Maybe time will prove such a description unfair to West Ham or Aston Villa, but we’ve now lost four home matches and haven’t played a single Big 6 team there yet. I appreciate that things are different right now, but one of the first things I expect of a squad is a siege mentality at home, a determination that any visiting team is going to have to fight like hell to get anything out of the match. Instead, teams are rolling up, finding it pretty simple and walking away with a smile on their faces without even having had a real match. I want players to be absolutely fuming all week when that happens and determined that the next lot who rock up are either going home defeated or in ambulances and I just don’t see it.
posted on 20/12/20
You’re going gone in a Leicester ambulance...
.... said Steve Walsh, Gerry Taggart and Marcin Wasilewski!
posted on 20/12/20
* going home