As a put on another article it seems you struggle more when teams sit back and draw your team out from their own half

Lost it, Blip or Tactics?

Mixture of all 3 really.

Quite honestly I feel a bit more encouraged now I've seen us having a go again. Granted it took until half time for us to do that, but if we genuinely want to achieve a top 4 spot then we can't just sit back forever and encourage draws. The second half showed that the Leicester from early season is still in there somewhere and we'll need to see them back out in force after the Arsenal and Man City fixtures.

I think it's down to confidence. When we were winning 3-0 away at the likes of Swansea and Newcastle the confidence was sky high and it was clear to see. However since the Liverpool defeat we do seem to have gone into our shell a bit.
As we proved at the end of last season and the first half of this one, we're far more effective when we go for it. Hopefully with the cup out of the way, we can get back to playing to our strengths starting with Stoke on Saturday.

Earlier in the season, this team believed that it didn't matter if the opposition scored because they were going to get goals as the match went on anyway. I think a tough December has dented that belief a bit, and Ranieri now has four games to get it back before the theoretically easier matches roll around again. A win against Stoke would certainly give us a bit of welcome breathing space again, but I doubt it'd be pretty.

Looks like you've sacrificed your attacking potency for more solidity at the back from what I've seen of you recently.

Truth is, you have burnt up ur "GO TEAM" stores and are running on pure ability, which is proving to be mid table at best.

DTKF - Exactly. And we're going to need to get that back if we want to achieve top 4 because draws won't get us there.

Yep but as you say if there's a loss of belief in the attack it may be difficult to do so.

Lose them clacker things, you tinpot w4nkers! You got outsung by Spurs!

I wouldn't worry to much, i think most Leicester fans will acknowledge that they are in a false position but that shouldn't take away from what has been an excellent season.

It was obviously going to revert to normal soon enough, as it has done when other pretenders such as Saints have good seasons early.

Teams have cottoned on to what Leicester are about and have adapted accordingly.

A mixture of all three:

A Blip:

The form of our flare players has dropped off a bit during the fixture congestion in January. Let's hope it comes back now with fewer fixtures.

Lost it:

We've been outperforming sides who have been building in the PL for years and spent similar amounts on one player than we have on our squad. This defies logic and has been all the more exciting and amusing for that reason. If we stay around top four all season it will be a glorious over achievement. If we won the league it would arguably be the greatest achievement ever. It's that big in terms of a comparison between us and the big boys. Our best hope of hanging on is fatigue for the other clubs who'll now have more games.

Tactics:

Our high energy game isn't suited to the congested fixture schedule. Our flare players' form has dropped and we've had to work hard to find another way to stay in games. Unfortunately this has made us much more defensive, whilst looking for the long ball as an outlet. We all know that we're pretty crap at the long ball game (despite what other fans might think) and we need to try and get back to the high energy pressing game of earlier in the season. Again, playing less games helps in that respect.

Having said all that but for two missed penalties we'd be 4 points clear at the top of the league. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we've achieved our pre season objective already. It's a bit like going horse racing and winning big on the first race and knowing that you could end up winning silly money or going home at least breaking even. It's all a bonus so let's enjoy the ride!

BTW saying we are in a false position is absolute baloney. After 22 games everybody is in exactly the position they deserve to be in. We deserve to be 2nd and Chelsea deserve to be 15th (or wherever they are).

The conjecture is whether we'll be there at the end of the season and for that you could make a pretty logical argument to suggest we won't be.

Has the bubble burst?
Hope not as I for one would love to see the big boys dominance broken.

(Notice that praat Arro has gone quiet which is refreshing)

Lost, blip or tactics?

More to do with putting out a Second XI on the night and which wasn't as good as Spurs' Second XI.

I think it's since arro's meltdown, he's cursed you guys!

Tactics were horrendous but I imagine De Laet's late withdrawal compromised the game plan a bit.

2nd half was more encouraging and we started put them under a bit of pressure again and its quite clear we need to go back to that way of playing.

Maybe this is CR managing this quite congested programme. I hope so anyway

The fortunate thing for us is we've got 10 days between our next 2 games

Time to get behind the players on Sat and create a great atmosphere against a good team. I think we will attack them and I still think we can surprise people this season. 16 cup finals and no distractions.

CDUBYA - I'd definitely /like/ us to attack them, but I get the feeling that things will get worse before they get better. I can see another dull and defensive first half and one goal winning it either way.

I think we had a stronger XI out than you did yesterday.

We had a definite 4 (current) PL starters in the side - Dier (albeit at CB), Eriksen, Lamela, Walker.

Davies starts half our league games too


You had three at most, about right?

We had Schmeichel playing, Simpson had to play because Sicknote De Laet got injured in the warm-up, while Drinkwater and Okazaki got a very pre-planned-looking half a match each. Those 4 will likely start against Stoke; the rest will be changed.

The main issue we saw yesterday was the lack of striking options. If we'd had a fourth striker then playing him alongside Ulloa from the start (instead of Drinkwater) would have made a lot of sense. Instead we offered almost zero threat in the first half except for the odd run from the lively Demarai Gray, playing for a nil-nil and a second-half challenge. Needless to say, we didn't achieve it.

We've just loaned out a striker whose face didn't fit for whatever reason, which makes it all the more important that we find another to bring in. Ulloa's so off form it's painful, Okazaki is useful but not really a top player, which has left everything on Vardy who has played through the pain barrier for half the season so far and hasn't trained properly in ages. Hopefully the minor operation he's had recently will help, but I worry that he's being brought back too soon because of the lack of competition.

I like Okazaki, he's a right little pest.

Your team looked short on goals....three midfielders who don't score goals, and two wingers who don't score many goals. You could have done with Mahrez on one flank really

King used to score a lot of goals - I think he's scored 50 for the club; however he's fashioned himself as more of a defensive midfielder these days and has looked reluctant to shoot for some time.

Mahrez looks a bit down on himself at the moment, partly through costing us points through missing a couple of important penalties and partly because he's being targeted in games - not necessarily kicked but studied widely and denied any space to enjoy himself. The more rest we can give him, the better.

I didn't realise he was that prolific, that's a good record for a midfielder.

Did he play a bit further forward, or in the pair?

Admittedly most goals were in the Championship, but he was part of a midfield pair. I think he tried to model himself on Frank Lampard and arrive late in the box.

However, he's received criticism over the years for not influencing games enough generally so he's tried to address that to make sure he holds up his end defensively. As such, he just doesn't get into the opposition penalty area as much as he used to. He's also far more reluctant to take long-range shots, which is a shame because his shooting from range was quite good. I keep hoping that Ranieri will try to get this quality out of him again because he was always a pretty decent finisher, but I haven't seen it as yet.