(F) Deulofeu trying to control the ball on his chest in a decent position only for it to bounce off him and lead to a Leicester counter attack
Momentum is a powerful thing. This Leicester side, for all the pundits fawning are not the 2nd best team, man for man in the league. They're not even in the top 5 in terms of ability, but they expect to win every game. We saw today that they are competent but unspectacular. The fact that they are 2nd and comfortably in the Champs League positions is because of confidence, momentum and just consistently picking up the wins, when the rest are faltering.
And I fear that combination will leave us in a horrible situation if we are in the Championship next season because that is equally unforgiving to teams with a mentality of complacency and lack of motivation
Well, that was rubbish. Scoreline ended up a little flattering, but I get the feeling it was only 1-0 for so long because they knew we’d never, EVER, score a goal. The penalty decision was an absolute joke. It just can’t be a penalty. Incidental contact, eyes on the ball, arm out to defend his space. It’s just not a penalty and even more shocking that VAR could defend the original decision. Sarr was our best player, but woefully lacking in support. He’s rapid. Masina should play every week until we sign somebody who is an upgrade on both himself and Holebas. Doucoure looks broken as a footballer. Needs to be dropped and Quina, who should be our future in that position and plays without fear. Capoue played alright. It was nice to see him playing the ball forward a bit more than in recent games. Can’t quite put into words how poor Feminia was. He needs to be moved on, as much for his own good as ours. Not suited to our league. We need to focus entirely on next season now. Start moving players on in January and bring in the man who we believe can take us back up. Give him the rest of the season to begin implementing his culture/tactics on the squad and weed out those who aren’t going to be a part of it, either through lack of ability, or because we can’t hold onto them.
If you just accept we're down then none of it matters and there's nothing to get stressed about. Time to start focussing on the future and giving more playing time to Quina, Bashiru, Dahlberg etc so they are ready to hit the ground running next season in the championship.
Joao Pedro will save the day don’t worry. #PozzoScoutingNetwork #PozzoModel Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Much better performance GD had an absolute nightmare. Sarr was fantastic and looked a real threat when he went forward, Leicester genuinely looked scared of him. I thought Deeney was brilliant he was absolutely everywhere and gave the Leicester defence something to think about. The substitutions were positive and they would have struggled to get 3 points if it was not for the penalty. Support was good and the fans kept with the team a few left in the last few seconds but never needed to be shouted at by a d***head in the stands saying "don't f****g come back if you are not supporting them", these fans who apparently were not supporting the team had travelled on a Wednesday night to The East Midlands to support their team.
Bear in mind, this summer will almost certainly see a combination of a new coach and a mass exodus of players. That will be no bad thing in and of itself, but it means that we will have to buy a load of new players in the summer, take the usual pot luck with regards to which work out and which don't plus there will be ongoing unsettlement as every player who thinks they are too good for the Championship angles for a move and those that don't get picked by another team, begin the season disgruntled at being stuck at ****** old Watford. We are gonna be in a bad way next season too, whilst the likes of Norwich, will go down with a slightly improved side from their promotion season, largely intact and settled.
Kiko is so inept at right back. Gets beaten over and over again, never wins a header and can’t cross. Useless. Cathcart and Mariappa has got to be one of the worst centre back partnerships the Premier League has seen. Doucoure has lost any semblance of form. It was staggering quite how often he wasted possession. Should have had a shot when receiving the ball in the box near the end but showed a complete lack of awareness of what was around him in trying to play a pass round the corner. Sarr continues to disappoint me. He’s quick and at least has the ambition to attack but I’ve not seen any great talent there. Andre Gray has been coaching his first touch from the looks of things - so many situations wasted by poor control. Crossing nearly as bad as Kiko’s as well. Deeney non-existent. Glad he’s back to save our season by... occasionally complaining to the ref? Sell them all and play the U23s for the rest of the season.
They should appoint the next coach with a view to next season imo. No point in going for someone with a high calibre (who is expensive and won't want to stick around).
Definitely something going on behind the scenes there imo. If anything, the fact Giraldi is seen as a 'constant', unlike head-coach's, should be a damning indictment on the ****** job he has done!
He has just called you stuffy so make of that what you will. Stuffing with a roast. That’s nice. Stuffed crust pizza. That’s nice. White Stuff, the shop. That’s nice.
I'm at least hoping they'll sign some Gravelaine or Cavalli-esque maverick in January to make things interesting. It'll more likely be something bland and soul destroying like resigning Okaka
Not just that. They need to break the habit of a lifetime and start planning the whole setup for next season in the Championship now. The worst thing they could do is sign a bunch of no-marks in January in some daft attempt to stay up for inflated fees and wages. Get players who buy into the club, not ones who have a promise to be sold to a bigger club. Get a coach who can start structuring the side towards next season.
Exactly. I know it's only press speculation, but the stuff being bandied around about our search for the new coach is worrying. The stuff from Leventhal, suggests the club are in some sort of denial, searching for someone who will keep us up on a 6 month contract, for them to replace at the end of the season. This is all wrong. They need to start preparing now for next season. In any case, selling the likes of Deolefeou, Pereyra and Doucoure in Jan and investing in some more committed, reliable players who might lack the magic wand every 20 games, but will give you consistent, 7 or 8 out of 10 performances will also be more suited to grinding out any remaining wins in the second half of the season. I fear that we are going to have a hangover into next season because Gino is deluded about the real state of the club and thinks he can wangle a way out of it by getting some Spanish equivalent of Pardew to come in and suddenly get this awful squad of **** bags to win 2 games out of every 3 or something.
So that is 7/11 of our players that are absolutely terrible. The second best team so far in the prem only won by 2-0, a dodgy penalty and a late goal. Which implies we actually punched above our weight today. I’m not sure what else you’d want from Sarr with pretty much no support?
You weren’t that bad tonight, Deeney is a bit a joke now surely? I thought he was abysmal. Keep the faith guys.
Nice to see Isaac's still alive. This time next year he'll be ripping up the championship. That was an easier watch than some of the games of late. And let's not forget we were away to 2nd in the league. Play like that and we'll probably pick up a few points for the rest of the season. Not enough, of course. But some. Quite bizarre how off the pace deulofeu was today. I wonder how many of the "higher calibre" players such as he will still be here come February.
I think this season has been a bit of a perfect storm. All very well calling the players out as spineless pricks or whatever but they’re human beings and when you get repeatedly knocked down it’s difficult not feel the effects of that. The recruitment has been poor but I still think out best 11 stays in the premier league comfortably. We’ve had a lot of injuries in important areas which people forget. I thought that Cleverly was excellent before he got injured and think that he’s a big loss. Pererya is probably our most creative player and he’s out too. Welbeck is a solid premier league striker who you’d bank on getting double figures, he’s also a massive loss. I think we’ve had games where we’ve deserved to win or deserved a point which we’ve been let down by shambolic VAR decisions or poor finishing or no luck. Today we work hard and deserve a clean sheet for 60 minutes before Pawson decides to hand them a goal. I think it’s pretty tough for any of us to work for something and consistently get no reward for it. I’m not saying that the players are devoid of responsibility but when I look at the side I really don’t see a lack of effort but a complete lack of confidence and I think that’s understandable given how things have panned out.
