Leicester 1-0 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[sycophantia]

Leicester dominated possession first half and look a good side but they created virtually nothing, an lucky penalty and a cock up for another, thats it.
We have struggled against sides that press us since the Arsenal game after lockdown, don't know why but we seem to panic and constantly give the ball away.
Second half we were much better, created the best chances of the whole game, just lacking a bit of quality with the final pass/shot. Deserved to get something out the game imo.
Can't believe the stick Fabio is getting, in my memory he's come on in a few games in the last 5-10 minutes and barely had a pass to him, had to try and manufacture some kind of chance out of thin air.....give the lad a chance.
Hope Ait-Nouri's confidence hasn't taken too much of a knock, longterm today will probably do his development good.

 

[Del Woppio]

We're so bloody easy to defend against. Watch the back five ponderously pass it between them. If the move crosses the half way line, fast press and we'll shit ourselves. Repeat, until the ball finds one of the quick lads, hope he can beat 3 three men and find Raul in between 6 or 7 Leicester players.

A few points.

We've got a keeper who can't clear the half way line, yet we never play it short from goal kicks.

The front three are insanely isolated from both each other, and the rest of the team.

That's possibly because Adama, Neto and podence haven't yet figured out that you don't only have a dribble button, but you also have a pass button.

Semedo seems to be the only player capable of running in behind off the ball.

Dendonker getting forward adds a body to an isolated attack, when what we need is somebody linking play to it.

The kind of link up play we used to see between Costa, Cav and Bonatini is a million miles away.

Patience doesn't have to mean ponderous

The sale of Jota means that we can only play 343, and whilst we may have the quality against the bottom half, I think the system will be our undoing against the top 8.

Our 'touches in opposition box' and xG must be comfortably bottom 3rd, despite the fact we've had a really quite favourable start, fixtures wise.


I'll of course add the caveats that Leicester are a very good team, it wasn't a penalty, and the last 3 years' results have been the best in a generation, and I'm not an entitled little biatch who expects us to win every game 5-0 and will moan like fuck otherwise. But I feel there are genuinely some tactical difficulties and an unnecessarily cautious approach to how we've been playing football since lockdown.

 

[Alan]

Leicester didn't press us particularly high, they just took away the diagonal outlet and we don't have an answer for that at the moment.

Chelsea did the same thing to us last season. It's a problem we really need to solve to take the next step forward.

 

[The Bear]

Traore looks better when he starts slightly narrower and then cuts inside to beat men centrally. Driving though the middle means he has passing options either side.

I wonder if he could come on centrally instead of wide, purely as an attacking outlet. That keeps Semedo free and means we can keep Neto and Podence on.

Silva clearly isn't ready for Prem football yet. He needs to play a few U23 games to see if he can adapt.

 

[Alan]

I thought Adama was decent when he came on, tbf.

Judging Fab on any of his appearances so far is massively harsh, IMO. By the time he came on Leicester were basically doubling or tripling up on every attacking player.

 

[Charlie Wolf]

Perhaps the only positive I can take from today is how we at least can contain a Leicester side these days. They seem to have found a blend of football that we should be aspiring to, and if we are in transition we need to look at both recruitment during the transfer window, that many people seemed to be fairly happy with and moving certain players on who are now underperforming when we get the chance of silly money and improving with established quality

Other than that it think everything’s been said, we’re not a great watch at the moment, which I’m putting down to the lack of atmosphere at grounds....there again it’s the same for both team’s, but we ain’t been the same since lockdown other than in a handful of matches

 

[malta mick]

Time we started playing from the first whistle instead of playing for a 0-0 at half time. Our build up play is so slow and predictable. Neves seemed anchored to the back 3 most of the time and Donk doesn't really add a creative/attacking threat from open play. I know he's hasn't had much game time, but can't see anything in Fabio to get excited about. Whatever the new plan is, Nuno needs to get the players onboard quickly.

 

[sycophantia]

Leicester didn't press us particularly high, they just took away the diagonal outlet and we don't have an answer for that at the moment.

Chelsea did the same thing to us last season. It's a problem we really need to solve to take the next step forward.

Suppose it depends how you define 'press' any time we got near the halfway line they closed us down fast

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Creatively poor, tempo slow, two shots on target , Raul awful, Podence anonymous, Traore a one trick pony. Rinse and repeat.

It is unfortunately a depressingly familiar story. We look pretty powderpuff in attack.Thank god we can generally defend well so that should give us enough points. We won't score anywhere near enough goals to challenge .

Fabio is getting stick. He will given the price tag. MGW cost fuck all but got stick when he sucked. RAN was better second half.


Might have sneaked an undeserved point. As for VAR it is ruining football. It is a farce.

 

[Jabbawolf]

Would love us to throw off the shackles from the start. RAN needs to work on whether to tackle or not in the box.
Felt luck was against us today - every ricochet seemed to drop to them.
Raul was foul, Fofana top banana.

 

[prawnking]

This will be an interesting season in many ways...just not in terms of the football we play perhaps!

I'm trying to look at this evolution positively, if I wasn't I could say we look a bit like a team trying to get 7th place each season rather than one that had already done it twice. It looks like we're attempting a weird sideways step rather than an attempt to move forward. Right now it's hard to see how most of our main signings this summer are going to do much more this season than help us tread water at absolute best. Hope I'm wrong!

Despite the talk from Nuno of making us less predictable, we look as predictable as we ever have going forward. Very ponderous and unsure of ourselves.

We can defend, but if you put one past us you've got at least a point most of the time. That's even more of a problem this season with VAR and the refereeing standards throwing dodgy penalties and free kicks about.

I think we have a lot of work to do, we haven't looked like a cohesive team for much of the season and I don't see that ending any time soon as we integrate the new players.

Patience will be needed, there's no changing this path Nuno has set us on, so we need to let him see us through it. The front three are still playing as individuals, Neves and Donk have a lot of work to do to become more than just two DMs who never score (never mind assist) and RAN and Silva, let alone Vitinha, need games games games. Some of those games they'll have mares, some of them they'll boss.

Hopefully all this puts us in a strong position next season, but it could be a painful transition in terms of our place in the table this year.

As an aside, I'm liking Kilman more and more each game, he doesn't look out of place. Whether he's good enough to contribute to us breaking that top 6 remains to be seen though.

 

[The Bear]

Haven't the two games where we've started hot (Sheff Utd + Palace) both seen good performances and early goals?

So why don't we do it more?

 

[Paul]

Because not everyone is as poor as Sheff Ut. and Palace?

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Just to put into context we have lost to three teams that we didnt lose to at all last season. Our record against those teams was 4-2-0

Anyone telling me that we are as good as last season is pissing on my head and telling me its raining. I am really concerned about our creativity, our speed of movement and our goalscoring.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Just to put into context we have lost to three teams that we didnt lose to at all last season. Our record against those teams was 4-2-0

Anyone telling me that we are as good as last season is pissing on my head and telling me its raining. I am really concerned about our creativity, our speed of movement and our goalscoring.

You're absolutely right to be concerned, Cyber. By the time Arsenal have played Villa tonight we'll be in the bottom 3 for xG for. We simply have to take the handbrake off.

 

[jd1981]

Just to put into context we have lost to three teams that we didnt lose to at all last season. Our record against those teams was 4-2-0

Anyone telling me that we are as good as last season is pissing on my head and telling me its raining. I am really concerned about our creativity, our speed of movement and our goalscoring.

I’d reserve that judgement until the end of the season. Basing your opinion after 8 games and who we’ve beat and not beat seems a very narrow range of judgement

 

[VanWolfie]

A very disappointing team performance. But let's not underestimate the impact of an early suspicious penalty goal on the shape of the game. Wolves should have responded better but the team is not together enough yet for that to happen inevitably. The on-field decision by both referee and AR for the first penalty incident was no penalty. The AR who was closest to the incident was very clear that it was not a penalty. Come Attwell to the fray and he persuades Anthony Taylor to take a look. He then only looks at the incident in slow motion. No referee can make an accurate judgment in such circumstances. I don't know why Taylor didn't ask Attwell to play the incident at normal speed. In the end it gave Taylor the glorious opportunity to rival Mike Dean as the biggest clown for making erroneous, non-football context-based decisions. It's not about making forensically correct decisions; it's about taking account of the context of the game and the lead-up to the incident in making a decision that has game-changing possibilities. Taylor has given about 8 dubious penalties this year already and is rapidly losing his status as a top referee. Sadly, the competition from other referees is so sadly lacking that he will continue to referee top games. But Taylor's reputation as a referee is sinking faster than he realizes.

 

[Sniffer]

Traore coming on when we’re behind needs him swapping and changing his position. Give them something to think about as the worst that can happen is that it opens up space elsewhere. Being wide makes him easier to defend against and nullifies Semedo going forward. Podence wasn’t at the races today and at times the front free were trying to be too clever/ intricate and we kept giving it away. Nothing wrong with the defence/midfield part of the formation but as others have alluded to, at times we need a link between midfield and attack.
It’s still a work in progress and nothing to get alarmed about.

 

[prawnking]

I’d reserve that judgement until the end of the season. Basing your opinion after 8 games and who we’ve beat and not beat seems a very narrow range of judgement

Never understood this 'reserving judgement' angle. Like the forum should only be open during the close season.

 

[prawnking]

Because not everyone is as poor as Sheff Ut. and Palace?

Palace are ahead of us in the table and, although Sheff Utd have had a shocking start to the season, playing them first game was considered a challenge based on last season and our games against them