Leicester 2 v Wolves 0: The Verdict Thread

[The Bear]

Without Coady's flick he kicks/knees it clear or it hits his thigh.

He reacted badly as it came at him but it was unlucky to come at him the way it did.

 

[Tony Towner]

Without Coady's flick he kicks/knees it clear or it hits his thigh.

He reacted badly as it came at him but it was unlucky to come at him the way it did.

Not what he says "I was already committed to the header"

 

[PuntsWolf]

Got back from a good away day, and after being holiday last week was very excited to kick off the season. Had a flick through the march thread and verdicts and Some of which I question which game you were watching, but also agree with a lot of what was said.

First 30 mins thought we were going to win the league, next 60 thought we were going to be in for a mediocre season.

Largely agree with what DW puts in his blog but feel being a little harsh on Rui for the second. After the deflection the ball comes in from outside the post. No chance.

Doc performance (lol). I've been a defender of him and the criticism has been OTT, but today it certainly wasn't. "Unlucky with the OG", have a word with yourself! Have you ever played football?! There's absolutely no chance that should ever end up in your own net! As a defender, you should be watching that ball the whole way in (which he admits he apparently was doing). You should be expecting Coady to miss it, even the slight touch he does get doesn't really change the trajectory to a point that at 5 yards away you shouldn't be able to readjust and end up in a situation where you can't readjust and avoid planting it in your net. It looked awful in the ground, like he didn't have a clue. Looks worse on the replay like he was trying hto put it top bin! As for the rest of his performance, it's been covered. Shite.

Jonny in the first 30 looked the best FB we've ever had, without being a world beater. Which further shows up Docs limitations. Would like to see him on the right, but feel not signing a genuine LWB is going to hold us up.

Moutinho better than Neves but both OK. Nothing to change from back 3 but Bennett the pick.

Costa and Jota shite. Jota needs a kick up the arse, you're not Eden hazard, so stop trying to dribble past everyone because today you gave it away pretty much every time. Wasn't averse to hooking them both at HT, but when the replacement is Leo then you shouldn't have bothered. No where near good enough and the Vardy sending off left us in a situation where we had nothing opposing Traore so we're easy to defend against.

Traore had a good half, anything good second half was through him, if we had something on the other side he may have been better. Seems reluctant to go behind and basically takes the ball off the CBs and waltzes past players like they aren't there. Not perfect but in the team on merit given Costa's displays. To think people didn't want us to sign a player in this position is alarming given what we have seen so far from the current incumbents and where one short term injury has left us shirt of options.

Raul is quality, let down by his teammates/manager second half.

Felt the 3 at the back plus DMs and Jonny could have been made slightly more adventurous to try and get back in the game last 10 but think it just wast our day. But we were hardly forcing the issue at the end.

Said before today that we could easily be 6 games in and be on around 2 or 3 points. That might start to increase some pressure, particularly with the expectations and we will need to deal with that. I think we have the squad and manager to do well, but this needs to be a wake up call to players, managers and fans.

We also have the personnel (not that I'm advocating it) to make ourselves harder to beat if we really need to by dropping one of IF for Dendocker and/or Saiss.

Plus, after watching Cardiff Vs Newcastle, we will be fine. They were both horrific.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Without Coady's flick he kicks/knees it clear or it hits his thigh.

He reacted badly as it came at him but it was unlucky to come at him the way it did.

I honestly can't see how you come to this conclusion. He should have headed it where it com from (certainly not thigh FFS). The balls trajectory has barely changed yet he's put it in his own net under no pressure. Comedy reel stuff. Certainly not unlucky!

 

[The Bear]

You need to watch it again. The ball was heading for knee height before the flick.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Whether it’s knee height or ankle height, it’s terrible. Calling it anything else is crazy.

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

Would not disagree with Jonny on the right. Watch jonnyngive the ball.away / mis-control so many times particularly in the first half.

Don't think Jota or Costa is up up to speed. Think Jonny will do ok.

 

[Freddeno]

Thought we played brilliant and deserved to win the game, Leicester more than lucky to win the game. They got the points by an own goal and a horribly deflected effort and we hit the woodwork three times, also really liked the look of Traore, something different from what we have..as I said, brilliant passing game by us but you get punished in the prem on missed chances so much more..Im not worried in the long run if we keep this play up..like the look of Jimenez too, Boly one of my favourite players..Jonny a very good player too..Vardys red was well deserved, painful to watch.. UTW

 

[b3h]

https://oscillatingwildly.net/player-ratings-leicester-city-2-0-wolves/

Great stuff. And you haven't been harsh on Doherty at all as you say pen poised and all that, reasoned write up and most will agree.

 

[b3h]

On Doherty still playing I can see how it might be a bit harsh to straight up have dropped him and put Jonny there and bring Vinagre in, even minus the fact Vinagre is young and it'd be a new test. Imagine if it went badly. Plus look what Nuno has done with Doherty, he's pushed him to his limits. For all we know, Nuno could know that it would ruin him, he might have the confidence of a pea (looks it). And he'd still need to be on the bench as backup. That said he's not done himself any favours, but maybe now he's forced Nuno's hand and it's time for the change.

Only other thing is Jonny. Is he just stuck in a left sided role for us despite being right footed. Does it just not work well for him on the right for some reason. Did Nuno really need Doherty to hold it down til next window.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

First half hour reminded me of Derby away last season. I left that game believing we were about to witness something special. We should have been 2 maybe 3 up. Goals change games and Leicester are far from a bad side but even goo sides struggle to come back from 2 goals down.

Our performance was more consistent than last week but we are still not quite right defensively or up front. Costa and Jota were properly dealt with and at the back we struggled to cope with the gap between our midfield two and back three - too often one of our centre backs committed themselves and left a space to be exploited. I want the Neves/Moutinho combination to work but I think we need something more in the midfield.

For the second week running we played against 10 men who put 2 banks of 4 behind the ball leaving us very little space to play in the final third. Traore did get at them and we should have done better with the chances he created. I think Nuno got the subs wrong - leave Jota and Raul up top and let Traore play wherever he wanted (much like Gibbs-White did). Traore causes uncertainty, draws players towards him and despite the rumours can put in a decent final ball.

I still think we’ll be fine once we have ironed out a few issues.

 

[Lycan]

My issue with Traore isn't his final ball or even the lack of effort defensively, it's that he just stands there on the wing and refuses to make a run off the ball. I've never seen a player be so unwilling to be part of a team performance. So many times in the 2nd half Moutinho was looking for him to make a move and he just wasn't interested.

 

[SSB]

There was a lad near us who was loudly trying to educate us that Traore doesn’t need to run. We just need to pass the ball to him and he will do the rest.

On a different subject it was again nice to spend time in a couple of pubs drinking with the home fans and chatting football without the need to resort to thumping each other.

 

[Irish_Wolf]

My issue with Traore isn't his final ball or even the lack of effort defensively, it's that he just stands there on the wing and refuses to make a run off the ball. I've never seen a player be so unwilling to be part of a team performance. So many times in the 2nd half Moutinho was looking for him to make a move and he just wasn't interested.

This is a job for managers and coaches. If he doesn't do as he's told he shouldn't be a starter.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

My issue with Traore isn't his final ball or even the lack of effort defensively, it's that he just stands there on the wing and refuses to make a run off the ball. I've never seen a player be so unwilling to be part of a team performance. So many times in the 2nd half Moutinho was looking for him to make a move and he just wasn't interested.

Not buying that. Traore wanted to be given the ball to his feet with the intention of running at and past people. Bearing in mind that every time he did it he attracted 2 or 3 Leicester players to him and still managed to break through their lines and get in behind I had no problem with his decisions.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

This is a job for managers and coaches. If he doesn't do as he's told he shouldn't be a starter.

Maybe has was doing what he was told.

 

[slink]

My issue with Traore isn't his final ball or even the lack of effort defensively, it's that he just stands there on the wing and refuses to make a run off the ball. I've never seen a player be so unwilling to be part of a team performance. So many times in the 2nd half Moutinho was looking for him to make a move and he just wasn't interested.

Don't think the space was there for him to make the runs that Moutinho wanted him to. Ideally that's what you would want with Traore and he's not the best at doing that but yesterday was not the time to judge it with Leicester sat so far back with 10 men for a lot of the second half.

 

[Boozad]

Leicester shut up shop completely in the second half, even before Vardy was sent off and there was nowhere for us to be able make those sort of runs or find balls through, it was even worse when they went down to ten. Traore’s best bet was running through them with the ball which he did do a few times, the fact he dragged men around only helped create space elsewhere. I was one of the ones who wasn’t exactly enthused by his signing but watching him yesterday I think he’ll be a valuable asset.

I said it earlier n the thread but Leicester really were fucking shit.

 

[Tredman]

Leicester shut up shop completely in the second half, even before Vardy was sent off and there was nowhere for us to be able make those sort of runs or find balls through, it was even worse when they went down to ten. Traore’s best bet was running through them with the ball which he did do a few times, the fact he dragged men around only helped create space elsewhere. I was one of the ones who wasn’t exactly enthused by his signing but watching him yesterday I think he’ll be a valuable asset.

I said it earlier n the thread but Leicester really were fucking shit.

Exactly my thoughts too, if we'd have kept Jota on or been able to bring Cav on there would have been more space as they wouldn't have been able to double or triple up on Traore.

Sadly Leo offered very little, he needs to teams to be attacking us so he can move the ball into the space behind. There wasn't any with Leicester sitting so deep.

 

[Lycan]

I must have hallucinated all that space I saw down the right hand side when I was at the King Power yesterday.

So many times after the red, the ball was recycled out to the right for Moutinho and the only options he had were Ryan Bennett or Traore just standing there being marked by 1 defender. A little bit of intelligent movement off the ball and we could've fashioned a few more chances down that side.