Leicester (A) - Tue 28th Dec 2021 (8:00pm)

[an tha]

Its fucking ridiculous to be constantly walking this tightrope of a loss being pretty much fatal.

 

Man City will win the league for the next 5 years. Makes it all rather pointless. TV can try and talk it up all they like but football is fucked due to greed and corruption and no one in a position of power gives a fuck.

 

Let’s just find the 17 richest Middle Eastern wannabes and sell them all a club and be done with it.

[Boss]

This is all on FSG. We're flogging a dead horse here. Need proper investment in the first team. 

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Piss poor performance from pretty much everyone tonight. The oil cheats have set the level so high that you'd have to make them red hot favourites for the title now as anything more than 3 defeats puts you out of the race. 

 

McCoist is normally decent on the co-commentary, but giving Leicester fans a 10 out of 10? Fuck off. They sung about us for most of the match, rather than supporting their team. Inbred cunts. 

 

It doesn't seem right to single anyone out after such a woeful team effort. But, Mané was poor. Salah has to do better with the penalty, but he's got plenty of credit in the bank. TAA was awful tracking back for the goal. Keita did absolutely fuck all when he came on, other than give the ball away and shit out of challenges. 

 

Just not good enough against a severely depleted Leicester. We needed the tempo and attacking link up play that we showed in the last 3/4 minutes from the very start. Leicester were hanging on but it was too little, too late. 

 

It'll be difficult to peg the cheats back now. 

[stringvest]

2 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

Jota was horrific, although he did show desire near the end. The starting midfield didn't suit his game at all, it's what I was saying last time. When you have two workman like not great players with the ball like Henderson and Ox behind him, he has to get involved deeper and he's just not good at that. He needs to be a real forward.

Sorry, but that's bollocks.  He had a good game, and worked harder in midfield than the combined 'efforts' of Ox and Henderson.  He comes deep and he's miles better than Firmino in every aspect of the game. 

 

Who set the chance up for Mane?  From a deep role in midfield?

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

2 minutes ago, Grinch said:

Can we stop with this refs bullshit.  We’re not good enough cause we’ve consistently failed to address our weaknesses and kept players who’ve proved to be not good enough.

The standard of refereeing is shocking. Also seems to be a bit of bias and a bit of the other stuff involved.

 

But todays result had nothing to do with refereeing.

[Oh Buoy]

Fucking hell, it's only 6pts and there's still half the season to go. We've lost 2 games, as have City. If City draw 3 games and we win them, we're level with a -4 GD. 

 

Still very much within our hands. 

[TheHowieLama]

3 minutes ago, stringvest said:

He got in the way for Matip at the end.  He really is a waste of a shirt.  He came on and straight away gave the ball away, which is his stock in trade these days.  He used to be good.  He is no longer any good.

Was the other way round , Matip took it off Firmino. Same as Mane had done a little earlier with Jota.

[Baltar]

Terrible result. Not yet January but already we're going to need a miracle if City are going to slip up.

[CapeRed]

5 minutes ago, an tha said:

Well thats it then....title gone IMO.

Can't see how we pull back 6 pts on this Man City side, especially with AFCON.

It's really fucking frustrating, but frankly we got what we deserved tonight.

Still stings we had to go to Tottenham weakened as we were and ended up dropping points - but the pts dropped at home against Brighton from 2 goals up and the points dropped at Brentford were unforgiveable.

The real damage was done in those games throwing away a 2 goal lead at home to fucking Brighton and letting in 3 v fucking Brentford....puts you on cliff edge then where 1 bad result like tonight is fatal.

Tonight we just weren't good enough, wasting golden chances...a pen and a rebound, Mane when clean through etc.

We were again undone by a simple pass undoing our defence and we never looked like winning after that.

I know some will say there is a half a season to go and anything can happen, but can you really see us pulling 6 pts back on this Man City side? I can't....

We will almost certainly be 9 behind by time we kick off at Chelsea on Sunday in what is a really tough game....then we lose the lads to AFCON.

Just can't see how we win league from here.

Gutting.

Disappointed with Trent for the goal he was just jogging back and Lookman just ran past him to receive the ball from the man out wide. Just no awareness.

[General Dryness]

19 minutes ago, John102 said:

Whatever happens can we stop pretending that teams just roll over for City and we are hard done to.

They don't. City are just better than us because they spend stupid amounts of money on incredible squad depth.

 

Having said that, our owners could put their hands in their pockets a little more often.

[chrisbonnie]

one thing ive found funny with this team.

 

when we get breaks, be it a small winter break, having an extra week due to being out of a cup competition, 

 

we come back like the players have been on the piss, 

 

I love the manager as much as thr next man, but i dont care what he says, our team play better when they dont have time off. 

[3 Stacks]

Just now, stringvest said:

Sorry, but that's bollocks.  He had a good game, and worked harder in midfield than the combined 'efforts' of Ox and Henderson.  He comes deep and he's miles better than Firmino in every aspect of the game. 

 

Who set the chance up for Mane?  From a deep role in midfield?

He did setup Mane, who made a great run. He wasn't good otherwise. He was really bad in the first half.

[Captain Howdy]

6 minutes ago, KevieG said:

Jota and Salah have a lot of credit in the bank. I'd still fancy them to score. 

 

Mane is nowhere near the player he was. Bobby has fallen even further. 

Both Mane and Firminho should be playing their last season.

[Jordy Brouwer]

3 minutes ago, Boss said:

We're shit. Deal with it!

We're not shit, not by a long shot. We are actually pretty fucking boss. 

 

To get to the next level we have to get better against packed defences. I know how I would play against us, don't you. Pack the defence and diagonal out balls. 

 

Klopp needs to figure it out and I don't envy him because its the hardest thing in football. Creating changes against two solid lines and about 10 people in front of their goal is HARD. 

 

Its just our biggest weakness and the biggest weakness of Klopps system. 

 

We can tear teams apart who offer us space but when we have little space things aren't so good. At best we move the ball around quite quickly hoping something will open up. At worst we  slowly work the ball into wide areas and there's not much to do from there other than aim at our 1 or 2 short players in the box against their 5. 

 

We need to force the goals in these situations and I don't know what the answer is. Getting more men in the box? Getting the bye-line and hard-hit cutbacks? Having someone better in the air in the box for knock-downs and arial threat? Trying to play straight through them old-school Arsenal style (not easy)? Some combination. 

 

We score plenty of goals but against 2 lines that know what they are doing it can sometimes be hard for us especially if the forward line is underperforming (boy was it today). 

 

 

[Strontium]

City now 1/6 for the title. Seems generous.

[TheDrowningMan]

2 minutes ago, an tha said:

Its fucking ridiculous to be constantly walking this tightrope of a loss being pretty much fatal.

 

Man City will win the league for the next 5 years. Makes it all rather pointless. TV can try and talk it up all they like but football is fucked due to greed and corruption and no one in a position of power gives a fuck.

 

Let’s just find the 17 richest Middle Eastern wannabes and sell them all a club and be done with it.

No but they’re white knights who play lovely football and Pep is the greatest of all time and Klopp spends as much as him anyway.

[CapeRed]

1 minute ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

The standard of refereeing is shocking. Also seems to be a bit of bias and a bit of the other stuff involved.

 

But todays result had nothing to do with refereeing.

No complaints with the ref tonight for me.

[stringvest]

Just now, 3 Stacks said:

He did setup Mane, who made a great run. He wasn't good otherwise. He was really bad in the first half.

you've got a massive blind spot there.  That's ok though. 

[an tha]

1 minute ago, CapeRed said:

Disappointed with Trent for the goal he was just jogging back and Lookman just ran past him to receive the ball from the man out wide. Just no awareness.

Trent is boss, but he switches off defensively too often.

[Trumo]

Every single one of those players needs to have a word with themselves tonight. Granted, some of them can at least holds their heads up, but the overall performance leaves an awful lot to be desired.

 

The finishing and decision making in the penalty area was absolutely appalling throughout. Mo's penalty was telegraphed. Sadio had an absolute stinker. Diogo bar one wayward volley late in the first half did so little of note. The midfield behind them were no better. Fab was OK, but Hendo was very wasteful and Ox was anonymous. Trent sprayed a few quality crossfield passes in the first half but his final balls in from out wide struggled to beat the first man, his corners were overhit, and he looked overrun by National Trust Grade II listed building and then Lookman.

 

Some positively to try and seek out. Big Bird (headers from corners aside) was very good, as was Kostas. Virg was OK. Alisson had fuck all to do besides pick the ball out of the net.

 

That was a makeshift Leicester side and we flopped completely. Remember the post-Boxing Day debacles at Newcastle and Southampton? This was awfully similar.

 

To claw back a 6-point deficit is a very tall order now, but of greater concern is the number of matches this season where we look overrun at times.

[CapeRed]

3 minutes ago, stringvest said:

Sorry, but that's bollocks.  He had a good game, and worked harder in midfield than the combined 'efforts' of Ox and Henderson.  He comes deep and he's miles better than Firmino in every aspect of the game. 

 

Who set the chance up for Mane?  From a deep role in midfield?

I would agree , never stopped working.

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

1 minute ago, CapeRed said:

Disappointed with Trent for the goal he was just jogging back and Lookman just ran past him to receive the ball from the man out wide. Just no awareness.

Trent and Henderson were both very casual for the goal. First a positioning fuck up from Henderson, then some lazy jogging from both of them to give the opponent an easy ride.

[an tha]

1 minute ago, TheDrowningMan said:

No but they’re white knights who play lovely football and Pep is the greatest of all time and Klopp spends as much as him anyway.

Oh aye i know!

 

Joking aside it sucks all the joy out of watching footy...game after game it is just the unbearable tenison of 'shit we can't lose here' and it grinds you down.

 

 

[J-V]

3 minutes ago, Papa Noël said:

Fucking hell, it's only 6pts and there's still half the season to go. We've lost 2 games, as have City. If City draw 3 games and we win them, we're level with a -4 GD. 

 

Still very much within our hands. 

City won't draw 3 and we certainly won't win all our remaining games which would be needed.

[stringvest]

I don't think the season is over at all.  We just have to be better.  Hopefully Elliott will be back soon.  Get the first choice midfield of Fabinho, Thiago and Elliot on the pitch regularly, and we'll be far better than we were tonight.