Ratings & Reactions: Leicester v Villa

[abdomlahor]

playing for a draw at the end when we were looking quite dangerous. why?

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

8 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Brave draw, brilliant managerial changes and exciting football as usual. 

Open that chequebook

Agreed 

[PaulC]

You think a point away at Leicester wasnt bad but the football is so turgid and he has his favoutites and wont make changes until too late in a game.  We didnt replace Smith to end up with this type of stuff. 

[Troglodyte]

Some overreactions on here - not that it's much of a surprise.

Solid performance which was much needed after recent results. Good to see we can stay fairly solid - something to build from. Also some signs that Gerrard is willing to adapt while not deviating too far from his philosophies - he's trying to strike a balance. (Not saying his vision will definitely work, but I think we do need to at least give him time to see what it looks like next season - and it's good to see someone with an idea of how we should play.)

McGinn with a few sloppy passes as usual but overall I thought he had a decent if unspectacular game in the middle. He's not world class but gets far too much stick.

Glad to see Konsa looking decent again and sharp against Daka, who can be dangerous. He's been very poor this season but some clearly want to write him off which is a shame considering how good he's been in the past. Yes Chambers has looked good and has some attributes that are stronger than Konsa, but the shouts to sell Konsa and play Chambers are largely fickle. Well done Ezri on the clean sheet.

As well as McGinn and Konsa, Young had a decent game. Plenty crying about him before the match but it would be mad to start Chrisene in front of him at this stage, despite the calls to do so.

Overall yes, Young shouldn't be starting for us next season (arguably even as backup) and perhaps we can still upgrade on decent players such as Konsa, McGinn, Mings and Douglas Luiz as starters, but all showed they're solid Premier League players today. Considering where we were a few years ago, we're actually lucky to be in the situation where we're clamouring to improve on these sorts of guys. That said, it's of course a shame that we still seem miles away from the top few clubs, but that's the shit state of football as it is.

Iroegbunam looked good - hope to see more of him in the remainder of the season. Seems to have all the right attributes, although we can't be expecting Patrick Vieira!

[Nigel]

Clean sheet was important!

I thought Iroegbanum looked assured when he came on, really looking forward to seeing more of him.

I find myself sitting up when Buendia comes on, it is a crying shame we cant see more of him.

Watkins is a menace, its like he single handedly winds up the back line. Its just a crying shame he isnt just a bit better at shooting. It was a decent game from him today but yet he never really looked like scoring, is that good for a forward?

I also think Bailey is playing himself out the door. Whether its purely rust or that hes given up but he was a waste of a position today. There were pleny of times you thought he could use his pace and he simply didnt. Dont know whats wrong but Ill give him a bit of leeway due to inactivity.

However i cant stand the way Luiz and Mcginn play that link role between defence and midfield when we are under pressure. Its crying out for someone to take the ball on the half turn and look forward, instead of that we get the first time ball back to the defender every time; Its almost as if its the first thing in their mind too, often giving it back to an area thats flooded. Just need a bit of intelligence there.

Our other big problem is the lack of balance in attack, players just dont seem natural in the positions, I suppose the lack of Digne is partly to blame. There were plenty of balls simply played to the wrong foot of our players that needed a touch to get it out of their feet; Thats all the time defenders need at this level.

Its all feels a bit clunky at the moment!

 

 

[VillaParkAvenue]

Happy to see someone voted for Nakamba as MotM!

[thabucks]

Our first nil nil of the season says a lot about how we’ve been this season … 

[mottaloo]

I would love to have the same mentality and team spirit of the Leicester City that contained Izzet, Lennon, Walsh, Claridge, Taggart, Marshall and so on.

Not pretty to watch but effective and not many liked playing them. They knew they weren't top drawer but didn't seem to give a damn about opponents reputation or skills.

Amongst other things, I think we need to lose this soft underbelly especially at home and toughen up.

OK, we toughed it out for a point but I want us to get stuck in more often and have be a lot more savvy on the pitch.

[OutByEaster?]

8 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Decent point and a clean sheet. We had the better chances and there was Fofana's blatant hand ball and the foul on Mings which wasn't event checked I think. with better Refereeing we could have had a couple of Penalties and a Red card for them.

Did you think either were penalties?

There was nothing in the Mings one I thought and I think it would have been harsh to give a penalty for the Fofana one, even though it did hit his hand.

I thought the referee was excellent today - that's probably the best we've been referee'd this season.

[sidcow]

I wonder where we will be on MOTD tonight

[Sulberto21]

Just now, OutByEaster? said:

Did you think either were penalties?

There was nothing in the Mings one I thought and I think it would have been harsh to give a penalty for the Fofana one, even though it did hit his hand.

I thought the referee was excellent today - that's probably the best we've been referee'd this season.

The fofana one was a calculated type block he knew what he was doing imo. Mings can be argued either way but Villa bias. The ref was good but should have booked some of their players for blatant pull-backs during counters in the first half and until he booked Dewsbury-Hall but then it was almost as though he started giving them everything.

[Sulberto21]

3 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I wonder where we will be on MOTD tonight

if we're not first I'm demanding a refund on my licence fee.

[Spoony]

Awful game. Nothing much to add. We need to get rid of our entire midfield (other than Ramsey) if we want any kind of progression. 

[bannedfromHandV]

Ollie Watkins is our biggest problem unfortunately.

I like him, he works hard and he is capable on his day but his first touch, passing and awareness just isn’t conducive to how we seem to want to play, too much breaks down when it reaches him.

Iroegbanum looked sharp when he came on and we were defensively sound for most of the game at least. 
 

[ciggiesnbeer]

6 minutes ago, Nigel said:

I also think Bailey is playing himself out the door. Whether its purely rust or that hes given up but he was a waste of a position today. There were pleny of times you thought he could use his pace and he simply didnt. Dont know whats wrong but Ill give him a bit of leeway due to inactivity.

Two times I noted he let the ball roll out as it trickled through their penalty area (for a Leicester goal kick) and didnt bother running for it. He just looked like he couldnt be bothered.

Bailey and Coutinho had a bad game imho. Troubling as these are two of our putative threats. They didnt look threatening at all today.

Edited April 23, 2022 by ciggiesnbeer

[Follyfoot]

I sat down to watch it said to my lads will have 70 odd minutes of bubble bubble toil and trouble and 25 minutes when we could win it, my explanation was that was when he would bring Emi on. Bang on the money I think. He has to bloody start week in week out, the ceiling on the guy is ridiculous. Under no circumstances should we buy Courtinho

[rjw63]

5 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I wonder where we will be on MOTD tonight

Blink and you'll miss it.

[nick76]

Enjoying some time down the coast but managed to get away from the family for a couple of hours, got a great stream and just watched that boring crap.

I wonder sometimes why we do everything we can, wherever we are and we get that crap and we still come back week after week.

After four defeats, the bright spot is a point but that’s the only thing I’m taking away from this game.  

I hope Gerrard sorts it out next season because this is poor to watch, the results aren’t great and seems very little to look forward to week after week.

[sidcow]

1 minute ago, rjw63 said:

Blink and you'll miss it.

Hopefully

[WakefieldVillan]

I said pre match that if you have to pick one from Buendia or Coutinho in this one, it's Emi everytime. I think today showed why. A 10 minute cameo and he was our best attacking player. MUST start against Norwich.

Coutinho is class when we are dominating possession (usually at home) we will do that next week. So he should start then too. 

Performance not great, but more than happy with a point to stop the rot. And a clean sheet is something to build on and I really want a good convincing win and performance on Saturday now.

Young was solid so fair play, I didn't want him starting - so I got that wrong!

Good cameo by Tim too. One thing we can't be negative about is our crop of young players coming through the ranks.