It's Alright Virgil, Les Said There'd Be a Replacement Before Jose Left
The first game of the post-Fonte era was at home against last years Champions, Leicester City, currently languishing in 15th place but through to the knockout stages of the Champions League. I guess they’ve prioritised the European competition as a reward for what they achieved last year and why not? I loved what they achieved last year even though undoubtedly, all the cards fell in their favour. Just take the two games against us as an example – we were 2-0 up at home and they equalised in the 93rd minute because Kelvin Davis can’t kick a ball. In the away game, at 0-0, we should have had a penalty and them a red card but they got away with it and then scored a goal which should have been disallowed.
On paper they don’t look great – Morgan and Huth are still
slow and cumbersome and they are shorn of Mahrez at the AFCON and N’Golo Kante
who perhaps saw it all coming and left for Chelsea. Jamie Vardy is still there having turned down
a move to Arsenal in the summer. Penny
for your thoughts Jamie?
With us selling yet another one of our core first tem
players and Les Reed’s promise that no one would be sold without a replacement
coming in, it was somewhat disconcerting to hear that Florin Gardos would be
given a chance, hinting that no one would be incoming. Now I quite liked Gardos when he played two
seasons ago but he hadn’t proved he was ‘regular first team’ material even then
and he’s been injured for 18 months.
It’s a hell of a punt to be expecting to get by with Virgil, Maya, Jack
Stephens (who is a a kid) and Florin. If
you believe the papers though, we’ve had a loan bit for Sakho turned down as
Liverpool believe they can sell him to someone for £20 million. Good luck with that! Our other problem area is of course up front
and we are apparently after an Italian lad called Manolo Gabbiadini but as we
enter the final week of the transfer window, there is still nothing concrete.
Claude has gone for what on paper is his best available side
with JWP and Hojbjerg preferred to Clasie in midfield and J-Rod instead of Long
up front. Leicester have deviated from
their strict 4-4-2 which won them the title and though the keeper and back 4 is
the same, Albrighton is out and Demerai Gray is in and Kante and Mahrez are
replaced by Mendy and Ndidi who are complete unknowns to me.
This game is a bit of a bonus for yours truly as I was
supposed to be at my sons Under 13s match so Leicester at home was going to
have to be sacrificed in the name of stupid Sunday kick off times but as Hythe
Rec doesn’t have undersoil heating – here we are.
Away we go an from the first minute it’s remarkable how much
space we are finding on the wings.
Cedric slings a ball over and Schmeichel is very undertain and ends up
luckily (for him) clearing it off JWP and out for a goal kick. The first real chance comes straight
afterwards as we find space down the left his time and Tadic puts over a
perfect ball to Redmond who meets it on the full and heads powerfully but over
the bar. He needs practice at heading
does that boy.
Redmond produces a near post shot and Schmeichel gets down
well to give us a corner and Tadic sets up a break with a shocking kick which
is cleared out to Demeral Gray who runs and runs… and runs and if he got his
head up we’d have been fucked as they had two spare but he hits it straight at
Fraser and no problems.
Having at attack is a temporary reprieve for Leicester and
soon we’re pummelling them on the wings again.
Virgil switches left to right, Cedric plays a 1-2 with Hojbjerg before
sliding the ball into JWP who just hits it first time, no fucking about and it
flies across the keeper and into the far bottom corner. After weeks of moaning about JWP not being
able to hit a moving ball, he hits one perfectly and I am delighted to be
proved wrong.
Leicester appear to have no answers in midfield and JWP and
Hojbjerg are playing 10 yards further forward than usual and committing to
attacks rather than sitting just in front of Romeu. Hojbjerg makes a header his in midfield and
gets caught late by Mendy. JWP curls it
in from the left hand side of centre about 30 yards out, towards Yoshida and it
drops down off a defender and there’s J-Rod to smash it first time intot he net
with his left foot. Fuck me - weve
scored twice!
2-0 at half time would be very nice but we allow Gray to
have another run at Cedric and Yoshida and he makes a good position for himself
before displaying a complete lack of composure and smashing it over the
bar. It’s a mystery to me how well Huth and Morgan played for Leicester last season but
they are looking old, slow and tired today.
Morgan has a grab at Tadic’ shirt and J-Rod crashes to the deck in the
penalty area under a clumsy Huth challenge but nothing given and so we go in
two goals to the good and looking decent.
It’s been one of the best first halves of the season.
Albrighton is on at the start of the second half as Ranieri
reverts to last years formation and as many of the personnel as are
available. All that’s different now is
Gray for Mahrez and Ndidi for Kante. Any
Leicester fightback (they were 2-0 down against us last year) is going to have
to wait though as we’re attacking with Tadoc on the left and his cross finds
Hojbjerg who smashes it but well wide.
There’s a heart in mouth moment on 55 minute as Gray puts in
a cross from the left and Virgil steps in front of Vardy and clears but Bastard
Steptoe has caught him and it doesn’t look good. Virgil is eventually up and hobbling and the
game continues. We’ve been disrupted by
the injury and a couple of balls are tossed into the box and Virgil heads away
and goes down again and that’s his lot.
Shit. My first thought is f Les
Reed saying ‘no one leaves before a replacement comes in’. OK Les – fucked that one up haven’t you and
on comes Jack Stephens.
Leicester look very half arsed and not bothered about
things. First Schmeichel takes ages over
a pass and it skims of J-Rod’s toe on its way to Fuchs. Then Fuchs plays it blindly infield and Hojbjerg
picks it off and advances into the penalty area but unstead of going round the
keeper or just slotting it, he shanks it horribly wide from 12 yards in what
must be one of the misses of the season.
Shocking. Such a shame as well as
he’s been superb apart from that.
So it should be 3-0 but then it’s nearly 2-1 as Gray wins a
corner which is taken, Forster half clears and it gets crossed back in, Huth
heads down and morgan is all alone but hits it up and over the bar. Last year he would have scored of course. Up the other end we go and Tadic gets
unceremoniously binned by Huth and he delivers a superb free kick which Yoshida
goes for and Morgan can only head into his own net. Goaaaaaaaaa- hang on, Michael Oliver is going
to the lino. There has been no flag from
the lino and no whistle from the referee and Morgan has got in front of Maya
and headed in so what the fuck is he questioning? If it’s a push then he would have whistled so
that can only leave offside and the lino didn’t flag… no goal, fuck off! The lino sheepishly put up the flag that
Oliver has persuaded him to put up and they’ve got away with one there big
time.
Clasie is on for Hojbjerg and Shane is on for the knackered
J-Rod. Both departing players have had
tremendous games but on the occasion of his 30th birthday, Shane
looks up for it and JWP puts him away wth aball over Morgan and Shane cuts in
and across, Morgan just barges him over, penalty. I’m expecting JWP to be on this but it’s
Tadic, who no one wanted to take another penalty ever again but up he steps and
takes it properly, bang into the top corner. That’s it man… the keeper goes the right way
and he’s still got no chance. Three Nil
and you can sing ‘Champions of England, You’ll Never Sing That’ as much as you
like. You’ve been fucking hammered
today.
There’s a chance for a fourth as Redmond sees a shot well
saved but no matter – it’s done and onto Liverpool on Wednesday night with
three points and an end to our four match losing run. Three points. I remember that
feeling and it feels good. We were absolutely miles better than we have been
recently. It was almost like the shackles have been removed and we were allowed
to attack. My main complaint all season has been that the midfielders who
aren't Romeu not getting forward enough to support the attack but today JWP and
Hojbjerg were getting in touch having shots and making a difference at the top
end of the pitch. JWP got himself a goal and Hojbjerg should have got him self
a goal on more than one occasion. The important thing was that they had chances
and asking for any more than three goals in one game is ridiculously greedy.
Having said that, I have absolutely no fucking idea how Wes Morgan’s own goal
can be deemed offside but I don't really care, we got a third in the end.
There were better performances from
individual players all over the pitch today, the aforementioned JWP and
Hojbjerg, Redmond and Tadic looked dangerous and J-Rod had his best game for
two years. All of the defenders were superb and gave Leicester absolutely
nothing. The only downer was obviously the injury to Virgil and we can only
hope that he recovers in time for Wednesday. If nothing else it highlights to
the powers that be, that you Les, How short we are at centre back. If Virgil is
injured then we are going into our most important match of the season with
Yoshida, who has not been first choice for the past four years, Jack Stephens
who is a kid with less than 3 first team games and Florin Gardos who has been
injured for the best part of a year and a half and he hadn't established
himself as a first team regular before the injury had happened. Jack Stephens did okay today against a very
limited Leicester attack but there is one glaring issue in that he never seems
to cleanly win a header which looks to me to be down to him not physically
committing himself to winning it enough.
Leicester were piss poor and I really don't get it. They had a
formula and a structure last season which worked perfectly. They could have
picked nine out of the starting 11 from last season but Ranieri seems to be
trying to be too clever, shipping Drinkwater out on the right hand side in the
first half where he looked like a fish up a tree. The new players that they've
signed to play in midfield in place of N’golo Kante looked incredibly average
as we absolutely bossed that area of the pitch from the first minute till the
last. I wonder if Jamie Vardy is regretting not joining Arsenal now? I think he's a very good player but you can
see why people are mentioning him in the same breath as one season wonder.
So, the post-Fonte era starts with a comfortable win and a clean
sheet.. Make of that what you will. Onto Anfield on Wednesday night for the second leg of
the League Cup semi-final. The
Merseyside Red Twats lost 3-2 at home to the previously useless Swansea city in
Saturday which could make them more or less dangerous opponents on Wednesday.
Either way, them losing at home to Swansea was fucking hilarious. Fucking bin
dippers. Please be fit Virgil….
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