Leicester 0-2 Arsenal post match

[Mark]

31 minutes ago, ARTY_FOX said:

A terrible approach to another game. 

It's hard to understand how Rodgers thought the first half was going to work. If Ricardo is out then why set up like that, there was no pace anywhere, we had two defensive full backs providing the only width in the side being asked to attack. It was walking football. That formation only stands a chance of working when Ricardo is on the right with Castagne/Justin on the left, or it ends up like that.

[Matt]

3 minutes ago, Mark said:

It's hard to understand how Rodgers thought the first half was going to work. If Ricardo is out then why set up like that, there was no pace anywhere, we had two defensive full backs providing the only width in the side being asked to attack. It was walking football. That formation only stands a chance of working when Ricardo is on the right with Castagne/Justin on the left, or it ends up like that.

Something I’ve come to accept when turning up for games unfortunately.

 

But we all ****ing love that, right?

 

Watching Evans stop on the ball for about 5 seconds several times during the game while he decides which sideways or backwards pass to pick out? ****ing sublime.

 

Edited 30 October 2021 by Matt

[Freeman's Wharfer]

Unforgivably sluggish first 15 minutes really cost us. Arsenal are a bang average side and all they did was hit us with a bit of tempo from the off.

 

Passes were laboured and it felt like every time the ball went into an Arsenal player they had time to turn on it and lay a pass off to a team mate whilst barely being touched by a Leicester player.

 

Kudos to Rodgers for changing it at half time and it was a much-improved display, where if one team looked like the one to be winning it on the strength of that 45 minutes alone it was us, but he got it badly wrong to begin with. 

 

Five at the back is supposed to be our crutch if Jonny Evans is injured. We need it when he’s not there but a back four is fine when he is. If you’re going to play the five then you also need Ricardo as he provides some attacking impetus from the wing whereas Castagne first half was only pushing forward to a point.

 

Two big problems for us in that first half: Amartey and Soumare. Amartey is a mistake waiting to happen and cannot pass reliably (he knows this himself so plays within the confines of his ability) and Soumare is struggling to adapt to the pace of this league (more often than not it’s sideways or back - always the safe option). We struggled to get the ball through the lines effectively because of these two.

 

It feels like Brendan needs to pick his favoured system and strongest side and just go with it for a while. Too much chopping and changing at the moment and it’s nearly cost us our place in Europe and seen us have a very bang average league start. I know we have a lot of games but some rhythm and momentum needs to be the priority over our next 6 fixtures.

Edited 30 October 2021 by Freeman's Wharfer

[turtmcfly]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

Something I’ve come to accept when turning up for games unfortunately.

 

But we all ****ing love that, right?

 

Yes we do, but not as much as we love your sarcastic strawman bullshit

 

[NaijaFox]

3 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Yea I’m sure it was a massive coincidence that as soon as they strolled to a 2-0 lead, they dropped off a bit. Like how so many times ours has when we go ahead, inviting pressure on ourselves… because most teams do that.

Not a "massive coincidence", just the nature of the game.

Goals often change the dynamics of football games. In this case, it caused us to play better and put Arsenal on the back foot.   

[Fox85]

Leicesters last 20 games this is worrying.

 

 

[Vacamion]

16 minutes ago, Daggers said:

Upside, your post was very meme-erable. 

 

 

The meme was exactly what was on my mind when I wrote the post.  

 

 

[Daggers]

2 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

 

The meme was exactly what was on my mind when I wrote the post.  

 

 

And I read it in that voice 😁

[NaijaFox]

12 minutes ago, Sampson said:

To be fair, Ndidi had a poor start to the season before his injury and I don't think we have gotten any worse defensively since he was out. I don't think Ndidi missing is what cost us the game today, I think it's an easy answer for a much more broad problem with our defence and midfield.

We have not, because Ndidi has not been the problem with our defensive woes.

The problem is primarily out wide (mostly on the left), plus Soyuncu brain farts and Vestergaard.  

[Stuntman_Mike]

I hope the cnut I saw near me doesn't come back after eating his food throughout the rememberence display, (disrespectful in my eyes anyway) sitting on his phone for 20 minutes and finally leaving the stadium with the arse after their second went in. What a fcuking waste of a seat when there's people who can't get hold of tickets and actually want to be there.

 

In terms of the game itself, you can't start that slowly and sloppily and expect to get something from the game. We made an average Arsenal look decent but still ended up having enough chances. Ramsdale saved his best ever performance for today it seems. On to the next one.. it's not the end of the world, but a frustrating game for sure.

[justfoxes]

Definitely need a total improvement in defence we’re nearly leaking more goals than Manure, can there be an incoming defensive player in January to solidify what we’re missing ?

 

[Pliskin]

No real complaints, beaten by a better team today.

 

 

We never looked remotely up for it, even from the kick off we were lethargic and didn’t seem to be able to get going. Bumbled around at walking pace whilst Arsenal ran through us like wet tissue paper. 
 

I think they made us shit ourselves basically, and we just never picked our jaws off the floor! 
 

Rodgers should have made the changes after 20 minutes because it was clear the two goals have completely upended out game plan thus rendered the formation useless. 
 

Picked up second half, but as annoying as it is credit to Arsenal today, they barely put a foot wrong, and probably deserved to win by more. 
 

Rodgers does need to have a think about how to approach games, unfortunately different teams require a different approach.

[funkyrobot]

10 minutes ago, Mark said:

It's hard to understand how Rodgers thought the first half was going to work. If Ricardo is out then why set up like that, there was no pace anywhere, we had two defensive full backs providing the only width in the side being asked to attack. It was walking football. That formation only stands a chance of working when Ricardo is on the right with Castagne/Justin on the left, or it ends up like that.

Castagne is not a defensive fullback. He played well in the 532 role. Thomas can’t do it tho, he needs a winger in front of him. He also needs to change his body position when he’s receiving the ball, currently his control of the ball always angles him backwards and means he can only play the ball backwards to Soyuncu. He needs to be braver and take the ball more positively. 

[sacreblueits442]

15 minutes ago, Matt said:

As someone else has said if we can see it why can’t the management team?

 

Now I can’t say how we change it and I understand it’s not as simple as clicking your fingers, but they’re the ones getting paid the reddies and I don’t appreciate turning up and knowing we’re not going to play well or win from the first whistle every. single. game.

 

If we as knuckle dragging fans know that then it doesn’t take the opposition to study us much or give them any headaches as to how they’re gonna play against us does it? We’re far too easy to play for usually doing half the oppositions job for them.

 

But people will continue to apologise for it.

For starters today - it doesn’t matter what a players ability is, I always expected to see application, aggression, will to try and win. It was lacking today. 
 

I have issues with Rodgers, major issues but today’s on the players, but perhaps the players have issues with him too although that is no excuse for them at all.

 

...when you put your least experienced defender up against Saka without any support how are you helping him!!!

Once we switched to a back 4 Thomas with Barnes ahead of him and giving him some support was a better and more effective player. Why Rodgers continues to put players in situations where we are not playing to their strengths, is a big question mark.

  Looking for the switch in formation after 25 minutes but you know it would not happen before half time. The fact the Arsenal sat back was a blessing  for us because I foresaw a big score coming up.

[ThurmastonFox]

We play ourselves into so much trouble with short goal kicks and free kicks which go side to side via kasper and don’t progress past the D so so frustrating that 2-0 we are more content to pass it around the back. It’s too late 3 minutes into added time to suddenly throw everyone forward 

[Guest Col city fan]

Simply beaten by the better side today. 
Tactically better and with better players

[Matt]

3 minutes ago, justfoxes said:

Definitely need a total improvement in defence we’re nearly leaking more goals than Manure, can there be an incoming defensive player in January to solidify what we’re missing ?

 

We can hope.

 

I mean we’ve got a track record of doing quality business in January in recent years haven’t we.

 

Ryan Bennett anyone? 

[justfoxes]

1 minute ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...when you put your least experienced defender up against Saka without any support how are you helping him!!!

Once we switched to a back 4 Thomas with Barnes ahead of him and giving him some support was a better and more effective player. Why Rodgers continues to put players in situations where we are not playing to their strengths, is a big question mark.

  Looking for the switch in formation after 25 minutes but you know it would not happen before half time. The fact the Arsenal sat back was a blessing  for us because I foresaw a big score coming up.

Is it a case of Brendan thinks some of our players are better than they really are or is it just a case of European & Cup football with not a hell of a lot of time and a smaller squad can’t recharge their batteries as quicker as some other players ?

[The Guvnor]

Wasn't the fact we lost that hurts , it was the pathetic lack of effort in the first twenty.

 

[Sunbury Fox]

We cut them open and got behind their defence repeatedly in the second half. But we kept misplacing the final ball and, when we didn't, our finishing was off. Just one of those days. 

[sacreblueits442]

38 minutes ago, NaijaFox said:

Drop off and coasted are not synonymous terms.

Nonetheless, if their play dropped off, it’s because we put them on the back foot.

....no, they dropped off...!!!

If that was us in the ascendency and chose to drop like they did, I would have been livid. Ramsdale aside, had we had better finishing we could have got something out of this. They did not drop because we put them under pressure, they invited that pressure on themselves.

    They knew what they were doing, no need to chase the game, and sat deeper to make this more difficult for us.

[Vestan Pance]

8 minutes ago, justfoxes said:

Definitely need a total improvement in defence we’re nearly leaking more goals than Manure, can there be an incoming defensive player in January to solidify what we’re missing ?

 

I doubt it, we signed Vestergaard but he's quickly become 5th choice CB. I don't see us signing another until someone leaves.

[funkyrobot]

5 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

No real complaints, beaten by a better team today.

 

 

We never looked remotely up for it, even from the kick off we were lethargic and didn’t seem to be able to get going. Bumbled around at walking pace whilst Arsenal ran through us like wet tissue paper. 
 

I think they made us shit ourselves basically, and we just never picked our jaws off the floor! 
 

Rodgers should have made the changes after 20 minutes because it was clear the two goals have completely upended out game plan thus rendered the formation useless. 
 

Picked up second half, but as annoying as it is credit to Arsenal today, they barely put a foot wrong, and probably deserved to win by more. 
 

Rodgers does need to have a think about how to approach games, unfortunately different teams require a different approach.

Fair points about Leicester but not sure Arsenal deserved to win by more. They survived not conceding in that second half by some pretty average finishing by Leicester, some good goalkeeping and by resorting to shithousery at the end. 

[Mark]

8 minutes ago, funkyrobot said:

Castagne is not a defensive fullback. He played well in the 532 role.

Castagne is not going to take anyone on though, he's decent at making use of space if someone like Perez is in front of him but when he has the whole side to himself not so much. We can get away with it if a team is focusing on the threat of Ricardo on the other side though.

[BKLFox]

19 minutes ago, Matt said:

Something I’ve come to accept when turning up for games unfortunately.

 

But we all ****ing love that, right?

 

Watching Evans stop on the ball for about 5 seconds several times during the game while he decides which sideways or backwards pass to pick out? ****ing sublime.

 

So you don’t get that he does that to get 1 and more often than not 2 players come at him taking them out the game when he passes.