The "do they mean us?" thread pt 4

[honeybradger]

26 minutes ago, James_lcfc said:

Yeah that's a good point.

 

You might struggle to find someone that thinks Vardy was world class outside of Leicester fans though? I'm not sure on that, just a hunch.

 

Like I said, I don't want to argue this! 

Haaland himself said vardy was the best in the world at making runs behind the opponent's defence. Vardy is the only englishman to get a top 10 ballon d'or finish in the last 10 years. Pep Guardiola said he was one of the best strikers he has seen (although his word isnt always to be trusted). Aguero called Vardy a 'phenomenon'. Suarez, arguably the best striker of the 2010s, asked Vardy for his shirt after our friendly against Barcelona. 

 

I think the opinions of some of the best strikers in recent years might be worth something. You wont find similar quotes for strikers like Morata, Werner or Aubameyang.

[James_lcfc]

11 minutes ago, honeybradger said:

Haaland himself said vardy was the best in the world at making runs behind the opponent's defence. Vardy is the only englishman to get a top 10 ballon d'or finish in the last 10 years. Pep Guardiola said he was one of the best strikers he has seen (although his word isnt always to be trusted). Aguero called Vardy a 'phenomenon'. Suarez, arguably the best striker of the 2010s, asked Vardy for his shirt after our friendly against Barcelona. 

 

I think the opinions of some of the best strikers in recent years might be worth something. You wont find similar quotes for strikers like Morata, Werner or Aubameyang.

Yeah, fair enough.

 

I did only say that I thought he was in that next tier of players, slightly below the very top level!

 

The devil's advocacy is over now though...I've come aboard the world class train! 

[Babylon]

12 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

My only issue is the now all too familiar 'kante won it for us' schtick - but if memory serves, hardly anyone mentioned the bloke during the season, he was way down the list after vardy, mahrez, even drinkwater.  The moment he went to chelsea the media were all over him as though having a chelsea player in waiting was the only reason we won it.

It took a good 6 or 7 months for people to realise what they were seeing, but they were mostly on the train end of Jan onwards. 

[AKCJ]

1 hour ago, James_lcfc said:

Yeah that's a good point.

 

You might struggle to find someone that thinks Vardy was world class outside of Leicester fans though? I'm not sure on that, just a hunch.

 

Like I said, I don't want to argue this! 

At his peak I think a lot of people would have called him world class but it's a term without a definition so I suppose it's up to individual preference.

 

[hejammy]

11 hours ago, ClaphamFox said:

I think your memory is serving you poorly. There were plenty of people who realised that Kante was something special from very early on with his time with us. The perception was that having him in the team was the equivalent to having two midfielders, such was his energy and stamina - hence the phrase 'the Kante twins'. Along with Mahrez and Vardy, he was regarded as one of the three players were absolutely essential to our title win. Drinkwater played his part but was nowhere near at Kante's level, and I think most fans could see that at the time.

Agree with this, it was mentioned multiple times that it was like having an extra player in the middle because of his workrate - he would be everywhere!

[hejammy]

2 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

Absolutely. It's so disrespectful to that entire squad. People even forget about the likes of Danny Simpson who gave Mahrez full licence to stay forward. Ulloa with massive goals, Huth's spurs goal and brace at the Etihad. The list goes on

Not to mention Nathen Dyer and his "kamakaze" goal

[hejammy]

1 hour ago, foxfanazer said:

 

 

 

 

I'll just leave these here 

 

 

How dare you leave out this one!

 

 

 

[Sampson]

Nathan Dyer got to be the greatest one goal wonder in the club’s history. If you’re only going to score 1 goal for the club, an incredible comeback winner in a game early on in the title winning season that seemed to give us the incredible momentum is the one to get. I remember walking out of the Villa game just thinking “wow, we really feel unbeatable right now”.

[foxfanazer]

Just now, hejammy said:

 

 

How dare you leave out this one!

 

 

 

I thought it'd be argued that he just put his foot through it whereas the others were a bit cuter

[hejammy]

Just now, foxfanazer said:

I thought it'd be argued that he just put his foot through it whereas the others were a bit cuter

The West Ham one and the Liverpool one are my favourites! Can't ever get tired of watching them

[Golden Fox]

2015/16:

PFA Player of the Year / Leicester City player of the season - Riyad Mahrez

Premier League Player of the Season / Football Writers Association Player of the year - Jamie Vardy

Leicester City Players' player of the Season - N'Golo Kante

 

I'd say this backs up that the view that it was a team effort, but we did had 3 world class players with little to split them. Nationally, the vote was split between Vardy & Mahrez, but the players themselves went for Kante.

 

If pushed for who was most important, you'd have to side with the players' view of Kante, but revisionist history for the article's claim it was all down to him!

[Sampson]

7 minutes ago, Golden Fox said:

 

 

If pushed for who was most important, you'd have to side with the players' view of Kante

Disagree that you’d have to side with this tbh. Mahrez and Vardy won us more points over the season than Kante imo and ultimately we had the best 2 attacking players in the division and regardless of how good your defence and midfield is, your defence and midfield can only draw you games, your attack wins you games. How many tight games in that season were decided by Mahrez or Vardy pulling something out the bag when it seemed like there was little on?

 

Not taking anything away from Kante who was great that season but I do think people are almost forgetting just how g many games Vardy and Mahrez won us and how rarely Kante was actually involved in setting up counter attacks etc.

Edited 13 December 2023 by Sampson

[Jacnah]

Im definitely on board with the team rather than the individual. I think Mahrez is the best technical player ive seen at Leicester and probably most other clubs whilst Kante was a phenomenon. 

 

All that said and done and despite him coming to the end, there is only one GOAT

[CheeseHead]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

Disagree that you’d have to side with this tbh. Mahrez and Vardy won us more points over the season than Kante imo and ultimately we had the best 2 attacking players in the division and regardless of how good your defence and midfield is, your defence and midfield can only draw you games, your attack wins you games. How many tight games in that season were decided by Mahrez or Vardy pulling something out the bag when it seemed like there was little on?

 

Not taking anything away from Kante who was great that season but I do think people are almost forgetting just how g many games Vardy and Mahrez won us and how rarely Kante was actually involved in setting up counter attacks etc.

Difficult to compare scoring-goals to win points, and preventing-goals to win points, but how many potential goals from potential attacks did he disrupt or stop completely? For each Vardy or Mahrez winner, the opposition may have potentially scored 2 or 3 goals that Kante ended up preventing. Kante imo had a massive effect on our potential points swing over the course of the season.

[blockheadder]

Can we stop this now. I'm at work, and it's making me cry.

[Sampson]

49 minutes ago, CheeseHead said:

Difficult to compare scoring-goals to win points, and preventing-goals to win points, but how many potential goals from potential attacks did he disrupt or stop completely? For each Vardy or Mahrez winner, the opposition may have potentially scored 2 or 3 goals that Kante ended up preventing. Kante imo had a massive effect on our potential points swing over the course of the season.

But then you’re also forgetting just how consistently good the back 4 was that season and how often they regularly stopped attackers who breached the midfield line. Let’s not forget even with Kante we were conceding goals like a sieve early on and it was personal changes in the defence to bring more defensive minded full backs in that shored up our defensive record rather than Kante himself. Morgan, Huth, Fuchs and Simpson were just as crucial as Kante in that regard. 

Edited 13 December 2023 by Sampson

[dmayne7]

3 hours ago, Babylon said:

It took a good 6 or 7 months for people to realise what they were seeing, but they were mostly on the train end of Jan onwards. 

Took 5 mins of him coming on against Bournemouth and winning the ball in a way I'd never seen before.

 

At his peak, and used properly (i.e. not as a holding midfielder because anybody who describes him as that has never seen him play or they just don't understand football), he's by far and away the best player I've seen play for us. I'm quite liberal in my use of world class but Vardy, Mahrez and Ricardo are players I'd have called world class at their best, but Kante was on another level. Transformed us and look at what he did to Chelsea. If it wasn't for injuries and maybe a bit more time, he'd probably be in the conversation for best ever PL midfielder such was his effect on his team.

 

[Sampson]

16 minutes ago, dmayne7 said:

Took 5 mins of him coming on against Bournemouth and winning the ball in a way I'd never seen before.

 

At his peak, and used properly (i.e. not as a holding midfielder because anybody who describes him as that has never seen him play or they just don't understand football), he's by far and away the best player I've seen play for us. I'm quite liberal in my use of world class but Vardy, Mahrez and Ricardo are players I'd have called world class at their best, but Kante was on another level. Transformed us and look at what he did to Chelsea. If it wasn't for injuries and maybe a bit more time, he'd probably be in the conversation for best ever PL midfielder such was his effect on his team.

 

See this is what I’m talking about. It’s mad that enough when neutrals repeat it, even madder when Leicester fans do it. Kante was not on “another level” than Vardy or Mahrez and neither did he “transform” us more than either them or our defensive changes we made after the Arsenal game. Plenty of games that season were incredibly tight games where we had little possession and ground it out with incredibly disciplined performances from all 11 players which were then won simply by one player being in the right place at the right time, often by the so called “lesser” players even like Ulloa, after, Huth or Morgan.
 

He was a great player but making out he was this cut above transformational player is so disrespectful to the likes of Mahrez, Vardy, Morgan and the rest,. I mean I remember us being under pressure all game by Spurs for 90 minutes but Morgan and Huth being incredible and then Huth coming up with a last minute header. Similarly I remember disciplined performed vs Palace (home and away), Watford, Sunderland, Southampton, Bournemouth (home and away), West Brom, West Ham, Chelsea, Everton, ManUtd (home and away) Liverpool just off the top of my head where we won or drew by one or two moments from nothing by the likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Morgan, Ulloa, Drinkwater or whoever else. 

 

Kind of think him leaving when our players all looked emotionally spent the following season kind of retroactively added to his legend somewhat as people started saying “see, you’re just relegation strugglers without him”. Never mind that Mahrez and Vardy proved themselves plenty as incredible players in the years since. 
 

If there was one genuinely most transformative personnel change in that season it was bringing Fuchs and Simpson into the back 4 for Schlupp and De Laet after the Arsenal game. Which happened several games after that Bournemouth game.

Edited 13 December 2023 by Sampson

[coolhandfox]

2016 was won on the back of being a team where everyone knew their job and carried it out to the best of their abilities.

 

Mahrez and Vardy added the magic.  

 

I often wonder what we could have achieved the following year with Kante still in the team. 

[Sampson]

9 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

2016 was won on the back of being a team where everyone knew their job and carried it out to the best of their abilities.

 

Mahrez and Vardy added the magic.  

 

I often wonder what we could have achieved the following year with Kante still in the team. 

I think the following season would’ve been very similar with or without Kante in it tbh. A lot of our players just looked emotional spent. The likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs all played significantly below their best the following season compared to what they showed in seasons before and/or after, Kante wouldn’t have changed that. 

Edited 13 December 2023 by Sampson

[HighPeakFox]

1 minute ago, Sampson said:

I think the following season would’ve been very similar with or without Kante in it tbh. A lot of our players just looked emotional spent. The likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs all played significantly below their best the following season compared to what they showed in seasons before and/or after, Kante wouldn’t have changed that. 

Totally this.  

[CosbehFox]

3 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I think the following season would’ve been very similar with or without Kante in it tbh. A lot of our players just looked emotional spent. The likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs all played significantly below their best the following season compared to what they showed in seasons before and/or after, Kante wouldn’t have changed that. 

It’s playing out with some similarities to Newcastle 

[bmt]

3 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I think the following season would’ve been very similar with or without Kante in it tbh. A lot of our players just looked emotional spent. The likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs all played significantly below their best the following season compared to what they showed in seasons before and/or after, Kante wouldn’t have changed that. 

Agree. I also think, on the Kante>everyone else thing, that Mahrez's career post-Leicester has arguably been as/more impressive than Kante's. 

 

Anyway our team that year was an absolute joke. What a time to be alive

[tylesta]

Could be a new station close to king power.

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/revived-ivanhoe-line-link-leicester-8971828

[TrentFox]

4 minutes ago, tylesta said:

Could be a new station close to king power.

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/revived-ivanhoe-line-link-leicester-8971828

If they offer a 16.40 service on a Saturday, that would be great ……