I think we were below par last night. Probably at around 70% of our capability. Yet Leicester despite that were pretty one dimensional as predicted with their aerial bombardment. Most of via Schmeichel completely harmless. Yet again the referee bottled it. Neil Swarbrick deserves criticism. Just because a shirt is tugged back near halfway doesn't make it more or less a yellow card. We squandered our chances again. A season in microcosm perhaps. That said our conversion rate is the best in the division presu,ably because we do look for clear cut openings rather than playing hit and hope. I think Hogg was outstanding last night in getting across and up and down the pitch. Anya aside from his initial mistake and rather tame effort was also excellent. Unfortunately we gifted a side that is pretty average too much possession simply by passing to them. Chalobah needs to play the simple ball more often. All the great registas do it and I am sure he will learn that. At the moment he has the exuberance of youth with him. Abdi was also subdued and midfield is crucial. I hope they are both back on their game on Sunday. Leicester did harry well and that affected them both. Pudil was slightly disappointing with his deliveries, the defence aside from a couple of errors including Cassetti (given Manuel's reluctance to sprint) repelled the aerial bombardment. Ekstrand was superb and harshly adjudged for that free kick. And not having two strikers in good form also was crucial. Deeney who will hold the ball better and allow Chalobah, Abdi and company to attack the box, and Nando are in very good form and replete with goals.
I really don't get it. Why pretend to be a Watford fan? What's he going to do... Jump out and shout 'boo' when we least expect it?
Never going to outplay you? For the first 45 minutes the tie could have been over. All this 'footballing' watford nonsense, you rarely strung more than 4 passes together over the 90 minutes. We man marked Chalobah out of the game, and that showed. A game plan is what any of the play off sides will need in the prem next season, i am sure that if you get there and played Man city next year that you will just attempt to 'outplay' them and allow players like Silva the freedom of the pitch for 90 minutes. Big Nige's gameplan worked, whereas the little deluded Italian's didn't. He assumed that because you beat us a few weeks ago, the same approach would work, it did not. Why did you bring Forrestieri on in the 92nd minute? You should have played him 15-20 minutes earlier, or not at all. Nige 1 Zola 0.
Cannot wait for Sunday, few tricks up the sleeve. Do I feel a biit of a shock coming to the system for you?
Is this the same manager who for the last week was being criticized for his lack of tactical ability. Oh the fickleness of fans. Especially of massive heavyweights like Leicester who deserve to be in the PL by virtue of their name alone. Your summation is inaccurate and it would appear you cannot count past four either. Hoofball all the way would appear to Australopithecus's sole tactic.
What's Zola supposed to have done then to generate this rubbish? You won't find a nicer more genuine guy who's never had a bad word to say about any other team. Your a *****.
Still can't believe we lost to that shower of sh!t. Great to see Luther there as one of the boys. Vydra needs one to go in off his backside and you could see he was frustrated after he missed that sitter, he was animated and angry with himself and Geijo, who I thought tried really hard with poor service, went up to him to cheer him up. One thing me and my friends agreed on was not to take him off early, because that would have destroyed him. However at 75 minutes I would have taken him off as he had put a shift in. Chalobah was a passenger in the second half and would have taken him off after 60 minutes and stuck Battochio on. Thought the defence was excellent under aerial bombardment...my 2nd signing would be Ekstrand after Abdi. Also I was right behind Cassetti's strike and it missed by a gnat's bollok. Doyley was excellent as usual, and Anya was tireless. He came in for some abuse earlier in the season but what a crucial player he has become. Hogg never stopped running and always made himself available and Abdi drifted in and out of the game, however Chalobah was really disappointing and showboating at the wrong time and the wrong place. My biggest gripe is 'SHOOT' dammit. If you've got an opportunity shoot don't look for the pass!!! As I said, Lesta were a shower apart from the first 20, they were crap but sadly we were worse, however even playing that badly, Schmeichel was still the busier keeper. We get our heads right on Sunday and we can muller them.
Hoofing the ball was your way of combating our style. You didn't outplay us. Football is easy, don't confuse yourself. Judging by the rest of your post you've obviously only concentrated on one sentence I wrote.
He's just quite upset that last night didn't result in a trip to Wembley so now he looks a bit daft after such celebrations at the final whistle.
Well there isn't much to cheer about living in Leicester....... Even the Roman's disliked the place.....
Hoofing the ball? For the first 45 mins our wingers tore you a new one, you only created chances in the 1st half through individual mistakes rather than brilliant football. What is worse...a team which plays hoofball? Or a team which has less possession than a team which plays hoofball?? We were terrible, you were terrible, we take a slender lead to sunday, and have already stated i believe you will make the final. But to disrespect the way we play is silly, i have seen no team in this league which i fear playing, if we perform to our best we can beat anyone, as you guys probably believe as well. You have goals in you, and so do we. Our play is a little more direct, and 2 wins in 14 does that to a side. But on our day we can beat anyone in this league.
No, your wingers didn't do that. One winger had his moments. We're not going to agree anyway and I've gone beyond caring to be honest.
You mean pass to Zaha palace? and play like arsenal with no end product Brighton?? Both don't have enough IMO. Both us and yourselves have plenty of power, pace and technicality players.
Thanks for not watching the game. As i will say again, in the first half we completely out passed you, to say other wise would be foolish. If all we did was hoof, how did we have more possessions than yourself?
You know what they found in Leicester... Richard the Third... Now is that not cockney slang for a T U R D
Holloway did well at Blackpool, but bad at Leicester. I suppose it was an easier job, with Blackpool being the bigger club and all.
Yet for all your possession, Schmeichel was the player who kept you in it. We were sh!t yesterday but still had enough clear cut chances to bury you. If it had finished 0-0 you wouldn't be on here giving it large, you're an average team and you're going to be made very aware of it on Sunday 2pm. What should scare you is that's the best you can play, we can play a hell of a lot better and you still just beat us, you got a dodgy free kick and scored from it...that's you...that's all Leicester have to offer.
I've actually written a letter to the stewards to have them confiscate clappy sticks or anything else deemed a little bit gay or corporate off of the Leicester fans.
Steady on gents...I've got no doubt Leicester can play better than last night. Neither team looked great. What many are missing is the fact that Leicester's players were heavily pressing and harassing Watford the entire game. This had the effect of limiting Watford's passing game, but also reducing Leicester's passing opportunities since they were deliberately keeping the space small. This situation invites a more direct style, because there is no space to ping the ball around in when you turn over possession. Leicester's tactical game yesterday was to limit us, and that had implications for their own effectiveness. It was an interesting approach because they were the home team, and have rather poor away form. Many managers would have wanted to push for a healthy lead to take into the second leg, but NP seemed more interested in stopping us scoring. Given the fact that our away form is generally better, you could easily argue that was a somewhat valid approach, although it should be tempered by a real consideration of what a generally poor away team Leicester have been this season. I think what some of the Leicester fans haven't realised is that we deliberately allow teams to come at us when we're away from home, attempting to suck them in and force them to over-commit before counterattacking. We were definitely under significant pressure during the first 25 minutes, but to a certain extent, that's the plan. We've seen it so many times this season; the main difference on Thursday was that our harrying and pressing in our own half wasn't up to scratch, and that opened up opportunities for Leicester to threaten. Similarly, they closed us down well when we had the ball, and that had implications on the balance of pressure in the first half. You can't keep up a high pressing game forever, though. Leicester's players definitely tired late first half, and during most of the second. That was when we came into the game more, and started to find passes and space. I think it is definitely fair to say that at the point the goal came, we were looking fairly comfortable in term of handing Leicester's attacks. I don't think it's wrong to say that the goal was against the run of play at that point; given the physical toll of a high pressing approach, a set piece was the most likely source of a Leicester goal by that stage of the game. Unfortunately, Ekstrand made a rather poor decision in a bad place, but it was far from a terrible challenge so I don't feel I can criticise him for it. Lets also be fair and note that the weather wasn't exactly conducive to a great game. Neither side would have found it easy to keep their footing and make inch perfect passes given the rain and wind. Sunday is well positioned to be a good game. Taking a one goal lead to an away leg is hardly a solid position. Our boys know they have to go for it, and so will Leicester's, because I refuse to believe anyone is stupid enough to try and defend a one goal lead for 90 minutes. Game on, and may the winner make bloody sure Palace don't go up if they somehow manage to take out Brighton at the Amex.
