City v Slavia Prague

comment by dublin fox optimistically pessimistic, (now a Cambridge fox)(still can not spell fox) (U1131)
posted 44 minutes ago
2 minutes behind
😳

Brendon got it badly wrong over the 2 legs especially tonight
Nice to see someone with a bit of fight
Söyüncü
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He had his worst game in a Leicester shirt tonight mate

comment by Foxy Boy (U20186)
posted 3 minutes ago
You're only as good as your worst player in football. We had Amartay, Chouhdry, Under and Thomas all on the pitch at the same time. In a knock out European Cup game!

If just one of Castagne, Barnes or Ricardo had started it would have tipped the game in our favour. Start all 3 and take them off when we are 2 ahead. It's a knock out game, you've got to do better than that BR. And you need to improve our choice of backup players.

BR will know he's made this mistake. I don't think he'll trust Under with another start or even minute this season. He left Under on, gave him a big chance to prove himself and he failed to take the opportunity, that was his last chance.

Big emotion going into the Arsenal game now. Heads will be bouncing off the dressing room walls. The players will want to put this right, I can see a big win coming up against the gooners.
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Disagree. IMO There were way too many bad performances for an inclusion of one of Castagne, Barnes or Ricardo to have made any difference. They also all came on and weren’t particularly good.

I think we’ve improved significantly in some areas with regard to back-up players. Having a deep squad in all positions that is capable of challenging for top 4, FA Cup and silverware is a very expectation and for me, not a realistic one at the moment. To have been in the top 4 all season and QF of the FA Cup is phenomenal, particularly consider how we could have plummeted after what happened at the end of last season and our injuries.

As a one off game, the performances were terrible.
Looking at the bigger picture, our current achievements, in context, are excellent.

*very high expectation

KTF, we haven't achieved anything! Being able b the top 4 in February doesn't get you a place in Europe. Being in the QF of the FA Cup is not an excellent achievement. We have to keep the peddle to the metal not roll the dice and play weakened teams.

I was viewing it as a little more nuanced and contextualised than just specifically where we are at on the last day of the season.

Not enough credit is being given to Slavia Prague in this. They threw the kitchen sink at these two fixtures, they were energetic and organised, and stuck to their task. After sitting back for 20 minutes or so to get into the game, they pushed on high up the pitch and stopped us from playing. Even toward the end, they were swarming forward in great numbers. Their players tracked their man relentlessly, like Leeds do. They played well and deserved it.

We look tired and short of players. We beat Villa at the weekend with the same lazy style because Villa were lazy and terrible. Slavia didn’t let us do that, and as a result - and with the players we had on the pitch - we never found any way into attacking areas. Maddison, Praet, Perez, Iheanacho - all players who might have helped link midfield to attack and all missing tonight. We don’t look like we know how to build an attack with what we have left, and we can only hope Arsenal are knackered from travelling at the weekend because we’ll likely need them to hand the match to us as Villa did.

And I think tonight was Ünder’s last chance too. We won’t be seeing him next season. The Turkish Demarai Gray. Not up to it.

I think you are giving far too much credit to Slavia Prague Dunge, yes they played well but I disagree that they sat back until they had assessed what was going on. They looked nervous, until they realised we had our B team on the pitch, then they took full advantage.

That is down to Brendan's catastrophic selection choice, nothing more, nothing less - starting with 2 DMs, Amartey and Under on the pitch. Given that we were in the precarious position of having failed to score in Prague when we were in a competition where away goals count double, that is inexcusable. It needed our very best side out from the start to give us a chance - he would have seen from last week's trip that they were no mugs and a confident team.

I can only conclude that Brendan has his eyes on a top 4 spot rather than this competition, which is fair enough. Hopefully last night's disappointment won't be the start of things unravelling like happened last season.

It's interesting that Vardy has not come back to the constant harrying threat to the back 4 that he used to have as a big part of his armoury, however, this may not be because of lack of fitness - I read somewhere that he was being told not to do this. Whether that is just a recognition of his age and capability at this stage of his career, or just a tactical situation is a matter for conjecture. I think it's remarkable he's doing what he has been given the injury he carried for most of the season and that he has just had an operation.

You don't think we've run out of players? We had one attacking choice on the bench last night - Barnes. And he looked knackered in the second half against Villa. It's all very well bemoaning Rodgers his selection but what selection would have looked good last night? What selection would look good against Arsenal given the players we have available? Even when Castagne, Ricardo and Barnes came on we didn't look like scoring.

I think we’ve just ran out of legs in the forward area, either we’re on the backup of the backup or playing players who are carrying injuries or recovering from them. We made the same mistake as last season in January in not getting in some fresh legs in forward areas. Hopefully we won’t drop like last season and other teams are as tired as ours.

Have to agree with Dunge.

If we had not included those on the bench in the squad and we'd gone out we could have used hindsight to suggest that this was all Rodger's fault. Even if we'd brought the players on and played significantly better but still gone out, you could make an argument to question Rodgers' selection.

But, as mentioned, we weren't better.

In addition, other than perhaps a tweak to one or two players in the starting 11, the starting 11 looks right to me.

I guess the easiest way to consider responsibility, is to consider the quality on the pitch.

If that starting 11 had played to their potential should we have been good enough to beat the opposition (even with a nod to Slavia in terms of their contribution) ? The answer, I imagine for most if not all of us, is yes.

The only way it would be fair to categorically blame Rodgers' and suggest it was this horrendous team selection would be if, even performing at a decent to good level, the team selection was never going to be good enough on paper. If that is one's opinion, then yes, you could say it's Rodger's fault - but that would be an opinion that I would find incredibly harsh on the players (as a whole) and what they've achieved so far this season.

The simple fact is, individual and collectively, we were poor to terrible. Evans had a decent game for me, that's about it.

Of course, we could debate why the players performed so poorly and, as a result, must take responsibility for the result but it is, IMO, a debate on 'why' not 'if'.

On a positive note, it was nice to see Barnes smash someone and show aggression.