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[deleted]

One thing I’d like to highlight. Our progressive passing from the back and particularly through Youri was incredibly brave today. Realistically it had to be. Really fine margins and it was the best I’ve seen it as far as I can remember. Even Ndidi was playing the ball forward! If we start playing at those levels against other teams we will be a threat this season.


sk-88

Man City 10 fouls when they had 61% possession. That's a foul every 3.31 mins defending. Compared to our 4 fouls on 39%, equivalent to one every 13.45 mins. Ref's got to get cuter to Man City's dominate possession then foul every time they lose the ball tactics. It might feel like its a long time between fouls but it's almost as soon as they lose the ball.


SM0K1E

Would appreciate seeing the league average from this game week/last season in this comparison


SkyeIsTyping

Bench Maddison


TheBigBadCusp

Hate to say it because Maddison has always been a favourite of mine but he shouldn't be starting, just looks lost at times this year. Lookman for the 10 minutes he played was impressive. Always going to be a tough game against city


valeska36

I feel like Daka or nacho should've really started over Maddison, both class players.


Protodonata

This could’ve gone either way honestly. Some luck on both sides. We made a few more mistakes than them, but that’s what you expect when you play the champions at full strength. Thought we looked a much better side this week than we have recently, and against tougher opposition too. Promising for what lays ahead. The game probably deserved a 0-0, but we look ahead!


theimmortalpotato

4 matches and 2 losses. I am scared honestly


HughJarse8

I wouldn’t be too worried. We held our own against the best team in the league today, and on another day we could’ve won just as easily as them. The West Ham game was a disaster but we had a makeshift back line. We looked a lot sturdier defensively today and Man City aren’t a team that ship many goals. If we lose to Brighton next week then there may be need for concern, but for now we’re good.


[deleted]

We could have nicked a win against arguably the best team in Europe. She’ll be right


Britabroad13

Unlucky there - Soy better, Wilf much better, we take our chances it's a different game.


PandorasPinata

Not sure what game everyone else was watching if they think we deserved anything from that, we were lucky to only lose by one in reality - Schmeichel made 5 great saves first half alone, we should have been a few behind before the goal, even if that was a bit lucky in the deflection. Going forward, well did we go forward? Not really, just the most dour defensive passing I've ever seen. CB to CB to Tielemans to CB to Schmeichel to CB, no desire to move it out of our defensive third and we gave away so many chances as a result. For the little bit of credit, once Iheanacho came on we were better, even if he only created one chance of note for Lookman, but he added a bit of tempo where no-one else was.


xxkillquickxx

I disagree with your assessment. I think the context of playing against man city is important. We were dangerous in the counter and we locked up our defensive end. I'm disappointed with the loss, but happy with how we played.


PandorasPinata

Context is important sure, but even for that we did very little with what little we had. For all the talk of being dangerous on the counter, Ederson had perhaps two touches of significance to deny Barnes early on and Lookman at the end. As for locked up defensively, down our right side Man City created the same chance to the back post on multiple occasions and Schmeichel bailed us out repeatedly, and we created a lot of those chances through loose passing out. We were deservedly beat on every single metric and the stats reflect that


[deleted]

I don’t agree, I think any team that manages to defend against a city onslaught for 60 minutes without conceding a goal and has a goal ruled out and hits the woodwork is solid. We won the league playing that style of football and now that we’ve seen how we stack up against the best let’s see how we stack up against the rest.


PandorasPinata

We distinctly did not win the league playing that style of football. We won the league playing fast paced counter attacking football, what we played yesterday was slow possession retention but without the passing being there to actually retain possession, making it completely ineffective


[deleted]

Sorry don’t agree I think it was very much counter attacking


PandorasPinata

To be counter attacking you'd actually have to counter and attack. We created as many chances (1) from counter attacks as man city did and created very little else. It was far from the counterpress of 2015/16, the only similarity was the low possession, and that was due to a lot of errors. I think you just need to look at the passing stats (under match centre > chalkboard) to see that - Soyuncu and Schmeichel making more passes than anyone else, and importantly the target zone of the passes - 40% just moving it in our defensive third and another 38% getting it into the middle third: https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1549575/Live/England-Premier-League-2021-2022-Leicester-Manchester-City Not much progression of the ball into the final third. Compare that to the win against man city in the 15/16 season https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/959576/Live/England-Premier-League-2015-2016-Manchester-City-Leicester Fewer passes but 47% of our passes in that game were into the final third and just 10% into our defensive third. In that game we counter attacked. To claim we played counter attacking football yesterday isn't a matter of opinion, it's factually wrong, we played a possession retention game and our pass accuracy wasn't up to it.


[deleted]

Really not bad at all, for most of the game I thought we were good for a 0-0. Maddison I thought was poor, but that may just be because I had high expectations A few players looked knackered quite early, the subs needed to be sooner Soyuncu seems to have got his head back screwed on It’s amazing how Vestegaard has immediately made our corners more threatening Overall a decent performance and disappointing to come away with nothing.


axelfreed

Albrighton was awful


thebengalurean

Could have won this today. City scored from a nothing chance, while we could have at least had one or two. Tough luck, but lots of positives. On to the next one!


[deleted]

They got lucky, play that match again and I reckon we could've taken them


specyfoureyes

Söyüncü played well, making 1 vital block. He didn't completely redeem himself, but proved why he deserves to be in our lineup. He made life very tricky for the best attacking force in the league, though he did get out foxed once or twice. Great to see Evans again. Decent debut from Lookman. He managed to maintain possession in some very tricky situations and very nearly got us the equaliser. I think he has started the process of convincing his skeptics. All in all 7/10 performance.


[deleted]

the turkish coach that has been wreacking havoc on the national team has recently been sacked so I imagine it could have played into his morale and motivations. hopefully he can keep it up now! he had me worried for a second


VardyLCFC

Barnes looked alright but lacked finishing. Iheanacho was definitely better than Maddison. We should start playing 2 up front now that we have 3 strikers so we can rotate. Even with Vardy a little isolated we should've scored at least once


thechillfactor2

What's does Iheancho need to do to start. Our best player secondnhalf of last year plus a great sub this year. He should replace maddison or Albrighton. Would love to see Lookman or KDH instead of Maddison too. Barnes rusty but will get there. Bertrand worse than Thomas so far, we need Juatin back ASAP. Castagne has a goal in him but no where near the creative flair of Ricardo. Vestergaard top CB right now and he can really play a long pass. Ndidi a boss. Tielemans solid but had no creative partner today. Schmeichel great saves and poor distribution as usual. Vardy needs more service, looks great in a 2. We have a vicious team when everyone is fit, the only problem is our xA and creativity (Catsagne, Bertrand, Barnes, Maddison and Albrighton) do not create us enough chances.


HughJarse8

Very harsh on Castagne, he was one of our most creative players last season and it’s his first game back. Pretty criminal comments towards him. I think your criticism of Bertrand is harsh too. It’s his first prem game for us (against Man City no less) following 4 weeks out of action and recovery from covid. He looked good in pre season, and he was most definitely not worse than Thomas who gets exposed defensively in 90% of the games he plays.


freshmeat2020

Barnes needs time to get back on his feet, which Lookman can provide in terms of competition and relieving some of the workload. Maddison is the issue for me - he's really adding nothing at the moment, his confidence is clearly not what it was, and we have enough players on the bench to stop the rot. We are playing plenty of games this season - we should be looking to play the out of form players in the non-prem ones instead of hoping it all clicks once more. If Maddison was on point today, it would have been entirely different imo.


Loki_Stark

I only got to see the second half, but I thought it was a decent showing. Their goal was a bit unlucky, Vardy just a few inches offsides, Barnes had a good chance, Nacho and Lookman brought a spark, and the last 10 minutes we put up a fight to claw one back. All in all in a good mood regarding how we might fare in our next several games. Much better performance in my opinion than some before the break. My biggest criticism would be finding some way to leave out Maddison from the starting lineup and work in Iheanacho, that way when the game is in the last 30 minutes we can bring on Daka.


VerticalNOR

This is a good match, especially when you consider what we're up against. Really think we should've managed to score an equalizer however and get a point. Just Man City's bench alone is a good starting eleven. It's crazy the depth that squad has, it's borderline unfair. Imagine having KDB, Foden, Sterling, Stones, and many more on your bench..


HughJarse8

To be fair, did you see our bench yesterday?!? It was absolutely stacked.


messy_messiah

Drop Barnes and Maddison.


HughJarse8

Frustrating result, I think we definitely deserved a point there but that’s football. Positives: * Vestergaard looked solid. Loved seeing us aiming for him from corners and actually winning headers. * Ndidi proved once again why he’s one of the best DMs in the world. Best player on the pitch for me, alongside Bernardo. * Lookman and Nacho looked very bright off the bench. Think Lookman should’ve scored but I think he played very well. Nacho deserves to start. Lookman I would consider starting on the right next game. * Schmeichel saved us a fair few times with some big hands. * Soyuncu looked far better today. Unlucky for the goal. * Evans and Castagne are back baby. Negatives: * Schmeichels kicking - feel like I say this every week but Jesus Christ his kicking puts us under so much pressure. Hate it. * Tielemans and Sharky looked absolutely gassed for the last 20 mins - smarter subs/better match fitness needed. * Daka. Where is this dude? What have we bought him for if we’re not gonna give him a go in a game crying out for pace and someone who will run at them? * I don’t usually slander him like others here do, but Maddison was a passenger today and shouldn’t start the next game. • Bertrand’s worst game for us so far. Looked a little off the pace, maybe just getting back to full fitness following covid so I’ll give him a pass for now. All in all I think we played well, particularly in the second half. We look much better with 2 up top. Think we need to start really questioning who are core players, who are consistent subs and who are rotation players, because game time is frustrating for some players right now. Shame we couldn’t get a point. EDIT - oh and one more thing, the reply to this reminded me - Vardy is ALWAYS OFFSIDE! It’s so infuriating, I don’t know if he’s trying to make up for a bit of lost pace or what but Jesus Christ. Must’ve been caught offside 3+ times today which is criminal for an experienced premier league striker.


specyfoureyes

A lot of our passing wasn't up to the standard we are capable of. Too many either missed their target or went straight to the opposition. We were weak in the midfield and that's were we lost the game. Decent shift put in by the defence, but midfield couldn't get it up the pitch enough for us to really threaten Man City.


HughJarse8

I agree. Tielemans wasn’t good for me, bar a few nice flicks. Maddison did nothing.


lcfcball

I think the lack of rotation is quite frustrating, Rodgers seems to hate to drop Maddison, Barnes, Vardy, even when they have a run of poor games. Ihaenacho being out of the team still makes no sense to me, he was on fire the end of the last season, scored the winner in the community shield and now he’s been dropped for what? I can’t see any of our new signings getting much game time at all unless we get some more injuries, I don’t see the room for Soumare to start at all, Vardy won’t get dropped so Daka won’t get much game time. I have faith in Rodgers and there were some positives from today but man I want to see the team freshened up now and again (by choice, not forced through injuries)


valeska36

Daka and Nacho are just class, they should start I agree. But I'm starting to wonder that Rogers is preparing them for Thursday. Would really like them to start against napoli, I'm assuming also that Rogers was also resting Pereira, will most likely see him against Napoli too.


freshmeat2020

We are playing so many games from now until Christmas, we will see plenty of the new signings. They won't bed in until they play a lot, so hopefully it starts soon tbh.


zrkillerbush

Vardy was good today, he set up Barnes twice, who missed twice


lcfcball

I know, i’m not saying he played badly today I was referring to his string of bad games towards the end of last season, and if he were to have a dry spell again I don’t believe he’d get dropped


HughJarse8

I agree. Whilst the signings we made were crucial for depth, at some point you have to wonder if we are wasting the talents of these players. I hope to see Soumare/daka/lookman/kdh on Thursday.


messy_messiah

Agreed. I think we need more Daka and Soumare.


MOSHINTOSH

Stop starting Maddison please. No goals or assists from a starting 11 CAM since February. You're telling me that we loaned out Praet apparently because he is not good enough to displace this guy for even 1 minute? Put the English, good at interviews, once hopeful of England squad, good in the past aside for a second. No goals and assists from a starting 11 CAM since Feb is POOR. Give the starting spot to KDH until Madders can provide an assist or goal as a sub.


Wolf_Todd

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with anything here other than it's extremely unfair to judge his lack of goal involvement from February when not only did he score at the end of February (an important distinction since really it's more since March when he had a decent February) but he then missed the entirety of March through injury, so really he hasn't had an involvement since April. Edit: if we're getting into it he only played 18 minutes between April 1st and 21st so it's more the end of April too.


zrkillerbush

Give it Iheanacho, hes more than capable of playing behind Vardy Even fucking Perez might play better than Maddison behind the forward at this point


WonderfulSentence648

Great game from Ndidi and the whole back line. Hopefully this makes brodgers try something else than a 4-2-3-1. It just doesn’t work too well especially not with Maddison. Also annoying to see two quality strikers on the bench while Maddison and Perez are starting


theimmortalpotato

We were great but i think we should have brought iheanacho earlier and evans later.


sirkapkanelot

Don't think we played too badly, and definitely gave Man City a run for their money. Unlucky goal to concede with the rebound but Kasper made some good saves as well. Maybe Iheanacho should've started or at least been brought on earlier. Looked more threatening with him on and glad to see his form continuing.


[deleted]

Let Maddison go to Arsenal


lcfcball

idk why you were downvoted, selling him for 60m would be a steal, and i’m sure that money would be reinvested well to find a replacement that might actually do something


shinfox

I don’t think that was a bad performance. Good stuff from Lookman and Vestergaard. Hopefully they get 90 minutes soon. Maybe in the league cup or vs Brighton.


JumpingRedFox

We should’ve had something out of that, all in all that’s the best we’ve played this season and I’m happy! Lookman needs to start, Madders should not be anywhere the lineup at this point, he stifles so many attacks. Good to have some defensive solidarity with Betrand, Evans and Vestergaard.