Official Leicester City FC Thread

[HIF]

It is alright, we had plenty of battles with manchester united in games that mattered, at their peak. Ferguson still having nightmares about '93.

A club of the past.

[HIF]

So only a couple of days before our defence of the title starts. It's exciting and a little worrying too. Expectations are too high and after being champions the only way is down.

I think we've improved our squad a lot this summer but maybe pour starting team is a little weaker than last year. Losing one of the best midfielders in the world (last season) is always going to have that effect. I think Mendy will take his place (without actually replacing him) eventually and will be a good buy. we may try King in the midfield but for me he's a decent back-up but no starter. Daniel Amartey may be the most similar player to Kanté we have but maybe he's a little too young and inexperienced yet. Of course there's always the possibility of another purchase and I still rate James but he doesn't seem to be ready to come back yet.

In attack we've held onto Vardy and Mahrez (but not according to thousands of websites) as well as their back-ups Ulloa and Okazaki whilst bringing in Musa who looks frighteningly quick. I feel we could do with another "bigger" forward like Slimani to round out what would be a good attacking corps.

At the back we've brought in competition for Kasper, Zieler has looked pretty good in pre-season and I'd have confidence in him if he started. We've added Hernandez to cover for our old guys at the back Morgan and Huth and we've got an incredible young talent Ben Chillwell to bring in if fuchs doesn't maintain his excellent standard from last season. I'm a little worried with only having Simpson at RB (De Laet seems to be on his way out) in pre-season it looked like Hernandez and Amartey were there as cover but I'd prefer another young starlet brought in to fight for that position.

On the wings we are looked fast and scary with Mahrez, Gray, Albrighton, Kapustka and Schluup.

I think we can do well and finish 6th but any top half finish is really not bad for a team like us. Europe would be nice but it'll be difficult looking at the purchases that both Manchesters, Chelsea and Liverpool have brought in without mentioning all the other european contenders.

The CL should be seen as a bit of fun and experience for the players this season. We shouldn't expect to qualify for the knockout stage and 2 wins in the pool stage would be decent. Maybe we can be more serious about that next season if we have another incredible season in the PL.

[HIF]

So we open the season with a loss to possibly the worst team in the PL.

This is what it is to be a fan of Leicester City and why last season was so incredible.

I'll always have a prem title during my lifetime that I never thought I'd have and I'm happy with whatever comes my way.

Up the City.

[HIF]

Overall views:

We missed Huth badly. Before he came we were a relegation team and to be fair our defence without him is very average. Morgan doesn't have the same confidence without him. Simpson is our weakest link and always has been. Chilwell could have done what Fuchs did. Hernandez is not a replacement for Huth.

Vardy missed a couple of sitters, he's clearly not match fit. Mahrez was nowhere near his normal level, I don't know why, he didn't have 3 defenders closing him down like in pre-season. Musa was good and I think he could be a very good PL striker. Gray played well, better than Mahrez. We could have done with the Schlupster coming on with his direct powerful attacking - certainly shouldn't be sold to WBA for a paltry 12m.

In Midfield Drinky was very good again but King is not a starting PL midfielder, I have no idea why Mendy wasn't even on the bench.

[el13adnino]

Overall views:

We missed Huth badly. Before he came we were a relegation team and to be fair our defence without him is very average. Morgan doesn't have the same confidence without him. Simpson is our weakest link and always has been. Chilwell could have done what Fuchs did. Hernandez is not a replacement for Huth.

Vardy missed a couple of sitters, he's clearly not match fit. Mahrez was nowhere near his normal level, I don't know why, he didn't have 3 defenders closing him down like in pre-season. Musa was good and I think he could be a very good PL striker. Gray played well, better than Mahrez. We could have done with the Schlupster coming on with his direct powerful attacking - certainly shouldn't be sold to WBA for a paltry 12m.

In Midfield Drinky was very good again but King is not a starting PL midfielder, I have no idea why Mendy wasn't even on the bench.

what happened to huth? injury or on another team?
i thought mahrez looked completely disinterested and might be seeking a move sooner rather than later.
whats the news with gabigol? I heard he was heading to leister then he's not ... ?

[HIF]

Overall views:

We missed Huth badly. Before he came we were a relegation team and to be fair our defence without him is very average. Morgan doesn't have the same confidence without him. Simpson is our weakest link and always has been. Chilwell could have done what Fuchs did. Hernandez is not a replacement for Huth.

Vardy missed a couple of sitters, he's clearly not match fit. Mahrez was nowhere near his normal level, I don't know why, he didn't have 3 defenders closing him down like in pre-season. Musa was good and I think he could be a very good PL striker. Gray played well, better than Mahrez. We could have done with the Schlupster coming on with his direct powerful attacking - certainly shouldn't be sold to WBA for a paltry 12m.

In Midfield Drinky was very good again but King is not a starting PL midfielder, I have no idea why Mendy wasn't even on the bench.

what happened to huth? injury or on another team?
i thought mahrez looked completely disinterested and might be seeking a move sooner rather than later.
whats the news with gabigol? I heard he was heading to leister then he's not ... ?

Huth got a 3 match ban for the Manchester hair pulling incident and that was the 3rd match of his ban (2 would have been more than enough).
Mahrez has a style of play that looks lazy - I don't think he was dis-interested but he wasn't on top of his game. If Arsenal want him offer £70m or £40m + Ox.
I don't know about Gabigol he's in the olympics and not making a decision until afterwards. I think the club have agreed to sell to Inter but the player needs to agree to that too. We'll see in a couple of weeks.
Still a lot of irons in the fire.
Looks like Jeff Schluup might be leaving which is a bad move imo by Leicester.

[HIF]

Game 2 Arsenal.

4 changes to the first game.

Huth in after suspension, Mendy in after the borth of his son, Albrigthon replacing Gray and Okazaki replacing Musa.

For a 0-0, it was a good game, with attacking intent on both sides even if the final delivery or shot wasn't quite up to standard. Great energy from Leicester.

Clattenburg was the story of the game. He could've given Leicester 3 penalties and the final one was a stonewall penalty, he should've sent Coquelin off 10 minutes into the second half. But as we all know Clattenburg is the best ref in Europe and he has that reputation because he's a "big" team ref. It certainly showed today.

Schmeichel - 7 - a good game, did everything necessary.

Simpson - 7 - good positioning and cover.

Huth - 7.5 - The man was back and the defence was solid - he makes everyone better.

Morgan - 7 - He's a different class when he has Huth next to him.

Fuchs - 6.5 - Solid at both ends.

Drinkwater - 8 - Got to be in the England team this time round, class.

Mendy - 6.5 - looked good but injured early - hope it's not serious.

Albrighton - 6 - Great energy but end product a little missing.

Mahrez - 7.5 - Looked much better than recently. Could have got a couple of goals from free kicks and was denied by a great save near the end. Still more needed.

Okazaki - 6 - lots of effort and some nice touches.

Vardy - 5 - ran hard but has lost his scoring boots.

subs:

King - 5.5 - did nothing wrong but is only a prem backup.

Ulloa - 5 - did nothing

Musa - 7 - only on 7 mins but skinned his defender twice and should have been awarded a penalty.

[HIF]

Quick thanks to both Richie De Laet and Liam moore who left the club this week. Richie to Villa and Moore to Reading.

Both served us proud and I wish them all the best. De Laet is a very good championship level/ low prem Wing back and he was simply lost in the tactical change that Ranieri brought in to shore up our poor defence. He isn't much worse than Simpson - I'm a little worried about RB, simpson isn't great and Hernandez isn't an RB back-up. Hope we can get someone decent in.

Liam Moore is Leicester born and bred and was great at 21 and under helping us get promotion into the prem. He got injured and then lost form and confidence and never saw the light of day again after we picked up Huth. He's only 23 now and could still find his way back to the prem, he'll have Jaap staam to help him too.

[HIF]

A good win in a torrential rainstorm which continued throughout the match.

Dominated the first half and if Mahrez had put the penalty away my 4-0 prediction could easily have been good.

Lucky the match wasn't abandoned in the last 10 mins.

Schmeichel 6.5
Simpson 7
Morgan 7.5
Huth 7
Fuchs 6
Drinkwater 8
Amartey 8
Mahrez 5
Albrighton 6.5
Vardy 7
Okazaki 7

Zieler 6
Ulloa 5.5
Musa 6

Vardy was looking much sharper today, Mahrez still needing to change his game, Drinkwater was majestic and should be the centrepiece of the England team, Amartey was great, All the defence was solid in some terrible weather conditions.

[HIF]

He was bought in to replace Cambiasso, international captain and experienced player but in the end he just couldn't crack the rotation - especially with Drinkwater and Kanté in control. He obviously had class but just couldn't adjust to the pace of the Prem and Leicester City in particular. Sadly he eventually lost even his bench place and then his international and euro finals place. Still he pocketed a lot of money. Now he's off to Besiktas where the slower game should allow him to show the obvious class he has.

All the best Gokhan, sorry for you that the club moved onto another level just as you arrived. All the best for the future.

[HIF]

So for the third time this summer Leicester City have broken their transfer record. This time to sign Islam Slimani from Sporting Lisbon. He's a player that we've followed for some time and a player I'm glad we got. He's certainly going to put pressure on Vardy who'll work even harder to keep his place. I can see Musa moving out to the left wing and Slimani and Vardy playing together but I can also envisage Slimani becoming the no.1 striker. What I'm happy about is that he brings the ability to score with his head, that's not Vardy's strength, it's why we play Ulloa but Slimani is also more deadly than Ulloa and faster. Leo has been great for Leicester but if Slimani works out then I can see Leo leaving in the January transfer period and going to another prem club and scoring goals. Leo is a good mid table prem striker and is wasted not even making the bench.

Still onwards and upwards. The Algerian connection is in Leicester to push us into the knockout phase of the CL and go for a top 4 finish.

Welcome to Leicester Islam.

[HIF]

Kasper - some great saves, but... 5.5
Fuchs - some great plays and some terrible - 5
Morgan - was worried when he looked injured - 5.5
Huth - does what he does - 5.5
Simpson - was pulled out of position even more than normal - 3
Amartey - did some nice things but inexperience was also exposed - 4
Drinkwater - below his usual level but can't cover for everyone - 5
Mahrez - better than lately but no magic - 5
Albrighton - easily our best player - 6.5
Okazaki - terrible - 3
Vardy - seems half a pace slower than last year - 5

Hernandez - best he's played at RB - 5
Musa - soon he'll shoot instead of trying to set up Vards - 4.5
Ulloa - worked hard and looked okay - 5

Ranieri - was outcoached today

[HIF]

Liverpool's movement and passing up front yesterday was some of the best I've seen for many years. They pulled the 2 banks of defenders out of position and punished us with great passing through the channels to players who moved into position seamlessly.

Defensively Liverpool were poor but Leicester are impotent so far and the hope must be that Slimani is our best striker.

Liverpool need consistency, if they played like this every week they'd be top 2 favourites.

We looked far more 8-12 this week.

[HIF]

As I read around various sites their seems to be quite a lot of glee - some concealed some not- as to Leicester's start to the season. I guess I understand it as we shook up the football world last season and the "big" clubs and their supporters need things to return to normal.

Personally I think we'll make our way back up the Prem table. It was always going to be difficult to start the season. We had players all re-negotiating contracts and being in transfer rumours. We had the euphoria of last season. we've had the transfers and we had a very strange pre-season.

Kanté left and his replacement - not direct - has only had 1 game due to injury whilst we've just picked up a new striker who hasn't yet trained with the team.

Things take time. I think we'll sort it out.

On top of that we have the CL - something we supporters have waited a lifetime for. We're only the 10th English team ever to play in the Champion's league and the first from the Midlands.

Let's give it another couple of months at least before we start criticising and laughing at little Leicester City. Please.

[el13adnino]

its silly to think that Leicester is going to climb back to the top of the league. mid table at best imho
you got a lucky draw in the champions league so i can see you advancing past the first round and then being sent home.
at least you got to live leicester being the premier league champs.

[el13adnino]

Liverpool's movement and passing up front yesterday was some of the best I've seen for many years. They pulled the 2 banks of defenders out of position and punished us with great passing through the channels to players who moved into position seamlessly.

Defensively Liverpool were poor but Leicester are impotent so far and the hope must be that Slimani is our best striker.

Liverpool need consistency, if they played like this every week they'd be top 2 favourites.

We looked far more 8-12 this week.

very excited for liverpool, chelsea next week ... cant wait

[HIF]

If that's CL football then give us the trophy now.

To be honest Leicester can play much better but we made Bruges look like rubbish, they may be rubbish but that's another story. Three points from the first away game and we stand clear top of the group. How can any Leicester fan not be happy.

Kasper - 6.5 did nothing wrong but had little to do
Fuchs - 6
Morgan -6
Huth - 6
Hernandez - 6
Albrighton - 7
Drinkwater - 6.5
Amartey - 6
Mahrez - 8 great Free kick but I was impressed by the defensive effort he put in.
Slimani - 6
Vardy - 7

Ulloa - 6
Gray - 6.5
Musa - 6

CR - 7

[HIF]

[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqOaCu4SnRA [/youtube]

[HIF]

We outclassed Burnley as much as Liverpool outclassed us last week.

Zieler 7 - made the only save he had to.
Fuchs 8 - outstanding today in attack and defence
Morgan 7 - solidly good
Huth 7 - a rock
Simpson 7 - good outing

Albrighton 7 - not good enough crosses in the first, great work in the second
Drinky 7 - quietly efficient
Almartey 6.5 - good with a few small mistakes through inexperience
Mahrez 8 - looked wonderfully dangerous all the time

Vardy 7 - Worked hard and linked well, once he's in tune with Slim we're going to be awesome
Slimani 8.5 - what a debut. He already looks dangerous and he works hard. when he understands the other players more the league had better watch Leicester rise.

King 6 not starter material
Gray 6.5

After that performance I see us finishing between 3rd and 8th this season.

[HIF]

Leicester have now gone 1 calendar year without a defeat at home in the league.