Leicester V Liverpool post match thread (Sponsored by the Hedgehog Gutter Brush)

[Zapater]

Nah, 2 goals in his last 4, his effort off the bar which led to the winner v Stoke, brilliant ball for Sterling tonight, countless headed clearances at the back etc, he's contributing a lot though it's still a depressing downgrade from last season.

Thing is people acknowledge his positives and overlook his negatives. No one said anything about Balotelli's class first touch that set up the Sterling goal at West Ham etc.

I've not been a huge fan of either of them this season, the response in the media and on here is notable.

Also, the goal against Ludogerets didn't even look like something which can happen in a game of professional football, he did well but I think a league 1 player would be surprised to get that opportunity.

[Lecter]

Flannagan can't get fit fast enough

Yeah we should bin Johnson and play him

[Chris]

..and Lee Mason? Wow. Hate moaning about refs but he is the worst ref in reffing history - that was a pen on Gerrard for start and he must have something against Sterling. He gave him nothing, it was bordering on corrupt.

I've always said it and stand by it, he absolutely detests us. The Mascherano red at Pompey while ignoring the same challenge from Michael Brown, the 2 reds at Fulham, booking Lucas for diving at Stoke when it was a stonewall pen, I could be here all night listing these. Our record in the league with him before tonight was 6 wins in 18 games and we'd only played 1 good team in that 18, City away last season where he was also utter ****. The other 17 games are Fulhams, Pompeys, West Broms etc. In short, he's a cunt.

[baitman]

mason is on the dbf pay roll

[MrMichael]

To be honest I think fixtures have gone our way and a bit of luck

We havent been that much better or tighter imo (or though goals against will tell you different)

We could quite easily have conceded a few more tonight but for woeful finishing

I dont think Rodgers has tried attacking this season, its all been more defensive and against decent teams or even ordinary ones you will pay the price if you cant do that

I still think we should put 2 up top, push up higher and press more / higher

I think in previous results luck went against us, luck and some unaccountable-for individual errors anyway. I believe in form over fixtures, at least for LFC; games like today have always been banana skins for us.

I don't think that's fair Lec, selections and tactics in early games this season were in no objective way "defensive", even if the end result we saw was too often poor play in attacking areas. I think it is obvious from his team selections in recent weeks that he has tried to change things... and he most definitely needed to.

Yeah, you want us to play like last season.

[baitman]

i started watching the apres match wankfest on the bt sport stream thingy and then little cunt micky owen starts answering a question...
"when i was at man utd, sir alex ferguson would always..."

i dont know what came next.

[MrMichael]

Also, Lambert. If Balotelli put in the performances he's been putting in he'd have been torn to shreds. He also has the annoying knack of ending up on the flanks when we need him in the box. Goes to show though, people judge the man, not the performance.

Lambert has at least scored in the league.

He cost £4m rather than £16m, and quietly goes about his business.

He unquestioningly works hard. Limited player, but he's trying.

He rarely shoots into row z when there's an easy pass on.

And he isn't Balotelli

We also don't really have any other options do we right now? Seems pointless to complain when everyone else is injured. Borini? Meh. Lambert really wasn't great today and flagrantly isn't the answer for us, but he is infinitely less annoying than Balotelli on every level.

[SK]

Lambert has at least scored in the league.

He cost £4m rather than £16m, and quietly goes about his business.

He unquestioningly works hard. Limited player, but he's trying.

He rarely shoots into row z when there's an easy pass on.

And he isn't Balotelli

We also don't really have any other options do we right now? Seems pointless to complain when everyone else is injured. Borini? Meh. Lambert really wasn't great today and flagrantly isn't the answer for us, but he is infinitely less annoying than Balotelli on every level.

[Daniel 7]

Lambert is by far the better player (than Balotelli)

Balotelli's best attribute is his first touch. Lambert's isn't far off it - its easy to get sniffy about him because he's 32 and called Ricky Lambert, but he's been far more effective since it was forced on Brendan to lead the line with Ricky with Balotelli getting injured.

Ricky links play, uses the ball intelligently and like MrMichael says, works hard for his tema mates. Other than being a body in the squad, I don;t see any point in persevering with the Mario sideshow. He's a waste of time.

[slaine]

Lambert is by far the better player (than Balotelli)

Balotelli's best attribute is his first touch. Lambert's isn't far off it - its easy to get sniffy about him because he's 32 and called Ricky Lambert, but he's been far more effective since it was forced on Brendan to lead the line with Ricky with Balotelli getting injured.

Ricky links play, uses the ball intelligently and like MrMichael says, works hard for his tena mates. Other than being a body in the squad, I don;t see any point in persevering with the Mario sideshow. He's a waste of time.

He's old, but I don't think he's incontinent just yet

[MrMichael]

Lambert is by far the better player (than Balotelli)

Balotelli's best attribute is his first touch. Lambert's isn't far off it - its easy to get sniffy about him because he's 32 and called Ricky Lambert, but he's been far more effective since it was forced on Brendan to lead the line with Ricky with Balotelli getting injured.

Ricky links play, uses the ball intelligently and like MrMichael says, works hard for his tema mates. Other than being a body in the squad, I don;t see any point in persevering with the Mario sideshow. He's a waste of time.

[Sarb]

Respectfully Sarb, what exactly would you have us do instead? Our defence has been pathetic, and something we badly needed to address. We cannot change the personnel available to us in attacking areas and relying on them to do what Suarez & Sturridge did last year was proving a complete fail. Apart from changing the manager immediately, which won't happen so should be disregarded, what else can or should any team in our position do other than try to tighten up in defence and grind some results out?

We're nowhere near good at the moment, but we also don't deserve to be in the relegation-threatened league positions either. I don't think any cracks are being papered over at all, everybody knows we have a **** load more improving to do, but what we're seeing is a settling into a more realistic and sensible league position, same as has happened with Spurs and a couple of others in the last few games.

Personally, I think we have gone too far the other way. Not saying go all out attack, but dont think we should go ultra defensive either. Agreed that there is a a lack of confidence and that will cause us to sit deeper hoping to protect the lead.

But when I look at us defending, it seems panic stations to me. About 5 or 6 players chasing the ball, all getting out of position. Like Lecter said, Leics probably could have taken the lead with 10 men. We dont have the organisation to shut up shop so imo we shouldn't overly go in that direction, the way we appear to be

[Rowan]

Personally, I think we have gone too far the other way. Not saying go all out attack, but dont think we should go ultra defensive either. Agreed that there is a a lack of confidence and that will cause us to sit deeper hoping to protect the lead.

But when I look at us defending, it seems panic stations to me. About 5 or 6 players chasing the ball, all getting out of position. Like Lecter said, Leics probably could have taken the lead with 10 men. We dont have the organisation to shut up shop so imo we shouldn't overly go in that direction, the way we appear to be

Although the fact that they didn't clearly refutes that statement because if they could have clearly taken the lead then they would have, you know, clearly taken the lead.

[Zapater]

I'm not advocating playing Balotelli or his performances, I'm just saying I don't think that there's a huge difference between the 2. I'd rather have neither of them, but as you say it's what we have. I'm more saying that people are so much more patient and forgiving of other players.

I don't know, his team play is obviously better, but if Balotelli had done some of the things Lambert did against Stoke everyone would have been up in arms. He was caught in possession on a couple of occasions and belted the ball high and wide from 35 yards out.

Today he was constantly, inexplicably caught offside. I'm not in favour of supporters going after players for everything, but it's just blatant in this situation.

Regarding the price, 4m is a lot for a player in their twilight years. God forbid it happen, but Balotelli could still play for us for the next decade or if he somehow improves stays for 2-4 seasons and we sell him for a reasonable price, it could very well turn out a lower price per season if you work it out that way, but obviously Balotelli's wages are much higher... It was a gamble which clearly isn't working.

[Sarb]

Although the fact that they didn't clearly refutes that statement because if they could have clearly taken the lead then they would have, you know, clearly taken the lead.

There is that. Should have worded it differently but they were the better team when they went down to 10 men and we sat back too much. Weren't comfortable at all