Leicester MotM
Harry Kane
Steven Bergwijn
Sergio Reguilon
Lucas Moura
Leicester City
2 – 3
Tottenham Hotspur
King Power Stadium
Premier League
19/01/2022 8:30 pm
Attendance: 31986
Referee: Jonathan Moss
| Leicester City | Tottenham Hotspur | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daka (24), Maddison (76) | Kane (38), Bergwijn (90+5, 90+7) | ||||||
| Schmeichel | Lloris | ||||||
| Albrighton | Emerson Royal | 45 | |||||
| Choudhury | Tanganga | ||||||
| Soyuncu | Sanchez | ||||||
| Vestergaard | Davies | ||||||
| Thomas | 53 | Reguilon | 79 | ||||
| Maddison | Skipp | ||||||
| Tielemans | Winks | 74 | |||||
| Dewsbury-Hall | 88 | Hojbjerg | |||||
| Daka | 75 | Kane | |||||
| Lookman | Lucas Moura | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Justin | 53 | Doherty | 45 | ||||
| Barnes | 75 | Gil | |||||
| Ward | Rodon | ||||||
| Perez | Lo Celso | 74 | |||||
| Jakupovic | Sessegnon | ||||||
| Daley-Campbell | Alli | ||||||
| Soumare | 88 | Gollini | |||||
| McAteer | Bergwijn | 79 | |||||
| Brunt | Scarlett | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 14 | Goal attempts | 27 |
| 4 | On Target | 10 |
| 3 | Corners | 8 |
| 6 | Fouls | 12 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 49 | % | 51 |
Well I for one, was happy with the result, we could’ve and should’ve been home and dry in the 1st half, hit the woodwork a couple of on the line clearence’s and good saves from Casper..
They done us with a couple of sucker punches.
On the night we were much the better team and thoroughly deserved our win, nail biting tho’ it was
It was indeed a very entertaining match.
As I’ve said earlier, just when you make up your mind which 5 or 6 you want gone some one steps up with a good performance (see Doh and Bergs).
Great game good result top 5 COYS.
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I think that sums the game up!
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I agree!
Great result and unlucky to not have wrapped up the game sooner with some surprisingly excellent individual performances. Harry too was great in possession, scored a great goal but fluffed a few chances. Defence though was a little shaky and we must not get carried away as Rodgers hasn’t noticed if you stand close to our players and ask nicely, they will give you the ball. Top 4 is certainly possible but realistically MU has the better squad. We can but hope that a new signing or two plus the return of Romero and Dier will improve our level. COYS!
HT …. That made me laugh.
The big unknown is the games in hand. The mantra is normally “points on the board” but win all the games in hand and we go third, not likely but not impossible. Given we now don’t have the tinfoil European trophy to worry about fixture congestion may not be that big a problem. Some interesting stats. Most of us have said Bergwijn’s problem is a lack of goals, well he did something about that. While Dele and N’Dombele seem to be on their way out Winks appears to be working his way back in, another assist last night. Maybe that’s down to him performing better, maybe he just fits Conte’s system better. Similarly with Doherty, he seems to be getting game time in his natural wing back role, even if some of it is on the wrong side of the pitch. Again an assist last night. In some ways I want Dier back even more than Son. There’s no doubt in my mind the defence functions better with Dier in it, as I’ve said before its when he’s not there you notice.
At the very least, winning late in that manner should do confidence the world of good given the overall performance.
Jod, if we can somehow beat Chelsea at the weekend, 3rd will look much closer to us. And, without having played our 4 games in hand on them.
However, we are just 1 point below WHU in 4th. And we still have 3 games in hand on them. Meaning that winning just one of those ‘in-hand’ matches sees us in 4th place as we currently stand… And this will be more than good enough if we finish the season there. Especially after Spurs’ very poor start to this season, under Nuno.
The remaining outstanding matches we have are versus Burnley, Palace, Brighton and Arsenal. And even just winnining 2 and losing 2 should keep us in contention for the top 4, if we can continue in our current form.
Conte’s short time at the club sees us unbeaten in his first 9 PL matches in charge. And I can honestly, only see us getting better as the season moves on… This current form, after those 9 matches, is (I think) second only to Man City in the PL. Pretty good!
But, you never know how it will go!
I thought losing the game would have been harsh. I could have lived with a draw, given Leicester can cause anyone problems on their day, especially at home. But I thought we had done enough in the first half to win the game, and I was worried that all those misses were going to come back to haunt us.
The finish was great but I would have preferred a more ocntrolled performance. I think Conte said as much in his post match comments, referring to our inablity to manage a game like this and “understand the moments” of the game.
It’s now a couple of games when we have left it very late and on another day, those games swing the other way. If we can improve on that aspect and become a bit more ruthless, top 4 is looking a real possibility.
Conte is working miracles with the squad he’s got.
As far as finishing goes people have made the point before that while missing chances is annoying and needs working on the time to get really worried is when you aren’t creating chances. From that perspective we aren’t that far off. Once Son is back the finishing will inevitably improve.
Tell that to Roberto Soldado. If we were judging him by chances created, he’d be a Spurs legend.
As a side note, this game was the latest a team has ever left it to win a game from a losing position. Spurs were still losing after 94 minutes and 52 seconds.
The previous record was held by City and “that” Agurero goal in 2012 (City recovered from a losing position at 91’12).
Some statistic.
Hot Tottingham – Its all ifs, buts and maybes with those games in hand, but they are an opportunity if we can exploit it. The Chelsea game is interesting because although they looked good against us in the Cup they are clearly struggling. You talked about the strength of United’s squad and its something that is hurting Chelsea, they don’t have the ability to rotate that City do. Conte has talked about how much better we are at full strength, Liverpool on the other hand seem to be able to throw in teenagers and still win. But squad strength is only one factor. Another is the number of games played, Leicester won the league not playing in Europe, Arsenal have clearly benefited this season from being out of Europe and having more recovery time and more time on the training pitch. Now we are out of Europe its something that will help us for the rest of the season. Then there’s the intangibles, organisation and mental strength. United may have a stronger squad than West Ham but the Hammers are both better organised and mentally stronger and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they finished ahead of United at the end of the season. Conte seems to be improving both of these things at Spurs, its something I expected Mourinho to do but he never did. Wenger was mocked by Arsenal fans when he described a top four finish as equivalent to a trophy, I suspect the penny dropped once they stopped qualifying for the champions league. If Conte could get that for us this season it will be a huge step forward for the club.
Jod, it was actually Love Totty that mentioned MU’s squad being stronger than Spurs’.
I agree with you; that it’s also about the organisation, mental strength and sheer amount of games played etc.
And our squad, as a whole, hadn’t been performing anywhere near it’s best until Conte arrived. It had looked unorganised, unfit and disjointed. As well as lacking in confidence and any kind of fight.
I have always insisted that our squad is actually quite a good one. But given the negatives I have just pointed out, were not obviously living up to my belief in them.
Our best and most consistently good performer over recent years has himself shown these bad traits for the most part of this season. But, Kane for whatever reasons, looked very close to his best last night. But why has it taken him half a season for it to show? Even so, at his very best, he would have scored a hat-trick last night, given his many opportunities in front of goal.. Still, I ain’t complaining, having won the match at the end…
One thing that stood out to me last night (apart from the obvious); was after Bergwijn’s equaliser, seeing Harry run into the back of the net to grab the ball and get it and his team back to the their own half to hasten the Foxes kick-off and in an effort to then go all out for the winner in the dying seconds. And it worked! This said it all to me. About Harry and the team. The fighting/winning spirit was back. And this can make up for a lot when it comes to the overall perceived quality of our squad.
Of course, this will have to continue for the rest of the season for it all to be worthwile.
And it’s not this transfer window that will help us to buy this team confidence, passion and a winning mentality. It’s self beleif, good coaching, sheer hard work and a lot more of what we saw last night… Regardless of whom we may now get in or get out…
Hi HT, yes it will take more than just a new face or two to get the level up to the consistent standard needed to get 4th or even 3rd place this year. I’m not as confidant as you that there is enough potential in the current group to benefit fully from Conte’s coaching whereas I expect MU to get better as the season progresses. I see them rather than our local rivals as the threat and I can’t see us catching Chelsea despite the games in hand. But it’s football and you never know, so hope lives on. Be great to finish this season on a high to build momentum for a real challenge next year.
A game of 2 halves and injury time ! harry missed 2 good chances, and leicester cleared off their line… We played well and as mentioned in above posts we should have won the game in normal time. Credit to Bergwijin he did very well. Onto chaves next, i think an improved spurs team now than in last 2 weeks v chelsea…spurs can win 2-1 COYS
A brilliant night last night, a last minute win by us, ecstasy all round, good on the team, full stop.
How many times have we been robbed of points in the last minute?
Quite a bloody few.
3rd or 4th is for the taking by us, even with this so called “poor squad”, it is entirely in our hands its as simple as that. COYS
There are 2 ways of looking at it. If we’re benchmarking against the Citys of this world, and that is the level required to win things domestically or in Europe, our squad is nowhere near that level and “poor” by comparison. And Liverpool are probably the only team in the PL who can put a mild amount of pressure on them.
But if the threshold is top 4, it’s more a question of being the “best of the rest” out of a group of 4 teams: Man U, West Ham, Arsenal and Spurs (as I would still classify Chelsea as a level above us, despite their current wobble).
As I have said before, all of those 4 teams can show up on their day, but all of those squads are flawed in some way and suffer from inconsistency. I look at Man U’s squad and while they have plenty of good players, it seems quite imbalanced and they still don’t know what their best 11 is or where certain expensive players fit (Sancho?). They are better than us off in some respects, but far worse off in others.
Ultimately, all of those squads are imperfect and it will come down to who can get the most of these squads. I suspect the managers will be the difference, and out of those 4 teams, we have by far the best manager.
BelgianSpur – A fair assessment, we definitely have the best manager. What may also make a difference is how well the marginal players develop over the season. Bergwijn’s Spurs career hasn’t really got going but he has pace, strength, good ball control and a low centre of gravity. Conte has said he sees him as a striker or number 10, not a winger, if he starts scoring goals it will give us a lot more options up front. Winks seems to have worked his way back and is unquestionably a better passer of the ball than Skipp or Hojbjerg, if he could get to somewhere close to his form when he first broke into the side it would be a big advantage. The wing backs are crucial in Conte’s system so Doherty finding his Wolves form in his natural position would be very useful, Emerson is a full back who struggles as a wing back, Doherty is the reverse. On the other side of the pitch Sessegnon should give Reguilon some competition but we’ve yet to see it. Then there’s the invisible man, Romero. He’s supposed to be very good, but he’s yet to play in a Conte style back three, I assume he’d play the in the right sided slot and like Davies on the left go forward when required. If all of these come off we’d have a much stronger looking squad. If none of them come off we would have very little depth.
Well, that’s the problem jod. Too many question marks and not enough certainties. Lots of ifs, and ifs rarely win things.
If a perfect storm of things come together, we’re OK. That’s “Leicester 2016” levels of wishful thinking.
I don’t know about you lot, but here’s my take on games-in-hand.
These are points there for the taking. Not to take them is like throwing away a present sitting under the decorated tree.
go forward and take those points. I’ll be satisfied with two wins in the three.
that would put us in the catbird’s seat. Just avoid the cat.
Don’t be a tosser. Don’t toss away what’s waiting to gained.
Tossing points in the rubbish bin is a sin.
Points waiting to be taken should not be forsaken.
games-in-hand are opportunities, and you can’t have enough opportunities.
Opportunities are the best presents. Accept them. And treat them like something precious. They don’t come all that often.