Are Leicester really better than us?

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I get what the OP is saying. On paper they are no better. Their results are obviously miles apart. I think the difference is they are a team, they work hard for each other and are fitter. They have a balanced team with hunger and desire. There are fine margins in this league and it just shows you that with a bit of hard work and momentum how quickly you can climb the table. That Leicester team isn't any better than us (on paper) but what counts is what you do on the grass, that's where we are miles away from them.
 


Never have I seen so much shit written on this page as in this thread. All the comments - including the OP - alons the lines of "but our players on paper could match theirs" or "they just work as a team better than us" are f***ing GASH.

When the overwhelming evidence is there, you have to revise your opinions/estimations of players. They simply have much more quality than us. Even if we were managed by Alex Ferguson our players couldn't get us to the top of the table. Simply not possible. Therefore Leicester must have some terrific players. Vardy? Time to give him some respect. Smiechel? Clearly has more than a touch of his dad about him. Mahrez? Statistically one of the best players in Europe this year... probably pisses over Johnson. And their central midfielders must be f***ing useful too.

I expect they will have a crash somewhere in the second half of the season and finish about 7th. Nevertheless, they do not just have a better team/structure. They have better players.

United will win the league. Said at start of season, saying it now. It will be absolutely horrific to watch too. 1-0's all the way. Defence wins leagues.
 
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babyblue said:
Regarding clean sheets, we started off player Schlupp (grew up as a striker) and De Laet (an attacking full back). It left us exposed over and over again and they just weren't good enough defensively. Since Fuchs and Simpson came into the team we haven't conceded a goal in open play for six games. They have all been pennos and corners.

Of course those two are the icing on the cake, the sort of players that can turn a tight game into a win on their own. But take them out and we can put Ulloa up top (scored 12 last season) or revert Okazaki back to a main striker like he was at Mainz, rather than the support striker helping midfield like we have been.

We've dropped Mahrez several times and subbed him off at half time as well. Whether you bring in Schlupp and Dyer they they are still a big threat and have proved great backup.

Whilst the stats have been weighted in their favour, they have also benefited from the great play by the likes of Drinkwater, Albrighton and Kante. It's very much a team effort.
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Mahrez has only missed one league game against Norwich, where Norwich had 17 shots with only two on target, he's quite often subbed but has already contributed something at that point.

You may be able to fill in the places on the field, but the key point is that bringing in Dyer for Mahrez will not equal the same thing,Ulloa will not give you 13 goals in 13 games.

These are the players that have made you #1 in the league instead of say 10th.


Games where Vardy scoring won you the match


WAT(H) 2-1 Vardy scores one
WBA(A) 3-2 Vardy scores one
CRY(H) 1-0 Vardy scores one
SOU(A) 2-2 Vardy scores two
NOR(A) 2-1 Vardy scores one
STK(A) 2-2 Vardy scores one
AVL(H) 3-2 Vardy scores one
BOU(A) 1-1 Vardy scores one

You take out Vardy's goals from all those games and you end up with draws or loses. He is absolutely vital for where you are in the league. No matter how much hard graft your run of the mill rest of the team performs, you'd be much lower in the league without Vardy (and that's ignoring Mahrez's huge contribution)
 
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Laheed said:
Never have I seen so much shit written on this page as in this thread. All the comments - including the OP - alons the lines of "but our players on paper could match theirs" or "they just work as a team better than us" are f***ing GASH.

When the overwhelming evidence is there, you have to revise your opinions/estimations of players. They simply have much more quality than us. Even if we were managed by Alex Ferguson our players couldn't get us to the top of the table. Simply not possible. Therefore Leicester must have some terrific players. Vardy? Time to give him some respect. Smiechel? Clearly has more than a touch of his dad about him. Mahrez? Statistically one of the best players in Europe this year... probably pisses over Johnson. And their central midfielders must be f***ing useful too.

I expect they will have a crash somewhere in the second half of the season and finish about 7th. Nevertheless, they do not just have a better team/structure. They have better players.

United will win the league. Said at start of season, saying it now. It will be absolutely horrific to watch too. 1-0's all the way. Defence wins leagues.
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Don't agree. It's about opinions. Of course they have better quality in some areas but I 100% believe they are fitter and have more desire. They score a lot of late goals and come from behind at times. Never give up.
 
OP has a valid point, an average player full of confidence is going to look ten times better than an average player scared of his own shadow.
Take away Vardy and Mahrez's performances this season and you have the Leicester of the first half of last season, solid, hard working but losing 0-1 0-2.
This season the 0-1's are becoming 2-1's, the the 0-2' are becoming 3-2's.
This tells me if you get a solid hard working and hard to beat team, then add a couple of match winners, you can do well in this league.
Which if you look at it has pretty much been Sam's blueprint over the years.
The extra bit from Leicester is the speed of their attacks, makes teams nervous when they know one slip up and you can concede from your own "attack", we're pretty good at that! (Everton)

Fair play, they will be enjoying every moment, plus they don't have to worry about relegation this season.
Been a long time since we've been able to do that.
 
babyblue said:
A very poor side = a load of players you've probably never heard of or seen play.

If you'd watched us much over the last two and a half years, you would know the likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Drinkwater most definitely had the potential. As for the rest Fuchs is the Austrian captain played champs league football for Schalke. Huth has been a Premier League defender most of his like. Alrighton we highly rated as a kid and lost his way at Villa, but always had potential. Kante was very highly rated in France and had the most tackles in Europe last season (this lad is the best DM I have ever seen, he will go to the very top without question). Okazaki scored something like 15/16 goals each season the last two in the Bundesliga. Inler can't get in the team, Nathan Dyer is a season premier league playing and great off the bench. Ditto Schlupp with his pace and power.

There are a few journey men in there obviously like Morgan and Simpson. But we don't ask much of them, sit back, defend and pace the ball to someone with skill.

I'm sure the "wheels will fall off", it's surely impossible to keep going as we are. But we've got enough in the squad to establish ourselves in the league, which at the end of the day is what our goal was.
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I really thought that you'd struggle this season, don't think it was just me though.

Hopefully you'll win the league or at least get top 4.
 
Raich Carter said:
They work hard and play as a team, we do neither.
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Simple as that. A team that grafts is far more effective that the individual players in it or that they are up against. We had it under keane when we stayed up. Unfortunately we've focussed on buying so called quality and lost any ounce of graft we had. Lens, fletcher, rodwell, johnson, toivanen. All attack minded players we are relying on who simply dont have work rate.
 
Raich Carter said:
They work hard and play as a team, we do neither.
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This sums it up. Virtually the whole of our squad are perpetual relegation fodder. Take Larsson for example, despite being one of our most prominent players, he has had a career of floating in the pissiest corners of the PL from a club position sense.

What Leicester have shown it isn't only about ability. The fact that most of our squad "lack confidence" and show virtually no team spirit other than to hang on basically casts them all as losers. They only pull together for about 6 games a season.
 
babyblue said:
A very poor side = a load of players you've probably never heard of or seen play.

If you'd watched us much over the last two and a half years, you would know the likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Drinkwater most definitely had the potential. As for the rest Fuchs is the Austrian captain played champs league football for Schalke. Huth has been a Premier League defender most of his like. Alrighton we highly rated as a kid and lost his way at Villa, but always had potential. Kante was very highly rated in France and had the most tackles in Europe last season (this lad is the best DM I have ever seen, he will go to the very top without question). Okazaki scored something like 15/16 goals each season the last two in the Bundesliga. Inler can't get in the team, Nathan Dyer is a season premier league playing and great off the bench. Ditto Schlupp with his pace and power.

There are a few journey men in there obviously like Morgan and Simpson. But we don't ask much of them, sit back, defend and pace the ball to someone with skill.

I'm sure the "wheels will fall off", it's surely impossible to keep going as we are. But we've got enough in the squad to establish ourselves in the league, which at the end of the day is what our goal was.
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I've seen enough of them to know that they are nowhere near as good as good as you are trying to make them sound. You could analyse our squad in a similar manner. Brown and O'Shea are both CL and PL winners, Defoe is one of the prems highest scorers ever. M'Vila was regarded as being of the best up and coming players in the world until he lost his way. Johnson has won the PL, Lens is highly regarded. You mention the last 2 and a half years. The first year was in the championship which is completely irrelevant. The 2nd year you spent the vast majority of the season bottom of the league demonstrating nothing like the form you are currently. It's nice to see you mixing it up atm tbf but your team really isn't that good.
 
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