Ricardo's report v Leicester

[ricardo 7,349]

Snowy the Cat''s three foxes on the lawn proved to be a bad omen as Leicester continued their 100 year FA Cup hoodoo over a disjointed City at CR this afternoon. In Ricardo''s section there were a lot of strange faces about as quite a number of regulars gave this game a miss. The first surprise was the omission of Holty and Surman from the squad. Rudd came into goal and Wes came back into the midfield so it still looked on paper a strongish line up.There was a strong blustery wind and rain at kickoff but City were quickly into their stride and should have gone ahead from the first decent move of any note. Drury found Wes down the left and the little man cut it back for Bennett on the edge of the area. His neat pass found Morrison with time and space but the shot was high wide and not very handsome. Leicester were quick to reply and won a series of corners on their left that the City rearguard struggled to clear. Eventually a St Ledger header beat every one and flew into the far corner. It was a wake up call and City tried to respond but good moves kept breaking down with a badly weighted final pass. This was typified when Jacko got away but failed to find Morison who had a clear run on goal. On 20 mins a Jacko shot was blocked and the ball looped goalwards, Schmeichel stupidly pushed Bennett and City were awarded a pen. Wes stepped up in the absence of Holty but his strong effort was brilliantly blocked by the keeper only for Wes to quickly dispatch the rebound.If we expected it to be plain sailing from there we were soon disappointed because it was Leicester who looked more like scoring. One scramble was only cleared by City having three men on the line. Conditions were not ideal but the careless passing continued as several promising openings were made and squandered. Ward and Barnett seemed pretty solid at the back but neither side seemed able to get the ball on the floor and under control.At the half Ricardo was confident that PL would put things right but it was Leicester that looked most likely with the lively Danns finding plenty of room in the centre of midfield. Then Bennett choose the wrong option when handily placed in the Leicester area and another opportunity went begging. City had a great chance when Barnetts effort from close range was scrambled away but mostly the game continued in a very disjointed and untidy manner. Wes could not get the weight of his passes right and was guilty several times of choosing the wrong option. PL swopped Morison and Jacko for Wilbers and Vaughan on the hour and although both showed up well a goal didn''t look like coming. With 20 mins left Beckford set Nugent clear and he netted with ease what was to prove the winner. Johnson came on for Foxy, who I thought was probably our least wasteful player but it didn''t signal much of a change.City continued to huff and puff but the groans from the crowd told their own story as possession continued to be frittered away. It could have been worse for City when Beckford got away and struck a post with a fierce drive. The crowd were expecting the usual Norwich surge as time ran out and although Vaughan almost got on the end of a Wilbers drive that Schmeichel parried and a Martin header was blocked on the line, an equaliser was not to be. So ended another FA Cup run before it had properly got in its stride. Ricardo had been dreaming of a 6th round home draw and a possible Wembley appearance as no doubt had thousands of others. Funny old game football, just when you think everything is going along nicely the arse falls out of the boat.

[ricardo 7,349]

Apologies, of course it was Steer in goal not Rudd.Ricardo losing a million brain cells every day.

[drurys testamonials V 15 0]

Good report as usual ricardo apart from the ''Should of gone to specsavers moment'' over the goalie [;)]How many braincells did you start with if you''re losing that many daily? lol

[blahblahblah 2]

Bang on as usual Ricardo. If not picking Holt, even on the bench, felt like a setting of expectations, bringing Vaughan and Wilbraham on after 60 minutes felt like throwing in the towel. I''m sure Vaughan will prove to be a fantastic striker in time, but is an FA Cup match that could go either way really the time to give him game time ?

As for the game itself, Leicester seemed to deal better with the weather and pitch as much as anything else. They passed the ball better, won the ball more often, in most ways we were second best.

Far too often we allowed them too much time on the ball, and seemed more concerned with protecting the last third of the pitch rather than pressing the ball to win possession - is this odd behavior for a team at home ?

Any way, that''s my moan out of the way. No harm done, and no points lost.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

It was a surreal day for me, Ricardo.

 

The fresh mix of fans created an unfamiliar atmosphere in my section; as someone else has pointed out a lot of ST holders gave it a miss, perhaps they had a blank Saturday pencilled in for something else in advance?

 

No Holt when the man is in hot form. From his twitter we know Holty went up to Cumbria with his family after the Swansea game. Why then did he have to come back as early as he did if Lambert was intending to rest him, why not give him a break? The whole Glasgow Rangers thing annoyed me because Holt is one of the pillars of the spirit of this Club and to lose him would be to lose more than a player.

 

The team looked strong enough though and I expected recalled players to be out to prove a point, especially Steve Morison. This was when it got really odd. This wasn''t a player out of form, this wasn''t a player lacking only confidence, this wasn''t a lazy player. This to me was a man distracted and preoccupied, if I didn''t know better I''d say he was depressed.

 

At half time the atmosphere in the lounge continued to be odd and I have to say this was reflected by the atmosphere in the ground (sometimes from both sets of fans) which was subdued and diffident. There was certainly nothing coming from the fans to lift the players.

 

Like others I have heard rumours about Steve Morison''s private life and one or two other players. I do not intent to promulgate them, they may well be a load of rubbish but Moro''s shouting matches with team mates or his frustrated complaints to PL are there for all to see.

 

Anyone who has worked in a workforce knows people have private lives and problems occur. This could be self-inflicted, it could be health, it could be out of the blue. A manager needs to handle his employees as people to get the best out of them and I''m sure PL will do the same with Moro. Clearly, today PL gave the man a game because he is a footballer first and foremost and surely felt this was the best thing to do.

 

Two things will happen; the situation will be resolved and the player will continue with NCFC or he will leave for the well-being of the group.

 

I though the crowd today recognised Morison''s obvious malaise and he received a decent round of applause when he came off. He should know from this that he plays for supporters who appreciate his efforts to date and would like to see him back to his best.

 

The Cup draw tomorrow might make us think ''if only'' but we need again to get over this one quick.

 

The abiding thought I had leaving the ground was just how well Paul Lambert has done with a squad capable of being pretty ordinary when every one of them isn''t on his game or at his best; he has guided us to 8th in the EPL and done so by gaining their trust to carry out his tactics and give 100%. I think he is going to be pretty busy behind the scenes as there is something roten in the state of Denmark.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Not just me then; there are a lot of posters on here realising Moro needs support because his head appears to be in the wrong place.

 

Shame on the abusers! This is a player who, when we had defensive problems and had to load the midfield and play with one up front played unselfishly for the team. His contribution was recognised by his high position in independant assessment statistics.

 

This is a player who has pushed Grant Holt out of the side thus getting Holty in the gym and extending himself to be a better player through competition.

 

This is a player who had to step up a league after not long coming out of non-league and has learned very quickly.

 

I was pleased with the crowd response when he came off and part of me wondered if PL subbed both strikers to avoid singling Moro out.

 

At the same time the comments and rumblings about Wilbo annoyed me. He has played reserve football with Vaughan and obviously has something because PL has him on the subs bench EVERY game.

 

The crowd may have been an unfamiliar mix yesterday and they were very different from the usual PL crowd but the support to lift the players wasn''t there much either.

 

How about we are all big enough to brush it off and move on. Leicester will not win the FA Cup; it will probably screw their play off push though and next season we will be in the EPL with an upgraded squad and they will not.

[Diesel Doris 128]

Thanks Ricardo, your reports are always interesting. Must admit yesterday I was[:@][:@][:@] now I''m[:(] but not as "sad" as Morison seems to be. I have to say that I slated him yesterday but last night was wondering if the death of Gary Speed has hit him really hard. Probably miles off with this theory but something is obviously wrong. Anyway onwards and upwards. OTBC