Saturday 22 October 2011

Conclusions from Millwall


Leicester City0-3Millwall
(HT 0-2)

Henderson pen 36, 45+2, 68

King Power Stadium, attendance: 21,931
BBC Match Report


Home Team: Schmeichel, Peltier, Konchesky, Bamba (35), King, St Ledger, Johnson (Fernandes 74), Wellens, Beckford (Vassell 45), Abe (Dyer 45), Nugent (77).

Away Team: Forde; Dunne, Robinson (73), Ward, Smith; Feeney (Henry 75), Abdou, Trotter, Howard, Simpson (N'Guessan 78), Henderson



  • Just typical. The Foxes have a golden opportunity to establish themselves amongst the Championship's top runners but instead find themselves a whole ten places below where they could have been. It is typical of Leicester City to make things difficult for themselves - if there's one thing the Thai revolution hasn't altered it is this - and to concede three times at home against a Millwall side struggling to survive at this level is extremely disappointing.
  • It happens. On its own, this result could on paper be viewed as Sven Goran Eriksson failing to deliver. But the Swede kept together a side that easily beat Watford in midweek and changed things -rightly - at half time to introduce width and pace to the Foxes' attack. It is far too soon to write-off Eriksson: but for a bit of luck...
  • One of those days. A dubious penalty against the Foxes - and one that Nugent should have won that wasn't awarded - put Leicester a goal down whilst the second was against the run of play. At that point, with morale low, a third was always inevitable.



Winners
Paul Konchesky
Ten out of ten for effort for the ex-Liverpool defender this afternoon. Konchesky is establishing himself within the City ranks and, despite not yet endearing himself to the fans is quietly impressing with his dedication to pacey, attacking runs and diligent defence. If Kasper Schmeichel has been Eriksson's best buy, Konchesky is running a close second.

David Nugent
Whilst Jermaine Beckford failed to offer, well, anything, at least David Nugent showed sparks of flair. His commitment in attack is rivalled only by the terrier-like attitude of Darius Vassell.



Losers
Jermaine Beckford
Another poor performance from Beckford, who has disappointed since signing on transfer deadline day. Given the hype associated with his arrival at the King Power Stadium and his subsequent failure to deliver on that, it has to be asked if Beckford should be dropped. Vassell offers more movement and pace, Howard more height and strength. The case for the ex-Everton man is not a strong one.

Sven Goran Eriksson
The Swede has lost the fans. The glitz of pre-season and the lavish money-spending is a long-lost memory and Eriksson, as the figurehead of the King Power revolution, is the head that the Foxes' faithful want on a spike. If he were to lose his job now - which he won't, the Raksriaksorns are far too sensible to make that sort of rash decision - it would be a greater travesty than the appointment of Peter Taylor. Eriksson simply needs time for his luck to change: only consistency in management will bring-about a consistency of results.

The Radio Leicester Phone-In
As this is written, prior to the start of the phone-in, it is easy to predict the type of idiocy that will be spouted on the East Midlands' premier sports discussion show. Of the early reaction on Twitter some of the more entertaining posts calling for Eriksson to be sacked include the wonderful "Help! Billy Davies", "This lot are big time Charlies who can't play" and "Bring back Tunchev". A favourite in OFAF Towers, however, has to be this gem from @paul_d_humphrey: "I'm off to the pub. This is garbage. Sven do the decent thing. Stockholm calling."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Greetings! Quick question that's entirely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My blog looks weird when viewing from my apple iphone. I'm
trying to find a template or plugin that might be able
to resolve this issue. If you have any suggestions,
please share. Many thanks!

My web page lopergolo

Anonymous said...

I drop a comment whenever I especially enjoy a post on a site or if I have something to
add to the discussion. It's a result of the sincerness communicated in the article I looked at. And on this post "Conclusions from Millwall". I was moved enough to post a comment ;-) I actually do have some questions for you if you tend not to mind. Could it be just me or does it look like like some of these remarks look as if they are written by brain dead visitors? :-P And, if you are writing at other places, I would like to follow you. Would you list every one of all your shared sites like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?

Feel free to surf to my blog post; picunches - -