* "Foxes Never Quit"?! Tonight we find out: Skunks v Foxes Thread *

r00fie1

r00fie1

Well-known member
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This literally is the last chance, where three points would give Leicester a hope. But, lets face it, at the end of a season the table doesnt lie. Towards the end of covid lock-down, the owner wrote in the Foxes Programme that he was basically skint - his firm retails duty-free goods around the world. But that pinned his priorities firmly on the board. City sold a number of players and didnt replace them. The recruitment team bought in players who werent up to scratch, and after ther FA Cup win two years ago - the foxes began to slide. Brendan Rodgers gave City a good go, but the team wasnt freshened up and the inevitable happened. Brendan said goodbye and Dean Smith arrived with John Terry to try and steer as sinking ship into shallow waters. Theres something about not turning a sows ear into a silk purse.....​
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When you look at the team which played regularly in their Promotion winning season - they hardly cost more than a few groats between them. Pearson essentially built that team - with cast offs and untried players at higher levels - like Jamie Vardy, Wes Morgan, Danny Drinkwater, Mark Albrighton, Mahrez, Kante, Christian Fuchs and Danny Simpson.​

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Their recent record in Europe is easily forgotten amongst all the noise about Manchester and London. Just like when Boro played in Europe, the media hardly ever gave us a mention - just snide back-handed "compliments". Leicester are no different - some East Midlands club, third to Derby and forest, with a few cups to their name. They never received recognition.​

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But no point crying over lost chances, bad Management decisions and taking their eye off the ball.
Foxes arent new to the Championship and have had many decades of experience going up and down the top two leagues - with a drop into Division Three under the stewardship of Ian Holloway, in 2008.​
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Like any club in any league - no one has the right to be where they want to be. Its a league and in the leagues there have to be relegations and promotions. Its more than likely that Foxes will get ripped to shreds tonight. The Skunks have something to play for and have the quality and ability to finish the job. Looks like a trip to King Power will be on our fixtures list next season.​

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Dean Smith

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[Edit]
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A 3-0 reverse at home to the Reds last Monday kept City in the relegation zone and, speaking from inside the King Power Centre at LCFC Training Ground on Thursday, the 52-year-old outlined how aspects of the performance, particularly from a defensive point of view, must improve.

“For me, it’s not so much the performance, it’s the result that hurt us,” City’s manager told reporters. “I said that after the game. A lot was said about players not applying themselves and not trying. I’ve got figures to show that they did. They matched Liverpool in their running stats.

“But unfortunately, the scoreline is what is reflected in headlines and that’s what happened on the day. The players worked hard and ran hard. We know we have to [defend better]. That’s probably been the biggest concern since we came in.

“We’ve conceded the first goal in 19 out of the last 20 games. We’re conceding too many this season. There’s obviously fragility in our defence and that’s something we’ve certainly been working on since we’ve been here.

“Tactically I thought we were really good for 32 minutes. Our goalkeeper has not made a save and it’s 0-0. And then their goalkeeper puts one over the top of our back four, we have a little bit of panic stations, and they score a marginally onside goal.

“There’s not an awful lot wrong tactically with the second goal. Sometimes you have to applaud the opposition for their play. After that, I thought we got a little bit frazzled. Looking back, my reflections watching it now are the same as well.

“It was important that we got back in at 2-0 and there was an upturn in the second period for a short time. But you’re playing against Liverpool, sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition. They're 2-0 up, with their tails up, on a six-game winning run. If you go and open up, you get beat six or seven as we have seen them do to teams.”​

The next challenge ​

Kelechi Iheanacho
​
Kelechi Iheanacho is back in contention following injury.

Third in the Premier League, chasing a place in the UEFA Champions League next term, it’s been quite the turnaround for the Magpies over the course of the last year, overseen by a man Smith knows well.

As for Leicester’s predicament, other results cannot be focused on too heavily, he believes, with City needing to achieve their own part themselves.

“Newcastle have had fantastic season,” the ex-Aston Villa manager commented. “They’ve got a fantastic head coach who I was coming up against in League 1 nine or 10 years ago. I’ve a lot of respect for Eddie [Howe] and what he has done there.

“Going there, it’ll be a very partisan fanbase that will make it extremely hard for the first 15-20 minutes if they get their tails up. Our job is to stifle that as much as we can, whether that’s with the ball or without the ball, making them go where we want them to go, or going and taking the lead to try and win the game.

“I can’t control what happens at any other games. It might affect what we have to do at Newcastle, but we only have to concentrate on this game at Newcastle and get the win. It’s our cup final now and we know what we have to do.

“I don’t like playing on the Monday after the other games, especially when there’s only two games to go. I don’t want to have to suddenly change tactics from what I’ve been working on for four or five days. But one thing we do know is that we need at least a point from Newcastle.

“It’s out of our hands because if other teams get the results, there’s nothing we can do. If we get the performance that we’re capable of and we minimise mistakes, then it’s not a problem.”​

Boosting confidence ​

Dean Smith
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Dean Smith addressed the media in Seagrave.

Smith admitted that recent defeats, contributing to a very real threat of relegation, has mentally taken its toll on the players. That said, there is little time to waste and he revealed how the group have been working in Seagrave to turn a difficult period around.

He explained: “I think they are demoralised by the last couple of results. Before that, we had an upturn in performances. It’s very quickly forgotten but I’ve only been here for six games and I thought four of the performances in that were quite good.

“But the goals that we’ve given away in the last few games haven’t been good enough and that’s something that we’ve been working on. We made it difficult (for teams) when we came into the Club and that’s what we have to do now - go back to that. Be hard to beat first and foremost but show our qualities when we get the ball.

“They are down because of the last two results and the position that we’re in. They do care. I see that from what they give every day in training and what they are giving in matches.

“The work ethic I see is there. The numbers that I get from my performance department prove to me that it’s there as well. The thing that’s missing at the moment is keeping clean sheets and making fewer mistakes in the defensive third.

“We’ve put on different training sessions to what we did last week. But that was pretty much to concentrate on ourselves and what we need to do. We’ve worked on some stuff this week about getting the basics right.

“We are in a position that we don’t want to be in and no one expected us to be in. Our job is to get out of it. My job hasn’t changed from eight games to two games. We’re still in the same position as we were.

“If you look at it realistically, it was going to be really difficult to get points from Manchester City and Liverpool, as most teams find during the season. We’ve played Liverpool when their tails have been up. But other games we would have expected to get points and that’s probably why the Fulham one has hurt us the most.”
www.lcfc.com

Matchday With The Manager – Get The Basics Right

Manager Dean Smith’s message to the Leicester City squad this week has been clear – be harder to beat and show your quality.
www.lcfc.com www.lcfc.com
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Comment From BBC Leicester Reporter:

"Its a pity this is not the biggest club in the North East!" 1684780170724.png
 
5 at the back for Leicester - 6 behind the ball!
Its going to be a long night.
If the Skunks score - the floodgates could open.
But you never know.......:unsure:
 
Fully expecting Newcastle to be 2-0 after 20 minutes and the Leicester game plan to be in pieces straight away. Can’t believe they’ve benched Maddison and Barnes.
 
TheYorkshireTerrier said:
Fully expecting Newcastle to be 2-0 after 20 minutes and the Leicester game plan to be in pieces straight away. Can’t believe they’ve benched Maddison and Barnes.
Click to expand...
Unbelievable.
Looks like Dean Smith thinks he can place dustbins in the way of the skunks attack.
No chance.
Grim for Leicester fans.
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Isn’t this Leicester’s 4th Monday night game in a row? How is that fair? Either to their fans (Monday nights are a pain), or to PL integrity (playing ‘last’ every match week when you have important stuff to play for)?
 
Just seeing that stadia all bells and whistles - takes the memory back to the early 80`s when the Leazes End was boarded off and the Gallowgate was open! Wasnt full either!
 
Just to put the curse on it: Leicester appeared to have weathered some dirty tackles and a sight-impaired referee.
5 to go +ET
 
WOW!
That was some clearance off the line.
Some wanted Iverson when he was at Preston.
His mistake, nearly made it 1-0 Skunks.
 
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