Saturday 10th February - Man City 5-1 Leicester

[Happy Blue]

4 hours ago, Cannabis said:

And we're not bottom . Seriously though, the standard this year is terrible and just imagine if Burnley hung onto 7th and went into the Europe League? Would be an awful advertisment for English football.

Burnley have the makings of a good team, check them out on Fifa17 I won the CL with them 

[Inverted]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

I disagree. 

Schmeichel is better than Mignolet and I don't even think that's a biased view either. 

Mignolet's reputation is there because of how many errors he has made though? So obviously that will follow him around?

Yeah it's hard to say Schmeichel isn't a bit better but what I mean is that they're in roughly the same group: upper-mid-table level goalies with some clear strengths but also glaring weaknesses. 

Mignolet has made a lot more obvious errors partly because he's playing outside his stylistic comfort zone. He's not got the consistency, positioning or technical ability to play season after season for a world-class team that asks you pass it out and defend a high line. 

Neither does Schmeichel ultimately, and yet some Liverpool fans are convinced he'd be worth signing. I've even seen United fans say they'd like him if De Gea leaves, which is even more mad.

Schmeichel is a really good keeper but he's not in the tier that CL clubs shop at these days. Mignolet on the other hand, is not an awful keeper. He's good enough to play for a mid-table premier league team, but he too just isn't a top-4 goalie. 

When a player is playing at the right level for them, they'll look better. That's what I'm trying to say. 

[Dan+]

Schmeichel's had a poor season for me. He was one of our best players last year but he's been guilty of a few errors this season and yesterday was a joke performance from him. I had a horrible feeling he was going to do that for the 4th as well, one of those where he can't decide if to play it short or long so ends up completely fucking it up.

Maguire as well I thought was terrible. He gets shown up at times in our side with the way he plays. Not saying I'd drop him for Huth or Morgan but they were a lot more reliable defensively. Dragovic continues to impress and I thought he played well yesterday despite being part of a defence that shipped five. It wasn't his fault at all. I'm starting to think he's our best defender.

[Dan+]

For what it's worth, I think Schmeichel is better than Mignolet, but I can completely see where Inverted is coming from on this.

[Dan+]

5 hours ago, Inverted said:

Yeah it's hard to say Schmeichel isn't a bit better but what I mean is that they're in roughly the same group: upper-mid-table level goalies with some clear strengths but also glaring weaknesses. 

Mignolet has made a lot more obvious errors partly because he's playing outside his stylistic comfort zone. He's not got the consistency, positioning or technical ability to play season after season for a world-class team that asks you pass it out and defend a high line. 

Neither does Schmeichel ultimately, and yet some Liverpool fans are convinced he'd be worth signing. I've even seen United fans say they'd like him if De Gea leaves, which is even more mad.

Schmeichel is a really good keeper but he's not in the tier that CL clubs shop at these days. Mignolet on the other hand, is not an awful keeper. He's good enough to play for a mid-table premier league team, but he too just isn't a top-4 goalie. 

When a player is playing at the right level for them, they'll look better. That's what I'm trying to say. 

I think it can work both ways as well. Look at Maguire for us. He gets caught out a fair bit trying to play the way he does and yet in my eyes if he went to play for Man City, he'd be a better fit, and they'd be able to compensate for what he does better than we do.

[Danny]

Mignolet plays for a big club who are chasing silverware so any error he makes will be chastised whereas Schmiechel plays for a smaller club with no expectations other than not to get relegated so no one will care about his mistakes because he is good at the level Leicester need him to be.

If Mignolet played for Leicester he'd get better press because everyone's expectations of a goalkeeper at Leicester City would be met.

[Stan]

'no expectations other than not to get relegated' 

What a laugh. Not like we're trying to get in to Europe or anything like that. 

[Burning Gold]

4 hours ago, Stan said:

'no expectations other than not to get relegated' 

What a laugh. Not like we're trying to get in to Europe or anything like that. 

Difference between expectations and ambitions, mate. I'm sure you'll be disappointed if you don't manage it, but there won't be a great deal of surprise among the wider football public

[Dan+]

17 hours ago, Danny said:

Mignolet plays for a big club who are chasing silverware so any error he makes will be chastised whereas Schmiechel plays for a smaller club with no expectations other than not to get relegated so no one will care about his mistakes because he is good at the level Leicester need him to be.

If Mignolet played for Leicester he'd get better press because everyone's expectations of a goalkeeper at Leicester City would be met.

That's incredibly harsh if you're being serious.

[Danny]

3 minutes ago, Dan said:

That's incredibly harsh if you're being serious.

To the general public it's true, no one expects you to finish top 4, no one expects you to get relegated. No one really cares about midtable enough to put an expectation on it

[Dan+]

16 hours ago, Danny said:

To the general public it's true, no one expects you to finish top 4, no one expects you to get relegated. No one really cares about midtable enough to put an expectation on it

I agree people aren't expecting us to get top four but I think we've clearly demonstrated in the last few years that we're happy to do more than just survive.

[RandoEFC+]

Only the top 6 and maybe Everton have any business believing they "should" finish above Leicester. Their expectation is aim for 7th and hope it's a Europa League spot, similar to Everton. The other 12 teams you could say their only ambition is to stay up.

[Dan+]

On 2/13/2018 at 21:09, Cannabis said:

The title win has distorted what Leicester fans probably expect but they're no mugs. If they were to be relegated it would be a massive surprise and on that basis they should be aiming for higher than that. For me they're not European contenders but they're top 10 for sure and considering what dross is in the league at the moment being top 10 should probably spark conversations about going that bit further and hitting the Europa League.

I do think it has a bit to be honest. I see some reactions after we get beaten by Manchester City and it's meltdown. I do think what happened in 2016 has made any kind of defeat hurt more than it should in theory. It was quite hard to take so soon after winning the league watching us getting routinely battered away from home, but at the same time Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool etc... beating us comfortably shouldn't be a huge surprise either.

When I see some of our fans calling for Puel to go after losing to Man City I do think that it's gone to some people's heads. We aren't doing badly under him, at all. For someone who has come in and wants to transform the way we play, he's done well to take us as high as he has done.

But at the same time the league is largely dross this year. The way the Everton fans on here have gone on about their side, yet they still sit in 9th, kind of testifies that.

I think for us realistically in terms of league position, the real rival is Everton. Everton having such a poor year has opened up that 7th spot to the others, with us and Burnley looking the favourites, though saying that no-one's really grabbing it by the scruff of the neck. Burnley are in pretty terrible form really and I think they're probably going to end up 9th.

It's been a big help for all of us that Southampton have been so poor. They were another side I'd have put in this category but they've had a terrible season. The next contender is probably Bournemouth.

 

On 2/14/2018 at 20:18, RandoEFC said:

Only the top 6 and maybe Everton have any business believing they "should" finish above Leicester. Their expectation is aim for 7th and hope it's a Europa League spot, similar to Everton. The other 12 teams you could say their only ambition is to stay up.

That I agree with, and is a fair assessment.

[MUFC]

On 19/02/2018 at 01:58, Dan said:

I do think it has a bit to be honest. I see some reactions after we get beaten by Manchester City and it's meltdown. I do think what happened in 2016 has made any kind of defeat hurt more than it should in theory. It was quite hard to take so soon after winning the league watching us getting routinely battered away from home, but at the same time Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool etc... beating us comfortably shouldn't be a huge surprise either.

When I see some of our fans calling for Puel to go after losing to Man City I do think that it's gone to some people's heads. We aren't doing badly under him, at all. For someone who has come in and wants to transform the way we play, he's done well to take us as high as he has done.

But at the same time the league is largely dross this year. The way the Everton fans on here have gone on about their side, yet they still sit in 9th, kind of testifies that.

I think for us realistically in terms of league position, the real rival is Everton. Everton having such a poor year has opened up that 7th spot to the others, with us and Burnley looking the favourites, though saying that no-one's really grabbing it by the scruff of the neck. Burnley are in pretty terrible form really and I think they're probably going to end up 9th.

It's been a big help for all of us that Southampton have been so poor. They were another side I'd have put in this category but they've had a terrible season. The next contender is probably Bournemouth.

 

That I agree with, and is a fair assessment.

Good points made.