Taken off transfer list
http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...ger-a-reprieve
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Taken off transfer list
http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...ger-a-reprieve
http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/in...layer-ratings/
A lot of praise and MOTM calls from Leicester fans. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Bamba returns. At the moment a lot of them seem happy with Mills and SSL and wouldn't mind if Bamba was sold! Hopefully SSL can keep his place and keeps impressing as the opposition gets harder.
They were reported to be interested in Wes Morgan from Notts Forest. Good to see to has seemed to have settled his differences.
A big turn around at Leicester it seems with 5 million summer signing, captain and formerly first name on the team sheet, center half Matt Mills coming close to being drummed out of the place to Leeds on loan after dodgy form and rumours of 'unrest' in the dressing room : http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/in.../page__st__560 and up along the rails comes SSL, who at present has his own appreciation thread running after looking like he was on his way to Ipswich in January. has really won fans over in the last few weeks, http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/in...ean-st-ledger/
God forbid, but if Dunne were to relapse or have a set back there would be a lot on this mans shoulders in the summer, has been helped by Erickson getting sacked, he was the muppet who paid 5 mil + for Mills and made him captain so couldn't drop him, but fair play to SSL for turning it round.
St. Ledger starting at right back against Birmingham tonight to accommodate a Bamba-Wes Morgan centre half partnership, can't recall seeing him play there before (though he might've and I just can't remember). He's done OK so far, very comfortable on the ball.
Pretty sure he's played at full-back in the past.Quote:
Originally Posted by theworm2345
Seems the height of Zigic for Birmingham may have been the reason the the taller central pairing tonight. Looks to have worked with Zigic subbed on the hour. Don't remember him playing RB before but he did brilliantly despite a first half booking, according to the player ratings here http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/in...m/page__st__20Quote:
Originally Posted by theworm2345
"Sean: Pole axe’s are not Trapattoni's fault": http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...nis-fault.html
Some very positive comments from St. Ledger there. Great commitment.Quote:
St Ledger, 27, said: “There were people who didn’t show up in the summer.
“If you look at the bigger picture, they wouldn’t have thought that we would be going to a European Championship and they’re the ones who are missing out now.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and for the sake of a few weeks you could be going to a European Championships. That couple of weeks’ sacrifice is nothing compared to what is about to happen this summer.
“It is a huge honour to play for your country against quality teams like Italy.
“I want to play football and this career doesn’t last forever — about 15 years — and I want to try and maximise it.
“We are lucky to do a job that we love. Sometimes you do need a break but you get that break in the summer.
“The managers are sensible and can give you an extra couple of weeks maybe, so I’ll turn up every time.”
Oddly, the piece names Ciaran Clark (along with McCarthy, Wilson, Stokes and Folan) as a player who "infuriated" Trap with a "no-show". Is this true? :/
Another piece on St. Ledger by Emmet Malone from Wednesday Irish Times; "St Ledger eager to repay Trapattoni's faith in him": http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...315455182.html
Quote:
With Ireland his status as Richard Dunne’s partner at the heart of the team’s defence is fairly assured at present and the prospect of testing himself against players he normally only sees on TV has been exciting him in recent weeks as Poland and the Euros really started to loom large.
“It’s weird,” he says, “because after Estonia it seemed so far away but now it’s two or three weeks away from meeting up. The excitement is unreal. The hardest thing will be the week training before it, the anticipation of going into a tournament. It will really sink in when we get to Poland. It was so far away but now it’s so close.
“I am watching in detail. You have got Jelavic at Everton and he is scoring goals at the moment. I am watching him to see what he is all about. He has come to the Premier League and done very well.
“And Torres is hitting form. I know that much. We played against him a couple of weeks ago in the FA Cup. He wasn’t bad, like. Everyone is pleased for him. He has worked hard and people have written him off too early. He is showing the form at the moment that Chelsea paid that money for.
“I’m looking forward to it. These are the kind of players you want to play against.”
Keep them quiet and Pearson might well appreciate him a little more next season but a more immediate concern is to repay the faith that Trapattoni has shown since handing him his debut against Nigeria at Craven Cottage less than three years ago.
“He has had a lot of belief in me. I didn’t get a call-up for a long time and you start to ask yourself: ‘Am I going to get back in the squad?’ Fortunately, I played in the friendly and I got back in from there.
“That’s down to him because my club form, when I was at Middlesbrough and Preston, wasn’t great and he could have left me out. But when you have a manager who has faith in you it makes you believe in yourself a bit more.”
He has, to be fair, worked hard for the Italian, taking on board everything that the veteran coach has asked of him and simply being there sometimes when some, Trapattoni felt, got their priorities wrong.
Hard to say, about levels of infuriation, did some 'no shows' infuriate Trap more than others? but it does support the contention that Trap will go for the players (in the Euro squad) who turned up, in preference to the players who didn't, particularly Wilson and McCarthy. Wilson has a valid enough football ability case to be alongside Ward in the squad. In McCarthy's case, Trap appears to be a more conciliatory - if you keep turning up then your time will come.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Sol Bamba is off to Trabzonspor. Good news for the Doc.
Indeed, and Mat Mills, club captain and £5 million plus, signing of a year ago looks to be Bolton bound, but the Doc remains. Signings imminent also though if you believe all that's written.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
He needs to be getting game time at was high a level as possible. I think Dunne and O'Shea could be the centre backs from now on. Are John O'shea's days as a fullback over.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
Yes. He hasn't really performed too well there for a long while.
Thats very true, but defo not a reason to move him into CB.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
Should that be a reason to move him to CB but it's not a reason to drop the doc.
he's bee equally poor for us at CB. the doc has been one of our best players over the last 4 years.
Let's not get carried away with ourselves. He has established himself as an automatic player under Trapattoni's leadership but he is far from a key player for us. His place in the team is more a reflection of our shortage of options at CB rather than his on field performances.Quote:
Originally Posted by the bear
Mills gone to Bolton.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18503575
but doesnt the fact that we have limited cb options make him a key player? always plays when available so i think that makes him a key player. rarely lets us down and has popped up with at least 3 important goalsQuote:
Originally Posted by ifk101
Good point well made.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbyrne
I think the media and many fans are over reacting after the Euros.
We are not a bad team, we lost to the 2 finalists, yes we didn't perform to our normal levels but the teams we played never allowed us to.
As for the many players being touted to come in well are they any better than what we have? I doubt it!
The grass isnt always greener, (no Paul Green jokes please!)as we all know.
I honestly believe we have a strong enough squad to be challenging for the runners up spot in our WC qualifying group.
Realistically Germany should win it with us, Sweden and Austria pushing for runners up.
If we could nick a point off the Germans them who knows.
In Trapp I trust and do should you.
Why is Austria pushing for second place realistic? They have a young talented team but they have been nowhere close to qualifying for years and even slipped down a pot in this year's draw. We showed with Armenia we are capable of taking 6 points from sides like that, and I would expect us to do so again.
Set plays are important to us and we regularly use our defenders as the focal point for these set plays. The goals the doc has scored for us are all very similar, scored at the back post. Another example of this is Stephen Ward. If you look at the two goals Stephen Ward has scored for us they are basically identical. The point is that is you replace the doc in the team with say Darren O'Dea it would be Darren O'Dea popping up at the back post to score those goals.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbyrne
Yes we don't have many options at CB but there's a couple of players coming through and hopefully Dunne will stick around for a while more.
i only added on the 3 goals as an add-on. my main point is that he is a regular for us and therefore one of our key players. his standrad or otherwise is a separate issueQuote:
Originally Posted by ifk101
I actually have every confidence in St. Ledger and think he can play at a higher level than Leicester. At the Croatia game I was impressed by how he won his early battles, whereas Dunne lost his.
Just for what it's worth I think Sledge's goals would not be simply replaced by someone like O'Dea. I think he has a good instinct in attacking areas, like John Terry has. Some CBs have it, some don't - and I'd tend to include Dunne in the latter despite his Bulgaria and Armenia goals. Maybe my opinion is tainted by that very late chance he missed in Stuttgart in 2006, but I think Dunne has a fair few similar misses at club level too. The only classic CB type goal I can recall from O'Dea was against rangers in a Scottish League Cup Final. Moran and McGrath were good at scoring important goals from CB too.
He's scored more important goals for us than Keith Andrews.
The teams we played never allowed us to. Thats the whole point. We were absoloutley outclassed. By playing in that system and surrendering possesion so easily we will continue to be completly overun any time we meet a good technical side. Even not so good technical sides like Armenia and Macedonia gave us the run around for spells.Quote:
Originally Posted by the doc
Whats the point in sticking with a flawed system when we could try and better ourselves and yes there are quite clearly better technical players available then what has been picked in the past.
Yes obviously Germany will be strong favourites for the group and even if we keep faith with Traps system we will stand a could chance with competing with Sweden and the rest but we will once again be completly outclassed by real footballing teams so why not adapt and try and improve ourselves.
Saying that another CB would of scored the Docs goals in his place is crazy. If we had of played David Connolly in evry match Keane played would he now have 50 odd goals?Quote:
Originally Posted by ifk101
That goal against croatia was very well taken, the way he muscled the defender out of the way and got around the other side of the ball as it was whipped in. Very few defenders show that sort of anticipation and desire to get on the end of a cross.
i would defo say he is one of our most important players of the last 4 years. can you name 5 players who have been better than him in the last 2 campaigns? I can't
Quote:
Originally Posted by the doc
Serious ? I realize your spot is precious and all the eleven will want things to remain, that's the nature of the game, nobody ever wants to be dropped. Or carry the can. But are you offering that there is no role for people like, Wilson, McCarthy, Gibson, McClean and Long for example, all guys playing regularly at a high level already with their best years ahead and improvement still to come you would also expect.
No integration of the players who will most likely represent the core of the side in the future. Great stuff Doc. Insightful.
SSL went off injured after a heavy tackle tonight early reports bad knee injury.
Now confirmed on the LCFC official siteQuote:
Originally Posted by the doc
Our Future Captain out for 6-8 weeks!
Looks like Sledge will be getting some game time tomorrow night.
https://twitter.com/seanstledger12/s...86829200732160
St Ledger played the full game against Burton, a game Leicester lost 4-2. St Ledger gave away the free kick that lead to the opening goal. He also gave away the penalty that made it 3-1 to Burton.
Disaster waiting to happen in a green jerseyQuote:
Originally Posted by ifk101
Some people been waiting a long time for a SSL disaster and it's yet to happen.
And at least he bothers to wear the green jersey.
It is likely St Ledger will be a squad player for his club again this season, a mid-table Championship club. If he's not getting his game at club level, he is coming into internationals lacking match sharpness. Some people dismiss this as sure he's always done it for us in the green (a gross generalisation btw). Others see it as a potential weak spot in the team.
The way Leicester have been defending so far this season, he's as likely as anyone to earn a starting place.
Don't think anybody has dismissed it. Everyone would like Irish players to be starters for their team, naturally. But people have been throwing poo at the wall re St Ledger since cap zero and it's natural people would start to roll their eyes if, after 30 fairly distinguished caps, hardly any of it has stuck.Quote:
Originally Posted by ifk101
Likewise when he does make a make a mistake, the 'I told you so' crowing should be greeted with the derision it deserves. I'm fairly sickened by the indefatigable patience of some Irish fans when it comes to waiting for a player to fail. This is considerably different, and considerably more poisonous, than spotting a 'potential weak spot in the team'.
If people simply took club form into account we'd be kicking Dunne out of the squad for good instead of begging him to come back.
Taking club form, international reputation, squad familiarity and alternatives into account, St Ledger is rightly a starter for now. Personally I think he should come under pressure from O'Shea, because I'd rather not have JOS at RB ever again.
It's too early in the season to be drawing conclusion about the quality of Leicester's defending so far this season but Leicester conceded 4 goals (at home) against League Two opposition (with St Ledger in the team) and they've conceded 4 goals in their 3 league games to date (without St Ledger in the team). 4 goals in 3 league games ranks them in mid-table on the goals conceded list so far. Pretty consistent with a team expected to mid-table come the season's end and nothing extraordinarily bad or poor. With their manager saying that last night's performance wasn't good enough, and also saying players didn't take their chance to impress, it is likely he is going to make changes to his team for the next league game. As St Ledger was "at fault" for two of the Burton goals last night, his position in the team is more likely to be at risk.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Leicester were one of the favourites for promotion I thought?
With Leicester fans anyways.