Dick’s post-Leicester Advochaat: And what can we learn from today….?

John McCormick writes: I spent the afternoon in Whiston Hospital, a phone and internet free zone, so I had no idea of what was happening at Leicester. So far so good, you might think, but as we drove up, just as the teams came out, I thought back to the last time I was there. We were taken apart by a Liverpool team that ran at a poor defence and popped in three goals before we knew what had happened.

I hoped history wouldn’t repeat itself, but it looks like it did.
 

Dick's chaat, by Jake
Dick’s chaat, by Jake


In those days it was “Martin’s musings” and our then manager said Liverpool were too strong for us and deserved to win the game.. In the three (is it only three) managers since has anything changed? Here’s what our latest leader says, in his letter to Colin and maybe one or two others…

Leicester 4 Sunderland 2

Dear Colin,

It was very disappointing, but Leicester were the better side, especially in the first half.

They took their chances and made the most of the possession that they had.

We were caught out and made mistakes that a team shouldn’t be making at this level.

We have to learn from this. I thought we looked a little more organised in the second half with [Steven] Fletcher up front.

There was no sharpness and the speed of the game was very slow, when the other team had the ball they were much quicker.

If you’re looking for positives, it’s that both strikers scored a goal.

I’m extremely disappointed for the fans, they came down to back us in their numbers and that was not a great performance for them.

Jake: 'phew - only 4-2'
Jake: ‘phew – only 4-2’

Thanks for your support,

Dick Advocaat

8 thoughts on “Dick’s post-Leicester Advochaat: And what can we learn from today….?”

  1. We looked slow, under prepared and without a plan, after that performance I sincerely hope a serious lesson has been learnt. We had better players on the bench.

  2. In hindsight it was a mistake to go with two centre halves that haven’t played much football the last few months. It’s not without hindsight to say O’Shea should be our first choice. The midfield was dreadful, but the defence wouldn’t have been so badly organised.

    Dick doesn’t panic, he sorted it out after Crystal Palace and he’ll do so again. Kaboul will play better, let’s be honest he has to but it might take him a few games. We need M’Vila to make a big difference to our midfield. It’s early days, we’ll beat better sides than Leicester mark my words.

  3. OMG. What can we learn? Well, Sunderland always Implode. That is for sure. I was due in Bristol to attend a colleagues wedding. Then I saw the result.

    Now I start to claw back the comments. Yes, the people who say we have (yet again recruited badly take affect). But there is more to this than meets the eye.

    Give them a chance at home. They deserve it and you know it. If they screw up, that is their demise. But, give them that. I mean, even Fletch found the net today.

    2 Home games, and then decide.

    • Fair enough Robin and we will . Problem is their confidence at the back if they ever had any is shot to smithereens . Does Advocaat revert back to O’Shea or even Brown next week ? What does that say about our preparation and recruitment , everything we’ve secretly feared but didn’t want to admit . A truely worrying non performance so similar to the regular capitulations of last season . I don’t like 4-3-3 either , I thought it was as much the desperation of the players not to get relegated that saw us through at the death last season as the system , but Advocaat is a good manager . Hopefully we can take advantage of the two home games coming up ,but if we play like last season don’t bet on it , we were abysmal at home .

  4. Yes, it wasn’t great. First half was poor for the 14 minutes it took Leicester to take a depressing lead, but initially we looked more dangerous and some of the officiating was diabolical, again! I’ll start to worry if the 2 home games show no improvement.

  5. “It was very disappointing”
    No, it was disgusting

    “but Leicester were the better side”
    Why were they the better side. It was bloody LEICESTER, for god’s sake!

    “They took their chances and made the most of the possession that they had”
    Why didn’t we take our chances?

    “We were caught out and made mistakes…”
    Why were we caught out? Why are we always making mistakes?

    “…that a team shouldn’t be making at this level.”
    No, they shouldn’t! So why are they making them?

    “We have to learn from this.”
    Aren’t we supposed to know this stuff already? How long are we going to have to keep learning?

    “I thought we looked a little more organised in the second half”
    We could hardly have been less

    “There was no sharpness and the speed of the game was very slow,”
    There’s very seldom any sharpness. Why is that?

    “when the other team had the ball they were much quicker”
    And why is that? On paper, they’re no better than us. So why were they so much better on grass?

    “If you’re looking for positives…”
    Or a needle in a haystack
    ,
    “…it’s that both strikers scored a goal.”
    While the defence ran around like chickens with their heads cut off and Cattermole gave up a stupid penalty

    “I’m extremely disappointed for the fans”
    That makes us feel SO much better

    “They came down to back us in their numbers”
    As they always do

    “and that was not a great performance for them”
    Not a great performance. Does anyone know how to say “understatement” in Dutch?

    • According to Google Translate, it’s “verklaring beneden de waarheid.” I expect we’ll be hearing quite a lot of it in the coming weeks. And I expect it’ll wear pretty thin pretty quickly.

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