Kitchandro

Today’s games have been shocking but I’ve watched play-offs for many years and they are usually by far the most exciting thing in football. There have been many, many classic 2-legged semi finals so asking for a change in system just because of today is rash. This has more to do with modern football’s obsession with coaches like Russell Martin (also Rodgers, Enzo, etc) and their rigid styles of play that take all the joy out the game. I’m personally a fan of away goals (it would encourage Leeds and Southampton to have been more adventurous today) but there have been loads of great semi-finals without it.

Retiring numbers is shite. There was a time when we thought no one would live up to Gordon Banks. Or Arthur Chandler (who’s still our record goal scorer btw). Any striker who wears number 9 should be reminded ‘that’s Jamie Vardy’s number’. I keep saying how important it is to inspire players instead of telling them they can’t ever be that good.

Offside possible but too close to give, not a foul. Adams tries to lean into Faes and falls over as a result.

Much better until we scored but still ponderous in the final third. Now we’ve scored we’re playing like a lower league team in the third round again. These are there for the taking if we just had a bit more belief.

I disagree, if you can’t see that there’s an issue with fans being able to celebrate a 121st minute winner only for it to be disallowed 2 minutes later, I don’t know what to say. That has always been the issue. Decisions will be correct sometimes and incorrect other times regardless of whether VAR is used. The offside law is also really poor. Why not the whole body instead of any part of it?

Even when this thread was started it was hilarious. A large chunk of our Premier League title winning team, a superior style that got the best out of Vardy in his 20s, and a Pearson mentality. Against this lot? Don’t get me wrong, individually we’re ok, but as a functioning team we don’t compete in the slightest with 2014. That was arguably the greatest 2nd tier side of all time. I think people just don’t realise how much weaker this league is now. 10-15 years ago English football had so much more strength in depth.

I see a lot of people saying his problem is he doesn’t have a plan B and can’t adapt, but I don’t agree at all. The problem is his plan A is terrible. We do have players that have some talents, even in the division above, but the game plan negates all of these qualities and gives players less confidence. For example, wingers should be in the team to run at players and make key passes and shots. But they rarely get the opportunity to isolate a defender 1 v 1. The opposition can sit deep and put 2 men on Fatawu and Mavididi when they get the ball, making it extremely difficult for them to skin defenders, because the defenders know the other Leicester players are static and they can afford to focus on them. The ball isn’t being moved quick enough either, so the defenders are never being pulled out of position. People need to realise that high possession is a by product of other things in good teams (winning the ball back quickly, quality passing, someone always being available to receive a pass due to good movement, more talented individuals that cost £80m each, the opposition being afraid to push up) but they are not good teams because they have possession. Like too many managers Maresca doesn’t understand this basic principle. 80% of goals are scored within 3 passes. The easiest way to score is to put defenders in difficult positions - overloads, quick transitions, forcing mistakes with pressing, killer passes (yes there’s a risk of losing the ball with those) and, amazingly, shooting! Playing back to front through 11 defenders is the hardest way to score. In fact, on the subject of myths, even long balls are not the enemy of beautiful, effective football that they are made out to be. Mahrez, Drinkwater and Albrighton used to play long early balls all the time, because it played to our strengths. Defenders weren’t organised, Vardy was rapid and we had the self-belief to throw support up there with him and play the percentages. It was exciting and effective and why - because it was intelligent football. Defenders make mistakes, you have to make them uncomfortable by taking risks. You might lose the ball a few times, but when you get it right the rewards are are so much greater. If we did that with largely inferior players in a superior division, you cannot tell me that this squad in this division would not smash this league if the players were taught to have a bit of belief in themselves. If this club has any hope it has got to get this myth out of its mind. The style of football we have (mostly) watched since 2016 has been dreadful. Players should be passing the ball with accuracy - but to do that they need more room for error. The permission to make mistakes in less critical areas (instead of front of your own box like we fancy) is essential in becoming good at anything. And we will not make the most of the possession we have unless we are backing ourselves to force the opposition into a mistake - rather than waiting for them to make a mistake. Letting a defence get organised and then trying to thread the ball through the eye of a needle is brainless, common sense tells you it makes it harder for you.

Basically I just feel like football is a very simple game when you have decent players relative to the opposition and we’ve had years and years of managers trying to complicate it. What Millwall wanted us to do tonight was pass it slowly, start moves from as far back as possible and have rigid positions with no movement (let alone intelligent movement) off the ball. Because that’s easy to defend against. Why do we choose to play a style of football that makes it easier for the opposition and harder for us to create chances?

No. We’ve been poor from minute one because from minute one we’ve moved the ball too slowly and had no movement off the ball. Millwall have got in our faces and we have been asking each individual player to do something special with the ball under that sort of pressure. It’s basic stuff. Good management is giving the player on the ball more options by pulling defenders around with good movement off the ball and moving the ball quickly so defenders cannot get set and mark everyone easily. We’d be better off being like Millwall - aggressive. There is no substitute for aggression and tempo, regardless of individual quality.

I don’t agree with this at all. Put Klopp in charge of this team and we never see another performance like yesterday again. We win the league no problem. Most managers don’t make that much of a difference because most managers are not very good - they are just ex-players or mates with successful managers. A truly good manager (rare) makes a huge difference, it’s just there are so many poor ones.

It’s similar to watching England. You can’t just turn up at the sharp end of a season / tournament and turn up the intensity just because you need to. We are being massively overcoached like we were under Puel and Rodgers. Every time one of our players gets the ball they look like they are thinking about it instead of playing with a bit of freedom and flair. They are scared to take risks in the opposition’s half but not so in their own box - it’s inexplicable thinking. It’s the same old story, individual quality getting us through a portion of the season despite the tactics not playing to anyone’s strengths. Eventually the players lose confidence because the manager is essentially telling them not to have faith in their natural ability. ‘Don’t shoot, don’t try to skin that defender, don’t look for the early pass that was so successful for this club in 2015/16 - just keep the ball because you aren’t good enough to win by being positive’. The reality is it’s too easy to play against teams that move the ball slowly. No good teams do that.

I’m still convinced we’d have finished in the top 4. Ranieri changed the style of play to compensate for him leaving, and that was our biggest downfall.

I never really warmed to him and I don’t get people being emotional about him leaving. He’s not really the sort of player that endears himself to fans. Good player, maybe lacking the mentality to play for one of the top sides or for England. No doubt he will get a few more caps now he’s at Spurs though.

That would be a welcome improvement from happy clapping the boring, sideways passing. Still, hope springs eternal. I like knowing very little about our new manager, predicting our decline has become tiresome.

Pep plays a high tempo aggressive game off the ball, that is massively different to Rodgers in that respect. On the ball you may be correct. We need to play like a Klopp (or Rranieri!) team. That is English football.