Kitchandro

Then I suggest you read what Middlesbrough fans think of him. He’s accused of being too slow and predictable and having no plan B. They’ve gone backwards for 2 seasons and they feel the squad was good enough to finish much higher than teams they’ve finished behind. A firm no to Carrick from me. If he isn’t good enough for them, he’s not good enough for us.

Same, I don’t see the point in letting good rum go to waste. I still have two empty bottles and they have as much sentimental worth as full ones to me.

2 things can be true at once, real life is nuanced. Yes the club is run extremely poorly in almost every aspect. And no, Rodgers was not speaking accurately or honestly when he was claiming he wasn’t backed. In fact it’s obvious to me that we threw all the money we had on him and his scouting ideas, which didn’t pay off and led to our downfall. We did need a refresh - we needed to sack him, Rudkin and Congerton and learn how to scout better players, managers and…scouts. Clearly our recruitment has been horrendous, but no one can say we weren’t backed financially. The issue is we backed fools to spend the money - Rudkin, Rodgers, Congerton, Cooper. My biggest gripe over the last 5 years in the media narrative is that Rodgers got a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, it was the opposite.

We improved with an underperforming side for the first year and then stagnated and declined consistently for 2 and a half years. We were very good in certain games because we had very good players, and in even more games we were bang average and the players would get us out of jail with a moment of magic. The football was generally horrible to watch, people only remember the highlights. How can the best manager we’ve ever had completely destroy the club with negative football, dreadful signings and disrespect? There’s a great argument to say he’s up there with Taylor with the worst we’ve ever had. The trajectory is extremely similar, so why do we not laud Taylor for having us in the top 3 for most of the season yet you do with Rodgers? Personally, I’d have pulled the plug on him as well if he spent that £200m on the players that he did. He was backed to the hilt and deserved no more backing after saddling us with so many poor players and failing to make the top 4. Many managers have got more out of less quality at the club when they joined. Little, O’Neill, Pearson, Claudio. These are our best managers because they got the best out of what they had. Rodgers did the opposite. Rodgers did a Taylor.

And also, just out of respect for everyone - why not just say what’s happening? ‘Ruud will be released from his contract at such-and-such date. We are currently looking for a new long-term replacement’. Just be honest about what’s going on. Let Ruud get on with the res of his life and make it clear you are doing something.

Way earlier. We were in decline for nearly 3 seasons. The Forest hammering away in 2022 (a Championship side!) would have been the final nail at any other club. That was when he invented the ‘not been backed’ myth and started publicly undermining the club. Any self-respecting club would have got rid and realised that he didn’t know how to arrest the slide.

And he’s also on record saying he shinned it. I mean, it’s on the video. Look at the technique. If he hits it cleanly it goes straight at Martin. The flight of the ball doesn’t suggest a clean hit and that’s why the goalkeeper is rooted. If you slow that video down it’s obvious it comes off the bottom of his shin. I’m not taking anything away from the guy but his first reaction was his most accurate one.

He definitely does. Slow down the replay and you can clearly see it comes off the shin just above his boot. You can tell by the way it goes in he didn’t hit it cleanly. He gets his head over the ball and everything but it spins up.

Like you, I’m only really interested in Leicester, maybe the World Cup and Euros cos of the occasion. I just think there’s more to life than football. I’ve spent plenty of time and money on it, seen us in League One and the Champions League. It’s made me frustrated, disillusioned, bored and angry more often than not over the last few years and it’s only gonna get worse. I can never completely get rid of it, and still enjoy talking about it to distract me from uni work. But I won’t be tuning in until there’s something worth tuning in for. Too much wasted time getting annoyed about people who don’t take their jobs or the sport seriously.

lmao. Is that the face he was pulling when he said that ridiculous line? How was anything we did yesterday ‘important’ when we lost 2-0 and were relegated anyway. It’s stuff like this that make people think he’s taking the mick.

Aside from all that, Top…I’d expect a good up and coming manager to want to join us. You know, the kind we’ve done our due diligence on, research into tactics, man management style, references from those who’ve worked with him, even fan opinions from clubs he’s managed. You’re speaking as if we need the manager to be established. We don’t, he can be someone looking for a big break. Loads of managers would want to come here to forge a reputation. Loads. What matters is, do they have a good philosophy and right character. That’s how Pearson and Walsh used to scout players - it’s how we should scout managers.

The opposite, basically. Ideally, I want two essential things: one is pressing to win the ball back (most goals don’t come from playing out the back). Second, and most of all, I want to see is play at a high tempo. That’s what makes the game entertaining and it’s what leads to scoring chances. I want us to play with some cojones like we really want to win, rather than being scared to lose. Have possession, don’t have possession, play it long, pass it short, have inverted full backs, have one up front, two up front, 6 up front - it doesn’t matter. But play with pace and bravery, take calculated risks in pursuit of goals and don’t make everything about your ego or brand. Just play football like you enjoy it and you believe in your own ability. Basically, play like us in 2015/16. I’d also like to add that winning is not the most important thing for me. We’ve won games under some recent managers (Puel, Rodgers and Enzo all had some good runs) but I wasn’t interested in paying to watch any of them. Nonetheless, a high tempo is essential whether you want to win or be entertained.

It’s not just that. The 90s was better than this too. So many more individuals across European football making it exciting. Romario, Ronaldo, Bergkamp, Baggio, Hagi, Laudrup, Recoba to name a few. These sorts of players aren’t allowed to express themselves anymore, dribbling and shooting from distance is largely discouraged. Yes, there’s still technical skill, but not the flair to go with it.

Forest

I think people understand it. It’s just not very effective or entertaining. No matter all this talk of systems, the best group of players will win the division or get promoted more often than not. We went up because of that, not the style. Some teams will always park the bus against the best sides. Playing it around the back 4 for ages is not the only way to break teams down. In fact, it plays into the opposition hands because they can set up deep in a good shape and you aren’t moving them around. It severely limits the amount of chances you are going to create, especially if you fall behind and there’s no reason for them to press you. Breaking teams down is easier when the opposition is knackered chasing a team with loads of movement - and if that fails there’s always actually having a shot and testing the keeper, causing chaos. No one thing works every single time against all opposition. People’s gripe with certain managers is that they pick a slow, boring style of football and stick to it even if it is clearly not working against certain teams. Rope-a-dope tactics are clever when it’s once in a blue moon and they’re not expecting it, but they’re flawed as a go to plan.

Why would any fan want King Power gold all over it? Decent design, wrong colours.

Having possession and being a possession obsessed team aren’t the same. Teams with better players will invariably have higher possession stats and are most likely to get promoted because they have better players. Having higher possession stats because you want higher possession stats is the problem. We had a lot of possession when promoted under Pearson, but our style was dynamic and varied. If we hadn’t got scared to attack part way through the first Prem season we’d have been comfortably top half and our run of form once throwing caution to the wind proved that. I don’t share everyone’s confidence that we’re likely to go up and if I did it would be in spite of the incoming manager. If we’re going up because we’ve got the best players, let’s build something long term that we’ll be comfortable playing in the Premier League. If the players aren’t that great, we need a better tactician anyway. The long and short of it is Martin will breed further apathy and resentment which will never disappear. He cannot succeed here because promotion and even midtable in the Premier League is less exciting than what we remember and the style of football will not protect him when we go on a bad run like it has protected someone like Ange Postecoglou for example.

Or worse, he’ll play them and instruct them not to take risks, ruining them as players. If we’re honest, that’s what it was like under Maresca as well. Even if they’re allowed to take players on, the slow pace means they’re always trying to do it from a standing start with the defenders perfectly in position. It’s often a case of 2-on-1 because there isn’t enough movement or tempo to move defenders around or tire them out. It’s a style that basically nullifies the qualities of pacy wingers for most of the game.

Not closing down is standard for him. Lazy. Sunderland have looked shocking in these 3 games, very fortunate if they go up.

All things that were said about Rodgers because people were too naive to see through him. I can’t believe people are falling for all the empty platitudes again. It’s horrific football and that’s all that matters.

If you mean it’s this simplistic then I don’t think that’s true. There’s a good percentage of fans that have watched enough football to know what works and what doesn’t with a certain group of players, they’re just not very articulate on the whole. Besides, football really isn’t that complicated. The fact remains that you can’t score goals without ‘getting it forward’ and you can’t win games without scoring goals. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know if you’re passing it around the back with no urgency, at some point you’re going to need to get it forward to cause a threat. This is what I mean when I talk about Martin. Yes, like Rodgers, he ‘speaks well’ which gives the impression of tactical nous. But there’s no substance there, they don’t understand playing the percentages, they don’t consider how most goals are actually scored, and few of them appreciate the importance of tempo and movement off the ball. These are very basic aspects that are also some of the most important and central considerations in English football tactics. Yet many managers ignore them. The average fan is as tactically astute, about their own team at least, as most managers are. Managers are by and large just ex-players, that doesn’t qualify them as tacticians.

No he doesn’t. That’s the point. We’ve tried giving people a chance. This time I want to see just one competent decision before I give someone the benefit of the doubt. After the last 4 managers I’m no longer giving an inch. If they’re not interested in entertaining people in the slightest, I’m opposing them from minute one. Martin is in that category.

Stoke away?

Nah I’ll just not watch, cheers. Life is too short.

Relieved to see Vards score. Ndidi is allergic to passing forwards and too lazy to run back. Useless and has been for years.