Kitchandro

We remind me of Hodgson’s England in that last 10 minutes, can’t even control the ball. Cifuentes is well under pressure if we lose this.

You see I agree with most of the points in these posts but I just don’t get the arguments in bold. They are two separate things. I can see the squad is average and that owner and board are awful and all this. I’m very vocally against the owners. I can also see we have a few talented players that, coached correctly, are very good at this level and can make a difference. I can see when our tactics are going to be ineffective even with better players. I can see equally average and worse squads playing better football than us. I just don’t see why two things can’t be true at the same time. He might have been the best-known or most experienced manager we could attract. But best manager we could attract? Nah. We just don’t scout managers who fit what we need in terms of style of play and personality. Which is another major flaw of the owners, so it’s not letting them off the hook.

I do understand their way of reasoning but what it comes down to is a lack of critical thinking skills. These people are billionaires, they aren’t giving more than they are taking from communities. The one that really irks me is this idea that we won the league because of them - if that were the case then we wouldn’t have been such a memorable story. Why do your family members think it was so special, for neutrals as well as us? Our first 11 cost about £20 million and no other manager would have won us that title, yet Ranieri gets almost no credit (even on here). It was a combination of Pearson & Walsh (squad building) and Ranieri (tactics / mentality), not investment, that made the crucial difference. I’m not grateful to KP in the slightest, it’s all circumstance on their part, not genius or philanthropy.

I’m not saying the players aren’t arrogant and don’t have an attitude problem, nor that I rate all of them. But that is a separate discussion as to whether we should have hired a manager and if he’s the right fit for the club. There is no evidence available that suggests Cifuentes would play a positive, high-tempo attacking style with a different group of players. So whether the players are intentionally ignoring him isn’t really relevant. And the fact he’s unable to motivate them like Enzo did is relevant, because despite the fact I did not like his style of football, he DID motivate much of this same bunch of lazy, arrogant players. So it is possible.

Sorry, I don’t agree. None of the managers we’ve hired had a reputation for high intensity before or after their time here. When we are chasing the game, all of a sudden you see intensity and we improve. That evidence suggests that the managers aren’t committed to a high press high intensity philosophy, either because they’re cowards or because they aren’t bright enough to see how important it is. On the rare occasions we start with tempo, it drops off. So that might be an attitude problem, but it’s not the only problem.

Other teams have shit players, doesn’t mean a team can’t play with purpose and intensity. We have lacked this for years because we don’t hire a manager who demands it.

I don’t want to read people saying the squad is poor after that. We bossed them in the first half and clearly have some quality at this level. There’s no reason that shouldn’t have carried on. I can’t say whether it’s all the manager or if the players are just bad eggs but the mentality is all wrong. The players look like they have no motivation to be here at all. The 2nd half was pathetic again, and the Soumare for James sub was inexcusable.

Daka’s first touch costing us again

He has the option of not making the sub, they’re not obliged to. How is Soumare going to be better than James?

Some of these subs, god. Does he just use a randomiser to decide who comes on and off?

We deserve to be in front, we’ve been positive.

Completely disagree, and Emery finished in the top 4 with a weaker group of players than we had under Rodgers. Not that the comparison is relevant in the slightest. Emery hasn’t intentionally bled the club dry, called us a shit club, frozen out players for his own arrogance, changed the style of play for his own arrogance even when it was working, brought in his own scout to make signings that have brought the club to its knees, etc.

All of that was in the first few games. We fell off a cliff after the initial bounce and got hammered at home by Spurs, which should have been the signal that it was in fact just a new manager bounce and nothing to do with his management. I said that at the time, and keeping him on was just another of those decisions the club makes that was purely done because it was the easiest, laziest thing to do.

Same one I was going to say, I thought Wes would be a horrific signing.

This is delusional. If we’re a ‘better all round side’ then we’ll win games like they’re winning them. Until then and whilst we’re below them in the league, they’re better than us. Maybe they had an off day against us. If 95% of this league are crap low block sides and we can’t break them down, well then we aren’t a very good team are we.

But our failings as a club are just as much about the boring style of football as they are about the crap players. People are bored. Even when we were promoted two seasons ago no one remembers it fondly. Even though purely on finishing positions we did well under Rodgers, and even Puel, no one remembers it fondly. And it wasn’t about the players then because we had an excellent squad. This shite football has been going on for nearly 10 years with only short bursts of the promise of entertainment. That’s why managers like Marti will get little leeway. I personally think we are about (or slightly above) where I would have thought we’d be in this league, though I think we will fall away below the play-offs. Yes, our squad is average for this league when you take attitude into account. But we’ve got a few very exciting attacking players for this division - we shouldn’t be having 1 shot on target per game. You don’t need great players all over the pitch to play exciting attacking football. Even Holloway managed that at this level with Blackpool and DJ Campbell up front.

He’ll be sacked within 18 months after failing to get promoted and remaining mediocre. I want him to do well but let’s be honest, you can tell very early on if a manager has positive tactical ideas. If everyone is bored already (including the players) then it’s not gonna work out for him. Bringing in new players won’t pick up the tempo or cause the manager to make positive subs.

Well, it does matter, those are separate issues and disliked for reasons other than simply the volume of noise.

Without trying to focus on specific decisions too much, I’m not really sure what these phrases actually mean. If you go in with a slide tackle, your studs are going to be off the floor and by definition you’re going to be out of control. You’re out of control when you shoot because that’s what momentum is. Now, ‘two-footed’ and ‘above the ball’ are far better phrases to indicate and unnecessarily dangerous tackle, because neither are necessary for a slide tackle. I’ve not seen the tackle today but Bannan made a very normal slide tackle and was in no way above the ball (EDIT: watched it again and his foot rolls over the ball inadvertently, so unfortunate, not dangerous or even reckless). Collisions happen and people get hurt, it doesn’t need to be a red card purely for that reason. There’s always some risk.

Bannan’s was never a red.

This is true but it doesn’t really help. Realistically we have an older, middle-class fanbase, not the working class tribalism that a lot of European or fashionable British clubs have. I’d love us to have the latter, but it’s like banging your head against a brick wall. Realistically, the only thing that is likely to improve the atmosphere is the team. If it starts entertaining people and showing fight in difficult moments, the fans will get more involved. The club controls how the club is marketed and perceived and that attracts the sort of fans that sit on their hands and buy the merchandise. It would take a Herculean effort to change this.

It’s not Forest or Cov It’s not Saudi sports washing It’s not Brendan I’m happy.

I’ll never understand why manager after manager thinks it’s a good idea to pass it out slowly from a goal kick just to then blast it up to short people when it invites pressure.

So many players just play like they’re here for the money and it’s been the case for years. There’s no thought whatsoever to entertain or play like they’re committed / enjoying it.

No ambition to score a 2nd goal at all. No pressing, lazy, boring. Same old flaws every single season. Soumare is a bizarre player.