Kitchandro

I’d dispute both these things, neither have much to back them up with. Skipp may get worse and be a lost cause. This idea that young players always need to play sporadically isn’t based on anything. If they’re better than our other players, they should play. In fact, if you think Skipp is going to get better and more confident with a run of games, why does that not also apply to Monga and Page? Especially when Monga has built his confidence with a great goal the other week, how is dropping him going to help that?

Very strange to drop Monga but not…well almost everyone else in that starting 11. We’ve not got a great squad but not picking your best players is not going to help.

Should be disallowed absolutely no question. It’s a 2 handed shove which prevents him heading the ball. Considering the penalty was given for an equal offence Fulham can rightly claim some ‘big club’ bias there.

That’s not the point. Players should be signed because they offer something to the football philosophy we’re supposed to have. Fuchs was the same. He’s wasn’t a pacy full back, which are and were popular, but we didn’t need that for the system. Okazaki wasn’t great but he was an effective partner for Vardy. If Kante had been half as good it would still have been a great signing. Skipp could be twice the technical player that he actually is and he’d just be Dennis Praet. We don’t have a philosophy so we don’t sign players for any real reason other than to make up the numbers.

When we had Kante, he wasn’t a silky player or a great passer. But he was exceptional, perhaps the best I’ve ever seen, at fulfilling a specific job for the team. Kante is the yardstick for how and why to scout and sign a player. Skipp is the complete opposite of that. He’s a player signed without any particular idea of what his strengths are and what his role is. It’s very strange that he ever stood out at any level to end up at Tottenham. This signing alone should have resulted in about 10 sackings. Anyone who had anything to do with it and didn’t question it should never work in the sport again.

I know it’s not his best position but I’d rather see Ricardo in there by himself instead and try something radical like 2 up front. I know Daka and Ayew are both crap but that doesn’t mean their differing styles couldn’t, in theory, give their defenders more problems as they wouldn’t be as isolated as they are when on their own. Anything to break up this terrible SAS midfield partnership.

It’s not too late, it’s just like anything. People need the will to change something. I don’t think there are enough people with the will to do what’s necessary to force something like this. Footballers and the associations will look after themselves, fans of bigger clubs won’t want it, and fans of smaller clubs might want it but think there are more important things to take a stand for. And the majority of people are just fairly apathetic. I think if the 70-odd English league clubs felt they were majorly disadvantaged by the system and actually cared enough to do something, they could easily disrupt the league system enough to force through change or even just start a replacement Football League without the biggest clubs.

No idea if he could be converted into a good striker but there’s no way we would try to anyway. He’s not good enough out wide so if we can get some cash it’s probably about time.

Well, this is why people might suggest this attitude is part of the problem. The club and the owners are not the same thing, defending the owners is not defending the club. I can’t really be bothered to debate the logic here because it’s been done so many times on other threads that you must already know the arguments, but needless to say not everyone believes Top or King Power deserve a load of credit right now. Some of us are adamant the club needs to improve in every aspect (by the club being sold, or otherwise), so the whole debate of this thread is how the fans can help achieve that.

I agree with you in general but I don’t see ‘giving up’ as an ‘absolute’. It’s a rational decision to stop doing something if it’s no fun, costs you money and no longer has any deeper meaning. I think it’s strange to do something purely out of habit. I could go if it was convenient and I didn’t feel ripped off, insulted, unwanted, controlled, bored, emotionally detached from the players etc. I still obviously care somewhat because I’m on here but I don’t miss going. I’d love football to feel like a community expression of local pride and raw tribalism but the fact is that it’s just a corporate show now. LCFC is particularly bad version with the generic stadium, sellout KPFC kits, unfashionable reputation that attracts middle classes rather than working classes who are more likely to create an atmosphere. A lot of it has been intentional gentrification by the way. A phoenix club owned by the fans would have meaning, but if you see the current club for what it is, and not what you want it to be, it’s not a dramatic decision to just remove yourself (physically at least) from something that drains the life out of you.

Was that period in the summer of 2016, 2021, 2022 or 2024? All were terrible and even in 2023 we signed Coady.

I know it’s hard to believe because we’re used to Rudkin’s ‘unique’ way of doing things but other clubs don’t scout just by watching them in one game.

As others have said, our record in finding good players is extremely poor so I’d rather we didn’t sell him. If we are adamant that players like Winks need to be shut out for their attitude (which is fair) then we can’t do without Bilal as well.

Sky Sports are so out of touch with what football fans want, no one wants to here from arrogant referees tell us what we’ve always known; that they don’t apply the rules consistently. Also Peter Drury must be an April Fool’s joke that went wrong and they felt too guilty to tell him he was only on for a joke. The bloke is an absolutely horrendous commentator. Every time anyone has a shot he has to say their full name and he winds it up for a really loud shout and then tails it off really awkwardly when they scuff it. He thinks he’s the star of the show. An otherwise entertaining game that makes me want to watch it on mute.

By the letter of the law there's no offence once the ball is in play (when Eze kicks it) as the law only applies until the ball is in play. So what should have happened is; the referee should have instructed the players not to stand in the wall because it’s an offence. The goal should not have been disallowed for that reason.

I give them credit for their protest at our ground, yes. Why would they care if LCFC make money from away fan ticket sales? They don’t support us. As for attending Hillsborough - it’s not necessarily how I would choose to protest with our club, but the difference is they did protest yesterday and it got loads of exposure. There’s no debate about how they feel about their owner and everyone in football, including the media is backing them, to the point where the Football League has actually had to get involved (even though they can’t make him sell). Our fans are different. There’s chants against Rudkin but no mass protests against the real problem, the owners. There’s no mass boycott either. It’s just not enough, too many have refused to oppose Top and that is part of the problem.

So many people missing the point on these threads. ‘No, Top is to blame’. Nobody is suggesting that the fans or Marti are solely to blame or more to blame than the owners. That doesn’t mean that the fans, players and manager are, in principle, exempt from criticism. There are too many fans who continue to spend money on the club. That’s not really a debate. Look at the amount of people wearing the new shirts for example. Now, a lot of these fans might be KPFC types or the kind that just go ‘for something to do’. And there’s no point arguing with these people because they obviously don’t really care. But if you’re on this forum moaning and you’re constantly fed up with this regime (and if you care and have even a tiny of capacity for reflection, you will be) then continuing to contribute to our attendances and club revenue is contributing to the problem. In the sense that an empty stadium on TV and a massive drop in sales would 1) give us media exposure that we badly need to pressurise the owners and in turn perhaps 2) force the club to do something in response. That’s how protest works in a world where, yes, you as an individual don’t have any personal power or influence. If only we had dug our heels in in January 2022 when the terminal decline had started and we had a manager, having just lost 4-1 to local rivals from the league below, began his sabotage to save his reputation. We should have mass protested for his removal then and there. The fans never did, Top wasn’t pressurised to make a decision, and you know the rest. At the very least media exposure for some kind of resistance to what is happening would give this club a bit of pride back. That’s what people see when they look at Sheffield Wednesday. Pride. Self-respect. A proper football club that demands standards from its owners and employees. Why did we even clap those Wednesday fans if we don’t want to be like that? So it’s all very well taking this thread personally and being butthurt, but you must know this deep down. If you go for the ‘social aspect’, you could just socialise doing something else. If the club actually stands for something more than the that, then have a bit of respect for it and say enough is enough.

The manager’s job isn’t to stick to one formation and then say ‘I don’t have enough good central midfielders to play MY system’. The job is to assess the squad and pick the best players in their favoured position. The idea that only one system can result in success is obviously false so a manager swearing by a formation, rather than a style of play or building a team around your best players, is clearly flawed. If we have no good centre mids don’t pick a formation that requires 2 of them. Can’t you see how contradictory this is? He’s persisting with something that won’t work but you think he can’t do anything else. Well, obviously that isn’t true. People keep saying this but it’s obviously something to do with the manager. He does manage the team. The idea that the best managers don’t make a difference is just silly. This is a difficult job but not impossible, everyone was saying this was the best squad in the league a week ago. I didn’t agree with that, but it’s not the worst either. To be clear, our predicament is largely down to a lot of things out of the manager’s control. I’m not having a go at him. But that doesn’t mean he can do no wrong this season. I think it’s fair to expect to see some positive signs and sensible decision making from a manager regardless of the players we have. He needs to learn quickly and stamp his mark on the team ASAP otherwise he’s got no chance. He must have known what he was getting into, the fans certainly did and we have no inside info.

I think the fans have perspective, it’s the players that don’t. They live in a bubble. You can’t expect to live an abnormally privileged life and treated like a normal person. It doesn’t work like that. He refuses to engage with the community he represents and that might also be seen as him not reinvesting into the local economy. He might be able to get away with that if he was so brilliant that he raises the profile of the club, but he isn’t. Football is about pride primarily. Footballers get everything from society and give little back. If anything they should be far less popular than they are. Nobody says he shouldn’t have a personal life, but it’s not like he’s mingling with the locals at the pub like Walshie and Izzet is it? His personal life is living lavishly in a mansion down south. He’s entitled to do that, but why should people love him for it?

Thankfully a small percentage of fans have a memory longer than 90 minutes though. Faes is symptomatic of what is wrong here. He and Winks are supposed to be leaders in this squad and what vibe are they giving off? That the fans are mugs you can give it large to even after two relegations.

We look a team woefully short on confidence and there’s no fluidity to our play at all. It’s very difficult to see us getting promoted based on the first two matches. They don’t look up for it, we don’t have a goal scorer and we’re very reliant on about 3 players. This season has midtable written all over it.

Must be difficult for our youngsters to come into a team that has played so dreadfully for a year.

I quite like this co-commentator so far, not just the cliches we usually get, seems to have actually watched some football in his life.

Another avoidable kit clash because we can’t just have a normal coloured 3rd kit. *For the colour blind among us.

As long as we beat Sheffield Wednesday’s reserves, all is forgiven for two of the worst relegations ever.