Kitchandro

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.

Master of the backward pass too

Didn’t know Faes had played for us for so long.

You are mad. We were horrible today - no running, no closing down, barely strung any passes together. Buonanotte, who Ruud doesn’t rate enough to start, made the difference because we had nothing to offer until he came on.

It’s like we think we get points for going back to the keeper.

Are we trying to lose? We give them so much space. The basics in these games is getting close to them.

You’re kidding? He’s shocking.

Would be nice to see one of our players run occasionally.

Because it’s them and I am hoping for a miracle to ruin their season I’ll watch until we’re 2 down and not a moment longer.

It helps when the media serves it up on a silver platter for you. They are the definition of media darlings, along with Spurs. If you’re repeatedly given the narrative that you’re one of the big clubs, it’s easier to believe it - even if there is nothing tangible to back it up with.

I love Champion but Fletcher is pretty solid isn’t he? He’s not really offensive and he’s got a good shouting voice. I’ve suffered Pearce, Drury, Mowbray, Tyler, Matterface and worst of all, Weaver over the years. These are the truly annoying commentators. I can’t stand McManaman though.

This sounds like you’re talking about your kids or people that matter. The reality is ‘the club’ is just a load of millionaires / billionaires who don’t care about you and that’s reflected in every aspect of its operation. If they were relatable people passionate about the meaning of the club then I could still feel the emotional connection, but both KPFC and football in general aren’t like that anymore. I’d argue almost none of them have the fans’ best interests at heart nor any pride in the club or the community. Anyway, in answer to the thread question, I’ve not been in years due to this disillusionment (Puel and Rodgers cared as little about making football enjoyable as Ruud does). In that time I’ve taken a far bigger interest in music, started playing guitar and it’s completely changed me. For anyone saying they struggle to replace the passion and identity of supporting us, I would say some sort of artistic pursuit is worth trying for everyone; you can use it to find people to bond with and unlike football you also feel like you are achieving something as an individual. Being proud of something is important, you can’t always rely on this through people you don’t even know.

So you’d think less of him for playing for any other English league club but not if he sportswashed for Saudi Arabia? 😆