cityfanlee23

This. It’s obvious Maresca had a plan and a direction and Cooper lacks that, but let’s not kid ourselves, we were the best team in the championship on paper with a £40m summer spend and were defensively VERY sloppy, making multiple massive mistakes every game against very inferior opponents relative to the premier league, we then had a net spend of about £50m due to the potential of a points deduction, I think we need to hold the ball more, but this idea seems to be creeping in now that somehow we would have been comfortable under Enzo. Our defensive record last season seemed quite fortunate to be honest, every single game we gifted opponents chances but they failed to take them, if we had gifted those same chances to premier league teams we would have been in a world of trouble. Hope Enzo does well at Chelsea, I very much doubt he would be happy here if he had stayed and I don’t think we would be conceding less goals.

Winks has been off his game for a long while now, his first 3-4 months in a blue shirt was amazing, nobody could get near him, his standards in the final 15-20 games of last season dropped massively and the step up in class this season has caught him out multiple times. In those first few months of signing for us I was so surprised that no prem teams really wanted him, at this point I can see quite a few flaws in his game and he switches off easily, Skipp looks the superior player this season!

It's more the manner of the performance, we expected to get beat, what we didn't expect was to park on our own 18 yard line for 45 minutes and let arsenal walk the ball in, with 8 players in our own box, somehow Arsenal still had free players around our goal, there is something fundamentally wrong with how we are setting up and our players knowing who picks up who and where they should be on the pitch.

I said during what was probably one of the worst first halves I've ever seen as a Leicester fan that this match was all about performance, I expected us to lose, I expected us to have to weather a long, drawn out storm and be on the back foot. But to then put in such a dogged performance in the 2nd half and scrape ourselves back to 2-2 thanks to Justin's moment of brilliant and Hermansen putting in the best performance of his career, to then throw it away with such easy goals? That HURTS. Arsenal did the same back post routine multiple times, and we concede with 3 minutes to go from the back post, blame cooper all you want for the result, but that is just a fundamental lack of footballing awareness from the players there to completely forget that someone is there and give him so much space. But regarding Cooper, I just cannot understand why we continue to sit back and soak up this level of pressure for an entire half, resulting in us going in 2-0 down at half time, there is just no need for it. I understand wanting to soak up pressure away from home at one of the league favourites, but we gave them so much space they were practically walking it around our box. So many players were asleep in the first half, and made silly mistakes in the second. Subs were too late AGAIN, but were at least positive subs at 2-2. Time and time again Leicester City show we are best when we go at teams, yet It's been a running theme for years, going all the back to Pearson where managers set us up not to lose, then inevitably have to chase in the 2nd half. We were fortunate not to be down to 10 with Skipp, fair play to the ref who was consistent on that as he had not booked Califiori when he probably should of, thought he had a fair game in the end. Arsenal dominated, they deserved the win, we put in a total of about 40 minutes of positive football throughout that game, the rest was absolutely dire. I really do like Cooper, but he continues to make the same judgement calls week after week and it's cost us on multiple occasions already, feels like we are inevitably going to part ways sooner or later. If the board are not fully convinced now, they need to make a decision, we don't have time to waste, teams around us are just as bad as we are, and a bounce of 3-4 games either with a new manager, or with some Cooper miracle will put daylight between us and the drop.

I just cannot fathom how Arsenal can take the same corner kick routine multiple times and STILL nobody has the intelligence to check the back post.

How many times did Arsenal put it towards the back post? Still can't deal with it.

Hermansen is our next £60m+ sale. What a player.

Yeah we should be down to 10 there.

I just don't understand why every single week we wait until the 2nd half to play like this. We prove time and time again that Leicester City play best on the front foot where we drive the ball forward, we did it under Nige, Ranieri, Rodgers, Enzo and now Cooper, and yet he will still set us up to have 20% possession for the first 45 mins, is he trying to tire the opposition out or something? We can nick one here.

I’m fully expecting to lose this game, in terms of a result it’s not a free hit but as close to one as we can get, this game is all about performance, again, with this context I’m not expecting us to outperform Arsenal or be unlucky, I expect us to be on the back foot, but what I’m looking for is how we approach the counter, how players are moving out of possession and how our formation sets itself up in and out of possession. This is one of the most soulless and gutless performances I’ve seen as a fan. Zero desire.

Offensively clueless at the moment, every single player on that pitch has given up the responsibility of creating something, they are all just hoping that someone else produces a bit of magic, and nobody is moving anywhere.

I think we will setup in an 8-1-1 formation and lose 4-0

It’s a sad state of affairs where I believe that under Big Sam we have a better chance if staying up. Even if we went back to basics and had Ricardo overlapping Fatawu and Kristiansen overlapping Mavididi it would dramatically improve our attack.

I’d imagine if that deal was going to happen, sooner rather than later is best for both clubs

The league is currently playing right into our hands, the bottom 6 clubs are absolutely woeful including us, and the couple above us are also struggling to find form. If we had won 2 games instead of draws this season we would have been in a really healthy position, instead we have 3 points from 5 games. Performance was everything today and we were poor, I think I’ve seen enough at this point. The signs are not there and before long the teams around us are going to find some form and if we don’t do that ourselves we will find ourselves in trouble. I like Steve, he speaks well, you can tell he wants to build, but if we can’t get the basics right he won’t be here long enough to build any sort of foundation. We have been gifted a massive opportunity to put daylight between ourselves and the bottom 3 so far this season and we’ve not taken that opportunity. Not good enough. No idea who I’d want to bring in if he went today, but unless he pulls off a massive 180, it feels deep down like we are just delaying the inevitable. I want to give him time, but our performances are too lacklustre to defend. we have enough attacking talent in this team to cause teams problems, yet we aren’t.

The only sub that was an issue for me was Choudhury, he should have brought on Buoanotte or Pereira into midfield. Bringing on Coady wasn't an issue for me, and bringing on our most raw attacking talent in Fatawu was also fine. I think in the end it was more the fact that we invited pressure and dropped way too deep where we should have been pushing out a bit and pressuring them. I don't think Cooper is going to last long.

COOPER OUT. How dare he tell Coady to give a stupid penalty away. Get a grip, all throughout that game the match thread was a cesspit of personal digs at the manager, we are 2-1 up away from home at a very capable palace team and we brought on defensive players to see out the game during a period we were inevitably going to be under pressure, could we have gone about it in a different way to alleviate the pressure, sure, but the vast majority of football managers do this exact thing away from home, it was working until Coady put in a stupid challenge. Be constructive, just abusing the manager speaks more about your own intellect than anyone else's. Embarrassing fans.

Can’t disagree with this so far. Cooper has a reputation of being pragmatic and trying to get the best out of his players and changing things to suit his team vs opponents. So far he’s made some quite baffling decisions such as dropping Mavididi and Ricky, playing Faes in a position he is visibly and vocally not comfortable with, the 3 man midfield of winks Ndidi and skipp doesn’t bother me so much but I can completely understand why people want to see us play an attacking CM from the start. We need 110% from every single player this season but it feels like so far we haven’t setup in a way that allows them to achieve that.

The get out of jail free card has obviously been taken away today, but let’s not pretend our entire transfer window wasn’t based around the likelihood of us getting a points deduction. We got rid of multiple premier league players when we went down, and spent £50m net on our return, mostly on cheap experienced less risky signings like BDCR and Ayew, the signings we did make for decent sums all clearly have sell on as the main priority. This team if it plays to its maximum capacity can stay up, but the likelihood of us playing to our theoretical maximum is slim bar the odd games. Survival will still be a fantastic achievement imo.

The real argument boils down to is the position they are being asked to play benefitting us more than just allowing Ricardo to play a role that suits him. But also, I really can't think of a single system in football that Justin could play better than Ricky.

At the moment I’d drop Wout for Vesty, it’s frustrating because the only reason he would get into this squad is because he’s faster than Vestergaard and Coady.

What a horrible few weeks, Rest in Peace, Sol. Absolutely loved you as a player for us, scared the hell out of me whenever you'd get the ball in defence and start driving forward like Beckenbauer but we had some fun!

I did message my friends during the game that I think if we continue losing he will get 7-8 games and will be gone. The fans are turning faster than milk.

Yeah I agree with that too, can definitely see both sides, but on the flipside of that, Buo came on at a time in the match where Villa were backing off and soaking up pressure which allowed him space and time to move around, in the first half there is no guarantee he would have got any space or time, he's not a strong player and could easily have been bullied out of the game. I can see both sides, i'm just pointing out the fact that it's never black and white.

You're right that often this place does become an echo chamber, but it's worth noting that the ground can also become one too. Rodgers was being clapped right to the very end by the majority. Devils advocate.