cityfanlee23

I do get that, but I think that is where the fundamental divide in the fanbase appears. Whilst I respect that you feel his not being able to strengthen in January is contributing to why we may be suffering a bit now, the flip side is that we have the best squad in the league, and should not need to be strengthened in order to outplay teams like Sunderland or Hull. Just play to the teams strengths and we should not need to, so for example, our system relies heavily on good central players being able to find passes. If we are short in that department, then any other pragmatic manager would try something else, like, for example, telling JJ or Ricardo/Hamza to overlap, But we don't, we constantly push the ball to the wingers and more often than not we offer them absolutely no support on the overlap forcing them to turn back and pass back to the defence to recycle the ball. Fundamentally that isn't "wrong" but it just shows a real lack of flexibility in the management and in the system. We have 2 of the most dangerous left and right flanks in the division and yet we don't even overlap, something the vast majority of top coaches would come into this squad and implement I would imagine. Strengthening would have been great, but how strong do we need to be to win this league? we already have more than enough imo, and more pragmatic coaches would have recognised that. Edit: I'm obviously well aware that Fatawu and Mavididi have scored goals and created chances this season, but we usually are relying on them being able to create something on their own whether it be taking on a defender or creating some space for themselves, rather than the team creating space for them in the example of the overlap, probably not the best analogy but you get the idea.

Yeah that's a really solid point, on one hand it's a private matter, I wouldn't want you sacked if you were drink driving, but at the same time they are paid extortionate amounts and are role models for so many people and ultimately should be held to higher standards. I will say i've mentioned multiple times that Hamza shouldn't be on the pitch for what he did for a while but I mainly meant principled in the context of his approach to football, but strong point nontheless.

We all hope we can improve, but the same people who are saying “we can improve in the premier league” are often ones that are berating Rudkin every time we concede 😂 We can’t have it both ways, either Rudkin is going to do the business or we are taking a huge risk attempting this against premier league opposition. Hopefully Enzo has a good team who can spot a good cheap player. Because we are going to need Brighton level bargains of the decade if we are going to stick within our budget and sign the 10+ players needed to play this way and survive the top flight.

We look over-trained. The amount of times we have a clear attacking move or pass on and we stop the ball and pass it back is criminal. We don’t need to go gung ho we just need to decide whether we want to attack and then actually do it. Leverkusen play a beautiful possession based attacking style and when they attack they throw men forward, 2 of their best and most important players this season are Frimpong and Grimaldo their marauding wingbacks. Leverkusen play some of the most entertaining football I’ve watched it years, and they have the same 60% possession that we do. They have better players obviously, but they often attack by doing the basics like overlapping. We seem reluctant to really fully commit to an attack. We’ve created a fair amount of chances this year through sheer quality and going direct, today’s 2-2 equaliser goal was a perfect example of us playing simple and effective attacking football whilst controlling the ball. I don’t understand why it’s such a taboo to want that to be something we do more often.

I think at prem level he needs to play as a ball winning central midfielder in the middle of a midfield 3. atleast then he has half of the pitch directly infront of him and doesn’t need to rely doing 180 turns to move the ball onto his favoured foot, if he’s central he has more range and could even drive through the middle. Where he is now all teams have to do is push him onto his right and he either gives it away or turns around and the move is finished. I will say though he’s been great this season in general output so can’t knock him for that, much better this year than I expected, but I still can’t see him doing it against the premier league teams and I think prem players are intelligent enough to take advantage of his weakness.

He could, but he could just as easily end up going to clubs that don’t have the players required to play his system and he will either refuse to change there also and get sacked, or he will leave of his own volition. If he doesn’t have the players to play a rather complex style of football that most players cannot play effectively, where is he going to find a team that can without requiring a significant transfer budget?

I think the point was more that the players were signed for that level, even though many of them have not performed at that level, they are miles above the championship regardless of the poor few seasons they have had.

If we don't get promoted he will be gone imo.

Yeah, in some games it worked and we looked fantastic, in most it's been the bare minimum for a team of our quality in the championship, Hermansen is a premier league keeper already I think most of us can agree, Ndidi Vardy Coady Ricardo Winks KDH is one of the best midfielders in the division and arguably a lower prem player for many Iheanacho is a premier league level striker Vestergaard is arguably the best CB in the division Dennis Praet is better than the championship Callum Doyle is proven at this level Faes is more than good enough for this level Souttar proven at this level and has had some decent games in the prem Mavididi and Fatawu are 2 of the best wingers in the division, Fatawu could very likely step up as could possibly Mavididi with the right setup and some confidence. This is a top 2 team minimum. Regarding which system is better, it's not my job to decide that, but i'd suggest we would very likely improve if we played a system that didn't actively play against the strengths of our players collectively. Even if we wanted to play possession, Alonso has a very aggressive possession based system that utilises overlaps and fast flowing attacks, something that would much better suit many of our players, we both have the same average possession this season. Too many times this season we have been below par for our level in this division. Enzo is in the minority of managers playing this style in worldwide football, there are plenty of alternative systems that would work with the squad we have, what we are doing right now is exacerbating our own flaws by playing a way that our players can't play to a high standard consistently enough, we've been let off the hook by opponents missing chances on many occasions this season, but we have also made a hash of many of our own chances this year too.

Do you mean in terms of would it be a big loss if Enzo goes if he messes this up? If that’s what you mean then no it won’t be a big loss, the big loss is the repercussions we would face if we slipped up now, I’m really concerned.

He's obviously a really principled man and that has to be respected, but right now we face a very perilous situation off the pitch and a worrying one on the pitch. This is one of the most important seasons in our recent history and if we bottle this we could be in massive trouble, potentially facing points penalties or financial ruin. With that in mind it's frustrating just how stubborn Enzo is being, it's clear to anyone watching that we don't have the players to play the way he wants at the level required, it has worked in some games this season where we've played really well, but there have been far too many poor performances this season. We really cannot afford to mess this up, and yet here we have a manager utterly refusing to adapt his system to fit the squad he has to extract the best performance. Not only that, teams have adapted to us because they have worked out that under pressure we crumble, and they are exploiting that. It will be unforgivable if Enzo puts his philosophy before the future of the club and we fail. I have a feeling he will be off in summer, his system needs investment that we simply cannot give him. If he is not going to be pragmatic then we need someone else who will.

I think you're right. If Vardy isnt starting I'd be putting Cannon on personally. He needs to find his feet for next season, because we will need him regardless of the division we are in.

This was supposed to be the part of the season where we are so well clicked that we are dominating everyone, instead we look lethargic, over-trained and putting philosophy over the result. Very poor, but given how awful we have been recently the point will be happily taken, we could easily have thrown it away today and almost did on multiple occasions, take the break and regroup. We just need to hang on by the skin of our teeth for the rest of the season, then make tough decisions. I don't think this is working, we don't have the players required and we don't have the finances to bring them in during the summer. I'm really hoping Enzo will finally be a bit more pragmatic after the break because given what's going on financially around the club right now, we could very well end up bottling this season and being in serious trouble. Refusing to adapt to suit your players is in my opinion putting philosophy over the clubs future, (if it doesn't work) we cannot afford to mess this up.

There is a shopping list of players who have been stealing a wage recently unfortunately.

Daka gave us all a bit of hope for a couple of months but good god he's dreadful 80% of the time. How this guy ever played narrow Red Bull football is beyond me.

Agent bearman from the shadow realm I was going to say entertainMAXVERSTAPPENWINS

Well atleast I can rely on the F1 to give me entertainm...... oh...

Honestly wouldn't have given that. He dived for the first tackle, and contact was made in the second but he was jumping before it was even made. Light if given.

I wouldn't back it as In think we will nick one but those are tasty odds

I'm not sure they are going to be THAT tired to be honest, our opening 30 minutes half the hull squad were walking left to right as we shifted the ball across because it was so slow. I expect their wingers/fullbacks might need to be changed though as they have put in a good shift.

I really hope we don't immediately slow the game down again, these will crumble if we get at them. We can control the ball aggressively...

Can't disagree with you there, I'd much rather see us just play how we did in that passage of play, maybe not all the time, but we clearly have the quality to switch it on like we just did to equalise, more of that intensity and we won't need to worry about Albrighton coming on

Great goal Vardy, far more direct there and he punished them. Please continue.

Right, and he needs to get over himself if he's going to put his philosophy over potentially the literal future of this club. I get that he's a principled man, but he's a professional football manager in a very dynamic sport called football. Top managers adapt.

Genuine question but could Cannon offer something in the air if we needed it? He seems quite strong to be honest.