Sly

I do think defeat against Derby. Points deduction pushing us into the bottom three. Cifuentes will be gone and we hopefully install someone in the Puel model that is a bit more experienced if not a little dull, to get us up the table with a pragmatic approach. This squad isn’t capable of playing the football that Tops wants. We need to be realistic with the players that we have and what sort of coach we employ afterwards!

We got out of the Championship and League 1 by effectively buying our way out of trouble with smart investment from Vichai. If we get relegated, this isn’t happening with Top at the helm. We can’t afford to go down.

Yes, however we all hover off separately, as we still don’t technically own the stadium, as that’s in a lease to big contract with a shell Company.

Crazy to think we could have had the man on the opposite dugout

At this point, it’s more how far we’ll fall, rather than when when we fall.

He’s one of worst ever coaches at this point.

He’s not running a PR exercise today. He’s for 4 episodes of Stranger Things to catch up on.

I’m turning this off now, I have better things to do.

Wow …..

If you don’t laugh at this point, you will cry.

How about 3 minutes in?

Kemi went in hard at her and it’s needed in reality. It’s been an utter **** show for a while and she’s only said what a good proportion of the country is thinking. No budget is looked upon favourably in realistic terms, as you can’t do wrong, for doing right. However this one does feel a bit like “let’s rob from the grafters in the middle” a little bit more than usual. Also, I own an EV and in the grand scheme of it, 3p isn’t exactly breaking the bank. It’s if they make it to something silly like 10p+ etc. what they should have done is dropped heavy tax on the people charging 60p kW to charge when you are out and about!

Hold on, he scored a header against Swansea last month! You’ve had a mare with that one ……

Was that a budget for the unemployed? To get voted?

Whilst Pearson do a great job, not once but twice, I think for all coaches they need a bit of luck as well. This is why the likes of Almorin are struggling now. It takes years to change the squad and we’ve almost got to nail our flag to the mast with the right manager and let them get on with a multi year rebuild. For me that man isn’t Marti and I don’t think he’s strong enough. If you look at the coaches that have been successful, they have a ruthless streak in them. I reflect on my crazy prediction that we’d win the league even after a points deduction and I now think that this is the worst squad Leicester have had in the Championship in years. 13/14 - Pearson had Schemichel, Vardy, Morgan, Drinkwater, King, James, Schlupp, Mahrez, Knockaert, Wood, 12/13 - Again Schmeichel, Vardy, Morgan, Knockaert, King, Drinkwater, James, Wellens, Dyer, Schlupp, Nugent, Wood and a cameo by Kane! 11/12 - Schmeichel, Morgan, King, Wellens, Nugent, Waghorn, Vassell, Howard, Berner, Dyer 10/11 - Davies, Bamba, Bruma, Vitor, Morrison, Moore, Mee, Van Anthony, Naughton, Abe, Oakley, Wellens, Dyer, Yakabu, Fryatt, Howard, Waghorn, Berner 09/10 - Brown, Hobbs, Mattock, Berner, Powell, Gallagher, King, Oakley, Clemence, Wellens, Dyer, Fryatt, Gradel, Howard, Kermogant The current squad has technical ability, I don’t disagree, however if they’d been around at current ability in those years, most of them aren’t getting a game.

If he had the pace and physicality of Okoli, he wouldn’t be playing for us. Reality is technically he’s better than all of our other defenders and half of our midfield. He just can’t get about the pitch and playing a high line is criminal, if you haven’t got players around him to compliment his weaknesses. We could have Prime Maldini at centre back last night and with Faes, Choudhury and Aluko, we are still shipping goals.

If you look at the attributes of the players in our squad, they can only really play one way to be successful. Maresca got them to play that way. We have invested poorly and whilst players fitted a system, when we’ve changed manager we just can’t adapt tactically. Winks, Vestergaard, Mavididi, Faes etc are good players in the right system, This is why no one wants them. Technically they are all good players, however they lack the physicality to almost drag us out of this league. You can carry a few players that are limited, you can’t carry 3/4 of a team. With all the will in the world, no manager is getting Soumare to track runners, or turning Ayew or Daka into a prolific scoring forward. This season is almost a “keep us in the league”, we’ll see more tactically limited players leave and then we move on. We potentially need players with lesser technical ability and more grit ala Okoli rather than Faes etc. So do we stick or twist on a head coach, that realistically isn’t going to really get that much more from the same bunch? It’s a rough ask and I can see why people wouldn’t want the job in all honesty. We have lost the grit that got us promoted 2 years ago. KDH, Vardy, Ndidi all improve this team due to physicality alone. That’s before you talk about football IQ and actual ability. People mentioned Dyche yesterday but how is he going to set this squad up? I don’t think anyone who’s half decent takes the job.in put current state.

Joking aside though, with modern tactics, inverted fullbacks and pressing intensity, the midfield two get overrun too easily. Unless you have two hard working forwards and wingers, which we don’t, then you’re screwed. Even then to do it for 90 minutes would be a rough ask. We’d need two strikers also that have skill sets that aren’t typically taught now, as it’s almost a little and large combination that the classic 4-4-2 adopted. Most players are trained today to be part of the team, dropping deep when in possession than press defenders when not etc, rather than play a single position like a poacher or target man. The players we have within the squad currently are more specialist possession based players, like Winks, Vestergaard, Ricardo, Soumare etc. They’d get overrun in a 4-4-2 and we just don’t have the high energy players to drop in. We’ve got to work with the tools we’ve got unfortunately. We would also need wingers that drive on the outside and cross the ball in, as that drags defenders wider for the two forwards. Our wingers are almost exclusively inverted wingers, so like to come inside the fullback and drive at goal. To play this system, I think we’d need two wingers, two forwards, two centre mids and we are fixated on this style of football now, we’d need a major squad overhaul, which we just aren’t going to do. If we wanted to play it with our current squad, we’d be looking at a team of: GK - Begovic / Stolarkzyk LB - Kristiansen CB - Okoli CB - Souttar RB - Faes LM - Fatawu CM - Winks CM - Choudhury RM - James ST - Daka ST - Mavididi Whoever tolls that team out is getting pelters

Harry Souttar

Thomas is and always will be a steady 6/10 for most games. Some people will get upset by that comment but he’s basically a squad rotation type left back. He is never going to set the world on fire, especially in whatever system we are attempting to play under Cifuentes. Alunko showed athleticism which Thomas doesn’t have. The fact we all knew what was going to happen and called it, just shows how clueless Cifuentes is as a manager. The entire defence is a mess though.

I also saw this and was praying that was just a want up ….. Now i’m not convinced.

I’m lost for words, I’ve no idea what he’s trying to do. Other than we are sitting in and we are narrowing the pitch and basically trying to keep it at 3-0

Agreed. He’s played a game of football before. He’s been sent off before.

Begovik is going to get MoTM at this rate

Not every foul Is a yellow card, however I do think Downed should have got a yellow for the 2nd challenge. Alunko was 1 on 1, so he was always getting a 2nd yellow by bringing him down.