Sly

You’d laugh but all these “have” crossed the desk at some point and we didn’t sign or they choose elsewhere for other reasons. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia Michael Olise Ollie Watkins Mohammed Kudos Enzo Fernandez Alexander Isak Jonathan David Ivan Toney Benjamin Sesko Jeremy Doku Leon Bailey Cody Gakpo Boubacar Kamara James Ward-Prowse Houssem Aouar Georgia Skalvini Manuel Ugarta Josko Guarivol Leonardo Trossard Joao Pedro Jamal Muisiala Raphina Jude Bellingham At the time, I can guarantee people turn the nose up for various reasons. You’ll never plead everyone.

When is he back?

When’s the next Pod? I’m holed up a cottage in Lancashire for work and need to listen to @Ric Flair venting!

Welcome Big Ange

Souttar is the Steve Walsh type forward for me. I’d be tempted to at least try him for a few games in a behind closed doors fashion to see how he gets on. No idea on the current timeframe for his return though!

Change the formation. Our left side is poor, so changing to three centre backs and having Nelson in helps protect it. Kristiansen is better going forward than defending but does have the legs to get up and down the pitch. Move Ricardo / Fatawu into a fluid formation down the centre / right with one generating space for the other. So people struggle to double up on Fatawu so much. Winks looks after the ball well and is easily the best option in front of the back three to take control centrally. James is basically box to box, needs to run beyond the rest of the midfield and forwards to stretch the pitch. Monga drops into CAM in this system, purely due to the fact he drifts in and out too much on the wing. Daka will at least press and put pressure on the defence by making runs a generating space for Fatawu, Monga and James, he just can’t finish his dinner currently. This at least gives us some pace on the counter with people who should be able to move the ball quickly. This can drop Into a 5-3-2 effectively when out of possession if Ricardo / Fatawu tucking in at RB and Kristiansen at left back, if we wanted to compact the defence. Subs wise, barring no injuries….. No way James or Monga last the 90 minutes, so they’ll need changing for Page, Mavididi, Reid etc and dare I say even Soumare or Skipp, this is a major weak area in my opinion. Ayew is the obvious swap for Daka or maybe depending how the game goes. I don’t rate Carranza in the slightest and I’d rather see Evans get a spot on the bench and minutes on the pitch. Ricardo doesn’t last 90 minutes on this formation, so Choudhury comes in and can also cover the RB slow if required, we just lose the emphasis on generating space for Fatawu.

That said, we somehow managed to get relegated from the Premier League with the 5th biggest wage bill, whilst having the talents of Maddison, Vardy, Barnes, Tielemans, Evans, Soyuncu, Castagne, Ricardo, Ndidi, Mendy, KDH, Praet and Perez.

I don’t think we’ll go down this season. We have enough talent within the squad. Despite what we all say (myself included) about the likes of Kristiansen, Faes, Vestergaard, Okoli, Soumare, Skipp, Ayew, Daka, Reid, Mavididi; Thomas etc, most of the squads in the Championship would love to have them with their squads. We have talent. We don’t have good tactics and a sense or urgency. Despite this, we will continue to grind our results here and there as the quality in the league is fairly even but we have players like Monga, Ricardo and Fatawu who could generate something from nothing. With this in mind, we’ll still finish mid table at worst, even after a points deduction. It is just so frustrating, as if Fatawu and Monga get picked up by other clubs, we are royally screwed. Then when half the talent leaves, I’m not sure I have faith in our ability to replace them. This is when we’ll be at risk of dropping further.

That statement could have been released by Ming Power though and it would read exactly like many believed it played out here!

Brendan at his best was potentially the best Manager we’ve had. Brendan at his worst was every bit as bad as any terrible coach we’ve ever had. They’re like Ying / Yang unfortunately and you can’t have one without the other. Hindsight states that maybe Head Coaches are best served on a two to three year cycle!

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Maybe we just need a load more support staff, as we do look bloody lean.

That’s the issue in a nutshell. The tactics aren’t working as we aren’t quick enough on the ball to make this style of possession effective. We aren’t physical enough, so we lose the direct aggressive game.

What everyone needs to realise, is that whilst the stadium is typically full, that’s business success. If it’s costing us money to be in the Premier League, as a business that’s a vanity project. We have the 12th biggest attendance in English Football. We are most likely in the 30th - 40th bracket for attendance in Europe, even 70th - 80th worldwide. King Powers model has changed though. What do they want? It’s business 101 isn’t it? Water down the product quality but people still buy…… If the long term project is to make us profitable, then we’ll continue to slide, whilst the stadium will largely remain full.

I get the feeling this season’s Premier League could be like 15/16 as some of the large team are struggling.

For me, he was as bad and no better than the current crop we have.

I’m just waiting for the links to surface about King Power being linked to that bloke from Cambodia

Isn’t Luke Thomas our lowest ever rated player? I cant see the ratings as I’ve not voted; however he must be low reading about today.

I’m glad I didn’t bother with this by the sound of it!

I ventured into Leicester yesterday morning to take my daughter for a hospital checkup. I was really surprised just how many of these were being risen about at a decent speed, considering they’re classified as illegal to ride on pavements. People weaving in and out of the general public, hoping between roads and pavement. Also, the number of people that nearly got hit by them! Also, is it a must for UberEat Drivers in the city? Why don’t the police do anything? I saw one person go by a couple of police officers and they basically ignored it

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I don’t think that you can call this squad poor to be honest. Footballers at this level are not that different in terms of level of ability. This is why when 1st plays 24th it can be 0-0 after 90 minutes as they cancel each other out. What sets them apart is football IQ and tactical awareness. I think the muppets that are King Power though will quickly realise, whilst not investing may have saved them a few quid in the short term; getting out of this league is a nightmare and we’ve been spoilt with great Coaches / Managers in Maresca and Pearson and the setups and team they had around them. You can’t expect to build the same quality Pyramids of Giza with expert builders, if you have a child telling them what to do and not an exceptional leader.

Now on a streak of 1. I forgot to do it yesterday

By the way, I’d take Dyche any day of the week currently.

4-4-2 on the ball, 4-4-2 off it None of this inverting woke nonsense. If you’re left footed, you play on the left, to wip The cross into the big man …… which we don’t have. Bring back Souttar or stick Vesty up Top to knock long balls down to Daksy! Fatsy …… you cross the ball mate, I don’t want you Coming inside. Stay wide, chalk on your boots. Winksy, you sit with Hamzy, not as a double pivot nonsense. Box to box the pair of you. Hamzy, just smash folk. Ricky, if I see you’ll you in midfield again, you’re on the bench. Defence lad, D-E-F-E-N-C-E! You, fella with the gimp mask on, you run around a lot, can you cross a football. Get yourself on the wing. Youth team ….. what’s that? I WANT IT WACKING FORWARD AND YOU PUS HIGH. Press, Press, Press, Press Jacub, don’t fudge around at the back with it, launch it route one to big Suits! Suits get your block head on it.

Again, I was optimistic when he was appointed as he talked a great game. We’ve seen noting to point to how he wants to play football. In fact, I go as far to say this is as bad as RVN. We are tactic-less. This might not all be on Cifuentes as let’s be realistic, it’s called a coaching setup for a reason and the team around him isn’t exactly brimming with experience from what I can make out. What are we even trying to do in games? I’m not sure what state we are trying to play, unless it’s to bore the opposing team to sleep. I didn’t bother watching last night after the previous boring fixtures. I can’t waste time on week night watching more of this dross. I was expecting a possession based build up style of play, however we are so slow and rigid in formation. We need fullbacks to either invert at times, or pus on to allow the wide players space. They aren’t doing this and not even step inside to generate th third centre back like Maresca did with Doyle. I was also thinking we’d push inside to overload the midfield then adopt a high collective press, however when you have the likes of Soumare and Skipp, you simply can’t do that. I’ve no issue with using Ayew as a false 9 either really, as long as he isn’t dropping too deep. We do need our fullbacks to generate that space to allow the two wide players to invert inside. This suits Fatawu and Mavididi realistically. However Thomas / Choudhury seem scared to cross the halfway line. We do have good players, however they can’t play this system, so look all at sea. My biggest concern right now is that this league needs athletic, intelligent players realistically to play this style. We just don’t have that many I’d put into the top bracket of this league. He’s too limited with his tactical approach and unless he changes to inferior players that suit the system better, he needs to go. When I say this, I mean I’d rather have a midfield with every, so that is Winks, Choudhury and James. Full backs as Kristiansen and Ricardo. I despise Kristiansen but at least he gets forward and generates space for the winger. Faes and Vestergaard are okay as centre backs at this level, however we need to blood Nelson, so if we fall too far behind pull the trigger and start playing him or loan him out. He’ll only improve if player. Fatawu you can read in the beano, you know he’s inverting and he plays better with Ricardo on the pitch. Mavididi has about as much confidence as Daka who I feel was in the last chance saloon weeks ago and just needs moving on now. I’m a supporter but even I’m in pains now. Ayew is maybe the best 9 we have outside of the youth team players, so we need players to run past him. Again though, he needs to stop occupying space that others should be in or we learn to be more fluid on transition. All In all, I’ll give him 3 games but if this doesn’t change he can go for me.