MancFox24

I agree with you on that. I was so surprised no changes came at half time. Problem is that if you pick up an injury to a key player then this is the crap you'll be stuck with for the rest of the season so I can see why he rotated it

So what's the solution? Hoof it up top to vardy? We didn't even have to be good to beat them, their press was so bad it only took one pass and it took about 4 of their players out the game. But we didn't have a single player on the pitch who could take the ball under pressure. And some of those players should be nowhere near the Premier league if they can't do basic things like that

People can moan about the tactics but they were the right ones. Look how easy it was to score that goal- play out from the back, shield the ball properly, switch the play and you're in. That should have been such an easy game to win. The lack of quality in some of those players is frightening.

Second half was a combination of our poor play and a tactical shift from them where they pushed their full backs inside and completely blocked off our ways out. It looked pretty ugly at times in the second half but if we'd have taken our chances in the first half then it would have been a different game. Not sure what the big issue with the ref was. Don't think it was a red, the still image makes it look alot worse than it was. As for the offside call, if they've got the lines right (which nobody has proved they haven't) then he's onside. And it was never a foul on Iheanacho for the 3rd. Some niggly decisions went against us but nothing out of the ordinary

Agree that Maddison and Tete have been just as poor but I've seen this performance from Iheanacho so many times. He's the type of player who seems to get better in the minds of people when he's on the bench

For those wondering why Iheanacho has been in and out of the team over the last few years, he puts in way too many performances like today and not enough like the Villa and Tottenham game

Nah, that goal was all on Faes. Souttar wasn't getting around even if he'd chased back. Faes lost the ball and then was too eager to make up for his mistake. It's the way we like to defend and it can have advantages when you pinch the ball back quickly but that wasn't the time for Faes to be jumping into midfield

I agree, it's good to engage with people constructively rather than the usual insults being thrown about. And I agree with some of the points you've raised. I would say my arguments are only limited to what's happening now, it's not extended to the end of the season when I may well agree a change is needed. I know what you're saying about the fact we may stay up by default but performance is always relative to the other teams in the league. I wouldn't say our title win is less important cus the other teams weren't as good that year. If staying up is the objective this year, which I think it is, then we only need to be better than 3 teams and I'm confident we are. I also agree that alot of players are on their way out, which is why I think it's quite impressive we haven't had these constant stories about Rodgers losing the dressing room coming from players agents, like we had under Ranieiri. It could be apathy but if we take Tielemans as an example, it would be convenient for his agent to come our blaming Rodgers for his poor form and I haven't seen anything like that. That suggests to me there's some respect there. As to the Maddison point, I'm afraid I'm going to have to resort to one of your points from the original post about the lack of investment. Not investing £14 million for Lookman in the summer and now talk of needing to spend £35 million on Jack Harrison shows how backward the thinking was in the summer, and I just can't blame Rodgers for that.

You have missed a few: - we have recent evidence to suggest that Rodgers can turn around poor form. Nobody saw that run before the world cup coming when we were getting drubbed by Brighton. - our best player and best chance of survival seems to get on really well with Rodgers. Argue about Rodgers' tactical ability all you want, Maddison has improved massively under him (if you're gonna blame Rodgers for the decline in some player's forms, you can't make the argument that those who have improved had nothing to do with him) - there's not much evidence that changing manager mid season has any impact on a club improving. In order to do this successfully, there needs to be a succession plan in place, which we don't seem to have. - linked to the last point, but Rodgers has been given alot of power at the club. I agree that this was and continues to be a mistake. But it makes replacing him mid season even harder and more risky. - and most importantly, and I know this might be hard for some to believe, but I genuinely think we'll be fine this year under Rodgers. People seem to think the Rodgers In brigade are just accepting our decline and blindly supporting the club towards relegation. I was very much behind the Ranieiri sacking, and thought it should have happened earlier. It was clear the players had stopped playing for him. I don't get the sense that's the case with Rodgers. I think alot of the squad seem to still respect him and be playing for him.

I won't accuse you of not watching games, but I might politely suggest you're misremembering them. Statistics show our possession and pass completion were virtually the same in the year we won the league and the year after. As for a key component being pace, who apart from Vardy was particularly quick in that 15/16 team? I'm not criticising the way we played then, I just completely disagree with your characterisation of it. I agree with you about wanting to see a high press but it has to be done sensibly. I think we've been too gung ho in our high press at points last season and at the start of this one and although they make for entertaining games, we aren't anywhere near solid enough at the back to play like this. We were actually doing it well pre World Cup by using KDH as the trigger and you could see the improvement in his decision making on when to press compared to when he first came into the team and was running around like a headless chicken. People may not like it but that might have something to do with Rodgers' coaching. High press, high tempo, pace are all important. But so is possession and just dismissing it is such a small club mentality. We haven't got the balance right at the minute, largely down to injuries and lack of squad depth. But for most of Rodgers' period in charge we have got it right and if the injuries improve and we get a couple of players in I think we'll be OK.

Every time we play Rodgers' way? So when we went on a good run before the world cup we weren't playing Rodgers' way? Who was in charge for them games then? I think you sum up a big portion of the Rodgers out brigade who want to wind the clock back to 2016, have 30% possession and knock it in the channels for vardy. But you ignore that we almost got relegated the year after playing that way because teams worked us out. I enjoyed seeing the team evolve to a more possession based side for the first couple of years under Rodgers and the success that brought. The reasons it's turned to shit now is for another thread but wanting to go back to 2016 tactics isn't the answer imo. Every fan thinks their team is unique but being a Leicester fan really is. We got success from nowhere, managed to sustain it for a bit, and a few bad decisions have left us struggling again. I don't blame the paying fans for being apathetic, I think fans, including myself, are struggling to come to terms with going back into the pack of clubs who are shown last on match of the day and barely get a mention in the media. But I'm afraid that's the nature of a club our size and unless we get investment from human rights abusing countries or shady billionaires (which I don't want), it's always going to be that way.

I don't think his tactics are centred around Maddison. He's actually using Maddison out of position because of the lack of balance in the squad. If we could solve the problem areas of the pitch we wouldn't be so reliant on Maddison. Not sure if you're saying we should go to vardy/daka and Iheanacho up front. If so it would mean 3 at the back (dont have the centre backs to do it) or 4-4-2 (not sure where KDH or Maddison fit into that system). I just think some (not you necessarily) want to party like it's 2016 again and go back to having 30% possession and knocking it long into the channels for vardy. I'm fine with having a team where the centre backs have the most touches in the game, most of the best teams do, the problem is when you've got Amartey as one of those centre backs and you're lacking a cutting edge on one of the flanks. If we solve those issues we can go back to being a decent team

No I don't think it suits Ward, Amartey and the non existent right winger. I do think it would be fine if we sorted those issues. Because what you call pedestrian build up play can be turned into patient build up play with a cutting edge. And you must know the difference between pre and post world cup is no Maddison, even though you didn't mention him in the list of players there. The fact is we've got a squad that is so unbalanced that we're totally reliant on 1 player. Whether you blame Rodgers, the board, or both for that, I just don't see a change in manager being the answer

What tactics would you use then? Long ball, higher press, crosses into the box? I just don't see any of those options available to us with the squad we've got. The biggest issues with this squad are the keeper, lack of cover for Evans, and not having a left footed right winger. Rodgers was publically saying for ages about needing 2 centre backs and a winger. Part of it is his fault cus of the Vestegaard signing (although I maintain that was a panic buy after Fofana's injury). But the fact that we're midway through the 3rd window in a row of still not addressing these things is ridiculous. I'm convinced if we do then we'll finish mid table. If not it's gonna be a real struggle whoever is in charge

I'm in faction 4, which means I don't really care if Rodgers stays or goes because without investment I think we're gonna struggle whoever is in charge. As for the fans that go to the matches, they can do what they want. They pay their money, if they want to stand there with their hands in their pockets then that's fine, if they want to protest against the board/manager/players that's also fine. Turning on each other and calling Rodgers a poison dwarf doesn't really seem to achieve much though

I agree and I suspect it is because they're trying to do deals on the cheap. But it makes no sense because the more desperate you become the more clubs/players know they can hold out for more money

It's so frustrating cus we were on a good run before the world cup. If we could have brought a couple of players in early in the window we could have kept that momentum up. Instead they've been allowed to drift into trouble again. I'm sick of hearing the club are working hard behind the scenes. That to me means they're transfer strategy isn't working cus the hard work should be done before the window opens

Maddison comes back quickly we stay up, if he's out for much longer it's going to be tight. After doing nothing in the summer why don't we have signings ready to come in straight away?

Least we're not Everton

Cus he was rubbish for months and wants to leave. Hope that helps

A depleted side lacking in confidence against a full strength team with loads of confidence and the backing of a raucous crowd, that was always going to be a rough night. Newcastle are a bad team for us to play at the minute, they're a really physical team and you need to either match that or have the technical ability to play around the press. We have neither at the moment. It's not as bad as people make out though, a few injured players return and a couple of new faces in and it can turn around pretty quickly.

Coming here cus I know there'll be a calm, level-headed reaction to that one

I know Perez is having a shocker but why isn't he on corners? We actually looked dangerous when he was taking them the other day

Why do our players keep helping their players up when they've been fouled? Can't help thinking we need some proper shithouses in this team

Or maybe there's been more injuries because we've been a successful team who go deeper into cup competitions and play in Europe without the squad to be able to rotate. And maybe that's the reason Rodgers said that the squad needed a refresh in the summer (and only got told there was no money when they returned for pre season). And alot of the players that we need to get rid of are ones that were bought before Rodgers got here- Soyuncu, Mendy and Iheanacho. Alot of our recruitment was shit long before Rodgers got here. As for alienating squad members, I just don't see it. I can only remember him calling out 3 players by name since he got here. Under, Soyuncu (who he stayed loyal to for way too long) and Vestegaard (a panic buy after Fofana broke his leg- but I guess this was Rodger’s fault as well). As bad as we've been at times this year, I don't get the impression the players aren't playing for him. The funny thing is I'm defending a bloke I don't really like that much. He can be arrogant and self serving. But he's been one of the most successful managers in our history- that success wasn't all because of him in the same way the failings now aren't. I just don't get and will never get the utter hatred some fans seem to have towards him.