daddylonglegs

Yeah I'm not expecting UFS to do anything, it was more a point of intrigue as to what would prevent them doing so. I hadn't considered the banning stuff, which is definitely a good point. However we don't live in North Korea. It is surely improbable to suggest that protesting ownership would lead to expulsion from the stadium? That is a seriously dangerous position to be in, if that is the actual case.

I don't sit in the Kop so can't pretend it's something I'd be able to action personally, but what is stopping UFS/L1 etc producing a banner? Is it financial? I'm not gonna pretend I'm schooled in how easy or difficult these things are, but we need to start somewhere in terms of getting the message out publically that the guy has got questions to answer.

it does make you just want to throw the towel in when your most senior member of staff is this incompetent. the club's basically built in his image these days, a total mess.

It’s not quite this bad, but Ruud & Cooper’s insistence on playing him every game is reminiscent of Ward’s run in the team. He is costing us every single week. I don’t care if we don’t have another option, figure out a way of getting him out of the team. Change formation, try someone new there. Anything.

It's definitely not unusual to have absences, you're right. The absences we have *all* being our best players is an absolute sickener. I could deal with our 7 injuries if maybe one or two were starters & the rest were squad players, but thats simply not the case. We've got about 7 players that are of PL quality and they've all either been injured or are out for the season. Ricardo played about 40 games last year. He wasn't a starter in the two years previous to that cos a scouse yob broke his leg & then Bilbo rushed him back. If we had him at RB all year instead of Justin we wouldn't be in the bottom three. Fatawu an absolute killer of a miss. That's our entire right flank wiped out by injury. Replaced by Justin (an absolute shadow of his former self) and regularly McAteer (A league one/championship footballer at best). Then the midfield, Ndidi is absolutely part of our 1st XI under a competent manager in the PL. Your comment regarding Soumare/Bilal/Buenonotte is recency bias after good outings against Liverpool & City. Winks also injured for crucial matches against West Ham, Brighton & Wolves. Hermansen is going to miss 10-15% of the season in which time we're playing the two teams we're competing against to survive in Wolves & Everton. Re your point as to how it adds up to 1/3 of the team missing... Hermansen, Ricardo, Fatawu, Ndidi all unavailable.

Agree regarding the defeatist mentality, but it would be as impressive as the great escape if we stay up from here, regardless of how close we are to 17th. We've got about a third of our first XI out for the foreseeable and another 2 or 3 crucial players missing. It feels like we're heavily entirely dependent on Jon Rudkin pulling a Robert Huth esc signing out of his arse in January.

sneaking an extra 3 wins doesn't sound like much until you realise it's a 100% increase on our first half of the season

It's a bit quiet regarding Ndidi - we desperately need some defensive cover in midfield.

Nowhere near enough is made of in the media that Cooper had an entire pre season with essentially 0 injuries, brought in all his own players and still was a total mess. Ruud has inherited a squad riddled with injuries and on its knees from a confidence perspective (Which he did a good job of re-instating before immensely ****ing that up by starting Ward against Wolves). If you go on the basis that our first XI is as follows, in the space of a ~6 game tenure, Ruud has either had to deal with players missing at least one or two games due to injury (Vardy, Winks, Hermansen) or are dealing with now long term issues (Ricardo, Ndidi, Fatawu). Hermansen Ricardo, a CB, a CB, Kristiansen Winks, Ndidi, Bilal Fatawu, Vardy, Mavididi It is regularly a lazy & boring excuse to blame bad form on injuries, but our situation is absolutely horrendous. Ruud is not without his faults, particularly re picking Ward, but there won't be a team in the entire division as badly impacted by injuries since he came in.

I’ve got us winning one (Everton) out of the next fifteen. Yikes.

I think Ruud will be a good manager but the fact his record is compared with Cooper’s is hideously unfair. He spent that time creating no style of play and not playing our best players. To my mind we have 6 PL quality players. Hermansen (injured), Ricardo (injured), Winks (recently back from injury), Ndidi (injured), Fatawu (injured), Vardy (injured). Sometimes blaming injuries is a lazy excuse but when literally over 50% of the team is unavailable I don’t know how you can criticise the manager too much.

It’s a ****ing joke he’s played the last two games. He was their only competent player against us and directly contributed to both of their goals tonight. Without him they’re just as ****ed as we are over the next 10 games.

We’ve just got to be better than wolves. Their run of games is horrendous for the next 10. the season relies on the next 2 months being faultless from us though. We need to keep things respectable until the Palace game & we desperately need some good business in January. im not giving up yet!

One of these reasons directly relies on Jon Rudkin, so you can cross that one out.

It's nonsensical that a club as well set up as were were 3/4 yrs ago, is in a position where we are playing someone so far below the level required.

Completely agree. The game is the game though, homegrown players are always gonna get less slack than those who aren't from the academy. Also your point on him being played out of his depth is spot on. His level is likely mid table championship and we're asking him to be a PL starter. It's nonsensical.

Unsure if this has been mentioned but Brooks is a massive Leicester fan. Regularly seen him at away games. Funny him shafting wolves but let’s hope it’s not common knowledge for his sake 😂

Good first 5 mins, very very poor following 60 mins, good final 25 mins. Some horror shows in there defensively. It's not an exaggeration to say we need 4 starters in January (Providing Winks/Ricardo are out for a while).

I was thinking about our 11 this morning and we've got some absolutely gaping holes in terms of quality. Right back - Justin isn't fit for purpose but we have no realistic alternative (BDR would be an unknown entity). Centre half - if we're playing a four then we basically have to start Faes, who is a disaster waiting to happen. Okoli injured, JV/CC nowhere near the level needed (Coady) or fast enough (JV) to play in a four at this level Central midfield - Wilf is the only one who can win the ball but Saturday looked like he'd forgotten how to do it. Soumare sporadic, Skipp clearly not up to it, Winks injured, Choudhury a league 1 player Up front - relying on a 38yo to get the goals. Only one out and out winger available. It's not a stretch to say that we need 5 new first team players in January

By all accounts it sounds like the players are indifferent towards him. The 'Rudkin out' thing is significantly larger on foxestalk than it is in reality. I would estimate 5-10 thousand fans even know who he is. He'll continue pottering along on ~half a million a year until someone with respect for accountability is in charge (Which certainly isn't Top or Susan Whelan).

The thing is he’s one of the few players at the moment where I don’t question his effort & intensity, he’s just rubbish 😂

One of the very worst performances I can remember watching in the post Pearson era. Utterly shameful from at least 4 individuals and as a collective they were pathetic. I disliked cooper as much as the next bloke, but the problems are significantly deeper than his tactical ineptitude.

Over the past 4 years, what has the club done at board level to suggest this level of due diligence is carried out?

Absolutely vintage Top if he thinks the only two appropriate options are Ruud and Carsley.

I'm not sure there are many on here are there? From a quick glance over the past 6 weeks or so, I'd say this is about as united as the fanbase has been in terms of a decision about a manager...