Tom12345

Faes is just a poor defender. Coady has got to start.

Don’t blame the guy. Blame Enzo for the poor style of play. I don’t even know what it is for these days. At the beginning of the season, we were excited because we thought Enzoball is about taking risks and trying to play. Now we know it is about taking no risk in favour of control with no purpose.

There is quality in the team. It is more about our mentality and our lack of urgency in our style of play.

Faes should be dropped. Not sure why he is starting ahead of Coady at this point.

Anyone who gives me the excuse that we were facing Millwall who is in a relegation fight just don’t get it. We compared Enzo with Pep. Man City never had a problem killing off teams fighting relegation. They dominate. They always look like scoring. We never looked like scoring until we brought in two forwards, at 87th min. We struggled to win against the likes of Sheffield Wednesday. We can’t even beat Millwall in the Championship, with a very good squad. We definitely have a lot of quality, but we just don’t show any urgency. We never mix things up. We never like to play quick transitions. We just like to let opposition teams settle into a “deep defensive shape” which we allow them to before we try to “break” teams down. This is absolutely Enzo. Very disappointed that we are throwing this away.

We need Nacho. Keep Vardy or bring on Daka as well for Vardy (in addition to Nacho).

Despite what you say, Hermansen is the keeper who has had more to do than the Millwall keeper.

Nice. Enzo. Your Enzoball has led to this.

Yes. Zero.

Admittedly, it is still better than Rodgerball. At least in fairness we can get out of our own half.

Where is our transition play? It seems it is non existent.

Not very Pep at all.

It is not just Millwall. It is every single game. It is not because of a “deep defence”. It is because we love to let opposition teams settle into their shape before we try to “break” them down.

For all that “control”, we had zero shot on target. The Millwall keeper did not have to make a single save. Too many back passing at critical moments.

Agree. KDH is still a bit raw. He is not at Maddison level and while he is a hard working player he does not have the extra ounce of world class that Ricardo has. Ricardo is just a clear level above everyone else in this division. If not for his injury, he could have been playing for the top clubs and be genuinely recognised as a world class RB.

Very good point. You need to send this to the club!

I think you missed my point. Why pay Ward 40k in the first place and have him on such long contract? Or why not have a get out clause or a relegation wage reduction clause for players like Ward? I guess Rodgers really rated him.

And of course when you have to sell, your bargaining power to get a better price dwindles. These rules are really lose lose and lose for clubs like ours. You lose money when you get relegated. Then they punish you for it. Then to balance the books, you have to sell your assets, which could otherwise be sold at a higher price at a time of your choosing, at much lower prices because they are fire sales at that time. Then your on field performance suffers and as a result you lose even more money. You are forced to forever chase your tail and get into a downward spiral. There are many ways to make football more sustainable. But these rules are definitely not and are stupid. If you want “financial fair play”, put limits on how much each club can spend each season, place salary caps on teams, etc. I mean a single Maguire earns 250k a week at Man Utd. How do you compete for the best players when clubs can pay that sort of wages for an average player??? Our owners simply wanted to keep the team together so that they don’t get snapped up by these other big clubs. That’s all. If not for the inflated wages caused by the big clubs, we would not need to pay Vardy 140k a week, etc. Having said that, we must accept fault for our financial situation too - why the hell is Ward still on our books earning 40k a week???

I guess it evens out with the penalty that should have been.

Look up stats for the past 5-6 seasons.

A few observations: 1. Birmingham only really put some pressure on us when we are in the lead. Lesson: Do not take foot off pedal and play the same that took you to the lead in the first place and stop inviting pressure afterwards. 2. We should have been in front more. Clear penalty on Justin and pull on Vardy missed by the Ref. Yunus missed the ball from 6 yards out! 3. But against a team in the relegation zone, we should have been carving up Birmingham left right and center at home but we didn’t. We made it hard for ourselves. Our style of play really needs reinvigoration with more urgency into the final third. 4. If we didn’t win this, it would have devastating to team morale. 5. Ndidi just ran out of puff. Praet should have been subbed in earlier. 6. I think we miss Nacho today. With the game it was today, Nacho would have created quite a few chances for teammates.

Why didn’t we keep playing like that after we scored earlier.

No no no. We make mistakes because we start to sit back more in our half instead of trying to play full throttle on opposition half. We are a team full of PL players but yet we sit back and invite pressure against many average Championship team. Birmingham is a spot above relegation, but we made them look like a top side after we scored. We only have ourselves (ie. the manager) to blame.

Absolutely. Birmingham only got back into the game because we let them. Why don’t we carry on dominating with no pressure on us when we go full throttle when trying to score first. But as soon as score, we just become too “patient” and then Birmingham can start attacking with no worries about defending because we just start to sit back. Come on Maresca. You told us we keep playing the same and we need to be patient. But why can’t we play the same for 90 mins regardless of whether we are in the lead or not????

I don’t know why Faes starts ahead of Coady. This guy is quite brainless at times.