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OntarioFox

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Everything posted by OntarioFox

  1. f**k me i wish our fans had the passion that Gareth from the Office lookalike has Going in the FoxesTalk Hall Of Fame if they equalise
  2. Oh my god, they are the gift that keeps on giving. Absolutely deluded levels of victim complex. This season of theirs has been incredibly funny to witness from afar, it's a travesty that they might stay up by the skin of their teeth but fingers crossed one of Burnley or Luton catch them.
  3. Rate it's going Burnley vs Forest on the final day could be a relegation playoff 👀
  4. TalkSport calling out knobs leaving early
  5. vardy is crap
  6. Coady first goalscorer, make it happen
  7. OntarioFox

    Daka

    Those stats understate Cannon's ability to do that part of the game though. He's mostly had cameos off the bench at the end of games, when the pressing from the front isn't happening for various reasons, or the play is passing him by because we're chasing the game and hell-bent on wing play. For what it's worth, I've seen enough of Cannon to say he does that job just as well as Daka does.
  8. Yeah can't believe the ego on the lad to do that at such an iconic moment, had to be all about him, game's gone.
  9. Never mind that, we had a game earlier in the season with all three of Mavididi, Ndidi and Marcal-Madivadua involved. I'd have paid good money to hear a man who couldn't remember Steve Howard's name get his head around the interplay between the three of them.
  10. It feels like Groundhog day at this point. Every time there's a new manager, there's an initial bounce and performances to match, then it all turns back to the same turgid possession-for-posession's-sake nonsense. This has been happening every. Single. Manager. Since Nigel's son decided to use his mouth in two inappropriate ways in the same video. Ranieri comes in, tweaks a winning formula, wins the league. Absolutely brilliant, dreams came true. Why wake up? Only he then tries to shoehorn a possession based style into the same squad second-season, loses to a threadbare Hull side on day one and almost gets us relegated with only the Champions League run - where I'm certain we played in the "old way" due to pure adrenaline - to paper over the cracks. Shakespeare comes in, goes back to basics and drags us through to the Quarter final, gets some vital wins on the board and keeps us safe for the season. Brilliant. Sleepwalks back into the same habits, admittedly not to the same extent as Ranieri, we go backwards, he goes. Probably the one I blame least for the board-led gaslighting of the fanbase that Posession footy is the be-all-and-end-all, but still guilty of trying it with poor results and clear signs of not being a "managerial mind" able to adapt in-game. Puel comes in, already with a reputation for boring, turgid football. Actually starts off with - you guessed it - exciting counter attacking footy. See the breakaway with Gray for Vardy's goal in his first game. We were sarcastically singing "boring boring Puel" in the crowd that day. By the time of the tragic disaster at the KP however, we were playing exactly that brand of turgid, crappy posession football, and we were seeing results slide. Embarrassments in the cup against the likes of Newport were the final nail for most fans. A League Two side outclassing even our second string with a basic high-press was a new low at the time, but that sort of supposed mismatch being bridged with ease by poor opposition is now such a common thing with Leicester that we should have seen it as a premonition for the club as a whole, not just a sad indictment of Puel himself. Gets a few hindsight bonus points from me for good transfer targets and bringing through some academy products, but just another nail in the coffin of our "true" style IMO. And then Brendan. Hoo boy, Brendan. The early days were excellent, because as Ric pointed out on the podcast, he was willing to try different systems to get the most out of his philosophy. We would shift between diamonds, 3-5-1-1 setups and - shocking as it may sound right now - even tried a 4-4-2 on rare occasions (the away day at Villa Park with Vardy and Iheanacho up top was incredible, one of my favourite ever). Then his transfer business started to rot the squad from the inside. He developed his favourites, settled into one w*nky way of playing that was painfully easy to counter, and we ultimately endured two long years of absolute rot, regular humblings, bottlings and - worst for me - the complete lack of desire or mentality in the squad, most blatant in the way we capitulated twice in two years away at Forest in games that clearly meant a lot to the fans but the players looked scared to take part in. And so we came to this season and Enzo. And initially it looked like he was working miracles. The speed of the turnaround in our form, results and importantly our mentality was admirable, but the difference here is that we were (and are) now playing at a lower level, against far poorer teams, which now saw us as a big fish. Initially, we were able to get away with fairly aimless possession football because teams were scared to attack us. When they did, our higher fitness levels - the one thing I can genuinely credit Enzo for sorting over pre-season - got us over the line in so many games early on. But when those opponents were not Man City and Arsenal, but rather Coventry and Rotherham, you have to temper your praise in hindsight. Eventually, and I think this started to really become apparent during AFCON but has only gotten worse since, teams realised that sitting off us and chasing shadows until they tired and allowed us to score was just stupid and that they would get far more joy just snapping at heels and applying pressure. For some it worked because they could score first and shut up shop (hello Millwall and Plymouth), for others it was sheer tenacity and improving fitness that turned the tables and let them get the late goals to stuff us (hello Leeds away and Ipswich... twice). The difference this time is that there was no transition period where we actually tried something different. We saw tantalising glimpses of it away at the likes of Birmingham and West Brom, but those were rare exceptions. The rest of the season, as Enzo has said himself, we had a style and we've stuck to it. Possession footy is here to stay, deal with it. I think it was probably during the Puel days when I first started to really feel a sense of jealousy watching other teams - the likes of Crystal Palace in particular, a team I should never have felt such a thing towards in any normal world - outclassing us seemingly every time we played them with simple, high-energy Counter Attacking football that we had conquered the unconquerable doing ourselves only a few short years prior. Since then, I've had to stand helpless and watch teams do it to us time and time again. Those two farces at the "World Famous" City Ground. The Bergwijn disaster against Spurs. Countless games against fodder in Rodgers' final two seasons where our old style - which we'd proven was the way to beat any possession-based system right up to the likes of Man City's - was actively showing up the new one we'd had forced onto us as fans, without any real say in the matter. We were one of the clubs that led to a global shift in attitudes - the death of "tiki-taka", yet here we were trying to adopt the very style that we'd shown ourselves was now outdated and at the very least needed a rethink if not consigning to the history books altogether! Madness. It was the football equivalent of Jeff Bezos walking into Woolworths in 2007 and deciding "you know what, Chad Valley and Pick & Mix is the way forwards, I'm going to do that instead of my online delivery thing". At this point I can't help but buy into the conspiracy that the Board themselves have decided that - in line with their delusion that we are now somehow permanent top-six gatecrashers - we must play a "cultured" style of football and balls to any suggestions to the contrary. It may be tolerated for short periods when new managers come in, but the appointment and the style are non-negotiable and must fit into this weird, arrogant "vision" we now have as a club. One that flies completely in the face of how we achieved our greatest escape, followed by our greatest triumph. It's upsetting from a fan perspective, and absolutely deluded from a business one because it completely ignores and wilfully opposes the way we even got to dine at that table in the first place. You know it's bad when I think in hindsight that I genuinely would have preferred to see what Jesse f**king Marsch might have done with us and his chaotic, mindless "get it down the middle fast and bugger to the defensive side of the game" style. Even if we lost games 5-4 every week it would be more enjoyable than watching us now labouring to get anything against the likes of Plymouth, Millwall, Bristol City, QPR and so on. As it turns out, we went for the "safe" interim option of Deano and it didn't work. Now we're in the Championship and staring down potential financial ruin whatever league we find ourselves in. But at least the board got their possession man! He learned from Pep! He even looks like him! Look, we're a "big" club playing "big football! Paying "big" wages! Wait, what do you mean Millwall just scored? I'm not asking us to become a team who hide ten men behind the ball every game and hope that we can play a coiled spring against every team we ever face. Football doesn't work like that, and I'd be revising history to say that there weren't times when we struggled against a low block ourselves during the "counter" days. But by god, if we're playing against a high line, change it up! Exploit the space! Be more direct! Try crosses to heads once in a while! Enzoball isn't uniquely bad - it's just the latest in a string of failed experiments (Ranieriball, Shakeyball, Puelball, and most offensively Rodgersball) that works only when the players are A) at 100% concentration, B) 100% fitness, C) 100% intensity and (probably most importantly - Patson Daka, looking at you mate) D) 100% ruthlessness in front of goal. In rare cases this season it has worked, like when we blew Stoke away. But Stoke are shit. They let us. It's like how Rodgersball worked when the going was good, most famously in the 9-0, but even that was slightly handicapped by playing 10 men from the moment we gained our 1 goal advantage. When ANY of those 4 requirements are compromised, it either takes a big slice of luck to win games, or we throw points away. I could go on further, but unless you couldn't tell by this wall of text I'm sick of it. Save for a few bright spots, and a hell of a lot of kidding myself earlier this season that I enjoyed this "brand" of football, I really don't. And it seems most Leicester fans don't, and never have done. Yet we've been forced to endure it for probably 80-90% of the games we've watched for Eight. Years. Now. I used to roll my eyes at clubs talking about playing, say, "the West Ham way", but I get it now. I really do. The "Leicester City way" is a real thing, and it's even embedded in the song about our late owner. We play from the back... we counter attack. We don't play from the back... kick it sideways and then concede a goal. We had our way, then not so much lost it as actively chose to abandon it. And it's shit, and I hate it, and I just want to see us play like we did for that golden 18 month period again one day. I know it had its own critics, and some called it boring for large parts of games - but if that was boring then what the hell is the shite we've been served for the best part of a decade now by comparison? I despair. I really do. Until the board fall on their swords and people come in with fresh ideas and the bravery to appoint somebody with more tactical depth than a paddling pool, this cycle will continue whatever league we're in. How on earth did we become so BORING?
  11. Ladies and Gentlemen... Leicester will be playing aimless...f**king...possession...football.
  12. On the point around the 12 min mark about finding new ways to win games @Ric Flair - another big one was Pearson cutting his losses and changing the system in the second half of the 2014-15 season. We weren't playing badly, but lacked any real bite, and delivery into the box was crap. He decided "f**k it, this isn't working" - went for a midfield 5 with wingbacks, adopted a gung-ho counter attacking style and brought in Albrighton on the wing who had barely played so far that season. Cue the Great Escape - and the blueprint for the miracle that happened the year after.
  13. Big congratulations to Ipswich for winning the 'score a goal' challenge
  14. I must be the only one watching prem games today - Burnley 1-0 to make things interesting! Edit - once again, never mind 😂
  15. Wooooolves! Don't blow this @The Bear Edit: - ffs
  16. Ban for jinxing pls
  17. It was always too much to ask, but plenty of time yet 🫣
  18. Chris Wood's was still better, right end too
  19. Football is absolutely hilarious sometimes. Come on Middlesbrough 🫣
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