jeffschlupp

Injuries are one of those things where you get increasing returns when players return. Having more players back allows more rotation and therefore less future injuries. To be able to rotate four players of the quality (and relative injury proneness for the first three) of Ricardo, Castagne, Justin and Thomas will be a real boost especially with Thursday/Sunday hopefully on the cards beyond this week. If Vardy is as quick as hoped, we *might* only be short of Bertrand and Ward for Man United on 2 April and a potential quarter-final in the week after.

For me, it's not like we've not been cautious. Justin took 12 months to recover from an ACL injury, when plenty of other PL clubs have had players return inside 9 months. Fofana was initially December/New Year and has taken another 2-3 months to be match ready. The injuries were much worse over Christmas because we had to play players through fixtures the PL wouldn't call off. Even with the current uproar, we have only got 6 out and Fofana will be back on Sunday and Ricardo not long after, so it seems. Castagne, Evans and Vardy are all surely targeting United straight after the international break. It is hardly disastrous anymore.

The medical department needed expanding - it's a football club that now operates in a Europe-leading facility with a large first team playing squad. It needs to have lots of staff at the top level. The old department was: Rennie - Head Physio Murphy, Silk - Physios Patchett - part-time club doctor We now have English - Head of medicine Silk, Freeman, Richmond, King - physios each with different skillsets and job roles. King is rehab, Silk is performance etc. Narayan - part-time tunnel doctor, used e.g. in Fofana's case on the pitch where trauma care is urgently required. Mostly looks after the academy though, which again needs world-leading care when you are looking at producing a £50m+ asset semi-regularly as they have done in the past 5 years with Chilwell and the current crop. They have just turned over what was a Championship-sized operation into a European-sized one. I think people are getting too hung up on this idea of a 'Rodgers' or 'club' appointment. If Rudkin and Whelan are looking for someone, you think that a) they aren't going to ask their key football man for maybe an opinion or some names, but then b) purely and completely go off his recommendation? If Rodgers has gone 'look, give Bryan English a ring, Chelsea had a superb injury and fitness record while I was down there, he'd be a great fit, see if he fancies it', then you would be naive to not have a look. If Rodgers wanted Congerton then he has had to convince the board he is the right man for them. And I think both men would sit back and look back at some of the club's signings while Congerton has been here and could argue their case quite strongly he's hardly been a disaster. Football clubs are not just one bloke doing one thing and not having any communication with others. We've all been in the workplace, you adapt and adjust and take on advice from lots of areas. Rudkin and Whelan are arguably the best pair at the top of a football club in the country in trusting the right people and making the right decisions.

Can't think of any obvious candidates who have worked with Rodgers or Rudkin before, with the exception of Walsh and Macia who have already left. Intrigued to see if the club go with what looks like a Rodgers pick or their own recruitment process. They might promote Callum Smithson from Head of Technical Scouting?

Justin back in training

I still maintain he is not being helped by the 4-2-3-1 shape. It seems to benefit Maddison in his own individualistic sense, but I am still bemused as to why he dropped Tielemans back into a midfield pair with Ndidi when a 4-3-3 with Ndidi at the base of a midfield three worked so well in Rodgers' first 12 months here. It just means he has to cover more ground in wider areas where he leaves the centre halves exposed, for me. Maddison is underrated in his ability to track runners and win the ball in the midfield, and that ability is wasted when he is so close to the centre forward and even pressing as though he is a striker in a 4-4-2 at times.

This is just his quotes from the pre-Randers press conference the other day - he doesn't say anything of the sort, just that his degree is on hold due to the birth of his child and COVID

Schmeichel Albrighton Amartey Vestergaard Thomas Tielemans Ndidi Lookman Maddison Barnes Iheanacho Subs: Ward, Jakupovic, Soyuncu, Choudhury, Soumare, Dewsbury-Hall, Perez, Daka

Not much of note in there, all seems pretty standard to me. Club owes Top directly £30m (same as last year), and KPI in total £111.5m + £42.5m, give or take. The £111.5m is the £91m original loan for Seagrave + a top-up of £20.5m, and then they've take another loan out of £42.5m since May. They now owe Macquarie £80m but this is all new loans and all of their old charges are resolved. It's an operating profit if you take out COVID among other things. £43.9m is a remarkable profit on transfers when you consider we paid for Fofana and Castagne that summer. I recall telling this place in the summer the club had got some superb instalment deals on Soumare and Daka...same situation there. Edit: Does once again show the importance of commercial revenue. £33m from sponsorship and advertising? The figures next year with FBS are going to be interesting.

By my reckoning no surprise absentees in the training video - 18 fit outfielders + 3 GKs means only Fofana, Vardy, Castagne, Evans, Bertrand and Mendy miss this one. First time we might not have an U23 on the bench in what feels like forever. I'd imagine it'll be full strength with Ricardo making the bench for now: Schmeichel (c) Justin Amartey Soyuncu Thomas Ndidi Tielemans Lookman Maddison Barnes Daka Subs: Ward, Ricardo, Vestergaard, Choudhury, Soumare, Dewsbury-Hall, Albrighton, Perez, Iheanacho Harsh on KDH but I think we'll need width and pace in a high-intensity game like this.

The club no longer makes reference to either of these names, whether they exist or not. It used to be the 'MarksElectrical Family Stand' did it not, and we had the AirAsia East Stand and so on. How much would it cost King Power to get rid of some of its branding and stick 'The Gary Lineker Stand' above the Family Stand screen?

I think we ought to have realised the football club does not care about its history or traditions when it had exactly the same response to the passing of its greatest ever goalkeeper and only World Cup winner as it did to the death of the Thai monarch. The stadium has become sterile just as it was prior to 2013-14. Just that this time, the club have gone further into that 'matchday family experience' thing than they ever should. Yes, it's important to be inclusive. But you develop the next generation of supporter by giving them better access to tickets, rather than feeding them modern claptrap like goal music and whatever the shit noise they now play prior to kick-off is. UFS are (apparently) not everyone's cup of tea but they appear to be the only ones pushing for the club to have an actual football club identity. Leicester City cannot become a brand, that will be the death of football as we knew it. Even things about the stadium itself wind me up. Why do we need a band in the way of the turnstiles, or some silly pr*ck letting kids shoot at holes in an inflatable goal? Probably irrelevant to the topic, but it also grinds my gears now that the club has got three stands called the 'West Stand', 'East Stand' and 'Family Stand' while half the clubs in the division have got stands named after legendary players and managers, along with statues etc. outside the ground. The club has lost its culture.

His contract does NOT expire in June 2022 - it is June 2023 https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-daniel-amartey-contract-6116203

I thought he was the best he'd been for a long time today. Steady

There is probably half a dozen players that are not secure at the club, so difficult to predict really. GK (3): Schmeichel, Ward, Jakupovic/no.3 FB (5): Ricardo, Castagne, Justin, Thomas, Bertrand CB (5): Fofana, Soyuncu, Amartey, Evans, CB MF (6): Ndidi, Choudhury, Tielemans replacement, Soumaré, KDH, Maddison Wingers (4): Lookman, Barnes, Albrighton, RW CF (3): Vardy, Iheanacho, Daka So a CB/CM/RW and Lookman on a permanent sounds the bare minimum. I think if we can drastically reduce the number of injuries we will be a lot better next season, and really don't think it requires the wholesale changes others do. Schmeichel; Castagne, Fofana, CB, Justin; Ndidi, CM, Maddison; RW, Vardy, Barnes is a top side if we recruit three top players. Ward; Ricardo, Soyuncu, Evans, Thomas; Choudhury, Soumaré, KDH; Albrighton, Iheanacho/Daka; Lookman as a second string is also a good team, with Amartey also there. Ricardo, Evans and Soyuncu will be important as to any more business aside from CB/CM/RW/Lookman, I think. If Ricardo and Evans can have a good pre-season and prove their fitness they can still be important to us, Soyuncu I think needs a break. Praet/Perez/Mendy/Vestergaard can all go as far as I'm concerned. Think we can register 25 + Thomas in the league next season given 2001 will be the new cut-off date for U21s, so a squad size of 26 looks about right if not in Europe.

So think the team will probably be: Schmeichel Albrighton Soyuncu Vestergaard Thomas Soumaré Tielemans KDH Maddison Daka Lookman Subs: Ward, Jakupovic/Stolarczyk, Daley-Campbell, Brunt, Justin, Choudhury, McAteer, Pérez, Barnes A similar shape to Liverpool in the League Cup, before Cags got injured. You've got to play KDH and Maddison if fit, but then a midfield three of those two + Tielemans is probably not strong enough, nor provides enough cover at set-pieces, so Soumaré comes in too. Enough on the bench to change it going forwards if we want a different option. Can see him maybe starting Hamza over Soumaré but don't think we have the options to go 3atb without Justin being fully fit or throwing Brunt in.

On a serious note, the medical/sports science side has had huge upheaval since Rodgers was appointed I make it, first-team wise, 7 appointments (English, King, Freeman, Narayan, Paxton (promoted from academy), Habershon, Driscoll) since Rodgers was appointed And in terms of departures, Rennie (Bristol C), Murphy (Arsenal), Balsom (Tigres), Patchett (retired?), Milligan (South Sydney Rabbitohs) have gone Academy too - Rahman, Oliver Morgan among others have been appointed Whether it's a whole club drive or a Rodgers thing, I wasn't aware our medical performance needed improving. In fact, under Pearson and Ranieri we were topping injury charts for highest player availability % and general player fitness was extremely high. Very strange

If we get Fofana back in February, you've got four CBs again (Fofana/Soyuncu/Vestergaard/Amartey). I can see a similar story to last January, where we ended up looking for a bench filler/cup player (Chalobah) to let another leave (Choudhury). Someone like Liam Moore on loan for 4 months would not be a ridiculous shout given he fills an otherwise free spot in the European squad (allowing us to re-register Justin or Fofana while not losing anyone else apart from Benkovic). Would you trust Moore to play 90 against a Championship side in the FA Cup? I think you would, especially a boy from Barrow against Forest...

This screams us. Schmeichel, Vestergaard link. Rodgers wanted him at Liverpool while he was at Ajax, and the club went for him 12 months ago. We're not a team in desperate need of him to come and play lots of games given Maddison/KDH are fit and bang in form, unlike others that might be interested like Newcastle. Wants to play in the PL again and clearly has motivation. 18 month contract with option is a no brainer if he's fit. Just don't know who we'd move out of the 25 man squad. Bertrand if he's long-term injured?

If FA Cup R3 doesn't count then we have the 8 seniors that played yesterday + McAteer + VDC that have played this season, so that's 10. Don't think anyone else has played a senior game this season aside from yesterday, so it would then depend whether they'd consider the likes of Spencer-Adams (who's played in the cup for Watford) senior enough for them to count. Edit: if starters only then McAteer doesn't count, so 9. So if the club want it off, it'll be off

Looks like that means K. Pennant and Wormleighton involved with the U23s at the very least, maybe Booth too

So I make it something like this? Ward Daley-Campbell Vestergaard Nelson Albrighton Choudhury Tielemans Lookman McAteer Barnes Pérez Substitutes: Jakupovic, Castagne, Braybrooke, Maddison, Alves Short of 4 on the bench based on the U23s in the training pictures. I'd not want to risk Tielemans but don't see a midfield including both McAteer and Braybrooke.

It won't be 4-3-3, it will be the same painful 4-2-3-1 we had at the start of the season with Soumaré at 10. Rodgers hasn't played 4-3-3 since we looked really good with it pre-lockdown, it's been a number 10 behind a striker ever since in a 4atb. It doesn't sound a major difference on paper, but when you have Tielemans/Ndidi operating 20 yards away from a number 10, it is largely impossible to get the ball through the lines.

This has got nothing to do with Rodgers or Congerton. He's a direct replacement for Fontes who left for Roma in July - the club advertised for this role a couple of months ago.

Evans in the training pics from this morning Everyone who should be there is there, I think - Schmeichel, Vestergaard, Thomas, Amartey, Ward, Soyuncu the late international returners