JJD_LCFC

Thanks for your reply. I do agree the fans role is to lift and support the team. At the moment we are not quite there. A lot of recent decisions and a lot of inaction has caused this disconnection. I do agree with you that we can not do this to every player / manager. Martin O'Neil became one of our best managers, Vardy is a club legend and probably will have a statue at the ground. As fans we do want instant results, and that is why most clubs do not have fans in control. I agree with this. Just to explain. I do not want fans to boo every player. I do think that we have a huge role in the club if voiced correctly. Rudkin out chants should not be just 5 minutes when we are 0-3 down. They should be for a duration of a game if we want any change to happen. The booing of Ward happened after 35 games of poor performance, we all can see he is a huge detriment to the team. And already cost us the Wolves game where we are now firmly in the bottom 3. We were not in the relegation zone before he played for us. I do blame Ruud for his selection and fans took it upon themselves to make sure this error was identified. We need to do the same for Rudkin otherwise we are heading on a downward spiral which the board, are again, oblivious about.

I fully agree with your analogy, and that Ipswich and Wolves currently have a much better chance of staying up than us. Ipswich are certainly boosted by a positive home crowd and club in the same direction. Wolves have a good enough team to get out of any trouble. FA have clearly helped as well with banning Cunha when he is injured and for a cup game which he would have rested anyway. We have a large discontent between fans and board. It really does filter down to the players. Our ownership again seem increasingly unaware of what is going on. I was hoping the obvious need for new players would have meant we signed players as soon as the window opened. This is a huge transfer window. And need to use the time after the Villa game for any new players to adapt. If we go down, I do think that Vardy will stay for one more season to help get us promoted. As you said though this is a huge risk and could really end his career with us on a sour note. If only Tony Bloom could spend an hour with our board we certainly would be in a better position. From what I have been told, Rudkin is not a bad person. He is a very hard worker and always around. Results have proven that he is just incompetent in the role. As a result nearly of departments under him are performing sub par.

I would say It is a collective issue. Top. Forced into the position and is clearly inept in the role. Doesn’t set standards that a leader should follow. Rudkin. From the people I have spoken with about him. He is one of the hardest workers in the room. First in and last to leave. But he doesn’t have his own opinion. He asks everyone for input and uses other people’s answers as his thoughts. Signed off on some dreadful contracts which have ruined our club. Brendan. He gave up last year in the role. Didn’t get backing he wanted and he waited for a pay off. Played ward for 28 games when clear as day he can not cope. First 18 months brilliant. Last 18 months we are where we are largely due to his decisions. players- Maddison’s tweet summed it up for me. Play like that and we will be fine. They didn’t think about relegation until too late. And they played like it as well. supporters. Often fans are the 12th man. This has changed in recent seasons. I went to watch Boca Juniors at Bombanera 3 seasons ago. The game was won before kick off. 90 minutes before the game stadium packed and bouncing. I know the clappers we had people didn’t really like. But for our fan base, they were great. We are a quiet fans. And a little idea like the clappers made a great noise when used together. Look at the loud boos to Danny Ward during Wolves game. He has not played since. Fans have a huge impact and vital role. If we want change have to voice opinion. Shout Rudkin out for duration of the game, not for 5 minutes. We are too passive and only really vocal online. We can make a huge difference the 2nd part of the season. scouts- some dreadful signings and recruitment over the last 4 seasons. We used to be the best and find Kante, Mahrez and Vardy. We are a shadow of that now. For every Mads Hermansen there are 5-6 dreadful transfers that have hurt us. it is a huge collective issue that caused us to be in our current position

Thanks for your reply. Always good to hear differing perspectives. I understand the top of the box. Personally, I don’t think we have the players to leave 3 at the back with a FB making up the bottom of the box. This system works when have the best players. When we don’t I would lean towards a structured back 4. i just think play a normal back 4, winks Ndidi and KDH Would be a decent midfield for us. However Bilal has been a good signing and FB has been great. Really surprised at his lack of game time in recent matches. Could be recalled by Brighton in January at a guess. Could FB play RW and Bilal LW. Or play Winks, KDH and Bilal. We have a huge transfer window now which will shape the next couple of seasons for the club. Get the window right and have a chance to stay premier league. If we stay with the squad we have really looks like championship again, which will be harder to get promoted this time round. i am not saying I am right. Always nice to hear an opinion. I fully agree with your answer on Money, team shape and structure as the cause for the modern game. It is a huge shame as flair and creativity are coached out of them. Zidane, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo (R+) phenomenal players and we are losing quality as a result. Every side in the 90s and early 2000s had real quality players. just as an example, There is a huge decline in the quality of strikers in the modern game. As you correctly said everything became better and as a result probably has become worse. I really don’t understand the modern coach either. Why they can’t change system or set up. And really only believe in one way at playing. Russell Martin for example. Everyone could see conceding goals playing out from the back. But he did it every game. To me this is not good coaching / managing. Good quality coaching staff set teams with the best chance to get a positive result. When I was growing up, teams would play when they could and Defend when needed too. Managers had to change tactics during the game. Now they seem to just settle for what is happening. Ange at Spurs. Only plays one way, Guardiola as well, I am really interested to see how he changes this huge decline in performance since Rodri’s injury. He is arguably one of the best managers in recent history. But he has spent fortunes everywhere he has been. He has not had any answers in the last 12 games even with the players he has. Played same style all the time. Coaches do not seem to change any more and only believe in one type of Philosophy. Baffles me as a fan but maybe that is why I am a supporter rather than professional manager.

This is not meant as a scaremongering topic. I am generally someone who likes to plan ahead in case of a few scenarios. If we were to go down. What would our starting line up look like? Jakub Ricardo if fit, otherwise James Justin Nelson Okoli Kristensen Winks Ndidi Bilal Fatawu Mavididi Cannon Possibly Souttar back from loan. This is still a decent team for the championship and chance for them to play together and get used to uniting as a team with the aim of promotion. I would prefer to start a team we can plan a bit of a future with. Playing Coady and Vestegaard again might be enough for championship but gives us no planning for premier league, as they are well below level required. They would stifle Ben Nelson and Okoli partnership if still around. Alves in and around the squad and ideally getting decent game time when possible. I would loan him to a club where he plays in League one for the rest of the season. He needs 15 games and then we can judge for next season. I can’t understand why he was not loaned already. Sitting on the bench for the occasional game is going to hinder any development. I would bring back Sammy braybooke and loan him to a team where he plays. League 2 etc. needs game time not sitting on a bench. I am thinking the only player we would really sell would be Mads. Likely to Chelsea for 30+. I don’t think we have anyone else who could be sold for reasonable finances. Faes to be sold for any price just to move him on. Would Vardy be signed for one more year to get us promoted again. Issues - — PSR. We will likely be hit with a championship points deduction. - manager. Will Ruud be capable to lead a team on a promotion charge. I have not been impressed with his 5 games. - Salaries and cost cutting. We will not recoup anywhere near the money that players were signed for. Will be a huge loss when players move on. But certain players need to leave for the longer term benefit of Leicester City - There are separate threads for the owners. So it does not have to be said in any replies (if there are any) Top, unfortunately has proven he is out of his depth in taking over. It could have gone one or two ways when he tragically had to take charge. Proven he is not good enough as a leader for a company. Rudkin is incompetent / useless. on the whole, This is still a fairly good side for the championship and capable of a promotion push. just interested in other thoughts. This is not meant as a negative reaction due to recent games.

I would hope Leicester would agree to a % of his salary. 200k per week Leicester should never pay that amount. I just think he will improve our team. But finances have to be realistic. chilwell and maguire would improve our chances to stay up. or I would like to think Ruud has some great connections to help bring in 3/4 starting players in the new year.

Huge upgrade on what we have available now. if we can get him really improves our defensive unit.yes he is not the quickest and we lack pace. But I don’t think pace is the main issue. Our CBs can not defend. Look at the goals conceded against Wolves. We were not beaten for pace. Dreadful defending. Can’t win a header and no cover for the first goal conceded. coady has been unwanted by his last 2 clubs both deemed him not good enough vestegaard is a good passer. Not defender. Really poor in the air for his height faes. Less said about him the better okoli. Part of me thinks he will be decent with a competent defender next to him. Maguire will improve us immediately. same for Chilwell if we can loan them for the rest of the season.

Should never have been appointed. A typical Leicester City board decision. No experience at this end of a league table. Appointed for 1 season of coaching experience in holland with the best team in the league, where he fell out with players and his own staff, and then a handful of games at man united. Moyes would have been far superior. why has he come in in his own without his own coaching team. His assistant embarrassed us at Brentford. And he is still having input into the team. Start Danny ward and still keep him on at half time. Incompetent decision making. made 2 subs at half time, 4 minutes later makes another 2. All defensive changes keeps Facundo on the bench until last 5 mins. Even if Brighton are looking to recall him in January. Play best players whilst we have him. This game was essential. Firmly unimpressed with his appointment and is a real worry moving forwards. If he is to make signings. He needs by January 1st. Not end of January.

As a possible option Regarding KDH, if we were to sign him we could go back to the Winks, Ndidi and KDH midfield 3. I think that is stronger than we have now. Personal opinion and I could be wrong of course. On another topic. Your message relates heavily to tactics and formations. I have no problem at all with this. I would just like to ask that if everything is supposedly getting better in football, sports science, pitches, training volume, professional coaches . How come the players are getting worse? When I was growing up we had real quality strikers in all major teams. Then world class players like Zidane, Kaka, Ronaldinho. I think coaches now are solely focused on themselves and not the players. They are over coached and take away creativity and natural instinct that the players have. sorry for changing topic on this, just a gripe of mine with the modern game.

I understand your point on this. My alternative view is that he can look at 6 months back at his boyhood club and help keep Leicester up. He will enjoy his football here a lot more than Chelsea as he will play every week. if it was me, I would look at the drinkwater situation. Same move, similar price. Chose to stay for too long and career fizzled out very quickly. could KDH see this as a way to play more often, and keep us up.

I agree with you. However this is the FA dealing with this. what I think is they will say they are looking into the incident and will then ban at a later stage. Similar to the Everton points deduction. Everton had a 10 point deduction when they were doing well in the league. All of a sudden Forest close to relegation and it is now a 2 point deduction. FA want to appear to be strict yet in reality do not do anything. I think Cunha will be banned but not for our game. similar to Mike Dean comment during the Manchester Derby. Good penalty shout and Mike dean says not in a game like this. They make up what they do to not really impact anyone.

I would pretty much guarantee Skipp was signed for the price that Tottenham owed us for Maddison. Fearful over FFP and no money to spend in the summer, probably thought this would be a decent deal. He runs, a lot, but that is it. Transfers since winning the league have largely been dreadful. Like a lot of transfers recently he is championship standard.

Reports pretty much say we will get 9-10 million for Maresca and his technical staff. Personally I think it is good business. I think the way Enzo plays requires a high level of technical ability and tactical understanding from all players. We will not have that in the premier league. I thought we would be similar to Burnley and play possession football but ultimately get relegated. For now, we need a manager who can keep us in the premier league and set us up to do so. Does not have to be an exciting name but someone who will get the best out of the players that we have. We still have a reasonable squad who are more than capable of finishing outside of the relegation places. We saw the consequences of keeping Rodgers for so long when he clearly did not want to be here, Enzo seemed to feel different post January transfer window, and ultimately we will be in a better position because of this. Frustrating now, but in the long run arguably better off.

His composure in front of goal was excellent this season. But is he a 1 season wonder like a Michu (Swansea) or is he into his peak years as a player. Anything around 10 million I would be ok with as I think he has something our team need. If closer to 20 million I would hope we use our scouts to source alternative options.

Fatawu on a permeant contract. For 14.5million, personally I think that is a bargain. Priority we sign him. I would be working on this now. Gus Hamer from Sheffield United. One of the best midfielders whilst at Coventry and I think he will be ideal as a CM for us, in a team who have a bit more possession than Sheffield United Hackney at Middlesborough, I also think impressed and has potential to play DM + CM. I think we will need options in CM this season. Ronnie Edwards from Peterborough at CB. He may be playing in League one but has vast potential. Trust the scouting department to find a number 9 and a winger to provide rotation / competition for Mavididi and Fatawu. My only goess would be Smozdics at Blackburn, if he plays Striker he will be worth a look. Looks very composed in front of goal and I think he could be the finisher that we need. But I hope the scouts have far better knowledge than my own limited viewpoint. Retain Ndidi, Vardy and dare I say Vestegaard if wages can be agreeable. I think all will play a huge part next season. Vestegaard was a different player this season and I have to admit my mistake in writing him off so soon in the premier league.

Fully agreed and no surprise at all it is Hamza. Technically extremely limited. May be quick and likes to tackle but that is it. He has had more issues than positives in the club. - Caught at a party during Covid which cost us 4th in the league. Maddison, Perez and Hamza dropped from the West Ham away game. Lost the game and 4th place - As of February police quite rightly involved in a drink driving incident when he was caught driving on the wrong side of the road Continually sets a dreadful example and what does Enzo do to set a precedent of indiscipline is make him captain numerous times, and then the board offer him a new deal. Forgetting 18 months ago only Watford were interested to take him on loan at a loss on his wages.

Certainly agree the football has been good when all players are fit and what we get with Enzo is this, Enzoball. But this is my issue with the modern day coaches. Why do they persist to play a certain way even though they have not got the players? Surely the job of the coach is to get the best out of the players available. We were relegated as Rodgers refused to play any other style as his own philosophy is to play out. In theory sounds great but with Ward, Thomas, Amartey, Ndidi etc we were our own worst enemy. Look at Burnley, they have to play out but have not got the players to do so. Dyche gets a lot of criticism but he kept Burnley up for years spending less than Kompany did in one transfer window. It seems that modern day coaches can only coach 1 style of play. When Ricardo and Ndidi are injured, there has to be a better option than just replace with 2 other players and expect them to do the same job. I would expect a decent coach to be able to recognise this and put our strongest team out playing in a way that benefits and not hinders them. We have lost an 8-13 point lead in 1 month due to injuries and persisting with this style of play. Enzo mentioned he plays this style as it is supposed to tire the opposition, yet we are the ones who look shattered after 75 minutes and is why we concede so many late goals. But nothing changes. We have dropped 13 points in the last 15 minutes and there has not been any indication to address this. It was the same with Rodgers defending corners. It got so bad that as fans we would cheer when we did not concede a goal from a corner.

That is correct and I certainly agree with you that fans have been misled. The premier league have attempted to maintain the monopoly of the top 6. Ever since the proposed Super League every decision has been to benefit those, If we look at the following rule changes I fail to see where any of them benefit clubs outside of the top 6: - - VAR - We were told only for clear and obvious error. Referees always favour the big sides but VAR proves this. Most incorrect decisions are always against the lesser reputable club in games. Wolves, Brighton, Nottingham Forest and ourselves last year all had numerous terrible calls against us. Pundits will say it evens itself out but it doesn't help the lower positioned teams. - 5 subs per game (Only helps the teams with the larger and more talented squads) - Additional stoppage time (Can be up to 10 minutes. more time for the sides to score) - No tackling / more red cards (I agree with player safety but stops the lesser positioned teams tackling / defending against the better players in fear of sent off) - FFP (Look at Newcastle, clubs can not even spend money to compete. Newcastle have 1 good year now need to sell prized assets to balance the books. They have no chance to overtake current top 4) - 5th place is going to be champions league shortly. Where will this stop. This will be up to 6 teams in the next decade as they bring in more money.

Yes, I have lived here for 3 and a half years now. This was our training session Friday morning. Coach for a team called Mount Pleasant Academy. Hope all is well,

Thank you for your comment and never an issue to disagree. That is why we are on a forum so we can discuss differing opinions. (I hope we see this more ) My personal opinion, due to FFP being introduced is that all clubs have to make sure they stay within the set parameters. If you spend above that then there should be a consequence. Otherwise bringing FFP is pointless. The 115 charges for Man City are not all related to losses, but Everton and Forest both were due to breaking the rules of FFP. According to reports, Forest would have stayed within the limits if they sold Brennan Johnson by the deadline. However they got 15 million more to sell on deadline day. It's not easy for the clubs as everyone would have taken the extra 15 million. But then they broke the rules and deadline set by FFP. We have apparently overspent and will be the next club to be charged. If we broke the rules we should get the same punishment. All I will say it that as FFP is brought in they need to set clear parameters and consequences. I certainly agree it is not easy. They need to be specific on the losses and have clarity - do they relate solely to on the field losses (ie new players, wages, staff etc) Or does the loss include the cost of a new stadium or training ground as well. Either way it is difficult.

Fully agreed. Points deduction should have been set at the start when FFP came in with clarity for all clubs. - If a team overspends by a certain amount then 3 points - If spends exceedingly over then 10 points (as examples) The point deductions are made up at a time to suit the offending clubs. Forest are 3 points clear so we make it that they are now only 1 point off relegation zone. Everton hit with 10 points when they were doing well. As soon as looked in danger we will drop this to 6 points on a technicality. Everton had any points deduction last year when they broke the rules, then we stay up and they go down. So they delayed deductions until a time when they were doing well. It looks like a punishment but it is not really.

I do not think your post deserves any stick. Fairly accurate reflection on the current state of our team. The only area I slightly disagree is where you mentioned Leeds and Ipswich play far better football than us. Maybe they are more entertaining, and definitely we can be rather boring. Personally, I think we were better than Leeds certainly in the away game for 75 minutes. And in both Ipswich games I thought we did well, again until the latter stages of the game. At the moment we do have the best goal difference in the league, which looks a lot closer than it did at the start of February. I think Enzo is a good coach, but not the same level as a manager during games. His subs are really poor and pretty much planned pre game, decisions are always like for like. We have lost so many points from winning positions. I was sure Enzo said he plays this style of football so the opposition tire at the end of the game and that is when we take advantage. The season started that way but we have got worse and actually we are the ones who are tired at the end of games. He is a modern coach who has a philosophy of how he wants to play and he will not change from that. I personally think philosophy is another way to describe failure but that is just my opinion. I really worry that in a majority of our games we concede clear chances, look jaded last 20 minutes and as you correctly mentioned his subs are very questionable. I do agree that this current set up would not survive in the premier league. There is never a plan B, or even know how of how to see games out. Once or twice I accept a late goal against, but this has happened so often that it implies nothing changes in game to improve our chances of getting a result.

Enzo has a modern mindset of coaching about him. I have to be mindful that the game has changed a lot over the last 35 years since I have been watching. But modern day coaches now seem to only have a plan A and stick to this. All is great when plan A works but when it is not successful there are clear areas for concern. The Subs - Why are the subs always like for like? Why do we always have to play out from the back to invite pressure when winning? This invites more pressure and we have conceded late goals in 7 matches this season. What has happened to playing with 2 strikers, or giving the opposition something to think about. Why can't we play a channel ball anymore and possibly win a throw in just to relieve pressure for a few moments. Defenders and even goal keepers are not primarily defenders or goal keepers any more. They are thought of as the first line of attack to build up the play. Which in theory is great but the ultimate role is to defend and keep a clean sheet. A good block, dominant defensive header, tackling, all seems to be secondary to the ability to passing the ball. We are still in a great position but Enzo has a lot to learn, Pep can get away with these things because every player is worth 50 million in his team, we will not have that luxury.

I do give Brendan a lot of credit for his first 18 months of performances. Some of the best football I have seen Leicester play. Admittedly I only started watching during the Brian Little era. But for me some of the best football I have seen us play. Brendan was a skilled coach / tactician as you said. Unfortunately something changed in his approach, same for Mourinho I think. Mourinho was apparently told by Sergio Ramos a few failings and he has never been the same manager since. I can not give Brendan the accolade of a skilled coach / tactician for his last 18 months here. We watched every game during the relegation season and surely we could see we do not have the players to play out from the back. Amartey, Ndidi, Thomas are not players to play this style. A skilled tactician should have seen this. Set plays, horrendous record. And then Danny Ward, for 25+ games he started him when everyone was saying he is not a number 1. Brendan constantly speaks on "character" yet when any player has any they are removed from the team. It is so hard finding the right people to be around you in life and in work. Nigel Pearson was never spoken about badly here, maybe Matt Mills and Jermaine Beckford but he was removing the wrong egos in the squad for the benefit of the team. But as a man and person he had complete control, surrounded himself with the right staff and everything worked. Nigel only goes down as a success with us, if we speak to Derby, Bristol City fans I do not think they will be as positive. Same manager, different circumstances and results changed massively. It is incredibly difficult to get everyone on the same page and feeling valued. Enzo does seem to be doing this and I really think Enzo has a very difficult job. He has to change the culture of the club, put his own style on the team, get the fans back on side and start to support the club from the malaise we have been in for so long. Remove players who do not fit his system, coach players who have been unmotivated, and bring in his own players, then create everyone into a team. All of this whilst being under immense pressure to have to win every week. We are top, 10+ points inside the promotion spaces and still some negativity.

There can possibly be similarities with Postecoglu at Spurs in this. Brendan came in from Puel who was playing a dull bland of football and never really had the fans on his side. Brendan came in, added a bit of attacking play, allowed more freedom to create and we looked a very good team. Then he wanted to change things too much and issues started. Falling out with key players Kasper + Soyuncu, for us, Dembele at Celtic, I think he benched Gerrard away at Madrid as well. I get there has to be an element of showing who the boss is, but there are superior ways of doing so. If anyone looks at Brendan's history of signing players it is alarming. At Liverpool he wasted so much money and only really signed Coutinho and Sturridge who did well. A host of flops, Celtic fans warned us the same, and his signings were largely poor here. Then the treatment of players he recruited. Personally Recruited Vestegaard and then removed him to train on his own. Now, exactly how much involvement Brendan had choosing and signing players can be questionable, but surely when his record in transfer market is poor at 3 previous clubs there must be something in it.