JJD_LCFC

Our board really neglected (for the lack of a better term) the team last season. I will always give praise where it is due and Brendans first 18 months were excellent. And he deserves a lot of credit for that. Yet his last 18 months were dire. He is never accountable, ever! Blamed everyone else, fell out with a host of players, and the complete opposite for what a manager should be in terms of bringing a team together. Something changed in his approach to matches and he is not the same manager who first joined us. Gerrard and Rodgers were in charge at the same time, Villa removed Gerrard and employed Emery and we prolonged with Rodgers. I do fault our board with a lack of vision and understanding of the predicament we were in. At the time, we were possibly a more attractive proposition than Villa. And Emery possibly could have been a great appointment.

Whatever opinion that we have on `Vestegaard, as a team we have only conceded 14 goals in 21 games. Jannik has played every game and a huge part of our successful defence. Contrast to last season this is another huge turnaround that Maresca has provided for our team. Although, personally I am not Jannik's biggest fan, I would rather see Souttar in this position, just my opinion. I think we have more of an upside with Souttar playing, give him time to develop this season, threat in both penalty boxes, has a longer contract + resale value in the future, and I think he has done well when he plays for us. Jannik's passing is either great or poor. and I just think he is personally caught out too often. For example the Sheff Wed goal Jannik missed Hendrick's run across him, and any 1v1 situations he struggles with. Jannik was marginalised last year at the club, and deserves a lot of credit for turning his form around.

You are very correct, and I do fully agree with your statement. Right now though our club is very separated all the way from board - players - fans. It is a tough situation for Maresca and this is no indication on him at all. He just happens to come to our club at this moment in time. This is just my opinion and of course I can be very wrong. The last 18 months of Brendan, drained the life out of our fanbase. We have gone from one of the loudest fan bases to what we currently see/ hear now. Whenever we conceded a goal there was always a unified "come on Leicester" from the stadium. Now though we are almost resigned to this before games. Brendan constantly in the press lowered our expectations and even blamed the fans, told the players are not good enough (the majority he signed) then went from a very attractive style of play (which he brilliantly coached his first 18 months) to one of possession with a very slow build up. Repeatedly playing Ward / Amartey / Thomas / Ndidi and expecting to play out from the back when we could all see we do not have the players for that. Gone are the days of a manager getting the best out of the team he has. There has to be a philopshy and style of play which the players have to adapt too. We lost 30 or so games last season with a style of play which helped our opposition. Culminating with relegation, there is bound to be a decrease in stadium atmosphere. In previous years under O'Neil / Pearson / Ranieri we had a team who were giving it there all, playing as a team, whether it was blocking shots or quick attacking play. And this was exciting and the crowd would always support. Now the modern game is about having possession and our version the previous year or so has been very slow and hard to watch. Again the noise will be lowered due to this. We are have been so lucky to see our city, champions of League 1 to Premier League, both domestic cups and great European runs, we have a lot to be cheerful for. The noise around the stadium will soon return.

I do understand your point that he is young and learning. I would say though look at the tackle again. He had clear intent to hit Alves and take him down, shouted at his teammates after for not taking Alves down earlier. And the outcome was he has massively hindered a career of a promising young player. These injuries are so hard to come back from, Alves will always in the back of his mind have the impact of the tackle and it will change his game. My personal opinion is if you cause injury to another player via a horrible tackle, you are out for the same amount of time. Toney got banned from betting for months, yet his own club Shirt endorses betting. These kind of tackles are supposed to be stamped out of the game, yet the Wolves player gets a 3 game ban and England called up. Yet the player he intended to make contact with is out for 9 months.

The issue, only from my small perspective is that whenever Vestergaard has played he has largely been poor. I do not think it helps that Brendan wanted him a lot and then dropped him after a few months, plus the fact that Vestergaard had offers to leave last year to good clubs but chose not do so. Maguire is having a similar situation at United and it is far from positive, fans will turn on own players when they see the club they support being hamstrung by their own players. Personally I would prefer to see Souttar play over Vestegaard at the start of the season. Vestegaard has only 1 year left on his deal and Souttar was signed for a decent fee, played well in the world cup and has potential to do well for us. I would at least give him a chance as he has more of a long term future with us, and I do not want to see us waste millions on 2 players signed in January, yet they are not even considered for the championship. But that is the result of our poor recruitment again, that's for another topic. Admittedly we have had great results so far, and my only fear is that in the Coventry game we could have conceded 3 goals, and in Cardiff they missed a 1-1 chance. We are still conceding lots of chances and only the fact opposing strikers have been poor is the reason we did not concede. Yes Vestegaard can make some good passes but the clear chances we concede is alarming. I do not think we will get away with this defensive set up against top 6 sides in this league. However as you correctly mentioned the need for balance discussions, the results have been very good and Vestegaard must be part of that.

I do get your point, it is part of the team to defend corner. I really struggle to see why we can not put players on both posts when we have been so poor at defending corners.

I certainly agree he made quite a few mistakes last season. I just think he showed some glimpses of quality where there is something to work with this season. I think that if we can put a consistent back 4 together, Whether is is Kristensen, Faes, Souttar + Justin or whoever is chosen. But give them 20 games together to form a parternship, we will see a better version of both Kristensen and Faes. I just think there is something worth trying this season. Maybe Naive of me, but I do think they were all brought into a squad where there was no cohesion at all, even to the point that the majority of the starting 11 were not good enough / or didn't try. If we look at Fofana at Chelsea for example, most Leicester fans will say he is a brilliant CB. Yet Chelsea forums say he is awful. He moved into a team which is all over the place, same for Faes.

I can see your point regarding casual and too rash at times, but I would not say the worst by a long shot. Personally, I would look into our club a bit more and that will provide a clearer answer, as I think Kristensen and Faes are not bad signings. - Chairman - attended a handful of games all season and no investment all year. Incredibly hard for him to visit the place of his fathers passing. Passed on a lot of responsibly to people who his dad trusted. - Rudkin - From all accounts is only a 'Yes' man, he has made an incredible career by never really having an opinion. He would always ask what do you think and in meetings use the same answer. It is a skill, one I certainly can not do, but it works to a level when you actually have to do something. - Brendan - Didn't get what he wanted and gave up long before he should have been sacked. Constantly told players they were not good enough and fell out with most of the squad. - Ward - Played 28 games or so in goal, everyone could see he was miles below the level required and imagine coming in to a new back 4 with 0 confidence in the GK - Full backs changed weekly, our best 2 were injured all season and the others seemed to be rotated every week. Bertrand picking up 75k per week as a pension for 2 years. - CBs - Evans was injured all season yet fit for every NI game, Soyuncu was dropped, Amartey as your cb partner as much as he is liked personally as a CB he is miles away from the level required. Vestergaard, the manager personally was on record for wanting to sign him. Demoted to train on his own. - Ndidi is one of the best ball winning midfield players in the league. He is not technically good enough to pass the ball, but our tactics were to play out from the back with Ndidi, Amartey, Ward, Thomas. Any person could see these players are not good for this. - Tielemans - Did not try all season and could not wait to depart the club. -Maddison - Tried excellently before the World Cup and then decided to be more active on twitter than on the field. - Strikers- Again rotated every week, Daka starts, Kelechi, Vardy, no chance to build a connection or confidence in the strikers. There are so many factors in the whole team, imagine being a young player, with your big chance to move to the premier league and you are faced with all of these issues. I certainly agree Faes made errors, but to say worst signings I think this is harsh. With an organised team I think we will see a lot more from Faes and Kristensen this season.

Thank you very much for your help! I found a few other YouTube videos but they were about rebuilding and not so much how to set the game up. Thank you,

Hello, Just wondering if someone can possibly help me with Football Manager. I am looking to start a new career with Leicester in the Championship and play with this set up. Does anyone know the best way to facilitate this at all? Do I need to Buy FM2023 and get the game editor? Probably a silly question, just wondering how to start this. I have not played the game for a few seasons and want to see if someone knows how to organise this game instead of buying the wrong version. Thanks for any help.

Iversen Djed Spence (loan) Souttar + Faes Kristiansen KDH Mendy (If he wants to stay, underrated player in my opinion and will do well this season) Alex Scott (Bristol City) Diallo (Loan with view to permanent if promoted) Daka Borges (Man City Loan) I do not think we are too far away from having a strong squad who are capable of returning to the premier league this season. Couple of smart loans with Diallo and Borges. Good game time for both and chance to develop here. Alex Scott from Bristol City to replace Maddison and add a bit of creativity in midfield. He will likely have premier league offers, but if not could be worth an option. James Justin and Ricardo were excellent a few seasons ago, unfortunately both injuries are so hard to return from. There is a lot of potential with Daka, or maybe wishful thinking from my part. But I do see with a run of games in the championship he can come back a very good striker for us. Pace, strength, finishing. Solanke at Bournemouth returned a much better player. Daka can do the same I feel. I would like to think this is a realistic option for our team. Barnes, Maddison, Ndidi, Praet, Vestegaard will all be sold. There is 80-100 million depending how well the board negotiate. Scott will be around 20million+. Give the defenders and Gk 40+ games to play together and build form and confidence. They are not bad players. Yes all had poor moments but came in at a very difficult time with the club + squad that not united. Getting the managerial appointment will be key. We are still a big club, a lot of people will be interested in the job. Huge decision for the board. This gives us the ideal time to move on the deadwood, for a lack of a better term, and bring in players who want to be here and build a capable team to challenge for promotion and then stay in the league.

I know we are both Leicester fans but I am sure it is ok to raise a different perspective. Regarding signings being poor before Rodgers arrived. I do only think this massively happened under Sven, and Pearson cleared a lot of these signings away to create and build our club. Ranieri had money for the champions league and agreed that was spent poorly, Puel came in and did some good ground work to create a very strong starting 11 which just needed a more attacking coach to come in and add too. If you have a moment, look at Brendans career signings. How many have been successful? https://www.transfermarkt.com/brendan-rodgers/spielertransfers/trainer/1366 In the top 25 of the most expensive signings whilst he was in charge of a club. Eduoard at Celtic, Coutinho, Sturridge, Fofana and Tielemans were good. He has always performed poorly in the transfer market. Now potentially it is not fair to blame every signing on Rodgers as we do not know 100% he signs them, but look at Liverpool since he left, Klopp came in and spent the money on new signings very well. Firmino was poor under Rodgers, Klopp came in as well, a new system and Firmino was excellent for a few seasons. Celtic have a new manager, contacts to the Japanese market and have done well their too. We were warned from Celtic fans before he came. I would say Rodgers has had the best backing any manager in our clubs history and managed to waste millions. Yes the 3 players you mentioned were signed but they are not bad players. Kelechi if played properly is a finisher. Not a RW. Play him in a 2 and he is very effective as we have seen when he gets a run of games. Giving him 10 minutes per game is dreadful management. Soyuncu if he was so poor would not be wanted by Atletico Madrid. He has gone from the team of the season to never getting game time. I might be wrong but I think he played against Man City pre World Cup break and did not let us down. Mendy has never been a poor player, admittedly not as good as we would have hoped. Regarding your comment players are playing for him. We did create chances v Fulham to win the game, Liverpool was a spirited performance, Newcastle was abysmal yet a penalty in 90 seconds set the tone. However, I do have a huge concern with how many players want to leave and I do feel the manager has wanted to leave for a while too which has not helped this situation. The Newcastle defeat and dismal performance is not a one off yet for some reason our board, fans have to accept these defeats. Forest away in the cup, that should be a sackable defeat if we had any standards any more. The Bournemouth defeat, Spurs and Kane have a field day against us with Rodgers in charge. The starting 11 when he took over to now has never been improved. After 4 years surely this is enough time for the coach to have his own team in place. Hatred is a strong word but I do think you are correct with this for some of the fans options on Brendan. I would imagine the hatred comes from the fact that he is extremely arrogant as you mentioned, puts himself first above the club, blames everything other than himself for performances + results. The media love him, for some reason they think he is better than our club, using us as a stepping stone to one of the top 6 clubs. He alienates the whole fan base. I know what money a person earns should really be used against them but he is our highest paid manager in the clubs history, 5th highest salary in the premier league and we do not see any sign of coaching or a change in approach which you would expect one of the best coaches in world football to be able to do. I understand he has always played possession football, but when you do not have the players for this. Ward, Thomas, Amartey, Ndidi are all not good enough on the ball, surely you have to play to each players strength to get the best out of the team? We do have an injury issue, but this has been poor since Rodgers came in. He changed the medical department, sacked Dave Rennie ( if I am not mistaken on his name) and we have a worse record of injuries under this management team. James Justin had a bad injury and as soon as he was fit he started 3 games in a week and we are meant to be surprised he got another injury. Similar to Ricardo came back too soon. In between the Roma games, Dewsbury Hall and Tielemans were really poor in the 2nd leg, they did not need to play in all games between these semi final matches. Why start and play against, Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa in quick succession and wonder why both players performed well below standard in the only game that mattered in the end of season. I was delighted when Brendan first came in, I just don't really understand the change in his first 18 months (which was a brilliant team and one of the best Leicester sides I have ever seen in 30+ years) to where we are today.

I fully understand your comment and questions for this. For some reason all of the media or ex pros seem to think Rodgers is a brilliant coach and we are lucky to have him. The last 18 months I really struggle to see what Brendan does. I think only in the PSV game have I seen him make a substitute that improved our performance. I do not see any great coaching. This is his style of play and we will play like this no matter who is available. Which is great if you have the resources of a Man City or Real Madrid however passing the ball out with Ward, Amartey, Thomas will always lead to issues. I would have thought a good coach would look to bring the best out of each player. Not have them fit your system when they are not capable. In answer to your question others have mentioned Maddison and Barnes improved. Maddison has been excellent. But he is the only one who has played regularly to his high standard, which is why he will move to a top 6 side shortly. The rest of our players have not improved which is why we can not sell any or move them on. Looking through the whole squad Ndidi, Soyuncu, Iheanacho, Dewsbury Hall, Praet have all regressed in the last year. Justin and Ricardo the same but both due to injuries. Vardy + Evans due to age, Daka and Soumare have not performed to levels that were expected when they signed which is why we are in a position where we are. The decline in performance from his first 18 months to what we are seeing now is vast. Is there some resentment with timing and still being our manager? Potter getting the Chelsea Job after a good start this season, however a year or so before this could and should have been Brendan in contention for this job. I do not get the feeling that he wants to be here which has probably been passed on to the players with numerous ones wanting to leave as well.

One of the best starts to a managerial career here, and yet one of the worst downturn in performances and results too. Will always be known for the FA cup win. Thanks and move on. I don't think it will cost as much as we fear to remove him. Place on gardening leave, Villa / Everton could both be after a new manager before the World Cup. There might be some fees to make up with his wages but surely can not be close to 20/30million. The whole club needs a change. New manager will have potentially 50-100million to spend after the World Cup with Fofana and Tielemans leaving. We still have some very good players here. Great training ground with possible stadium expansion too. Attractive option for lots of managers.

That is a good question. Whoever we look to sign right now the fee will increase as you correctly said. We also still have to remove 1-2 players just to submit a 25 man squad without wasting money on wages. Signing players will not be easy. Potentially we are better off keeping the money, looking after the clubs finances, put towards the stadium expansion, give the new head of recruitment time to find the right player and do not rush into any situation. If a player does not want to be here, get as much money as we can and let him go. 85million is a lot of money. Having 2 players who would rather be elsewhere will have a negative impact on the rest of the players. Worst case I think will finish 14th. Our starting 11 is still a strong one.

I do understand your point. I would say that we spent most of last season without Fofana and we did not get relegated. There are 5 very good teams in the league this season. Then add in West Ham who will be top 6-7 again. The rest of the league are very average. Not a lot between them. In a good season we can finish 7th - with a bad one we could be 14th. Personally I would sell Fofana for 85mill+ if that is what the next offer is. We already have Tielemans who does not want to be here, and no matter what we like to think it is a negative influence - knock on effect for everyone in the club. With Justin, Soyunu, Evans and Castagna that is not a bad defence. We have no European football so only 1 game per week. Play Ndidi as DM on his own and let him get back to what he is best at in the league. I just think having someone in the club who doesn't want to be around harms the side.

I do fully agree when we have looked good under Rodgers we have been excellent. And 2 trophies at Wembley has to be acknowledged. All teams will decline at some stage, as you correctly mentioned it is impossible to keep progressing year on year for all teams. I do though have an issue with set pieces, I do not believe any top manger would concede so many goals from set plays. We already have every player back in the box from corners. We have no counter attacking threat due to this so teams know they can put more players forward. The squad - Overall we have some very good players, I do not agree with Brendans comments that we overachieved for 2 years and finished 5th. Fofana, Soyuncu, Maddison, Youri, Vardy, + Barnes and Ricardo pre injuries all could have played for top 4 sides, in my opinion. JJ as well was excellent. During those years. What we are seeing now is players who are low on confidence, clearly form, and are all being told they are not good enough for top 6, by the manager. His job is to get the best out of the players he has, this has not just been below par, this has been shocking this season. As fans we have been told to lower expectations from our own manager, we were hoping to stay up before he arrived I believe were his words. There is a reason the stadium is quiet, we have dipped to what the manager offers us. Pearsons team finished 14th with far worse players. Summer Transfer - If we are to believe we need a total rebuild that the manager says. He spent 60 million in the summer, Vestegaard, Bertrand, Soumare and Daka. Only Daka has shown some sort of promise and he rarely gets played. My personal opinion but I would not trust Brendan to take control over signings. Celtic fans warned us of this and this is what we have seen. It is not easy finding the right manager who fits a club, but Brendan I do not think ever will, just his personality will never warm to any club he goes too. Rodgers has been here for 3 seasons now and we have never finished a season well. We have declined when the season matters the most every season he is here.

KDH has arguably been our player of the season, with Maddison. This is his first season in the Premier league, and since his first game he has been ever present in the side all season. He only got to rest against Tottenham, he played in all of the meaningless Everton, Villa and Newcastle games. The style of play for KDH is all action. There was nothing in any of those games and we could see a player who is fatigued last night. Youri has been poor for a while, and again has had 1 game rest before the biggest game of our season. KDH played like he had nothing left in him last night, hence his decision making, touch being off and shots dragged wide. He is very talented, In my opinion a possible future captain for our side. We do need a big rebuild, but for me KDH starts every game when fit. We all love to have a player come through the academy and play for us, Thomas and Barnes have showed little this season. Barnes since his injury has not been the same player, KDH has impressed almost every game he plays. For me, he can be the captain of our side.

Firmly with you on Guehi and Spence and sticking to the model that has worked well for us with signing young homegrown players who Rodgers can develop. However, Albrighton as Deadwood is over the top. Yes we can say he may lose possession with passing quality and crosses, however he still gives us everything and offers us a lot more than other wide players at this stage. We have another quarter final in Europe to look forward too, top class training facilities, an academy that has developed 2 of our better players in KDH and Barnes, plus Thomas who has played more minutes than we would have expected due to injury and will only improve. Fofana is back and looking like he has never been away, Vardy will be back in a couple of weeks for the run in. We were in League 1 only around a decade ago. No other club in world football has done what we have been so lucky to be apart off. Even though we have all been disappointed this could yet turn into a good season with a European run, and backed up with a good transfer window. Not easy of course, but that would never be the Leicester way.

Arguably one of our best players before his injury. This particular injury is really difficult to fully recover from, he has had months out, has been rushed into a poor team and an unorganised defence. He has had no pre season games, from what we can tell played 45 minutes for the U23s. He is easily another 5+ games from getting full match fitness, let alone his form pre injury. Give him time. No fault should be at his door. We can blame the manager for not suitably replacing, we can blame players for not stepping up in his absence but with JJ we have an excellent young player here.

For a 17 million pound fee he will be a good signing. Thomas has played well recently but I do think another left back is needed. Ricardo, JJ, we just do not know how they will come back from the injuries they have had. Digne is proven in the league, called up for the national side and just my opinion but I think he will improve us. If Newcastle are in for him, he will want silly wages which will be the issue.

As a team we have been poor at set pieces for a long time now. I am not sure how much this one is on Rodgers tactics at all, Kasper conceded against Scotland from a set piece and there were not 2 players on the posts, this one could be Kasper preferring not to have players on the posts. With all of the analysis going on in football now, surely they can see Brentford and Arsenals goals, and realise we should have a man on each post. We have 11 men back for corners anyway, never leave room to counter attack from a corner. surely 2 could go on the posts. Since MON days we have been poor at set plays.

Agreed, definitely can get the best fee for Youri in January, Youri might want to sit out his contract for 18 months and move for a free and get a massive signing on fee. Financially, probably for us better to sell in January. However I would keep until the summer to give us a chance of doing well in Europe.

With Youri likely to leave, with only 18 months left on his contract. I would guess he will be sold in the summer to recoup some of the money paid for him. Really hope he stays but if Barcelona, Real Madrid come in for him I will certainly wish him all the best. Interested to see how much our fans think we will get for him with one year left on his contract. Ings went for 30 million, I would hope we can get at least that. And we have Soumare as his replacement and maybe Praet to come back in.