lcfc_forever

This doesn’t seem complicated having listened to Maguire - Top either pumps more money in to support cash flow or we get new owners. He’s been reluctant to do the former recently and wanted the club to be self sufficient but that isn’t an option now. And he did a couple of years or so convert debt into equity which was a positive step. If neither happen, we’re in serious trouble.

Thing with Nixon is he gets more accurate the lower in the leagues we are. He hardly got anything right about us when we were in the PL except Ayew but has been more accurate recently. But why would the club wanting it out there we’ve got money to spend? If true, if doesn’t help our negotiating leverage and if not, the fans get angrier.

A must read about the title win by Jonathan Northcroft https://www.thetimes.com/article/15cfaf9b-9461-4aff-b0ff-b06929c2a38f?shareToken=608642177f477d14a7a24eb6a4a6f862

Funny that he showed his best form playing behind the striker. Thought after his cameo vs Sheff Wed and our issues scoring he’d play in a no. 10 role behind Daka but no, Rowett went back to 4-2-3-1! Misused but his attitude was woeful as well.

Don’t think he’d be interested and we can’t wait - the appointment of Marti came too late, the fitness of the players was lacking and the club were playing catch up since.

Here are some options through an AI chat with Google Claude: Eirik Horneland - hadn't heard of him but was linked with the Aberdeen role and there was this write-up: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cm2r7ryggpzo Kevin Muscat Damien Duff Will Still Would add Fuchs as well, excited most by the idea of him or Duff as the potential manager. Need someone who'll bring discipline, reset the culture and get us pressing sides again, as well as bringing through the youth.

Beginning to warm to him getting the job more and more. Loves the club, and think he said this is his dream job. Would re-set the culture which is essential. But would be keen that he has an experienced backroom staff around him, similar to what Pearson had with Walsh.

He's not Rudkin! And Man City don't tend to hire fools.

LOL, it’s a game of opinions. They did a very good job to secure we bounced back straightaway. But think we can agree it’s been dire recruitment since!

Disagree - only Coady was a poor signing that window while Mads, Fatawu, Winks and Mavididi were excellent that season. Cannon and Yunus made decent contributions or had good sell on value. Only judging that season as of course players like Winks and Mavididi would go onto stink the place out.

The underlying stats and performances were far better than what we had under Marti, but he got more luck than Rowett. But any sympathy I had for him went in how we managed the team after the international break. He continued to prioritise technical players like Winks and didn't change the tactics. Some of the selections just didn't make sense., and not going with two forwards when goal scoring was our issue was a massive mistake.

Feeling more positive with McCarron involved - we need a progressive manager who won't take sh*t from players, have a clear style of playing, likes developing young players and understands the modern football style of high levels of fitness and physicality. A few people are mentioning experience but our most important manager - Pearson - was relatively inexperienced. The key is they get the culture right at the club as it's been rotten since towards the end of Rodgers' time in charge.

Not the clearest but thanks for pulling this together. Tells you what a disaster the January transfer window was - we needed a LB and striker, got neither and the players we got in had little positive impact, and in fact we were worse with them in the team. To be fair, Thomas has improved a lot under Rowett although he cost us 2 points vs Stoke - we could have done without all those signings, and just got a decent striker in which probably would have kept us up. I've defended Glover but no more - only mitigation is lack of direction from Rudkin as he had his best window under Enzo who did not compromise and had a clear way he wanted to play that Glover could deliver on. But you can't excuse what happened in January.

His time at Southampton was bizarre - all the stats suggested that should be towards the top but they didn’t convert their chances. Confidence is huge, and they seemed to have a hangover from the previous season. It was the opposite of us - we should have been struggling but had a decent start to the season thanks to Jakub and Fatawu. So it wasn’t such a huge surprise when their form switched when they changed manager as the underlying data was strong.

The performances initially were a lot better under Rowett, but he didn't have the same luck as Marti (nor Jordan James' availability). But individual errors kept costing us - if we had won a couple more of those games when we were playing well, for example Thomas scoring that sitter vs Stoke or Daka converting the penalty vs. Watford, I think we would have started to create momentum to stay up. The failure to win those games we should have won knocked the confidence out of the players and you could see Rowett getting fed up as well. And then our defending at set pieces got even worse that wrecked any chance we had of staying up - that's on the players and Rowett.

Tottenham’s fall has similar factors to ours - too much focus on technically skilled players (many of whom are injury prone), instead of athletes, physically strong players who have character. Football has moved on - with Frank’s appointment, they kind of acknowledged this but then didn’t buy the players for his style of football. They also lack in the two key positions on the pitch - goalkeeper and striker. If we’d had a half decent keeper in 2023, we stay up. If we have a half decent goalkeeper and striker this season, we’d have stayed up. The culture seems bad there as well given the antics of many of their players.

Not a song but remember this quote from Brett Anderson about Suede, and think it fits this club: “The history of this f**king band is ridiculous. It’s like Machiavellian rewriting fear and loathing in Las Vegas. It involves a cast of thousands. It should star Charlton Heston. It’s like a pram that’s just been pushed down a hill. It’s always been fiery and tempestuous and really on the edge and it never stops. I don’t think it ever will”.

Rowett's clearly fed up of the lack of effort and application from the players - the constant conceding of goals from set-pieces is ridiculous. The underlying stats show the performances are much better vs Marti, but he was a much luckier manager with both Fatawu and James fit and in-form. There is no accountability at the club beyond the manager, and until that changes, the club is screwed.

His post-match comments seemed to give the impression that some players just aren't listening, and determined to play that passing style instead of taking a more direct route. As many have said, their goal could easily be stopped but it's like they're too nice (or more realistically arrogant, perhaps a mix of the two) and feel that kind of cynical tackle is beneath them. Sad to see Ricardo's decline, he is an impact sub at best now. If one of those early improved performances had led to a win, think he would have got the momentum we needed. But playing well while making stupid mistakes to stop us getting a win has eroded any confidence there was. Leicester are going down so he surely makes big changes for the final games, selecting with players he trusts - they might be technically weaker but so are the sides around us, and they're putting in far more effort. Jarrod Bowen made a comment about it's not just about quality, but "but you need grit and desire and a will to win through the whole squad”. That's why West Ham may well stay up, and we'll be playing Crewe next season.

So true, they’d already complained to the media about his training methods. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the succession plan but Top yet again sided with the players.

I feel for Rowett. In a normal season, you easily win 2 of those previous 3 games, if not all 3. The overall play is so much better. But he hasn't been able to cut out the bozo moments, like missing penalties or switching off at set pieces defensively that's costing us dearly. Hopefully he sticks with the set up of Ayew playing behind a striker, as we have to take some risks now, it's his best position and Mukasa's returns have dropped off. James is also better in central midfield. So that means Ayew starting with Daka, as well as James coming in for Winks (obvious) and Jannik for Okoli (to help with defensive organisation and passing).

Not sure if Kieran Maguire suggests with player sales, we’re OK from a PSR view:

Positive is staff costs fell to 82% of revenue having been 102%! It also doesn't include recent player sales. BUT we are more reliant on King Power to bail us out of the mess Top and Rudkin made to ensure we cover the Macquarie costs.

Just read Hutchinson has been called up as well, so Vestergaard it is

Was thinking exactly the same, very annoying! Hopefully Hutchinson or Richards gets the chance to impress, or he tries one of the attacking mids there so see if they work better.