FoxyLeon

He's trying to not collide with someone in mid air, that's what he was doing.

Even Howard Webb knew that was not a pen. Officials deserve all the stick they get, clueless.

Sounds like where our fans also get mistaken about his role here. Can somebody explain to me, if he is the one responsible for targeting signings, why we've changed approach under every manager, from Pearson to Ranieri to Puel to Rodgers....And now this Summer we're being linked to completely different profiles of player again. He's likely responsible for negotiating fees, wages and contracts, but he's not the one identifying players as some have suggested. Otherwise we wouldn't have hired Macia/Congerton/Glover etc. He's a go between, as simple as that. Rodgers/Congerton told him what they wanted, he'd go to Top and see if it could be done, and then he'd crack on with trying to sign the targets. It's the same with contracts, he doesn't just pick which players to give one to, he'd do so on the decisions of Rodgers and also Top. The role people think he does, doesn't actually exist at our Club. We operate how Man United did with Fergie and Arsenal with Wenger, where the Manager is the one with ultimate responsibility for everything.

Perhaps one of our strangest 'Scapegoats' ever. Still defies logic how someone who was supposed to be a 5th choice CB (Behind Evans, Soyuncu, Vestergaard, Souttar) can somehow be blamed for the problems in the side. I'd have more than been happy with having him as 3rd/4th choice in the Championship, in fact, I don't see why he couldn't be a part of a promotion winning partnership, unfortunately he's been criticised for the faults of others. Again, I don't understand those who are criticizing his passing, it's arguably better than Evans/Soyuncu/Faes, at least no worse. The bigger problem was that the midfielders in front of him never took responsibility, whereas he was always willing to bring the ball forward and play ambitious passes. Yes, some wouldn't come off and would put us in trouble, but Tielemans would pass to Amartey all game when they played together and 'One of our greatest players' (Laughable) would constantly pass all responsibility to Amartey.

I found much of the criticism odd, because he's often our only attacking threat. However, much like with Maddison, for Barnes to be 'worth' a place in the side he'd have to get Salah/Haaland/Kane figures to counter the endless goals and chances he gives away by not defending or helping with build up. So much of our defensive struggles start with Barnes/Maddison/Tielemans. The same way Van Dijk looks much worse because he's got players up front and in midfield offering no cover compared to before. Over the course of 38 games, Barnes offers on average about 1 good chance per game, that's not enough to counter his flaws on and off the ball. The difference with Mahrez for example, is that whilst he was poor defensively, he could progress the ball up the pitch, had the technical ability to play through balls, crosses and beat players, Barnes doesn't have any of that.

Timothy Castagne - Players Player of the Season Can't help but think every player received one vote and the other two Belgian lads voted for Castagne. He's been abysmal since his first game away at West Brom, a nothing player.

So tough on Barnsley, and another terrible advert for VAR. If you're gonna have games as big as this still decided by poor refereeing then VAR is pointless.

Really? I imagine we would've had at least 12,000-15,000 STH at the beginning of the Championship season, and no doubt a few thousand more half season tickets when we were doing so well and promotion looked a certainty. What I do think has happened though is that a lot of the regulars before hand have become disinterested because of the sanitization the Club has put in place to dampen the atmosphere at games. I don't think our atmosphere has been great at the KP/Walkers full stop, but on average it was better in the Championship given the lower attendance. Away days were certainly far better in the Championship, now our away ends look just like the home ones, hundreds of old folk wanting to sit down that seem to just be there for a weekend away in another City. I think L1 is the greatest example. Yes, it used to be full of your 'Chav types' near Jobba and his drum, but at least they went home and away every week and tried to create an atmosphere. Now L1 is mainly full of people who thought it looked/sounded cool back then, so wanted to be in the 'action', but don't provide the same atmosphere at all. As for the Kop, well that's just full of people who reminisce about the 'Good old days' and for some reason and deluded enough to think that they produce a good atmosphere, despite the fact you can't hear them from any other stand.

All that tells me is that he still doesn't recognise he is responsible for this because of his poor leadership. The Covid excuse is a copout because our problems haven't come from a lack of investment, we have one of the top 10 budgets in the Country whilst simultaneously investing in an amazing training ground, and looking to expand the stadium and surrounding area. The only way Covid can be used as an excuse, is if it caused him to take his eye of the Club, in order to focus more on the KP brand.

I've never seen an international player fail to play so many 5 yard passes. He's possibly the best striker of the ball we've had, but there's no way he'd even dominate the Championship the same way Drinkwater/James did during promotion. Carried by Ndidi for years, and then ironically ruined Ndidi in return.

No surprise. We had a must win on Monday and settled for a point.

Showing more fight on the touchline than our players have on the pitch for a long time.

Ffs Donkey Solanke

Bournemouth are showing more urgency than us.

Dropped Vardy? Did look like Vardy said something after being took off against Newcastle. Probably something about us playing for a point in a must win.

"Leicester City will hold a review of where they have gone wrong this season next week" Well there's the major problem right here, the Short termism and approach that this has just gone wrong 'this season'. The long-term cause is that there hasn't been a direction set by individuals with knowledge of Football since Pearson/Walsh left and Puel too in fairness. The short-term cause is that because of this, Rodgers had direct control over all of the Club and all our solid foundations, recruitment/coaching/medical aspects, were destroyed over night. I don't think it's viable for a Club our size to give the Manager ultimate responsibility over everything, because ultimately we can't keep the richer clubs from poaching our Manager/Staff/Players. Either it goes really well and you lose staff, like Walsh to Everton, or it goes really poorly and multiple areas of the Club are damaged all at once, like with Rodgers. Our manager/head coach, Director of Football, Head of Recruitment and Head of Medicine etc should not be recruited on the back of recommendation from another role's recommendation. E.g. The manager should not be choosing the Head of Recruitment.

Both of these sides are showing plenty of fight to finish 20th next season.

If Brighton were 'ordinary' under Potter, what were they under Hughton? Potter was the one who transformed Brighton from a typical dull and nothing Chris Hughton side. I don't think it's fair that Potter's great work at Brighton doesn't get the credit he deserves because of his time at Chelsea. By the way, have you actually seen that Chelsea squad? It's terrible, considering the amount they've spent their squad isn't close to being top 4 standard, they're not underachieving they're exactly where that team should be. This 'New level' that De Zerbi has supposedly taken them to is two places below where Potter left them. You're seriously dismissing what happened here with Rodgers, where he came in off the back of some excellent recruitment by Puel, with players who had not fully settled into the team yet, and that summer they were bedded in more and we were able to get into Europe, twice. Unlike our 5th place finishes, Brighton are not overachieving. Their ability to control game is way ahead of what we had, and frankly we got 5th twice because of individual brilliance at key moments. We were never as strong as this Brighton side, who, if they had more goals, would be a Top 4 side imo. If Wilson and Isak were at Brighton for example, I think they'd be challenging Arsenal for second.

We conceded 20 shots again, this time to a side who were visibly playing with a lesser intensity than normal knowing that their job was already done. The problem with us conceding goals is not a personnel issue in the back line, it's because too many of our midfielders and forwards don't know how to press.

A red card for grazing a players thigh? Cmon now, there was no force behind the tackle at all. If he has been sent off, I'm pretty sure that would've got the crowd more involved and their players more up for it and we probably would've lost. Them not playing with much intensity really helped us tonight.

Our best performance tonight came from the ref. Thought he was excellent, stood up to the crowd well and didn't give the soft fouls he very easily could've.

Hate to break it to you, we weren't great against Spurs. You can get wins without having a decent performance at all, as we proved when finishing 5th twice when we were around mid table performance wise both seasons. The reason we will not get anything at Newcastle is simple, we will concede 20+ shots as seems to be the case every week, because the fix to prevent that cannot be done in the short term.

This season proves there is a God. We've been given the opportunity to relegate both Leeds and Everton.

Where was the criticism before Rodgers and Congerton? He oversaw Puel's summer window that was probably our best ever. Wasn't he also in the role when we signed Okazaki and Kante? The way I see it Rudkin is just the go between of the manager and owner. The way we operate, the manager is given free reign over all aspects of the Club, whilst the Owner essentially just agrees or disagrees to the financial requests of what the manager wants, through contact with Rudkin. Again this criticism of Rudkin is targeting the wrong person, he's just another scapegoat hiding the real issue, that Top and Vichai lack the footballing knowledge to make sound decisions consistently. We don't operate with a DOF who has a large recruiting responsibility. Otherwise, if Rudkin was in charge of recruitment, why on earth did we hire Congerton? Then Glover? Pearson - Rodgers Shakespeare - Davies Walsh - Congerton/Glover Rudkin is nothing more than a go between. He doesn't have the responsibility many think he does. If you believe that the Club needs a DOF who sets the long term policies of the Club then great, I do too, but this ownership has never done that, full running of the Club has been given to the manager, as was the case with Ferguson/Wenger etc.

I struggle to understand how a relatively new signing, who has rarely featured and not had a proper run of regular games, is suddenly the scapegoat. The likes of Tielemans, Maddison, Barnes, Vardy, Faes, Castagne etc have all been regular starters, the supposed experience of our team, the ones who should be the 'Leaders' and the spine of our side. Why do they constantly avoid blame? Soumare joins Thomas, KDH, Daka and Iheanacho as players who are given stick, despite not being part of the regulars who are underperforming the most. Rodgers really has done a good job at directing the blame at others, and that includes away from his 'favourites'. Soumare has been our best midfielder under Smith, it's no surprise to see his comments above as it's clear to all of us that we've seen spells in games where we're improved, but that was always going to be the case given how unfit we're and that can't be changed in a few weeks.