luthersfarm

Was not confident when I saw the front 3 but maybe... just maybe... Ruud knows more than me about football...

Growing with every game.

Was more effective than Mavs has been in a while.

A lot of players stepped up big time second half.

Easy

never in doubt

come on lads!

Let's not let our midfield off the hook either. They offer no shielding of the defense and neither them or the wingers track any runners. I feel like any time we go forward we're attacking a unit - midfield and defense together - whereas any time a team comes forward against us immediately they're in front of our defense and I don't even remember them getting through our midfield, like it's nonexistent. Not excusing the defense but I can imagine it's incredibly disheartening to look in front of you and know that you're not getting any protection so the attacks are just one after the other with no breaks.

Even if he's going to cling on to power at the club he should have brought in football people a long time ago to help make footballing decisions as he's obviously out of his depth.

Maybe Faes shouldn't have sarcastically clapped but I think fullbacks passing sideways or backwards constantly is very much part of the gameplan and is a feature of pretty much most teams I watch outside of Leicester too, so it's a part of modern football. It was the same when players were in similar positions under Enzo and Cooper. Managers would much rather players play simple backwards passes and retain possession until a pass into midfield is available - risk averse, retain possession. The problem is our midfield is so static and movement is so terrible it's so easy for other teams to strangle us as there's nowhere to go. So I kinda of understand if you're under instructions to play like that it must be frustrating when the fans groan. So maybe Faes shouldn't have reacted but on a human level I understand why he might have done so.

Nothing will change without change in the board room.

Would any player of the required standard join this shambles? Club is rotten and it's top down.

As bad as our defence has been at times I feel like any time a team comes forward against us the midfield just lets them through unchallenged.

Doomed now. Crowd will turn, players will become even more shells of themselves, Ruud will become more stubborn so as not to appear like he's bending in the wind and the club with death spiral.

Only my 4th game this season but I'm just home and my main takeaways... Atmosphere is dead... I think the loudest chant I heard was after Man City scored their second goal and the crowd managed a "Leicester. Leicester" for about 10 seconds. Surprised to see so many people blame JJ for the first goal, it's 100% on those that let Foden just drift into a shooting position and the goalkeeper should be pushing that anywhere but where he did and he'll be doing that 50 times a day in training. I actually thought in the first 45 that JJ's running up the right was our main pressure release and let us get up the pitch a lot and create space elsewhere whereas I think VK didn't offer much until the last 20 or so. Both need to work on end product. Bilal was great with lots of energy and quality and I think with every game he's adapting more to the league and will be a great player for us. Very impressed with Soumare even if he did fade towards the end but he was the stand-out to me in a midfield where everybody played well today. Missed chances! Frustrating that we couldn't do better with the chances we created and at the game some of the offsides looked really marginal and would like to see them back. Second goal was too easy but chasing the game and their quality it is what it is. I think one noteable thing under Ruud is that the players seem to have bought more into what he's trying to do and never seemed on board with whatever it was Cooper was trying to do.

Midfield nonexistent, much like all season. Normally you have to break through the midfield, then break through the defence. Teams playing against us just seem to be at our defence immediately with no resistance from midfield. No other teams are this weak. The amount of shots we concede is because our midfield is so useless.

That picture above of their first goal is pretty damning really and it's why I can't really be too harsh on our full backs. it's so obviously a tactical issue. The whole team shape is a shambles. The midfield doesn't look like they know where they're meant to be positionally, they just clump together. Need Cooper gone.

I very much disagree. Mistakes happen and every player will make the odd mistake. However when you've got a team of international footballers (Faes, VK, Justin, Ndidi etc) making mistake after mistake it comes down to coaching, tactics etc. It's not like multiple players collectively forget how to play football. It's why I find it hard to be too harsh on any single player (a lot of the comments about VK for instance in this thread are pretty harsh). I reckon if you took any of the aforementioned players out and put them in another team in this league they would do well and we'd all be going "why couldn't they do that for us" and I'll tell you why... Steve Cooper.

We're incredibly easy to read. Far too predictable. Hudson-Odoi and Elanga looked lively and you could never tell what they were going to do next. Fatawu was incredibly one dimensional and Mavs just didn't look arsed. Not one of our midfielders ever look like they're going to threaten with a dangerous pass but I wonder how much of that is down to the lack of movement in front of them.

No composure at CB No defensive cover at all from midfield No creativity for central midfield Lazy wingers Lack of movement up front It's everything (except Mads) We are worse than we were last year. Worse squad against far, far better opposition. Worse manager too. The only thing I think is massively overstated on this forum is criticism of the full backs. Mistakes have been bad but every game both full backs are completely exposed with no cover from midfield or the wings. Ultimately just doesn't look like a team. The issues were known before a ball was kicked this year though. Poor recruitment etc.

easily our best outfield performer, only midfielder we have that looks like he can create

get in

I don't see a lack of effort, like most our team at the moment it just looks like they just have no clue what they're being asked to do

He'll go to Chelsea, they need him as they only have Sanchez, Bettinelli, Jorgensen, Bergstrom, Kepa, Petrovic, Slonina and Anselmino currently

Thought he did well