Lillehamring

2nd half Given that palermo pretty much parked the bus, this was clearly an exercise in breaking a team down and, tactically, it's safe to say it was a failure. I'm inclined to think that some of this might be due to not having the right personnel - specifically Ndidi playing so far forward - in these games you need a player in that position who can unlock a defence, Ndidi is totally not that sort of player. My deeper concern was that he gave most players 70 minutes, which would suggest this is something like his 1st XI - and i wasn't impressed with the lack of attacking substitutions, it was crying out for going daka and cannon up front and all we get is a defensive substitution, with hamza coming on. Mercifully, there won't be many games where teams park the bus against us, so hopefully we won't have to see this 'system' too often.

I can only hope he's 'trying out' a system to play in certain games - it seems very chaotic and disjointed, and again he seems to have chosen an odd line-up to play it. I definitely felt more confident playing the way we set up against shrewsbury.

He also seems to be playing up front

Palermo - 1st half. Well, i'm on board with Cooper trying a different system, but that just didn't work. Fatawu seemed completely isolated, and mavididi was having to come inside just to get close to the play. Ndidi as a #8 in the championship was ok, but the idea of him playing as a #10/second striker is absolute madness, he simply doesn't have the touch or range of passes for the position. Ricardo seemed to have been tasked as the FB who drops into a back 3, while justin did get forward but almost every time just turned back. I think most of our chances came from turning over possession, everything we tried to create just broke down with a poor pass. Positives? lots of energy, good work rate, Okoli looked much better.... But generally underwhelmed. Be interesting to see what he changes for the 2nd half.

This seems a little odd - playing that inside right position that McAteer played is basically where fatawu ended up when he was playing wide right - cutting inside onto his left foot - i can't see how it's such a different position that he would go from being great to it 'not suiting him'?

Or ignored.

Trouble is we get mainly the PL plus some of the euro tour but it's not always clear when and what's being shown.

Hmmm, sounds familiar.

I've no interest in being cynical about the club, it's never been perfectly run and never will be - i'm grateful to have had these last 10 incredible years and to be back in the PL at the first attempt. - my cynicism these days lies entirely with the dishonesty of players, and the skewed financial restrictions.

This is true - but there are people on here that are actively looking for any excuse to accuse the club of stuff - i mean, to the point of conspiracy. There's also a pervasive attitude here of entitlement of expecting things to be better/cheaper/quicker etc that are not just unreasonable, but often implausible. I love this forum, but the negativity (who'd have thought we just got promoted champions!) on here is crushing. (cue the backlash! - don't bother, i'm not biting tonight.)

I'm not saying we were massively exposed, but that when we were exposed it was predominantly out wide - magnify that by the step up in league quality and suddenly we're leaking goals. I can see why that would worry you, but i feel it's premature, we've not really seen them play inside so we can't conclude that they will be wasted and inefficient there - certainly against Shrewsbury Mavididi looked perfectly at home tucked inside - my eternal optimism feels that such a move can actually benefit them, by being less isolated and closer to the goal, it also brings them closer together allowing them to work with each other, to overlap etc. I appreciate your rhetoric, i just feel you've let it all out before we've really even got a taste of things.

Because it seems to have given certain fans another opportunity to slaughter the owners.

But, overall, it seems that the direction moving forward is positive - even for the club to admit such a thing, feels like a step in the right direction. As for the board and the charter, it surprises me not that some fans won't like it, clearly some fans won't be happy until the club is sold, for whatever reason that may be.

Fair enough, yes we have seen more of Cooper - but equally, 5 years in management is a drop in the ocean - and his current job is not directly comparable to his previous jobs, so surely some benefit of the doubt should be afforded him? As for his 'tactical decision' making, again it's been 1 game that we've been able to see, and, for me, i wasn't the least bit concerned - i see continuity from last season but with potential improvements. I get you hate WBs, but given how exposed we were last season playing three at the back, the wing back is a sensible compromise to allow some attack, but far more defensive cover.

Oh my . Potato/potato. Call it what you will, the fact is we struggled for almost a quarter of the season, largely as a result of the tactics.

Not really, assuming he starts with fatawu playing where Mcateer was playing, all he is doing is swapping maresca's #8's (kdh & ndidi) with mavididi and fatawu - meaning that our most potent attackers aren't prone to being isolated on the wings (as happened last year) - given that we don't really have any obvious natural #8's (sorry, but it's too soon to give such roles to Alves & Golding in the PL) it makes sense to have mavi and fatawu there - if anything we may see that they prove more efficient inside than out, as it allows them to attack the goal more directly and on either foot. the result is that, as we saw against shrewsbury we end up with a more centrally focussed attack, which will be great if we are playing more on the counter. We'll still have attacking width with the wing backs, but not at the expensive of leaving the flanks exposed (which was probably the biggest flaw of enzo's reign).

This is exactly my take. It's effectively the same formation as enzo-ball - with the major difference of being more defensively minded by having a DM (ndidi) rather than a RB (ricardo) as the 2nd pivot - thankfully, as a result of last season, ndidi also looks a lot more comfortable on the ball. So still a double pivot, but more solid. He also seems to be moving the focus of the attack more centrally, rather than hugging the touchlines, which i think will benefit mavi and fatawu (yes, i still believe he will be starting these two as the two attackers behind the striker). And using the WBs allows us some wide attack, but leaves us less exposed (remember how teams targeted Doyle and the space left by ricardo - that shouldn't happen as often in this set up).

Potter was not someone i wanted - he had a poor track record and seemed to think he was more of a catch than he actually is.

I'm staggered by your lack of patience. I'll admit, at first, i thought Cooper was an atrocious choice, but the more i've read, the more he's said, what the players have said, and what i saw against shrewsbury, i've drifted into a really, ahem, pragmatic optimism about him - I think he's a lot more like Enzo than he's given credit for - he seems very much a scholar of the game. He hasn't (from what i've seen) abandoned what we set up last year, but it appears as though he's making it less one dimensional and less susceptible to exploitation. Before you write him off as "another massively uninspired bit of Leicester managerial recruitment. " - perhaps at least wait til we've seen him play a few games. It's odd how Enzo was being offered months of game time to prove himself last year, yet Cooper is being dismissed before a ball has even been kicked in anger.

No. Did you not read the rest of my post? - the wilderness being a spell of 9 points from a possible 30, aka relegation form. Obviously, it worked out in the end, but we did hit a very barren patch and the consensus was that that was due to the over-rigid nature of the coaching. As i said, i enjoyed enzo ball, but equally i'm excited to see how Cooper takes that model and develops it so it is not so one dimensional.

Good to hear. There is an overwhelming cynicism here that the club have simply abandoned the fans and won't countenance any input from them - it's reassuring to hear from yourselves that this is not the case. Sadly, our fans seem too hasty to judge the club right now - the stadium development is a generational thing, yet certain fans expect constant updates and instant returns and aren't prepared to accept the apparent stasis in the meantime.

No. that's true but then none of the other owners (of LCFC) were owners in this era of the game - my point was more general about the influence of owners (not just at leicester) rather than a specific reference to specific incidents, I don't believe i even mention shirt sponsorship - given how general an observation it was, it seems a bit abrasive to be challenged on my 'exact wording' - as a general statement, it's not false, perhaps the 'all over' was a bit heavy handed, but the general point is sound. For sure owner influence is more apparent and more far reaching now, but then it's more of a business now. I don't remember there being an outcry when KP first started sponsoring the ground and the shirt, why is it suddenly such a scandal?

That's the bloke. As you say, i'm not that familiar with the ground these days; maybe it is some masterplan to remove all trace of LCFC - for the life of me, I can't imagine why or to what benefit this would be - but it's also possible that they simply haven't put up new images and new installations in anticipation of the renovations expected to come with the expansion - there's no point spending money on areas that will soon be upgraded. You only have to look at the mess the seats are these days to see that the stadium is being left to its own devices for the time being.

Oh, then i must have been mistaken about the period of 3 wins and a draw from 10 games, and the 17 point lead we threw away, when Maresca lost the plot and refused to change his system - wilderness much! Don't get me wrong, i was always a big fan of the Enzo Way - but even i can admit that he was far too rigid in his thinking. Also, i've hypothesised elsewhere that Cooper is actually just playing a mutated form of enzo's system (i won't repeat it all again here), rather than completely abandoning it - which should mean we are less dependant on our wingers and would actually improve us around the goal, on the counter and in a defensive set ( i may be wrong, but it does seem plausible).

No, but the point is - to a lesser extent (it's a billion dollar global industry now, of course) - owners and board members have been a presence throughout the history of the game, there've always been rich local businessmen getting involved, probably making a 'nice littlle earner' out of the hospitality and what not - so, it isn't a new phenomenon, and it isn't something that only KP do. Mandaric was always getting in on photo-ops, abramovich was a presence for years at chelsea, that bloke at newcastle and his sports direct (how did we overlook him!) was a complete mercenary. Maybe KP need to have a think, probably need to be careful - but are they alone, are they the worst - not really.