funkyrobot

Genuinely can’t see Bilal getting in to the Palace team. He's got some lovely touches but he’s got some way to go before his performances and his output match his hype.

This reads like a post that was sent without thinking after a game when Abdul got absolutely pocketed by his fullback. He put in maximum effort but just had a bit of a mare. There was no questioning his effort and that can’t be said for all of the players yesterday. Small had an excellent game and won the battle and that’s annoyed Fatawu who’s vented on the fans. He’ll hopefully have a point to prove against Charlton.

Daka is not fixing any problems anytime soon. Cifuentes has terrible options in the central attacking position, terrible options in central midfield, terrible options in defence. Virtually every position is considerably weaker than the team Enzo had 2 years ago. Unless something is done in the market, Cifuentes can only chuck the kids in.

I think Martí must now see that many of our established pros can’t be trusted. They’ve let him down in consecutive games. Against Charlton I think he should play Aluko in one of the full back roles, Nelson in central defence and get Page to play the Soumare role. I’d also bring Alves and Evans back on to the bench. Play the kids Marti.

Fullbacks are absolutely vital for the way Cifuentes plays, with one needing to be a defensive rock and one needing to play as a part time number 8. Our lack of quality in this role amongst our established pros is a big worry alongside our midfield and centre forward issues.

We are struggling because we have a poor team, a poor director of football who has mismanaged this poor team and an owner who has taken his eye off the ball and has not invested in continually improving the first team squad. Having some loyal fans that are older than you’d personally like is definitely not a key factor.

So you give Sheffield Wednesday fans attending the game at Leicester and presumably the 22k that showed up at Hillsborough maximum credit but you criticise Leicester City fans for attending games?

What were the lazy tropes in my message then clogger? I’ll bet the majority of the people bemoaning the ‘happy clappers’ today weren’t even at the game, have no idea of the atmosphere and are just ready to spring in with a happy clappers comment after EVERY loss. As an attendee of all games and many away games (I’m there next week) I’ll react to what I see in front of me. If there’s effort, fight, positive play then I encourage and support. If the team are backs to the wall I’ll encourage and support. I’ll join in with chants. If someone is not putting the effort in, I’ll shout at them to do so. When there’s fans rightly moaning at Rudkin, I’ll join in. If there’s nothing to cheer about, no fight, no effort, then no I’m not going to cheer. That being said, I’m not going to judge a fellow fan for how they support the club. We have different fans from all age groups and everyone is different. It’s entirely up to them. They aren’t nonentities though, that’s a very strange description.

Strange that you decided to stop going after a great season when we got promoted? Fans can and do attend and can also be simultaneously be unhappy with a teams performance and commitment. They aren’t mutually exclusive. Like most fans who go I’ll express an emotion that depends on what I’m seeing. I don't boo but as a collective Leicester fans made it quite clear to the owner, the players and the manager last season that the performances were unacceptable. And that will continue. This happy clappers trope is becoming a lazy way of some LCFC fans, particularly non attendees, to moan about the one part of that is NOT to blame for the current plight of the club. The atmosphere in the stadium home or away directly relates to the football that’s being served up. I can tell you that Leicester owners and players know exactly what our thoughts are at the moment.

The left back bombing forward didn’t happen against Preston. JJ was the attacking fullback on the right and Thomas made up the back 3 (probably after he failed in the attacking role against Wednesday and Huddersfield.) Despite staying deeper, the gap between him and Vestergaard was way too big and tbh he was out paced and outfought a few times when Preston played long balls into his channel.

Out of interest, when was the last time you actually regularly went to games? I always get the impression that people that moan at those of us who still watch the team at the stadium, never consistently went to watch or if they did, haven’t been for ages. Fair enough if you don’t want to go don’t go but don’t moan at those of us who go with to watch. Often it’s with friends and family. There’s a massive social aspect to going to games.

We have great options on the wing for this level, and that’s about it. We have one good experienced fullback in Ricardo who’s very injury prone and 3 weak links in JJ, Thomas and VK - and a utility player in Hamza who looked way off it against Huddersfield .

The point is, Cifuentes has only got one experienced midfielder to select that we can reasonably expect to compete at the top end of this league. Winks is our one creative midfielder who is quality (but who lacks physicality) and then after that he’s only got Soumare and Skipp. Wtf can Marti do with that?? At the same time in The Championship 2 years ago Enzo had Winks, Ndidi, KDH, Praet, Casadei with a fit Ricardo to offer support. Every one of those players is better than Soumare and Skipp. Soumare should be good enough but lacks the mentality and concentration to have the level of consistency that a top player needs. Skipp just hasn’t got it based on his 1st 12 months here. His one season in the sun was 5 years ago at a Covid crowdless Norwich!!

He didn’t stink out the place today, he was one of our better players. The only bit of guile and creativity coming from our central midfield. Page is excellent but he’s a very different player and he’s very young.

Would love to know when he was this winger tbh. Under 12’s? Absolutely nothing about him would surly indicate an attacking winger when he close to adult years. Your story does seem a bit illogical- surely when a stand in fullback was needed in first team training, the academy would’ve provided a fullback rather than a winger?

He didn’t invert, he played as the non attacking fullback in Cifuentes 5 back 5 forward attack when on the ball with Justin playing the attacking fullback role on the right. Despite his deeper position he was continually caught out by a long ball played into his channel.

Is everyone sure Winks hadn’t come over previously before the video was shot? Either way plenty of other players have walked straight off. It’s not great form but he might’ve been ready to blow his top with a teammate as he does usually applaud the fans. From a football perspective he still has to start for me whatever - we have no one in centre mid able to play creatively, and play those incisive passes forwards. Winks put some cracking passes through, today including a fabulous one to Ayew. Until there are better solutions available, removing him from the squad will make us significantly worse than we even are now

The problem is, there’s no alternative. Cifuentes likes 2 in the centre rather than Enzo’s single pivot. With Ndidi gone there’s no one else. Skipp isn’t as good as Soumare which isn’t saying much and with Ndidi gone there’s nothing else. Even Enzo would struggle to play his system with this team. We are desperately weak in central midfield. Only Winks is good enough at this level but he needs a player with some physicality next to him.

Tbf he had had a very average 1st half.

Tbf Small is having a great game against him, our play is very reliant on wing play and when they get bullied it does highlight our limitations elsewhere. IMO Fatawu needs to cut inside more against Small who has the pace and physicality to block Fatawu running down the outside. Cifuentes’ system relies on a fullback becoming a number 8 instead of inverting the fullback into midfield. This should help the attack. Today it’s the right back in Justin performing that role and it’s clear that neither him or Thomas are particularly capable of offering the threat that Enzo’s system had when he could deploy KDH and Ndidi in those advanced 8 roles. I do think Justin is better at it than Thomas but it’s a very low bar. It might be different when Ricardo is back as he’s much better than the other two in an attacking role. Only problem is he’s only fit for 15 games a season. El Khanouss needs to step it up too.

I don’t remember Thomas ever being an out and out winger. He’s been a fullback for the last 5 years at least and a defensive one at that.

Justin’s better on the left for me than he has ever been on the right, that’s where he was playing when he was capped by England and where he was playing at his peak for us. I know he can’t use his left foot but the left back in this system is expected at times to be inside of the winger and very advanced, his right footedness encourages this cutting in. Don’t get me wrong, he’s far from ideal but from an attacking perspective he is better than Thomas. As we expect to be more on the front foot I’d favour the attacking attributes of JJ over the defensive attributes of Thomas.

But the point is Cifuentes isn’t leaving the creativity to those players. His system currently utilises the left back to create a 5 man attack when in possession. He expects the centre backs, right back and 2 centre mids to be in the 5 more deeper defensive positions.

Only problem with Dennis was that he was made out of balsa wood.

As a defensive fullback Thomas is fine at this level, but as the fifth attacker expected to combine and create opportunities high up the pitch he’s just not got the attributes. He isn’t going to run past someone, isn’t going to dribble past someone, not likely to assist/score. As I’ve said before, his whole body shape, and unusual kicking style is predisposed to hooking the ball backwards to a spare centre back.