kingfox

A bunch of us will mention about 50 strikers over the summer, but we’ll end up with Neal Maupay 🔮

Someone more fast & direct with aggressive pressing, basically someone in the mould of Andoni Iraola.

What won’t be hilarious is Frank Lampard’s Coventry City beating Russell Martin’s Leicester City in the 25/26 Championship play-off final. Some graffiti artist needs to stop that from happening.

Right then, who’s gonna graffiti Rudkin out, Martin out, Rohl in on the King Power stadium walls?

Give it a rest you negative sod. I’m very much looking forward to having 66% possession, while making 641 accurate passes in a 1-0 home loss to Oxford United

Here’s hoping Lucy Pinder does a signing session in Ann Summers, Highcross. If not, then Russell won’t be getting my backing.

Just a few more sleeps until they are walking around Highcross shopping centre

He probably won’t have to adapt in the Championship, but if the best outcome happens and he gets us promoted, he will have to adapt in some ways or I can see him getting found out again. It’s just a short term vision because he plays a style that works in the Championship, plus he has a promotion on his CV. The board have completely disregarded how many of our fans feel about that style, but they probably couldn’t give a shit, a possession style got us promoted previously, just let’s do the same thing again. But as you say, if he goes on any dodgy runs of form, fans will turn on him pretty quickly. Or maybe he takes us on a 22 game unbeaten streak like he did at Southampton, with Hamza Choudhury producing some inverted RB masterclasses 💪

The unsurprising unimaginative appointment. His style has shown it works in the Championship though, there’s a decent enough chance that he gets us promoted. If he doesn’t show willingness to adapt in certain aspects though, then I seriously worry about the long term of this football club. We’ll just be a yo-yo team or worse.

And some fans advocated for him staying, just because we beat Southampton and Ipswich That is the worst line up of the season.

Let’s be honest, we know the guy loves having possession, it’s impossible to say what he would’ve done. But I think what we know for sure, is that he would’ve produced certain elements to give us a better chance of survival, better counters definitely being one. In terms of pressing, just like counter attacks, we’ve gone the opposite way regarding that trait too. We ranked 3rd in the Championship for aggressive pressing at 11.1, this season in the Prem we rank 17th at 13.6 I just hope we get back on the right trends. If it is to be Russell, he has been fully on board with the aggressive pressing trend, it’s the other elements like counter attacks that I’m sceptical about, will he use the likes of Fatawu and Mavididi correctly 🤷‍♂️

He has shown similar elements at Chelsea too. They rank 2nd for counter attacks per90, direct attacks and fast breaks. Who knows how his style would’ve translated to us in the Premier League, but no doubt he would’ve made us more of a threat on counter attacks. The thing that pisses me off about Cooper and RVN, is the fact they’ve gone completely in the opposite direction. To go from the best counter attacking team in the Championship, to one of the worst counter attacking teams in the Premier League is nonsensical, and it’s partly why we’ve struggled in the Premier League so badly imo.

The way I’ve described the potential appointment of Russell is inevitable, it’s felt like it’s been on the cards for years, he just feels like a very King Power type of appointment. It’s an unsurprising route to go down, just because he fits with previous styles we’ve had and has achieved promotion before, but as you say, it also feels a very short term outlook, it’s yet more proof imo that they are not following the trends, unless Russell actually does show tweaks here and there. His style of football will suit various elements of the squad, Vestergaard and Winks will probably come back into the fold, but it’s not surprising that a chunk of fans want rid of those two, after what has happened with them this season. Will he favour Fatawu and Mavididi, I bloody well hope so, but you have to wonder why Sulemana and Edozie didn’t feature a bit more for Southampton, over Russell favouring attacking midfielders and strikers on the wings instead. We could well be a possession dominant team under Rohl, but at least Rohl has shown he can play a more fast & direct style at Sheffield Wednesday, and as evidence suggests, you need those fundamentals to give you a fighting chance in the Premier League. It’s where Russell Martin and Vincent Kompany in the past have become unstuck though, to continue with the same type trends as a possession obsessed team that’s been newly promoted, it just doesn’t seem to work. Of course we haven’t been a possession obsessed team this season, but as I’ve said in previous posts, we haven’t got with the trends and in some areas, we’ve stuck with the same trends that we had in the Championship, for instance, the direct speed we’ve played at is pretty much identical this season to what we produced in the Championship, it isn’t going to cut it, and this is where you need to be more like a Bournemouth, Forest, Palace. Next season could easily go one of two ways, but I think us being in the mix is more likely than not being in the mix, but I thoroughly agree mate, you need to build a long term strategy to give you the best shot of Premier League survival, recent history suggests that wanting to be possession obsessive isn’t the right route to go down. And it’s a style that a good chunk of Leicester fans have become bored with, and as you say mate, the apathy will just continue to grow, especially if Russell goes on difficult runs of form. The style of football may be bad enough, but you chuck some bad runs of form into the mix too, they’ll rightfully be moans and groans galore, and fans will be wanting him out the door asap.

I’m gonna have to do a RedSox and dispute that claim slightly. Under Enzo Maresca we actually ranked 1st for counter attacks per90 in the Championship, we averaged 2.3, Southampton under Martin averaged 1.3 As for the second paragraph, I fully agree, but as I alluded to in another post yesterday, heavy possession has proved to be a successful formula in the Championship, but not a successful formula for newly promoted teams in the Premier League, this is where I feel some teams are becoming unstuck, but what do you do? In Russell Martin’s case, I feel he needs to get on trend slightly, or he’ll continue on that downward trend that you’ve alluded to. He needs to add more dynamism to his teams. At Leicester he’ll have Mavididi and Fatawu at his disposal, but at Southampton he had Sulemana and Edozie, they both ranked high when it came to take-ons per90, but Martin only started them in 10 and 16 games respectively. As you say, this is the one tweak that Russell Martin must make, and the evidence is there. Like yourself, I wouldn’t be too concerned with Russell Martin as manager in the Championship, just because history has shown that heavy possession is a successful formula in this league, but it’s the long term ramifications that would concern me, we’ll be going round in circles again if he doesn’t show willingness to tweak things.

Off the top of my head, I can recall him playing Adam Armstrong out wide numerous times in that promotion season at Southampton. With those specific stats I mentioned, like Leicester, Southampton ranked very poorly in those statistics too. It’s impossible to tell how much of that was down to Martin or Juric, but I guess they both had an equal hand at why those specific stats are so crap. Southampton’s counter attack stats in the Championship were bang average too. This is where Russell Martin needs to tweak things, otherwise he’ll harm Leicester City along with his own managerial credentials in England.

His best stats from this season 👍🏻🙂 Hopefully Finners doesn’t see this

If he got us promoted, first and foremost I’d instantly look at the spine of the team. Quality over quantity, and hopefully you can smash a 10/10 transfer window, but even that might not be enough. I think that was another issue of ours this season, you could probably make the same case for Southampton and Ipswich, we simply didn’t strengthen the spine of our team and it hurt us. Looking at the recent trend of how newly promoted teams have stayed up, I agree that Dyche would probably give us a better chance of staying up if he achieved promotion. The problem with Dyche though, you don’t really want his style of football as a long term plan either. If the shift in change continues in the Premier League, then you have to follow the Bournemouth, Brentford, Palace, Fulham and unfortunately Forest type model imo. Those teams have shown in some way or other, that they can be a threat when it comes to fast breaks or counter attacks. Four of those teams also rank in the top five for direct speed too. Leicester City in the Premier League this season ranked… 18th for direct speed 19th for direct attacks 18th for fast breaks And there’s your proof why imo we haven’t got on trend. And that boils down to Steve Cooper signing the likes of Ayew and Reid, and also RVN for persisting to play with our slowest attackers. Idiotic management.

The annoying thing about Russell Martin, his Southampton team actually ranked 1st in pressing and shots from high turnovers in the Championship. His out of possession style actually ticks those boxes. But then you come to his in possession style…💩

The sad thing is mate, they’ve probably just looked at the situation and thought, let’s go with Russell Martin just because that style worked last time with Maresca. But you’ve hit the nail on the head, if he does get appointed, then they are out of touch and haven’t read the room. I’m a nerd when it comes to statistics, and when looking at certain graphs, it clearly shows a shift in style of play for Premier League teams, yet when it comes to Leicester, we’re not getting on trend imo. But numerous top end Championship teams are persisting with a slow & intricate style. Leeds and Burnley have done it, while in 23/24 of course Leicester and Southampton did it, slightly more extremely. That style can get you out the Championship though, but recent history suggests that it won’t keep you in the Premier League. There’s numerous elements why the same three teams that went up, went straight back down again two seasons running, but in Leicester, Burnley and Southampton’s case, not getting on trend has a big deal to do with it imo. Appointing Russell Martin could easily be the right trend for the Championship, but if he doesn’t evolve himself, he definitely won’t be the right trend in the Premier League.

After seeing a lot of Sanchez Flores’ second spell at Watford, I’d scrap him from your list mate Who do I want? Now Will Still has been snapped up, I’m struggling to get enamoured by anyone realistic. Of the names linked I’d edge towards Rohl, but he’d come with a bit of uncertainty in certain areas. I like what Mousinho has done at Pompey, but doubt we’d go near him. Names abroad, if you want someone that will do a decent job with our youth, then I’d give Carles Martinez at Toulouse the edge, but doubt we’d go near him either. Those out of work, as I’ve said many times in this thread, it’s just such an uninspiring list. Of names that I think are realistic, I’d lean towards Brian Priske, he has shown he can be a winner, albeit in lesser quality leagues. Thought Cleverley and Selles were both harshly sacked, but can’t see our board going near them either.

I’m very much looking forward to Patson Daka sticking the ball in the net after 56 passes.

Surprised you’re not calling for Slavisa Jokanovic, Javi Gracia and Xisco Munoz

Looking forward to Brussel taking us on an unbeaten run like this, while using Choudhury as an inverted full-back 💪

Something a bit less shitter than not scoring in nine consecutive home games 👍🏻

But losing seven league games in a row, then another eight, while not scoring in nine consecutive home games was proper proper shit.