kingfox

Not a patch on Amanda Balionis let’s be honest.

An add on to this as I’ve found more stats. In a league that has evolved where fast breaks are more prominent, we are officially the worst team in the Premier League for fast breaks. Southampton 2nd worst, Ipswich 4th worst. We need to get with the times otherwise we’ll continue to fall behind.

The problem I found with Enzo and numerous other Championship managers, is the fact they are too one dimensional, they have to play a particular way and stick to it, as you say when more teams found us out last season, it was a very crap and frustrating watch at times. Such a particular style can be absolutely perfect for players, he got the best out of Hermansen, Vestergaard, Winks, Mavididi, Fatawu, but as you say, it can also alienate players, Kristiansen an example. But as I stated in my previous post, the Premier League has evolved this season, it feels like we haven’t caught up with the times and the stats back that up. Teams have been very effective with counter attacks and fast breaks, we haven’t. This is from the Championship last season… Now look where the three teams in the relegation zone fall in the Premier League this season. A lot of things are to blame for us not doing well this season, but failing to get with the times seems to have played a massive role with how crap we’ve been this season. Shame I can’t find stats for the Championship to see if that league has evolved in a similar direction. But if this is the norm going forward, we need a manager who not only trusts youth, but can play effective football on transition with speed and counter attacking ability.

Fully agree. It’s partly why the Championship model frustrates me. How many of the current top 10 in the Championship are actually good to watch, you could make a good case for not many, because too many of the managers are obsessed with controlling possession. But it’s a style that has shown it can get teams out of the Championship, but come the Premier League it tends to be not sustainable. The Premier League has evolved to a more direct, fast breaks style, especially this season. Under Maresca even though we were a possession heavy team, we were also statistically the best team in the Championship for counter attacks. Instead of capitalising on that for the Premier League, Steve Cooper gifted us Jordan Ayew and Bobby Reid, now throughout this season, we look like one of the worst counter attacking teams in the country.

Annoyingly, of the current top 10 teams in the Championship, 8 of them fall in the top 10 for most possession this season. Only Sheffield United and Sunderland slightly fall outside that bracket. The Championship is being dominated by teams who like to control possession, it’s why going down that route again seems highly likely. If that’s to be the case, I’d still want someone who isn’t scared of throwing youth into the mix. It’s a shame West Brom took Mowbray, he would have been perfect for that type of scenario. Maybe it’s why the club are supposedly interested in Rosenior, worked with a relatively young squad at Hull, now working with the youngest squad in Ligue 1 at Strasbourg. I’d also make a case for Tom Cleverley, his reign at Watford has been far from perfect, but he’s done a solid enough job considering the media were tipping them for relegation this season. Watford have one of the more younger squads in the division, while he hasn’t been scared to throw youth into the mix.

We needed creativity in pre season and Cooper didn’t give him a shot, what a twat.

the disrespect to BDCR and Ayew. I reckon McAteer will probably stay too tbf.

Think it will depend if we want a goalkeeper that is capable of building out from the back. If we’re to give Stolarczyk a shot as number 1, if we want a younger understudy with the potential to be first choice, then Abramowicz is definitely the guy for me. If we want a more experienced number 2, who can step in as first choice if needed, then as a few other posters have pointed out recently, Yvon Mvogo would also be the guy for me, especially as he might be a free agent.

Been looking at goalkeepers again, potential understudy to Stolarczyk. Fellow Polish keeper, Slawomir Abramowicz. Been producing very solid numbers in the Polish League and Europe…

Going after Potter, supposedly interested in Rosenior and having a bunch of our players under them, the relationship surely can’t be that bad.

I see Lisci is actually a Wasserman client @Tommy Fresh He’ll definitely be on the list alongside fellow Wasserman clients, Steven Gerrard, Gary O’Neil and Phil Neville. Rosenior and Heitinga are also Wasserman clients too, gerrimin!

There’s a few scattered across Europe that fit the Lisci, Siemieniec obscure mould, but I’m just not sure we’ll cast our net that wide. Part of me thinks we’ll play it boringly safe this time around, especially seeing what Farke, Wilder and Parker are doing this season. But I hope we go a bit fresher and look along the lines of Rosenior, Rohl, Manning, Cleverley, Mousinho. Those names come with potential and upside.

In the summer, they probably wanted someone with a bit more experience, hence Potter being first choice, but turning to Cooper instead. RVN was probably on the radar in the summer, but they probably felt it wasn’t the right time. His interim spell at Man Utd with two wins against us clearly gave Top a hard on, so that’s probably why we turned to him in the end.

Looked at Heitinga myself around the same period and mentioned him a few times on here. After delving into his period at Ajax, there were similarities to what Maresca produced with us, in terms of transition I thought he was a name that made sense, but experience wise I wasn’t surprised that we didn’t go for someone like him. Looking highly likely at being back in the Championship though, he fits the profile that a Championship club may take a chance on. He’s worked under some quality managers, whether with us or elsewhere, I think he gets an opportunity in the not too distant future.

The Championship is either littered with Championship experienced managers or up-and-comers. We’ll probably divert to one of those ways again. Rosenior strikes the perfect balance of having Championship experience, but is also an up-and-comer when it comes to management. Those currently out of work with Championship experience are just so uninspiring, going after someone like Rosenior, Röhl, Manning, Cleverley, would be a little more uplifting. You can either go the assistant route again like we did with Maresca. Supposedly we had interest in Davide Ancelotti in the summer, while Carlos Cuesta(Arsenal), Johnny Heitinga(Liverpool) and Rene Maric(Bayern Munich) have all been linked to Championship clubs in the past year. Going down the overseas route like some Championship clubs have, those out of work atm you’re probably looking at a pool of Philippe Clement, Brian Priske, Mark Van Bommel, Bo Svensson. The thought of Clement scares me as much as the thought of Russell Martin, but I think someone like Brian Priske would be a solid option. Those in work, I’m quite surprised Kjetil Knutsen and Henrik Rydstrom haven’t moved clubs yet, but age wise they certainly don’t come in the up-and-coming bracket. An obscure name of Adrian Siemieniec at Jagiellonia Bialystok in Poland intrigues me, he has done a phenomenal job, but he is probably too obscure for Leicester City.

Draw released for World Championship Qualifiers, few spots still to be filled depending on Wu Yize’s progression in the Tour Championship. Louis Heathcote and Joe O’Connor pitted in the same section together alongside Jackson Page, evil section that. Kaylan Patel from Leicester earned a spot in qualifying by finishing runner-up at the WSF Junior Championship, he takes on Chinese talent Gong Chenzhi in R1. https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/gc-media-assets-v2.gc.wstservices.co.uk/c4bb4970-0b46-11f0-a7df-bf7d755fa910.pdf

I was pro Cooper for that specific reason soon became apparent that he preferred OAPs If Rosenior came and did the same, I’d be making a Rosenior Out thread in pre season.

Strasbourg have the youngest squad in Ligue 1, if that’s one of Rosenior’s key focuses, then I’d have him here in a heartbeat.

Think we’ll be inevitably stuck with a few senior players whether we like it or not, can see the likes of Vestergaard, Coady, Winks, Reid and Ayew all sticking around. But if we can get the likes of Faes, Kristiansen, Daka and Soumare out the door, it will be a start I suppose. Keeping at least one of Hermansen, El Khannouss, Fatawu will also be extremely important. And hopefully Nelson and Alves in particular get consistent game time.

Watched Raducanu’s match against Pegula last night, high quality match throughout, best I’ve seen Raducanu play for a good while. The way she was aggressive and dictating points especially in the second set, was the standard she was producing which led her to the US Open. Conditioning was the only thing that let her down again though, she really needs to work on it.

Rather we delved into the Premier League loan market like we did with Doyle, or target someone like Sampson Dweh who we’ve supposedly been scouting.

Keep an eye on Noah Markmann too, also coming through at Nordsjaelland 👍🏻

That final was a bit tense. Would love to see a Kyren vs Judd World Championship final.

Continues to impress, could be available for £5-6 million, but some Bundesliga big boys might be sniffing around. Received his first Germany U21 call up for the current international break.