smudgerfox

From The Fosse Way New coach, same style? Alarmingly, among the favourites to be the next Leicester manager is Russell Martin, one of these modern coaches who come with a very modern philosophy. His style first caught the eye when, in 2021, his Milton Keynes Dons team strung together a record 56 passes before scoring against Gillingham. What is rarely mentioned is that MK Dons lost the game 3-2 and finished 13th in League One that season. lAnd since then his teams have largely been famous for the huge number of goals they concede. Which chimes with Gary Rowett’s recent comment that his Leicester side seemed more interested in scoring the “perfect goal” than in securing three points. So will a second successive relegation finally shake the club out of its style delusion? A few weeks before the end of the season, Jordan Blackwell published a piece on Leicestershire Live indicating that the club would not retain Rowett even if he kept us in the Championship. The thrust of the piece was that our new Sporting Director, James McCarron, after five years in the Manchester City set-up would want to appoint a manager who favoured possession football. Blackwell isn’t prone to idle speculation and the piece, while undiplomatically timed, carried the ring of truth. Meanwhile, West Bromwich Albion are preparing for another season in the Championship after looking odds-on for relegation under two managers with a philosophy. Their third, a club insider with no managerial experience, switched the formation to 4-4-2. His team racked up 18 points in 11 games and secured survival. And there’s not a Baggie in the land who cares about his possession stats. Manchester City no longer seem invincible and as Big Strong Leicester Boys podcaster Jordan Halford observed recently: “Even Man City don’t play like Man City these days.” And for us? We prepare to drive our Formula One car on another shopping trip. But not to Morrisons. We’re off to Lidl. Full Article on the history of the style delusion.. https://thefosseway.net/2026/05/07/the-mclaren-in-morrisons-car-park-why-leicester-city-must-ditch-the-style-delusion/

Can we have a link please?

Thats a comforting explanation but the reality is that BR spent twelve months trying to get him to join. Replacing Fofana with Vestergaard is like trading a Ferrari for a Fiat 500...

Southampton signed Vesty in 2018 against the advice of manager Mark Hughes and assistant Mark Bowen. Theres a video somewhere of Bowen recounting the club owner showing them a video of Vesty in action. Bowen said they watched it and concluded: "He can't run, he can't turn, he's okay at set pieces but not very good at that. " Eight years ago!

New manager incoming ...clutching the ubiquitous "clean slate" borrowed from Cooper, passed on to RVN, gifted to Cifuentes, grabbed by King and lent to Rowett..

That works - just add Khun to the first line and it scans better, Khun Top had a dream

Serious question- which agency and which players? ...something ive been wanting to write about but cant find the evidence..

All this bringing back memories of the late stage Brendan era. A sizeable minority was suggesting Brendan would get us relegated if he was allowed to carry on (roundabout the 6-3 Man City, the 2-3 Spurs and the Forest FA Cup defence). How could we criticise our second most successful manager ever, they asked? How ungrateful, they said. And he got us relegated.

Well then I think we can agree. Aperol 'Arry is not brilliant at anything vital but reasonably competent at a less important skillset and needs the team to be set up with perfectly complementary players to be anything like his best...

The players you cite are all pretty much one trick ponies (James the exception). They are to a greater or lesser degree excellent tacklers and blockers. They are in the team to perform that role to a high degree of excellence and other players were brought in to complement them. Winning the ball back from the opposition is a vital skill in any team and Lennon and NDidi are/were top class at it. What Winks does is not vital. Integral to a particular style of play maybe, but not in any way match-winning on a regular basis. Easily combatted, last season surely proved that you need more in centre mid. Think of what he doesn't have: a killer pass; a killer shot; a knack for arriving late in the box; a killer tackle; a box-to-box engine. Given all that, I think people who see HW as an EPL class centre midfielder, are simply kidding themselves...

I think this is the mistake you're making. His ability is very much doubted.. Remind us all of his goal and goal assist record ...

New manager - clean slate - we've seen it all before...

I agree with this and I think it's one of the many fundamentals that can be traced back to the Brendan era. Even under Enzo we were desperately vulnerable to counter attacks. You often see opposition wingers in yards and yards of space - the nearest blue shirt 20 even 30 yards away. Decent players can ruthlessly exploit that kind of space. But it happens time and time again. It has a bit to fo with the inverted full back - yes we have an extra man in midfield- but we have no defender guarding the right flank ..an open invitation to the opposition left sided wide man ...

Brentford have a recruitment policy - "no dickheads" - that pretty much rules out that one...

They're getting plenty of player interviews but they're stunningly unrevealing

Impartiality is not the point. No fair minded person could witness what's happening and think all is fine. Pipes' analysis is brilliantly sharp, we are very very lucky to have him. But what is disappointing is that RL seems incapable of getting beyond official club output and analysis of individual matches. Where we have a right to feel let down is their complete failure to get to the bottom of the wider, more significant issues. What is really going on with Winks/Soumare/Faes? Who is this new CEO? What is the truth about the club's finances? Whats the real story about the delay in paying December wages? What is the thinking behind/ timescale of, the appointment of DoF? What will Rudkins new role be? You may not be able to get official information from the club on this stuff but someone must know what's happening...use anonymous sources - get it out there... Why not set out to interview every manager since Ranieri on the way the club is run and how it compares to other clubs? It's information we need not more opinion..

What we need to know is...when was the Christmas party ? Thursday?

Vardy v Liverpool- not just the finish but the millimetre perfect pass from Mahrez...

Technically he’s our best midfielder. what does that even mean? Winks is good at receiving the ball in tight areas and quickly passing it on a few yards - that's it. His shooting is woeful, his assist record lamentable - he's a very average tackler and defensive player more generally. Yet we're all supposed to bow down and be grateful for his "technical ability.." while he undermines manager after manager..,

Very interesting piece that. My reaction is - does a mid Championship team need a “metronome” player? Indeed can it afford one such player? Especially when it comes at the price of Winks’ salary and attitude-…… Because the essence of the metronome is that it is other players who actually do the things that actually affect the outcome of matches. What use is the metronome without the goals and assists of James, Abdul, BDCR? We saw the answer to that last season… Xavi was superb but he played in the very best teams filled with match-winners.. A metronome is a machine which sits on a piano while someone else plays it….it might improve the performance but its absence doesn’t stop the piano being played….

I see a flaw in your cunning plan

This is a transitional season and these kind of things happen in a transitional season. We are not going to get promoted and we need to ease out the old guard to make way for the new. A team built around the spine of Stolarcyk (I think), Nelson, James, BCDR and striker tbc will be formidable in Championship and may even make the step up. But for now we are not watching a fully grown team but one that's still to be born.

Brentford is out of the question - they have a “no dickheads” recruitment policy

Yes obviously i do blame MC - neither Thomas or VK are good enough and Aluko shd have been getting game time before Tuesday night...Nelson shd have been introduced sooner as well..

Yes - he shouldn't have been introduced in such an important game against a bang in form team with flying wingers. If he'd been played instead of Kristiansen earlier in the season , he'd have been better equipped to cope with last night....