smudgerfox

Well I suppose if you judge a striker on how many times they lose the ball - particularly if they shoot a lot or tend to attempt the decisive pass…rather than goals scored and assists made - you are likely to end up in that position.. Presumably on that basis Brendan drives a Clio because he likes the name and lives in Hartlepool because of the efficient waste collection service …

Exactly but we can’t afford to buy perfect players - our manager’s mission whoever, whenever, will always be to be pragmatic and to get the best out of imperfect players. When you hear Rodgers waxing lyrical about Forfana, Vardy, Schmeichel, Tielemans - you get the sense he’s forgotten that.

The annoying thing is that everyone says he can’t play the system - but no-one questions “the effing system” . What is so wonderful about 4-2-3-1? What is it that makes it indispensable? Not up for discussion? It suits a fully fit, fully firing Vardy but we haven’t had for the most of this season - yet the manager persists and then complains it doesn’t suit certain other players. He reluctantly switched at the end of last season and Kels and Vardy started to produce but come the new season went back again. I don’t fully buy that Kels can’t play up front on his own - it depends on players running past him when he comes deeper - Maddison at 10 and two fast energetic wingers would work okay. But the managers role is to develop a system that suits the players at his disposal - not to dismiss players who don’t fit his preordained system. I really fear this “refresh” could be a disaster - with valuable if imperfect players allowed to leave - to be replaced by the kind of player we saw come in in the 2021 transfer window.

I find the attitude towards Nacho absolutely incredible - not only from the manager but from fellow fans. At least when Nacho is on we play the ball to him and it stays up and away from our penalty area - he comes short , links the play , turns and plays the ball forward ..he actually helps us defend - the ball into Vardy is almost always snaffled up by opponents and they can come back at us. And he helps us build around the 18 yard box.People talk about Nachos control but did you see Vardy last night? Have you been watching Daka in recent weeks? His goal and assist record makes him worth building our formation around him as we once did around Vardy - but Rodgers insists on his system regardless of the players at his disposal…

That was the way we have played for well over a season. Certainly the whole of this season and the back end of last. At the end of last season the conclusion for our withering away was blamed on not having a deep enough squad. That was addressed in the summer. Most of us said this was the best squad that has ever started a season for LCFC. Then we lost Forfana and Evans and the poor standard was blamed on injuries - despite the deeper squad mentioned above. Now we have a more or less full squad to choose from and apparently we need a squad refresh to improve. Throughout the problems have remained the same and have very little to do with fatigue or injuries: 1 failure to defend set pieces ; 2 failure to capitalise on our own corners and free kicks (except when Maddison can take a direct shot); 3 failure to turn possession into goalscoriing chances; 4 failure of Tielemans to affect the key matches; 5 lack of on pitch leadership/weak on pitch psychology. The number of games where the above have not been factors in the last calendar year or so can be counted on one hand. More recently in the games v Rennes and PSV but in the league we’re long gone…the manager needs to address these issues…

The goal came from a corner quite unnecessarily conceded by KDH and you’re right we do often do that - misplaced passes, inviting, even imagining pressure at times. I think the elephant in the room is Kasper. Club captain, legend, world class shot-stopper and all round good egg - but his unwillingness to command the box, maybe his inability to do so, is at the root of the problem. Our defenders are being asked to defend more crosses than their counterparts in other teams , simply because Kasper always,or nearly always, stays on his line. But he’s undroppable and as The Florest debacle showed there’s no ready made replacement …despite th plethora of keepers at the club…

I genuinely am at a loss as to BRs reaction to this problem. Yet again last night he said we lack physicality - he’s said the same over 18 months -that’s what? Three transfer windows? Since individual players aren’t going to get taller or bigger (much) the only logical conclusion is to ship out the weaklings and replace them with West Ham/Palace style giants. So get on with it then! Don’t give Ricardo a new contract! Justin has to go! Thomas too. Maddison’s out. Come to think of it Vardy’s not too tall. And no point in signing up Lookman. When you look at what his response involves by way of correction - it’s perfectly clear he cannot solve the problem and has just admitted defeat on what is a basic football fundamental. It’s a nonsense and it always was.

this used to be the case but it’s less and less true, the very idea of a first 11 is outdated - you have players who provide tactical options in the squad - they might be better suited to particular games or to expose weaknesses in certain types of opponents..this is how the squad is managed. Most players are not going to be able to play 90 + mins three times in a week at full throttle and intensity, certainly not in a high energy pressing team. And if they do they won’t be able to do it week after week. So how fit, ready and motivated are the so-called fringe players , how seriously their careers are taken, how valued they feel does matter. It does make a difference. My contention is that BR has a worrying tendency to suck up to his “stars” and be quite dismissive of those whose job it is to occasionally deputise. When their chance comes - it’s often fleetingly short and in emergency circumstances - not exactly the best circumstances to win a place in the so-called starting line up. Of course you can cite KDH as an exception but there are a lot of squad players now whom BR doesn’t rate …

I stand corrected

Yes and Kane /Son though that’s slightly different as they’re a pair - Kels v Mourra though ? Not much in that…

All players can be improved on obviously. But that’s not the same as selling the current player and replacing him with your better one. So Tarkowski is better than Amartey but would Tarkowski come to be a sub for Forfana and Evans? To a club not even playing inEurope? When he could be first name on the team sheet elsewhere….? Name the club with the better second choice striker than Ihenacho. Liverpool and Man City yes but anyone else?

The question is for you not for me. Like BR you disparage our squad players but offer no explanation as to how you replace them. You sell Ihenacho to Brighton and replace him with who? You sell Amartey and replace him with who? Praet?Mendy? Hamza? Perez even? It’s easy to say some squad players are not as good as the first choices but the whole point is you need a squad who the manager trusts. Would BR have rated Nicky Butt ?

Amartey has put in some brilliant performances. Ihenacho was instrumental to winning the FA Cup. It makes no difference. KDH isn’t just brilliant he is a “Rodgers-type “ player as well. That makes a big difference. And virtually no manager in the EPL would turn down the chance to play him. My point is in any case less about the individual qualities of the individual players. It’s more about the manager needing to face up to the realities of having a 25 man squad and the need to utilise all of those players to their maximum to get results. BR has a tendency to “shrink” the squad, to select from a nucleus of 15/16 , while the others only get a look in when an emergency occurs - Hamza/Mascherano etc…I’m not prepared to spend another season listening to him telling us that we can’t be expected to defend corners because we have two centre backs injured or that Ihenacho can’t control the ball even as he’s averaging a goal a game and an assist every other game.

I agree with this - excellent post. I would add use of the squad as something which needs to be improved. That is to say winning games without utilising the same 13-14 players over and over and placing more faith in and giving confidence to , the players not in that primary group. It’s difficult to do anything but forgive players like Choudhury, Amartey, Ihenacho, Soyuncu, Sounare, Perez, Praet, Mendy and the reserve keepers sub par performances because it’s clear that BR doesn’t rate them highly and will replace them again as soon as the primary selections are available again. I keep reading and hearing that we need a deeper squad but what most fail to remember is that we couldn’t fit all our players into the PL or EL squads last season, so the only feasible means of improvement will be to find a higher calibre of fringe player ..while offloading those we have…that is a lot easier said than done - take replacing Amartey with Tarkowski- on paper that’s great but will JT join us if he will only play when Forfana and Evans are injured or rested …

Brendan has pursued a high risk strategy in recent weeks - as I said when he embarked on it. He’s sacrificing league position - and given the form of Wolves and West Ham - a position in Europe potentially, in favour of securing a EL place via winning the EL conference. To make that gamble a justifiable one he needs to beat Roma on Thursday and then win the final. Without that it will all have been for nothing. The last minute defeat to Newcastle, the last minute draw with Everton , the tepid draw with villa and the half/hearted defeat to Sperz.

So it’s a PR and equal opportunities exercise not a serious contest of footballing excellence then ….

Erm , where to start ? You questioned whether I’d be joining in any celebrations as I was prepared to question the level of achievement implicit in winning the Conference when my post explicitly stated that it would be a cause for celebration..not least because of the calibre and status of the teams we will have beaten in the latter stages to do so. Neither am I saying that the EL Conference hasn’t been popular - up to a point. What I am saying is that putting aside Leicester!s involvement - do we really, in the cold light of day, need a European competition for the teams who finish third in their EL qualifying group? Or is it really just another way of overloading the fixture list with pay per view matches between teams who otherwise would not normally play one another?

Champions league standard point-missing there cool hand, First thing I say is it will be an achievement, a cause for celebration. And what people thought about European competition 70 years ago, when there was no European competition, is completely different to a situation where European competition is a routine, substantial and expanding part of the football fixture list. Those greedy incompetents at UEFA will be delighted that fans are taking to the Conference League, that you’re more excited by playing Rennes than Southampton because that’s what they have wanted all along. How do you expand a lucrative competition when some teams inevitably lose in it? You allow the losers back in - by having another competition or allowing a historical coefficient to determine the outcome. Hotel California created in Zürich and lapped up by the fans until a trip to Eindhoven becomes a bit routine and boring. Then what? A world club trophy played In Qatar between. June and December?

Of course we all want to win the Conference. No one is saying otherwise. If we end up beating four (starting with Rennes) decent European teams and lifting a trophy that will be a cause for celebration. No question. But neither should we kid ourselves. The tournament was regarded as a sick UEFA joke when it first arrived - Spurs got out of it as fast as they could. I doubt they’d be pushing so hard for top 4 if they were schlepping around Europe most Thursdays. But perhaps most crucially of all, we only qualified for it by being so poor in the EL Group stages. In the cold light of day we’ve “qualified” by winning only two games in the group stage of the EL. And if it were any other club I’d be dismissive of them winning a trophy after such a pitiful group stage performance.

Maybe not parading it around but that was his genuine reaction - he had no idea what the Conference was and how it worked - presumably because he’d assumed right from the off we’d finish first or second. An assumption which was almost certainly one of the reasons we finished third…it was a terrible group stage performance - the defeat to Legia and draw with Spartak were inexplicably poor but all too typical, our pathetic game management was cruelly exposed in both ties v Napoli and our best result was achieved in the face of woeful but again all too typical defending v Spartak.

A very good piece by Jordan - providing substance to what we already suspected

Maybe favourites is not the right word but I suppose BR’s player judgements seem to be quite extreme - you’re either in - and you get played regularly even when out of form, injured, knackered, ineffective (Barnes, Tielemans, Perez until this season) and risk being overplayed (Schmeichel, KDH) , or you’re out and at virtually no risk of getting any game time except in emergency (Choudhury, Perez - this season - Praet, Mendy - until now, Ihenacho, Soumare). This shrinks the squad to an unmanageably low number. His assessment of Mendy is significant. This guy is not getting a kick until he goes to the AFCON and is one of the stars of the tournament. Until then, BR is happy to sell him, insult him, by not finding space in his squad for him. Wilf gets injured and suddenly BR is starting Mendy in every PL game and rueing the fact he can’t play in the Europa. If he’d assessed Mendy more accurately in the first place, would we have needed to sign Soumare? And if we’d not signed Soumare - who let’s face it has had zero impact- could we have afforded a better back up defender than Vestergaard? Or retained Praet to allow Youri the odd break? The Ihenacho thing is similar. BR is constantly drawing attention to what Kels (allegedly) can’t do, while somehow oblivious to the fact that he is undermining a 20 goal striker. The second best striker at the club but all we hear about is his shortcomings in “the press” and his inability to play up top on his own.

Well I suppose if you put “rankings” and “bigger names” above actual performance and actual results you’re liable to draw that conclusion. As I said, we face some stern opposition to win the Conference, the kind of opposition we have regularly underestimated in our last two seasons in the EL. But it doesn’t change the fact that we only “qualified” for the competition by making a Horlicks of The EL group stage. We won two out of six games. We lost to the team that finished bottom of our group. We gave up a 2-0 lead to Napoli at home. Away, we were 2-0 down after 25 minutes, fought back to 2-2, only to concede again and lose all three points. In topping the group, Spartak scored only 10 goals - 4 of them against us. Villa and Forest won the League to qualify for the European Cup. They then won all their games (on aggregate) to win the European Cup. There simply is no comparison. I stand by my original point, We should rightly be delighted to win a European trophy - if that’s what we manage. We have already beaten some good teams (Rennes, PSV) and we will need to beat two more to do so. But a balanced view must concede that even if we do win it, we will have done so because of UEFAs determination to help “big names” from the “big leagues” to stay in their competitions no matter how poorly they have performed. And whether we should be focussing on winning three one-off games at the expense of securing our highest possible league position is at the very least, debatable.

Not sure how Conference can be superior to Europa League when half the teams in it failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the EL ! And the rest weren’t good enough to qualify for EL in its own right from last season’s league finish. That seems to turn logic completely on its head. Let’s not forget BR had no idea about the competition when we “qualified” for it. It’s been a welcome boost but while others have been talking about us being favourites and booking our flights to Tirana - I’ve been saying it’s a very risky way to save and prioritise a season. Beating Roma over two legs would be a real achievement and beating either Marseilles or Feyenoord in a one off game in the last knockings of the season, similar. Doing both would be a major triumph ..but you cannot deny that unlike the UEFA Cup and CWC - we “qualified” to play in this competition through failure in the EL and not via any positive achievement….

Foxes Never Quite ?