smudgerfox

I have to confess to being a bit of a Maddison sceptic. I seem to have seen a lot of matches in which he repeatedly falls over in a very unconvincing manner, loses possession and takes himself out of the game while feigning injury. Someone like N Didi wins it back gives it back to JM and the same thing happens again. I watch Match of the Day and hear the pundits refer to his dead ball prowess and then close my eyes to try and remember the last corner assist of his ( or free kick). On Saturday our attacking momentum stopped the second the ball arrived at either his feet or those of Perez. I like his refreshing openness, I like his principles, I like the fact he’s local, I can see he has genuine and exceptional ball skills. But too often he makes little on-the-field impact which is why Grealish is streets ahead of him. I genuinely want him to succeed, but I think if the Gooners could be persuaded to gives a decent slice of money and Smith Rowe , I’d take it.

Surprised not more mentions for the “brain of our defence….” - JE is a class act who goes about his football quietly but with ruthless efficiency - his absence weakens the team more than any other…

Tarkowski for me - yes would break the budget but would slot in effortlessly along Soyuncu in a back 4 and alongside Evans and Soyuncu in a back 3 - even taking the Evans central organising role with Amartey on the right and Soyuncu on the left. If we are to maintain momentum we need a defensive leader who can assume the role when Evans isn’t fit. Cahill a very short term measure because I can’t see him managing three games a week for very long. Tarkowski then becomes the natural successor to Evans ….as I say if we try to limp on with bit part stand ins we risk losing points we don’t need to lose. Kabak strikes me as good value for money but quite a risk …

Three goals, one assist, one party, thanks for the season Ayoze

The West Ham (a) game in retrospect seemed pivotal. Out of the international break we lost to Man City without laying a glove on them. We had eight days to prepare for West Ham and to beat them would have really opened the gap to fifth. It was a Cup Final which, had we won it, would have eased the pressure later. Even a draw would have been useful. What happened? We had to change the team fairly late in the day because of the Perez party fiasco. We were 3-0 down after 48’ after a performance that was utterly clueless and smacked of a criminally unprepared team. Amartey was subbed at half time never to be seen again - except riling up Chelsea after the Cup Final. Praet was hooked after an hour and similarly disappeared. From that game team selection for the remaining nine games - played over five weeks - revolved around 14 players with only very occasional late appearances from the wider squad (Praet, Choudhury, Mendy, Morgan). The party-goers, Maddison and Perez, were utterly anonymous for the vital remainder of the season - neither produced anything of significance to assist the cause. Brendan lost faith in his squad after that game which left a massive workload for those left still standing. Injuries (Evans, Forfana) inevitably followed. And we won the FA Cup to a piece of individual genius.

If we can keep all the squad and BR then I’ll get over no CL qualification. I suspect we’ll come under severe pressure to sell Youri, N’Didi, Barnes and little Wes. If their heads are turned or they lose faith in our ability to challenge for top 4 then we’ll be taking a huge step back in selling them. Maddison is another - he might force the issue - as he has had a disappointing season, as a player, missing out on Euros and with injuries. BR’s preferred system no longer gives him the perfect platform - essentially he has to play out of position. BR has said he’d be interested in international management - I could see him leaving if Southgate goes. if we can keep it all together and add in key areas - left wing back, experience at centre back, Tielemans number 8, striker and right sided wide player then we’ll be in a position to progress again.

For Kelechi to the Ulloa 2015 tune oh his name is Iheanacho He’s Nigeria’s favourite son now he plays for Leicester City and we love it when he scores goals for his mum.

My dad died in 2002 - his enthusiasm for going to the matches dropped off in the Shipman era - “they’ll never win owt” he used to tell me - “they’d sell their own grandmother.” The Little/O’Neill years cheered him up quite a lot before he died. His brother Cyril - got me going again, helping pay for my season ticket for many years. He could see the team getting better but died in the winter before the great escape got underway. I’ll never forget him struggling to his last match while seriously ill or me visiting him at LRI after we lost to Man City and being told by his wife and sons he was inot responding to communication. I walked in and he looked up from his bed and said - “How did Kasper ( his favourite) play today? “ Legend!

A couple of things I really dont get The preparations for this game would have revolved around a three man defence with Castagne and Pereira out wide. In what universe does Albrighton (a utility wide midfield/defender) replace the brain and heartbeat of our back 3? Was Rodgers trying to be too clever - trying to use the injury to surprise the opposition with a change of tactics for which his own team was understandably ill-prepared? Neither Fuchs or Albrighton are perfect replacements for Evans but surely they are better options and in line with the tactics envisaged for this game..And given the last minute timing of the change for a must-win game, simply the best option. Maddison, Praet, Perez. Why is he persisting with an obviously unfit Maddison when Perez regularly creates energy and buzz in the area around the box which is so clearly lacking? And where is Praet? Creative, fit, experienced and a good calming influence just sitting on the bench week after week. Under’s been cold shouldered, The squad, in the mind of BR seems to consist of no more than about 14 players...

All that is true but the whole idea of a formation is to avoid your players being placed under the kind of pressure which leads to individual errors and to provide the platform for offensive players to do damage to the opposition. They weren’t unforced errors last night they were caused by players being out of position and a lack of coherence throughout the team. 30 minutes into a 0-0 PL game you wouldn’t expect to be so defensively stretched that the opposition can virtually walk the ball into the net...

Can we talk about Maddison? This guy is supposed to be the creative heartbeat of the team and sometimes he plainly is. But Grealish he is not. Time and time again he’s on the fringes of the game - falling over theatrically, over-elaborating and generally running up blind alleys. He has to be consistently better and he needs to drastically improve dead ball delivery or let someone else take over. We desperately need a mini Youri who can give the guy an occasional rest - Lallana might have been a good fit. And why not let Kelechi start more games - when Vardy is so often so anonymous - because KI receives the ball higher up the pitch he sets different challenges and unlike JV he’s less likely to disappear in a match. As has been stated BR tends to stick with his favourites even when their impact is negligible ... it’s not a case of getting rid of the manager but he has to use the squad and a range of tactics the squad offers him much much better - on another point in this thread - people talk about the full backs being out of position weakening the defence - but they are told to get forward and support the attack - they can’t be in two places at once - the three man defence is designed as the insurance policy but Fofana regularly goes on walkabout leaving just Evans and Fuchs who are understandably vulnerable to pace on the counter...

In what universe do those two paragraphs run side by side? Just to be ultra clear about what I am saying..I’m not saying that there’s a quick fix manager out there who can turn us into world beaters ...What I am saying is that any Premier League manager can not afford to be guided solely by a philosophy and a commitment to a particular style of football. You have to look at the players at your disposal and think what is the best way to get results..the results create a sense of progress and give you the room to bring in changes..refusing to play to the strengths of one of the nations top strikers is but just one of Puels follies..fine if you have an alternative that gets you 20 goals a season without him - not fine if you’ve managed to screw the confidence of those alternatives and publicly declared you don’t need other strike options.. For large parts of Puels tenure our form has been consistent with relegation..he has been unable to achieve the results that would allow usto trust him to implement the changes he wants or that those changes would indeed bring about an improvement in the clubs fortunes over a longer time period. Without any forward momentum at all, our best players would leave window by window and the 2-3 year revolution would have to be regularly postponed.This is precisely what has happened under several managers At Southampton and you can see that one season soon they are going to get relegated..

Do you have any understanding at all of how modern football works? 2-3 seasons is a lifetime for players to hang around in mid table (at best) while a team is assembled around them..we will get massive offers from massive clubs for Chilwell, Maguire, maybe Maddison, possibly Pereira, Choudhury and Schmeichel too in the summer.. Is your plea for them to stay really, that in 2022 we will have a great side? Season on season there has to be forwards momentum which is why going all out to win a Cup - we’ve proven we can beat anyone on our day - was a sensible strategy. Otherwise we turn out like Southampton- Mane, Lallana, Van Dijk, Bale, Walcott, Wanyama, Shaw, Clyne, the basis of a great side but sadly for Saints not one of them us still at the club ..

What are you talking about? The dead wood you refer to won the Premier League by ten points and ran Atlético Madrid very close in a Champions League Quarter Final less than two years ago. Yes that’s right a CLQF in April 2017!! That is a marvellous inheritance for any manager - and while the team needed renewal and improvement it did not need the wholesale changes diagnosed....it’s this unprecedented act of “self harm” - taking a club side at the absolute summit of its historical achievements and deciding to tear it all down in the name of a footballing philosophy that is what has brought about the downfall of two managers and the complete waste of a huge footballing inheritance..

Heaven Seventh Heaven I’m So excited now that I can hardly speak cos my team just doesn’t do the champions league playing tedious football week after week

I still maintain the key to this game - as with many others such as Everton away - was the first ten minutes. They were all over the place and terrified and we needed to capitalise. But we let them off the hook with some poor finishing and wasteful decision- making if we'd got ourselves ahead early on it could have been an emphatic victory with people on here purring about the performance. But complacency meant we allowed them a foothold in the game and they grew in confidence. Then we gifted a shooting opportunity to their one talented player and had to play catch up. Everton a Swansea h not at all dissimilar.

The game was lost in the first half - there was too much Hollywood play before the match was won. In the first ten minutes it was clear they were terrified of us but we wasted opportunities with glory hunting and feeble decision making - had we got one we'd have got another and secured three points. That allowed Stoke a foothold which meant they grew more confident. Then of course we concede a sloppy goal just before half time and they get even more confident and have something to defend. Gray, Mahrez, Ndidid and Allbrighton all wasted good openings in the early part of the match. This Hollywood tendency has been there since we won the league - its a lack of ruthlessness during periods of domination - an assumption that dominance will continue for 90 minutes and eventually the goals will come. So the wasting of one single chance really doesn't matter. The last three home games have proved that it does. In each and every one we have failed to capitalise on pressure and ended up risking defeat.

I wish people would stop rushing to judgment on players. At various times keyboard warriors have wanted to march Drinkwater, Mahrez, Vardy, Simpson, Morgan out of the club, never to be seen again - and they're the recent examples. Now it's Ihenacho's turn. It's almost impossible to buy a like-for-like replacement for Vardy, especially one who will sit on the bench waiting for their chance - Ihenacho has a proven Premier scoring record so he doesn't seem a bad bet. He's learning and we're learning how best to utilise him and it's more than possible he'll come good. He came here to play regular football and has had fewer opportunities than he had at Man City plus he picked up an injury almost as soon as he arrived. So he wouldn't be human if he didn't feel frustrated, but one day Vardy will get injured or suspended, I an will get a run of games and he goals will start to come.

I agree with these sentiments. It is very difficult for a club our size, one not playing in Europe and not likely to be anytime soon, to maintain a bench of high class international players. If top pedigree players come to Leicester, they come to play regular football and if they don't get that they'll soon want out. To slate players who don't complain too much about being on the bench and who, okay are not top notch, is very unrealistic. We might aspire to better ourselves but players like King, Huth, James (when fully fit) and Amartey are serviceable subs util the end of the season at least.

He has been pretty much saying "I need to play more" ever since he arrived. It's the sense of entitlement he conveys. His talent is beyond doubt, but he has lots of areas of his game to improve and he needs to understand he is competing with Mahrez (world class on his day) and Albrighton who is a better defensive fix. He had a point when Mahrez was woeful, Gray should have been given more game time last season, but when he was given it, he didn't take the chance all that well. I think he's already had two contracts since he's been here, has complained pretty much throughout and even when interviewed after playing well he conveys no pleasure, staring coldly on to the horizon as if looking for the scout from Barcelona. Just let the ball do the talking son...

Gray saying today we've held him back. I thought he was playing for Birmingham in the Championship until we recruited him to a Premiership-winning, Champions League-playing squad. He's a great talent and I have long advocated he get more game time but he really is difficult to love...I've no doubt he'll be off at the first top six offer (so as not to be held back)....