smudgerfox

The most interesting thing about JV is why we signed him at all? Surely his skill set was well enough known - Kasper has played with him for years ffs - to know he wouldn’t suit Brendan’s style of defending. And once Little Wes got injured it was essential that we signed someone who would. I honestly believe his arrival and the non-arrival of a more suitable centre back cost us a place in Europe. We weren’t that far off in the end and if the defence had been properly reinforced - as it clearly needed to be - we’d probably have made it. Whoever took the lead in bringing him to King Power needs to have learned a big lesson from what followed.

it’s interesting to go back to August 2021 after the Fofana injury. Surely what we needed was a first team starter, Waes-style, replacement. What we got was Vestergaard - apparently (Rob Tanner says so) the CB Brendan wanted. Within weeks he wouldn’t play him. That single mistake - now we see the impact Faes has had - effectively wrote off a season and halted the undoubted progress Brendan had achieved. To me there’s something very smelly about the signing of JV and Bertrand. At a time when we urgently needed reliable defensive reinforcement, we ended up with two absolute turkeys. Both of them, apparently, BR choices. That was the time to start the refresh.

Talking to a Liverpool fan with a distant interest in us - he comes with me to the occasional game - and he was repeating the now widespread view that we were wrong to criticise Brendan, wrong to call for him to be sacked, he had “turned it around.” Very difficult to counter someone who insists the argument is a binary one - BR in/BR out. Of course I’m glad that it has been “turned around” but I think the failings that the team displayed over 15 months (and which Brendan seemed slow to recognise and powerless to fix) are inexcusable for someone who has claims to be an elite coach. What he has done Is what we were calling for him to do all along - fix the defence, stop us conceding at the worst possible times, stop us conceding from set pieces. The fact that one new defender and one new coach have made such a huge difference shows how basic the initial problems were. This is not, as he claimed, a squad that would do well to avoid relegation, whose season goal was 40 points, it is as we have always said, at worst a mid table squad and a manager who got this squad relegated would be a very poor manager indeed.

Surprised no one has mentioned his set piece defending explanation …”we lack the right profile of player..” Hang on you’ve managed a team in the EPL for three seasons and you’ve just realised your defenders can’t defend at corners and free kicks ! And you tell the world about it with months to the next transfer window when you could introduce the “right profile of player.” And then you don’t make any changes in the squad anyway! So the morale-sapping goals continue and you literally do nothing until the team’s set piece defending has become an international joke…

Post Forest in February ”The whole club is focussed on the summer transfer window…” Yeah right Brendan

If Ward fails to step up - I do think it’s harsh to judge him when the defence is so calamitously poor - it will be yet another indictment on Brendan’s failure to plan effectively. The club has gathered four non first team apparently talented goalkeepers in recent seasons and by now one should be ready to be first team first choice keeper. And Brendan should know who that is. With that apparent strength in depth - we should not need to spend money on a new first team keeper to replace Schmeichel. Otherwise what is the point in having all these others on our books at all? He should have spent the last season and a half judging who would be replacing Kasper and preparing them for that day.

Sounding like a Manure fan mate with your big club/little club schtick. The only comparison that matters now is where we are in the table - and Brentford - with a fraction of our budget and support, have more points than us.

The answer to your question appears to be that recruitment under Congleton stopped being smart and scientific and became - “does Brendan rate/know this guy?.” Brendan’s welcoming comments for Ryan Bennett .. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/ryan-bennett-signing-eight-years-3807137 You’ll see in the article we were operating with only four centre halves - Evans, Soyuncu, Morgan - who could barely run at this stage - and Benkovic (loaned and replaced by Bennett). Bennett, like Vestergaard, never looked up to the task set him by Brendan. Benkovic was eventually paid off - another example of glaring and expensive mismanagement. The persistent failure to grasp our glaring weakness (both in numbers and in quality) at centre back came back to haunt us last season when both Evans and Fofana started the season injured and Soyuncu returned from the Euros with his confidence in tatters. I’d say a PL team that’s playing in Europe, needs six centre backs - the most we’ve had is five - and that includes Amartey and Vestergaard. Around this time Calvin Bassey was leaving our youth set up because he thought he’d get more playing opportunities elsewhere.

The contradictions abound. It seems to be taken as read in the wider football community that he’s a brilliant coach. - a highly critical piece in The Athletic recently, constantly repeated this mantra. But where is the evidence? He transformed Swansea at a time when the club was historically well supported ( a bit like us now), failed at Liverpool and then steamrollered the SPL with Celtic at a time when Rangers were on their knees. Is that the record of a brilliant coach? Is a brilliant coach unable to fix a laughably long-standing vulnerability to set pieces, to conceding at the worst possible times (straight after we’ve scored, straight after half time, in the last ten). Does a brilliant coach set up his defence such that it concedes 22 goals in seven games? We’re also repeatedly told he’s a brilliant man manager. Really? I don’t need to rehearse the specifics but here are just some of the names that would say otherwise: Choudhury; Praet; Ihenacho; Soyuncu; Perez; Vestergaard; Castagne;Mendy. He has been at the club for three and a half years now and he simply has to “own” the squad. If there are players still here who are deficient - then that’s on him. If we can’t defend corners because we don’t have “the right profile of player” - that’s on him. If we repeatedly fail to hold on to a lead or keep a clean sheet - there’s only one person who is ultimately to blame. He has failed in these footballing fundamentals - producing performances which would shame a Sunday League team. That in a nutshell is why he is wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s why he has to go.

Respect has to be earned …his behaviour since he announced the refresh that never was has shown no respect for the club, it’s owners, fans and players.

I’ve posted this from the Kelechi thread because I think Brendan’s treatment of Ihenacho is amongst the most damning aspects of his period here. I am sick and tired of hearing what Kels can’t do - play as a lone striker, trap a football, track back etc - here is a guy whose goal involvement record is up there with the very best. Yet he’s only called upon in an emergency - often at the fag end of a game which is all but lost. To me it sums up BR’s complete inability to understand the merits of individual players and to deploy them to his advantage. Thanks to “student of the game” for the research: If I counted it right then he has 15 goals and 10 assists in his last 35 starts in all competitions. Also has 38 goals and 21 assists in 6,019 minutes in all competitions over the past 4 seasons. That is a goal contribution every 102 minutes over the equivalent of about 2 seasons worth of minutes. To compare with some other players in all competitions. Salah has a goal contribution every 98 minutes over the last 2 seasons (8,822 minutes) (65 goals and 25 assists) Kane has a goal contribution every 95 minutes over the last 2 seasons (8,760 minutes) (65 goals and 27 assists) Son has a goal contribution every 108 minutes over the last 2 seasons (8,013 minutes) (46 goals and 28 assists) Mane has a goal contribution every 144 minutes over the last 2 seasons (7,657 minutes) (39 goals and 14 assists) Vardy has a goal contribution every 129 minutes over the last 2 seasons (6,079 minutes) (34 goals and 13 assists) KDB has a goal contribution every 105 minutes over the last 2 seasons (6,922 minutes) (30 goals and 36 assists)

It’s another example of how national media perceptions are warped by lack of knowledge and manager spin. Our club is feted for bringing through and nurturing young talent on the basis of Barnes, KDH and Thomas and occasionally Hamza. But in truth, you see 19 and 20 year olds getting PL game time at other clubs without taking up a squad place. Ours are going on loan until 22/23 so they have to be exceptional to break through. I see we’ve just sold Callum Wright without him getting near the squad, yet we retain George Hirst - for what reason? I’m still curious that Calvin Bassey slipped through our hands - if his Europa League Final performance was anything to go by he’s just what we’ve needed for the past twelve months - the perfect Brendan centre back. I cant see how playing at bottom of League 2 for Rochdale can be benefiting Nelson - in fact it’s worryingly close to Man City who’ve been sniffing round him…McAteer went to Forest Green last season and barely kicked a ball. And the treatment of Alves - that was crazy - accusing a dribbling winger of dribbling too much if memory serves,

It’s nuanced and contradictory. Overall a success but it’s undeniable that the longer he’s been here and the more influence he’s acquired, the worse he has got. Historically an FA Cup, a Community Shield and two fifth places , two European tours, including a semi final are superb achievements. But there will always be an asterisk or two. To be top 4 for so long and not get over the line twice - given the financial consequences of CL qualification - really is some kind of failure. It really does call into question-his credentials to be known as an elite coach. We got to two semi finals - Villa and Roma - and barely turned up. And I appreciate this may seem a weird one on my part, but my gratitude for the FA Cup win is always tempered.by his shameful treatment of Kelechi - whose goals got us to Wembley in the first place. Finally, his statements since announcing the refresh last February but most obviously in the last few weeks seem designed to damage our club - (eg proclaiming players to be not good enough) which for me is unforgivable.

According to The Sun, as quoted on Leicestershire Live, Kelechi has 15 goals and 5 assists in his last 25 starts! What sort of manager routinely ignores a player with that kind of record?

The overriding priority is someone who can fix the defence. If they can get a unit of 3/4/5 working as a unit with a competent and confident keeper - rattle up a few clean sheets, we have every chance of staying up. Ihenacho and Daka showed what they can do yesterday - such a refreshing change from the static Vardy waiting for one type of pass to put him in. We have more goals in Maddison, Barnes, Tielemans and with Vardy as an impact sub - that’s more than decent. we have decent DCM options in NDidi, Soumare and Mendy, But the defence has to be chosen, selected repeatedly and start to function as a unit. We need full backs told to defend, Evans and a keeper to organise,. They need to cut out anything which risks conceding goals, - playing out from the back, full backs spending most of their time much much further forward, conceding corners and free kicks unnecessarily. Brendan cannot organise a top level defence and that is his main weakness. At Liverpool in all his full seasons they conceded over a goal a game - 50 in the season they blew winning the league. At Celtic, domestically it was better but in Europe his team conceded 18 in six Champions League group games! He stands even less chance of sorting out the Leicester defence because he’s thrown two members of his squad under a bus (Vesty and Cags) and has made it clear he doesn’t want to play them - he’d rather play a DCM out of position. So what happens when Evans gets injured ? Who’s he going to play at CB then?

Remember that toe-curling double interview with his “hero” Mourinho on BT before the Roma semi final game? The one we didn’t turn up for ? I think he’s been on the phone to his hero again - this is classic Jose …

And to Ihenacho as well - the goal scoring and assisting striker who, according to BR has more flaws to his game than a four year old - and whose forward play rather annoyingly (for BR) often wins matches as it did in that very same Cup run…

Are we right to blame the players? If they were simply required to play as defenders who occasionally overlap - would they be performing okay? Isn’t it that BR wants his full backs playing like TAA and Cancelo which means they prioritise their attacking roles which is one reason the defence is so poor? He wants Ihenacho to be a better defender even though he’s full of goals and assists, and wants Ndidi to be Cambiasso even though he’s one of the best defensive CMs in the world (or was). This constant complication of individual roles means everyone or nearly everyone is struggling to play as the manager wants. It’s a simple game and if most players win their individual battles you end up winning games. Soumare, Praet, Perez - how many times have they been played in their best position? This is why I’m reluctant to slag the players - they mostly seem perfectly good players but they’re always being asked to adapt to the Rodgers system.

Brendan currently briefing him on how he sees him as a Number 10 behind Vardy

In the BR deep freeze at various times: Nacho;Praet; Soyuncu; Hamza; Mendy; Perez; Soumare; Vestergaard;Under. Now whatever you think of each of them as a player, they have been taking up a place in a squad which BR has spent over three years assembling. With the exception of Under, none have been moved on. They have been made to feel unwanted and are therefore unlikely to give of their best …A good few have been signed by BR…some are repeatedly criticised by him - Nacho, Praet, Soyuncu, Hamza, Soumare and Vestergaard… when we won the league we had Schlupp Ulloa, Wasilewski, Simpson, King - not the best of players but made to feel valued members of the squad. As a result they performed to their best when called upon ..

The strongest transfer rumour - I appreciate this isn’t very scientific - is a midfielder. I swear we get relegated if we fail to reinforce the central defence at the very least. If we bring in another midfielder - how many do we need? - and fail to strengthen the defence then I will lose all faith in the current club management….I would say we need two centre backs minimum…

Maybe but that’s three of the four who’ve played so far this season. And if BR does play them together and it works - there’s a huge drop off once we get injuries or suspensions

Our defence is relegation standard - I agree with Col if we don’t fix that in the next three to four days I think the trap door beckons. We’re conceding two a game as standard - you can’t win many games while that’s the case ….

Although our club is widely admired for the way it is run - there are times when it seems little better run than a Sunday league team. The Silva fax fiasco, Ryans Bennett and Bertrand, the on/off refresh, a farcical transfer window of which we received no warning , losing the spine of our team with no succession plans in place. The constant backdrop of injury - not Fofana, Justin but Maddison; NDidi, Barnes. Players withdrawn shortly before or after kick off. No head of recruitment in hugely important recruitment period; set piece coach unable to take up his job. A team unable to do basics such as defend, a coach unable to address that problem. Honestly if that’s a well run club I’d hate to see it being badly run.