As we have (supposedly} high level players underperforming...

[DeepBlueSomething]

... Do you really think that even if the club had bought in several top level players in the transfer window, it would have made any difference? 

 

Imagine if we'd bought last year's pfa player of the season. We already have him. 

 

Two regular-ish England squad players? Got them. 

 

Lots of other regular internationals for relatively high level fifa ranked countries? Check. 

 

If Ranieri cannot get these players performing, what would have happened with, I don't know...  Brady, Silva, Keane, Depay and any number of other top level players? They'd have been sucked into hoof ball. 

 

We've become so entrenched with a methodology now (ultra defensive, try not to concede, try to nick a goal) that we cannot break out of it. Our possession stats are ridiculous now and, although this worked last year, it relies on a work rate we have now lost so it cannot work until that is turned around. 

 

I have little confidence that Ranieri can turn it around, unfortunately. I think he should be given a job for life as a club ambassador or something in recognition of his unbelievable achievement but we have to change the team management now. 

 

We have good enough players already. We don't have good enough management, therefore splashing the cash would have been a waste of time. Maybe the club knows this. 

[RowlattsFox]

It's the opposite. Last season we had low level players performing to an incredibly high standard. 

 

I can give the summer recruitment the benefit of the doubt because they probably expected the players to continue at that level or near to it but to not make changes in January is unbelievable. 

[Sir Shep]

On paper this team is easily good enough to be comfortably in the top 10, but I'm afraid I don't have the answer as to why we have gone from champs to chumps. 

[STUHILL]

5 minutes ago, DeepBlueSomething said:

... Do you really think that even if the club had bought in several top level players in the transfer window, it would have made any difference? 

 

Imagine if we'd bought last year's pfa player of the season. We already have him. 

 

Two regular-ish England squad players? Got them. 

 

Lots of other regular internationals for relatively high level fifa ranked countries? Check. 

 

If Ranieri cannot get these players performing, what would have happened with, I don't know...  Brady, Silva, Keane, Depay and any number of other top level players? They'd have been sucked into hoof ball. 

 

We've become so entrenched with a methodology now (ultra defensive, try not to concede, try to nick a goal) that we cannot break out of it. Our possession stats are ridiculous now and, although this worked last year, it relies on a work rate we have now lost so it cannot work until that is turned around. 

 

I have little confidence that Ranieri can turn it around, unfortunately. I think he should be given a job for life as a club ambassador or something in recognition of his unbelievable achievement but we have to change the team management now. 

 

We have good enough players already. We don't have good enough management, therefore splashing the cash would have been a waste of time. Maybe the club knows this. 

I'm really not sure if we have good enough players. I look at Wes and Huth and just think what they achieved las year was an absolute miracle, but they are actually probably the worst CB pairing in the league now. Keane and Mee were great last night and that is for Burnley. I also look at Vardy and think again, what a miracle season he had, but actually, I would probably swap him for Andre Gray. He looked much stronger and more threatening and less one dimensional as Vardy is. We also have Simpson who just can't pass, and Albrighton who can't get rid of it quick enough, and his first and only thought is to launch it forward. Okazaki.. a non goal scoring striker who can't stay on his feet. The rest you could say are simply well below par, but perhaps they were just incredibly over par last season, and this season is more the norm, Certainly for the defence I think that is the case. 

 

Of course, non of this helps us, as the window has come and gone, so we are stuck with what we have. Perhaps a new manager can get more out of them, but we should be under no illusions, we have a poor squad and not much better than any of our relegation rivals. It's going to be a tough slog now, and if we do stay up, it will be very close! 

[Mike Oxlong]

We need a player to make these players better. Can't stand him but a Roy Keane type (on the pitch, not as a manager) could make a difference. We have no leadership and no one to lead by example and give the on pitch bollockings to make the players realise that what they are giving falls far short of good enough. 

 

Thinking about it a Cambiasso type would do. 

[RowlattsFox]

If you take last year out of the equation there is nothing to suggest these players are good enough to be a top 10 team. 

[Guest ttfn]

9 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

If you take last year out of the equation there is nothing to suggest these players are good enough to be a top 10 team. 

We got 102 points in the Championship with a lot of the same players - the couple of times sides have got over 100 - Newcastle and Reading - they were both top half before getting dismantled.

 

This is before the fact that we've spent £80 million on recruitment, largely on players playing regularly at the top 30 or 40 clubs in Europe.

[Babylon]

40 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

It's the opposite. Last season we had low level players performing to an incredibly high standard. 

 

I can give the summer recruitment the benefit of the doubt because they probably expected the players to continue at that level or near to it but to not make changes in January is unbelievable. 

Yes we performed to a very high level, but the year before we ended up comfortably 14th in the end and actually played well for large chunks of the season without ever managing to get points. Since then we've spent another £120m and look a worse team than one containing Konchesky, De Laet, Hammond, Moore, Nugent etc.

 

Were they better players than what we have now? Absolutely not. We've got a team full of proven players who performed regularly previously, who aren't performing now. We've got new signings who have done well in other countries and in Europe and they've not performed.

 

The issue isn't the quality of the players. I've been saying it for weeks, swapping one player for another will do nothing when you've got a bunch of badly motivated players sent out without any sort of game plan.

[Babylon]

25 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

If you take last year out of the equation there is nothing to suggest these players are good enough to be a top 10 team. 

If you ignore the English Breakfast, I've had nothing to eat so far today.

[Fox92]

We have average players that overperformed last season. The one true World Class player we had left.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Who says we have high level players under performing? The level of ability within our playing staff is bang average for this division. 

[Domsdad]

1 hour ago, Sir Shep said:

On paper this team is easily good enough to be comfortably in the top 10, but I'm afraid I don't have the answer as to why we have gone from champs to chumps. 

Because unfortunately we don't play on paper we play on grass. 

[norwichfox]

3 minutes ago, Domsdad said:

Because unfortunately we don't play on paper we play on grass. 

and play as though we're smoking a lot of it too....

[chapero82]

I think this proves Kante made Drinkwater look great

[FrankieADZ]

they dont see to have the desire anymore, have happily settled with being mediocre and can get away with the crap they have been peddling every week as CR comes out and says "it was a good a performance a"

 

 

[DeepBlueSomething]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

Yes we performed to a very high level, but the year before we ended up comfortably 14th in the end and actually played well for large chunks of the season without ever managing to get points. Since then we've spent another £120m and look a worse team than one containing Konchesky, De Laet, Hammond, Moore, Nugent etc.

 

Were they better players than what we have now? Absolutely not. We've got a team full of proven players who performed regularly previously, who aren't performing now. We've got new signings who have done well in other countries and in Europe and they've not performed.

 

The issue isn't the quality of the players. I've been saying it for weeks, swapping one player for another will do nothing when you've got a bunch of badly motivated players sent out without any sort of game plan.

This is EXACTLY my point.  We could draft in top quality players and they still wouldn't gel as a team until/unless the tactics get sorted.  The amount of money we have spent (ok, allowances have to be made that a journeyman now costs £10m whereas it would have been less than half that a couple of years ago) is insane.  On paper, we have a good squad and almost all of our current players, if put into a better organised team, would play better than they are now. We are going through the motions of "what worked last year" whilst forgetting to do the crucial bit - hard work and high pressing as a team.  Kante missing makes a huge difference, but not *that*much of a difference. The players' attitudes now are markedly changed and it simply beggars belief that the management team are unable to work out that entrenching ourselves in our own half and hitting high hopeful balls forward just does not work. You have to have the whole team come forward to play that game and compress play into the middle third where the space can be more quickly shut down and fast counter-attacks launched.

 

The problem, to me at least, is simply one of lost direction. The team has forgotten what to do and simply needs galvanising into the right way of playing again.  I don't think that Ranieri can do that now though. He *may* be able to do it if he got a meaner, more driven assistant in (the "Roy Keane" type figure who will rough up players a bit and kick the preening egos out of them) but alone, I think he has no chance and Shakey doesn't seem to have the drive to be "Mr Nasty" either.

[DeepBlueSomething]

19 minutes ago, FrankieADZ said:

they dont see to have the desire anymore, have happily settled with being mediocre and can get away with the crap they have been peddling every week as CR comes out and says "it was a good a performance a"

 

 

I don't think it's a lack of desire - it's more a lack of confidence.  I don't think they truly believe in Ranieri's style of play and that leads to "reserved" performances instead of committed, all-guns-blazing ones. I think they just need to rediscover what made it work but that needs the team as a whole to step up and work.  I can't see how that can happen without a change of some sort at a higher level.