What happened to the post-Ranieri team?

[Crinklyfox]

We have a team that is capable of playing much better than it currently is, weaknesses in certain areas accepted.

 

Ask a neutral to pick a strongest eleven out of our players and Bournemouth's before the match and IMO most of the team would be made up of City players.  But Bournemouth played as a team with enthusiasm, energy and some skill, we looked lost against them for much of the match.

 

Changing half the team won't necessarily improve things enough.  We need a change in attitude, stronger motivation and a game plan that the players can believe in because they look bereft of confidence right now.  This can be turned around but it needs to be soon or we'll be in a season-long relegation battle.

[funkyrobot]

9 hours ago, Bryn said:

Schmeichel - off form, he's always had brief dips like this.

Simpson - Is what he is.

Morgan - Getting on

Fuchs - Getting on

Mahrez - Lost his desire and doesn't really anyone to take the creative responsibility away from him

Drinkwater - ****ed off

Ndidi - Looks jaded to me

ALbrighton - Probably just a bit shit

Okazaki - Probably the only one in reasonable form

Vardy - No supply

 

Manager - Kwiksave

 

In a nutshell.

Think you need to reassess Shinji after his horror show and comedy miss yesterday! 

[Foxhateram]

13 hours ago, The Doctor said:

Bollocks - 9 of 11 today were in the title winning season, 8 of them were signed by Nigel or Sven (I.e. before ranieri). The problem is we've got a manager with no tactical intelligence or motivational ability.

Yes but three of them are playing through injury because we have no strength in depth in the squad.

[bigboy]

It’s about time we started to point the finger at the players! If you have played football you know once you cross the line it’s up to you to put a good shift in. Every week now we only see this from one or two players. There are too many just drawing their pay and not wanting to do what they are paid for “Play Football” Yes CS is the tactician but it’s up to the players to carry them out. You can’t tell me that CS tells them to get to the opposition box and pass the back to Kasper or to one of their players and be caught out of position. Very lazy footballers!

[Kitchandro]

Yeh that was just the title winning team (minus Kante) playing with a bit of motivation for about 3 games.

 

Now the players realise they are 'in there' with Shakey that motivation has gone out of the window. Like it did under Ranieri.

 

The players are far from blameless in this situation, this is still a talented bunch that are being mismanaged but who also are too comfortable drifting around, picking up a paycheck and not putting 100% in. This has been a common theme.

 

But the truth is it was actually Ranieri's legacy in those first few games under Shakespeare. It was Shakey's motivation but the tactics were all Ranieri's title season.

 

Shakespeare has no intention of implementing tactics himself.

[hackenbacker]

Sorry if these have been posted already a bit of food for thought though-

 

From BBC Website under the title "Bournemouth and Leicester's woes - the stats"

• Leicester City have earned just five points from seven games so far this season, their joint-lowest return at this stage of a Premier League campaign alongside 1994-95, 2001-02 and 2003-04.

In 94-95 we were relegated

 

21

Leicester City (R)

42

6

11

25

45

80

−35

29

In 2001-02 we were relegated

 

20

Leicester City (R)

38

5

13

20

30

64

−34

28

In 2003-04 we were relegated

 

18

Leicester City !Leicester City (R)

38

6

15

17

48

65

−17

33

 

[Sionnach gorm]

14 hours ago, ZeGuy said:

He sure as hell was.

How do you know that?  Bob Weasel seems to have more proof than you. 

[Sionnach gorm]

I still don't believe Shakey would cause us to be relegated.  We'll just be a bottom dweller.

[gazzaa2]

17 hours ago, shade said:

What happened to the team that played those first few games under shakespeare? High intensity, pressing from the front, chasing, quick passing football; how did we regress to a side that can’t pass or create a chance?

Caretaker managers often do well. Teams have adapted though, Shakespeare doesn't know another way of playing.

[Chico1958]

I go back to many many threads before when everyone was asking for Shakespeare to be appointed.

 

Mike Phelan.......... great coach but that was his level

 

Shakespeare the same........... As for all the Claudio crap, I think we know my thoughts on that.

 

Until somebody comes out with what really happened then he's not guilty until proven otherwise.

 

The players need to look in the mirror and ask themselves are they doing the best they can.....

[FoxFossil]

Wonder what Appletons influence has been; hardly won a match since he arrived!

[deep blue]

1 hour ago, foxhateram said:

Yes but three of them are playing through injury because we have no strength in depth in the squad.

I don't believe that's necessarily true. If you look at the signings we've made over the last 2 years, apart possibly from Ndidi and maybe Iheanacho, they all look different kinds of players from the ones we already have. To me that implies that they weren't bought to use as direct replacements or substitutes, but as players to use to grow more flexibility and different styles of playing. I wonder if the management having given them little playing time is not so much about their ability (or possible lack of it) but the fear of short term loss of points while we experiment with new playing styles/formations during matches.  (Or even resistence from the current players might play a part). That disastrous lack of a proper pre-season after the Prem win didn't help in that regard either.

 

Prime example among the new signings for me is Musa, who gave an exciting cameo in that pre-season. OK, he has shown some v poor touches in games, but for me the jury is still out. He looks like his confidence is shot. Hardly surprising when the management have shown no faith in him at all. Getting a few bit parts now and then, usually not in his best position, and he has by now had 18 months with very little competitive game time. How can any player prosper in that scenario?

 

At the end of the day you can't assess the ability of any player until he's given a good go, so how do we know what is the true strength of the squad until it is used in a more systematic and intelligent way?

[David Hankey]

14 hours ago, TaggertvsWise said:

Feed feels like you are scrabbling around trying to find the right time to unleash an hilarious analogy that has floored us all with its calculated wit but ultimately has hit wide of the mark as it is plain wrong. 

 

Slimani has has the ability to lead our line instead of Vardy. He certainly should not be written off if we continue to draw blanks like today.

Who's "scrabbling"? Slimani is not and never will be worth what Leicester City paid for him. Is that plain enough for you?

[David Hankey]

16 hours ago, ZeGuy said:

lol, Vardy was dismissed the same way in the beginning. Fans, fickle as one can be.

"In the beginning"!! Just when exactly did Slimani join us and what exactly has he done. A player "worth" that much should hit the ground running and slot in straight away not for us to say he'll come good a year on. Fickle, bollocks.

[ZeGuy]

31 minutes ago, David Hankey said:

"In the beginning"!! Just when exactly did Slimani join us and what exactly has he done. A player "worth" that much should hit the ground running and slot in straight away not for us to say he'll come good a year on. Fickle, bollocks.

I do insist, fickle. Objectivity goes out the window when it comes to him and you're a prime example. He has the best goals/appearances ratio despite of groin injury, cameo appearances and out of position in a system that doesn't play to his strenghts. The price wasn't set by him. 

[BenTheFox]

Damn, Nantes are up to 3rd. Fair play. 

[BenTheFox]

5 hours ago, Kitchandro said:

Yeh that was just the title winning team (minus Kante) playing with a bit of motivation for about 3 games.

 

Now the players realise they are 'in there' with Shakey that motivation has gone out of the window. Like it did under Ranieri.

 

The players are far from blameless in this situation, this is still a talented bunch that are being mismanaged but who also are too comfortable drifting around, picking up a paycheck and not putting 100% in. This has been a common theme.

 

But the truth is it was actually Ranieri's legacy in those first few games under Shakespeare. It was Shakey's motivation but the tactics were all Ranieri's title season.

 

Shakespeare has no intention of implementing tactics himself.

It's true. I don't subscribe to the theory that the players downed tools to get Ranieri sacked, but their appetite has definitely gone. It's understandable, when you've achieved not only the biggest achievement in your career but one of the greatest upsets in sporting history, you're not going to have the same drive to finish mid table. Maybe we needed to be more ruthless in the summer in terms of the playing staff. 

[Guy]

As others have since remarked in recent days/weeks after each passing poor team performance, the final three or four games of last season (that followed those six successive 'bounce effect' wins at the time when Shakey took over from Ranieri in caretaking capacity), were likely to be more indicative of how we would probably fare this season to date, especially given our tough start - as has so far panned out to be the case. The hard start hasn't helped but being outplayed by the likes of Bournemouth and Huddersfield and 'escaping' with a point on each occasion is worrying.

 

The lack of midfield appears to be the main problem while the season has not been helped by our poor defending either of course, something which cost us the game at Arsenal. Selling Drinkwater to warm the bench at Chelsea and having no replacement because of the much maligned Silva transfer fiasco a month ago was never going to be a good thing either and as great a servant as King has been to the club over the past decade, he is no longer good enough to 'fill in' in midfield in the way he's presently being chosen to, you'd say Iborra has to start each game and then when or if Silva gets here, at least he's had a good run in the side. Keep King on the bench.

[Premblue]

I had big hopes for Shakespeare and know he has midfield problems with Ndidi, King, Iborra and James to chose from after the mess made of the Silva transfer which to be fair wouldn't have been down to him. What I can't understand is how he keeps picking King ahead of Iborra who has played many games for a top Spanish team in Europe and won the Europa league ! King gets the applause as a great servant to City but let's all be honest ... had a club come in for him when we in League 1 he would have gone. The only reason he is now seen by some in the light he is is because he wasn't good enough to get a move and he isn't good enough for the Prem in a midfield 2 or a 3 !! Shakespeare like Ranieri doesn't decide who gets bought and sold either ... it's people above him who aren't qualified to make that decision !

[Chrysalis]

On 9/30/2017 at 21:59, Bryn said:

Schmeichel - off form, he's always had brief dips like this.

Simpson - Is what he is.

Morgan - Getting on

Fuchs - Getting on

Mahrez - Lost his desire and doesn't really anyone to take the creative responsibility away from him

Drinkwater - ****ed off

Ndidi - Looks jaded to me

ALbrighton - Probably just a bit shit

Okazaki - Probably the only one in reasonable form

Vardy - No supply

 

Manager - Kwiksave

 

In a nutshell.

Here is my view of those players

 

Schmeichel - off form, agreed

Simpson - Is solid, but also not special.

Morgan - Getting on, agreed,

Fuchs - Is still better than chilwell and our best left back.

Mahrez - I will accept he is not as motivated as during our title season, but he is still working for the team, that is evident when he plays. Our current scapegoat.  Still creating key chances every game he plays, even as a sub vs bournemouth where we barely had the ball he did a move of brilliance near the end.

Drinkwater - ****ed off

Ndidi - Doesnt seem as effective as when he first joined, possibly down to whats going on around him.

ALbrighton - I still consider albrighton a quality player.

Okazaki - Still got the problem of running hot and cold, this season has been one of our best players.

Vardy - No supply and lacking sharpness.

 

The so called saviours?

 

Chilwell - not as good as fuchs sorry.

Gray - Has played better the last couple of games he has played and is now finally starting to look good enough, the problem is the players he would replace either albrighton or mahrez is not our weakness.

 

I would be tempted to play 3-5-2 or 4-2-3-1, mahrez is pretty useful playing behind the striker, so this can be a way to get gray in the team as well.

 

kasper

simpson maguire morgan(we wont drop captian) fuchs

james/ndidi aborra

gray mahrez albrighton or mahrez shinji albrighton

vardy

 

even maguire has started to hoof the ball which has really peed me off, I think he has been instructed to do that after he got caught forward vs pool.

 

if we can get this to work and find ourself comfortable in lead in a game, then we can sub in players who are on fringe of first team to give them minutes. like ineach and slimani.

 

The problem is also more than just formation, I think whatever we doing in training is clearly inadequate, I suppose when we have a league one class coach isnt surprising, and the mindset of sitting back when not having the ball and hoofing it when having the ball, if we continue to do those two things then formation doesnt mean much.