The Claude Puel Era - what will he bring?

[Nick]

Just now, lgfualol said:

If Pearson came in and the team had the same results and performances, posters on here would be buzzing. 

I’d be suicidal.

[Kitchandro]

3 minutes ago, lgfualol said:

If Pearson came in and the team had the same results and performances, posters on here would be buzzing. 

Sadly, that's right.

[UniFox21]

Very few substitutes

[foxinsocks]

13 minutes ago, lgfualol said:

If Pearson came in and the team had the same results and performances, posters on here would be buzzing. 

On some other thread recently I proposed "foxinsock's law" ie:- as any FT  thread on any topic becomes longer the probability that someone will refer to Nigel Pearson tends towards one"

 

I suggest we respond to such with the hastag: #ITMA (it's that man again)

 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

We did look good for 30 minutes last night, but that may have been more down to West Ham being awful. 

Shame we couldnt maintain a threat, but if that first 30 mins is a sign of things to come then it could bode well.

Chilwell is considered as someone who is good at going forward, perhaps more charging and direct than Mahrez? Maybe not completely a defensive minded sub. And lets be honest, Mahrez was awful. I felt our momentum suffer as he stopped all our attacks by not passing. Gray did not handle his frustration well, but I was right with him at first as the only thing that was letting us down was Mahrez not passing in the final 3rd. That was a disheartening influence, as much as the goal before half time. I'll pack his bags on the back of performances like that. Not a team player. Killed us in the first half

 

Second half, not much to say. We were rubbish. Slim should have come on earlier. But i dont know if Puel can be blamed so much for that collapse or not. We were just crap.

 

And yes, his interviews are drawn out and sleep-inducing lol.

Bless him, tries to satisfy by saying a lot, takes ages to say nothing. Clearly a bit nervous with his English as anyone would be. Anyway,  too soon to have the knives out of course

People have been complaining that we need another dimension to our game, we showed one for parts last night. Its a start and the first time we've shown that kind of play with this team. No need to be down about it yet. Though i understand cos the second half was shocking

Edited 25 November 2017 by AlloverthefloorYesNdidi

[Col city fan]

33 minutes ago, lgfualol said:

If Pearson came in and the team had the same results and performances, posters on here would be buzzing. 

If Pearson had picked up a solid away point yesterday (with Cambiclasso scoring our first goal), the forum would be spaffsville central. 

 

Edited 25 November 2017 by Col city fan

[StriderHiryu]

Interesting to see what others think in this thread, he's definitely divisive as a manager. If you compare him to Shakespeare results wise I'd say he's done about the same, but he has definitely introduced possesion based football. The days of going full throttle from the start of a game are clearly over and I do think it's going to be hard to win some of our fans over, especially at home.

 

Personally I think there is a lot to admire. I know we won the league playing a counter attacking 442 / 4411 but I don't think that is sustainable long term. To be a consistent top team in the league, you have to be able to dominate games and break other teams down. Playing that way I believe we will start off by doing worse against the top 6 teams (who do the same thing but are better at it), but better against other teams. If I look at our performances versus Stoke and West Ham, I would say it's the first time in LCFC Premier League history that I can remember us going away and dominating the game for large periods, even if results are the same / slightly worse. Playing this way is not an overnight job, even Pochetino from Spurs took a while before Spurs really clicked. For the long term benefit of the club, I feel he is doing the right thing.

 

That said I have to be critical of a few things.

- We've been dire in every second half so far under Puel. Is it instructions from the manager? You have to ask because first halves versus Everton, Stoke and West Ham we've been great, but it peters out so quickly in the second.

- Substitutes. They've made no impact in any of the 4 games we've played so far. That's concerning to say the least.

- Mahrez. Giving him a free role could be a genius move. He's such a fantastic technical player that becoming the "main man" could be huge for Leicester. But he's sulking even more than before now and way more selfish. Seriously Puel needs to tell him in French to pass the god damn ball in the final third!

Edited 25 November 2017 by StriderHiryu

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

45 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

Interesting to see what others think in this thread, he's definitely divisive as a manager. If you compare him to Shakespeare results wise I'd say he's done about the same, but he has definitely introduced possesion based football. The days of going full throttle from the start of a game are clearly over and I do think it's going to be hard to win some of our fans over, especially at home.

 

Personally I think there is a lot to admire. I know we won the league playing a counter attacking 442 / 4411 but I don't think that is sustainable long term. To be a consistent top team in the league, you have to be able to dominate games and break other teams down. Playing that way I believe we will start off by doing worse against the top 6 teams (who do the same thing but are better at it), but better against other teams. If I look at our performances versus Stoke and West Ham, I would say it's the first time in LCFC Premier League history that I can remember us going away and dominating the game for large periods, even if results are the same / slightly worse. Playing this way is not an overnight job, even Pochetino from Spurs took a while before Spurs really clicked. For the long term benefit of the club, I feel he is doing the right thing.

 

That said I have to be critical of a few things.

- We've been dire in every second half so far under Puel. Is it instructions from the manager? You have to ask because first halves versus Everton, Stoke and West Ham we've been great, but it peters out so quickly in the second.

- Substitutes. They've made no impact in any of the 4 games we've played so far. That's concerning to say the least.

- Mahrez. Giving him a free role could be a genius move. He's such a fantastic technical player that becoming the "main man" could be huge for Leicester. But he's sulking even more than before now and way more selfish. Seriously Puel needs to tell him in French to pass the god damn ball in the final third!

Thats a good point that he results are probably identical to what we'd have expected from Shakespeare. But considering that in these games we have begun to play a viable looking, or potentially so at least, possession based football, its more impressive: we have introduced a new style and maintained our results. One can only hope with more time and transfers this style will be built upon and we will stop collapsing after half a match

[Sharpe's Fox]

1 hour ago, lgfualol said:

If Pearson came in and the team had the same results and performances, posters on here would be buzzing. 

Because Nigel Pearson is probably one of the greatest humans in world history and he would be our manager.

[sm1]

Surprised with the negativity regarding Puel. He played an attacking team with Vardy, Mahrez & Gray away from home. The problem was Mahrez wouldn't pass & every one of Grays forward passes was under hit. We would've buried West Ham in the first 30mins if these two had been on song. 

Even though bringing on Chilwell was wrong, taking off Mahrez was the right decision and Puel showed hes not weak in making difficult decisions. 

[Kitchandro]

1 hour ago, StriderHiryu said:

Interesting to see what others think in this thread, he's definitely divisive as a manager. If you compare him to Shakespeare results wise I'd say he's done about the same, but he has definitely introduced possesion based football. The days of going full throttle from the start of a game are clearly over and I do think it's going to be hard to win some of our fans over, especially at home.

 

Personally I think there is a lot to admire. I know we won the league playing a counter attacking 442 / 4411 but I don't think that is sustainable long term. To be a consistent top team in the league, you have to be able to dominate games and break other teams down. Playing that way I believe we will start off by doing worse against the top 6 teams (who do the same thing but are better at it), but better against other teams. If I look at our performances versus Stoke and West Ham, I would say it's the first time in LCFC Premier League history that I can remember us going away and dominating the game for large periods, even if results are the same / slightly worse. Playing this way is not an overnight job, even Pochetino from Spurs took a while before Spurs really clicked. For the long term benefit of the club, I feel he is doing the right thing.

 

That said I have to be critical of a few things.

- We've been dire in every second half so far under Puel. Is it instructions from the manager? You have to ask because first halves versus Everton, Stoke and West Ham we've been great, but it peters out so quickly in the second.

- Substitutes. They've made no impact in any of the 4 games we've played so far. That's concerning to say the least.

- Mahrez. Giving him a free role could be a genius move. He's such a fantastic technical player that becoming the "main man" could be huge for Leicester. But he's sulking even more than before now and way more selfish. Seriously Puel needs to tell him in French to pass the god damn ball in the final third!

You may feel this way but there is absolutely no sensible argument or reasoning in your favour.

[Karljohn]

Shades of Sousa with the play, build up far too slow and there are very few players who look comfortable with the ball at their feet.

 

I have never been so bored in a 2nd half as I was last night.

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

What we saw from the opening 30 or so minutes in each of the games to date is he is trying to change our style to a side that is comfortable on the ball and can play through the middle. 

 

I can't quite fathom what happens after that though. We saw a collective brainfart again last night, giving away needless free kicks and inviting pressure onto ourselves, especially as we appear clueless at defending set piece crosses. Schmeichel, for all his plus points, is awful at dominating his 6 yard box and the defenders too timid. 

 

And as with Stoke and Man City, we conceded just before the interval. The second half was crying out for us to regain the initiative but Puel seemed reluctant to change anything. Strange. 

[StriderHiryu]

12 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

You may feel this way but there is absolutely no sensible argument or reasoning in your favour.

I’d disagree with you on that, I think there’s plenty of good reasons:

 

- We kept playing a counter attack style the season after winning the title and plummeted into the relegation zone. Other teams adapted to our style of play. We were in the bottom 3 this season too playing the same way. 

 

- We no longer have Kante or Drinkwater. Though Ndidi is the division’s leading tackler he doesn’t make as many as Kante did. I’m a fan of both Wilf and Iborra but they are different to our league winning partnership. 

 

- Only one team in Premier League history has won the title averaging less than 50% possession per game. Admittedly it was us! 

 

- Almost all of the teams currently in the top half of the table have better possession stats than us: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/ballbesitz/wettbewerb/GB1

 

At the end of the day what I think is irrelevant, the manager will determine our style of play! It’s clear we are going this way, at least in the short term so let’s see what happens. It could work out either way.  

[StriderHiryu]

22 minutes ago, Cadno'r Cymoedd said:

What we saw from the opening 30 or so minutes in each of the games to date is he is trying to change our style to a side that is comfortable on the ball and can play through the middle. 

 

I can't quite fathom what happens after that though. We saw a collective brainfart again last night, giving away needless free kicks and inviting pressure onto ourselves, especially as we appear clueless at defending set piece crosses. Schmeichel, for all his plus points, is awful at dominating his 6 yard box and the defenders too timid. 

 

And as with Stoke and Man City, we conceded just before the interval. The second half was crying out for us to regain the initiative but Puel seemed reluctant to change anything. Strange. 

Really good post. What the hell happens to us during the half time team talk? *Maybe* it has something to do with conceding late in the first half against Stoke, Man City and WHU? Against Stoke / Hammers we could easily have gone in 2-0 up and the job would have been done!

[winteriscoming]

He wants us to be a possesion based team the problem is we don't have anyone in midfield to do that. Ndidi can be hit and miss - he can win the ball with a great tackle then he gives it away. Iborra looks a solid enough player but lacks pace and his passing can be suspect. King - well the less said about him the better. Mahrez needs to pass the ball more often but is our most creative player when he wants to. I think he had players at southampton to keep the ball but probably not the attacking options we have. 

[tsintskaro]

safe 10-14 position 

thats all

[ZeGuy]

24 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

I said it before we got Puel and I'll say it again... Sean Dyche was the man for Leicester, don't say he plays hoof ball football because look at some of the goals they've scored this season such as last week vs Swansea or vs Everton.

Thank god it didn't happen.

[Kitchandro]

1 hour ago, StriderHiryu said:

I’d disagree with you on that, I think there’s plenty of good reasons:

 

- We kept playing a counter attack style the season after winning the title and plummeted into the relegation zone. Other teams adapted to our style of play. We were in the bottom 3 this season too playing the same way. 

 

- We no longer have Kante or Drinkwater. Though Ndidi is the division’s leading tackler he doesn’t make as many as Kante did. I’m a fan of both Wilf and Iborra but they are different to our league winning partnership. 

 

- Only one team in Premier League history has won the title averaging less than 50% possession per game. Admittedly it was us! 

 

- Almost all of the teams currently in the top half of the table have better possession stats than us: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/ballbesitz/wettbewerb/GB1

 

At the end of the day what I think is irrelevant, the manager will determine our style of play! It’s clear we are going this way, at least in the short term so let’s see what happens. It could work out either way.  

Gonna stop you right there. That's completely incorrect. The fact (not opinion, fact) is that we changed the way we were playing to a style similar to what we are playing now, presumably because Claudio was trying to compensate for losing Kante. And I very strongly feel this was the reason we declined so rapidly. That is because we started to decline rapidly at that point. Even as early as the first game against Hull.

 

I remember us playing 'the Leicester way' about 3 times last season. Sevilla at home, Man City at home, Liverpool at home. All impressive wins. Teams did not adapt to our style of play at all, in fact when we implemented it properly in those very few games, even without Kante, we were just as unstoppable as ever. Is it harder/less effective in the long run without Kante? Certainly, yes. Is it impossible to do it without Kante? Certainly not.

Is it still the best way of playing for a club like us? All the evidence suggests so, as all our best performances come with that style of play.

 

I could give you the benefit of the doubt and say obviously you missed most of last season and are just guessing how we played. Except you've shown further astonishing lack of awareness with you 3rd point. It obviously never occured to you that the thing most title winners have in common, in tandem with high possession, is in fact stronger squads and more spending money. Making your point totally irrelevant. Had we tried to play a possession based game in 2015/16, I doubt we'd have finished in the top half. The only reason we won the league is because we had our own style that wasn't dependent on superior players having loads of the ball.

 

And the goalposts haven't moved. We're still an average club at this level that needs to find a way to make the most of what it has.

 

So no, there are no good reasons, all the evidence suggests you are wrong.

Edited 25 November 2017 by Kitchandro

[brucey]

 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

9 minutes ago, brucey said:

 

Good. Statement of intent.

[Dan LCFC]

It's going to be quite a transitional period I feel and it'll take a while for him to refine it to what he wants. I think there've been some worrying trends under him so far - namely not turning up in any second half yet, and conceding on the stroke of half time three games on the spin, but he's got a decent track record of improving teams over a long period of time so I'm happy to give him time to see what he's got. I expect some business in January - both in and out.

[Fox92]

27 minutes ago, brucey said:

 

Good.

 

We're actually playing good football now and not hoofball shit.

 

He's changing our style, it'll take longer than three or four weeks.

 

If we had a good final ball last night we would have been three up by half time. The amount of times Mahrez didn't pass or our crossing let us down was incredible. 

[LCFC FOX]

Finally we’re changing the way we play, the long hoof ball counter attack style won’t work anymore. It’s okay to try it a few times a game but to constantly have much less of the ball every game is worrying. I’m glad Puel is changing that. Even if it means we have a poor season this season and finish in the bottom half. I think the January transfer window and next summer will be the two windows to change how we play and this time next season we’ll be on to a top 8 finish. People worry to much and expect to win every game just because a new manager has came in. It’s not going to happen.

[Guest]

Must say that I really hate the comments putting Puel down. He hasn't even been here 5 minutes. we sound like West Ham/Everton fans.

 

Give the man time before you start judging him.

Edited 25 November 2017 by Guest