Stoke/Rotherham Matches Thread

[volpeazzurro]

13 hours ago, LC/FC said:

Possibly... But considering that Rodgers himself said that he thought we played better in the second half with our improved concentration and quicker and cleaner passing, I'm guessing he thought the first half wasn't up to snuff either. 

I personally really don't think it worth worrying about. The approach to try out a new system is nothing more than a more competitive training session which is the whole point of the exercise. First half try something out, half time discuss what is going right, what needs tweaking, second half try and improve. Result? What you saw. Results are fairly meaningless preseason compared with lessons learned by players and management alike for a multitude of reasons.

[Sly]

Stoke Highlights

 

 

[volpeazzurro]

Other than Stoke I've not been able to watch any of the preseason games. I just wondered if anyone had an opinion on how Ward has been getting on as an able back up or potential serious competition to Schmeichel? 

[v6rat]

46 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

Other than Stoke I've not been able to watch any of the preseason games. I just wondered if anyone had an opinion on how Ward has been getting on as an able back up or potential serious competition to Schmeichel? 

I was at the Rotherham game and Iversen looked the better of the two

[Crazy Kop Corner]

Don't know if mentioned but at the Stoke game when the fans were singing for McGuire to stay at the end I'm sure James Maddison was singing along.

 

 

[Vlad the Fox]

2 hours ago, Unabomber said:

How come some fans chose to go to Rotherham over stoke? 

I know a couple who went as they’d never been there before, another tick off the list.

 

As a matter of interest how many were at Rotherham?

[StanSP]

Just caught up on highlights for Stoke game.

 

How have they not shown the penalty decision for Stoke and Kaspers save !? Totally excluded and only got a fleeting mention just after Albrighton scored.

 

Aside from that minor point anyway, our attacking play is really, really encouraging. Mainly in the form of Ricardo Pereira who is effectively a winger/attacking player when we go forward. One of the biggest assets of our squad considering the tactics we play.

[urban.spaceman]

Rotherham highlights

 

https://www.lcfc.com/tv/1295842/rotherham-united-2-leicester-city-2

[volpeazzurro]

49 minutes ago, v6rat said:

I was at the Rotherham game and Iversen looked the better of the two

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good ?

[DerbyshireFox]

4 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good ?

I wouldn’t worry too much. Ward was fine in the league cup last year, got us through one not two shootouts. Iversen hasn’t played a first team game for us yet. Let him get the experience that Ward has got over the years first

[StriderHiryu]

1 hour ago, Crazy Kop Corner said:

Don't know if mentioned but at the Stoke game when the fans were singing for McGuire to stay at the end I'm saw James Maddison was singing along.

 

 

Agent Maddison on the case again! 

 

He already bagged Tielemans so I’d be confident he can do it again!

 

Also on Maddison - he looked like a Spanish midfielder yesterday in the best possible way. Some of the ways he would take the ball in and then twist and turn his way into space were absolutely sublime. Really hard to believe he’s English when he does that because I can honestly say I don’t think there’s anyone in the country that plays with that sort of style. He had an under par U21 tournament but I do feel like him and Foden should be getting some main team caps too, especially considering that Sancho and Hudson-Odoi are. 

 

He had an impressive game IMO. 

[UniFox21]

1 hour ago, Crazy Kop Corner said:

Don't know if mentioned but at the Stoke game when the fans were singing for McGuire to stay at the end I'm saw James Maddison was singing along.

 

 

Is McGuire a new signing?

[FoxFossil]

1 hour ago, Vlad the Fox said:

I know a couple who went as they’d never been there before, another tick off the list.

 

As a matter of interest how many were at Rotherham?

810 plus me.

[Guest worth_the_wait]

1 hour ago, FoxFossil said:

810 plus me.

Well at the start anyway.  2 idiots less, by the end!

[LC/FC]

4 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

I hardly think it a failing by Claudio do you,  why do some fans want to consistently stick the boot into the man who guided to our biggest achievement ever at any given opportunity? 

 

Whether he was responsible or not (and he consistently denied involvement in transfers), Gray in real terms cost a paltry about 3m. A very young man who looked at the time a real prospect. Shortly afterwards he got capped for England. Whatever happens to him I think we could reasonably quadruple our initial outlay on him. Some buys work some don't but Gray is hardly a Slimani or Silva so where's the problem? IF a professional like Rodgers decides he is unable to get a tune out of him he'll be gone. Meanwhile, bearing in mind he's returned to preseason a bit later than some, if Rodgers believes that he's worth persisting with a bit longer then I think I trust his judgement, we have nothing to lose.

As much as I love Claudio and what he achieved with us, he is the ultimate fireman. He was only here for a year and a half, making the best out of someone else's team and failed when he tried to put his own proper stamp on it. He tried to save Fulham and it didn't work but with Roma, it did. 

All managers have bad signings, Peter Taylor and Akinbiyi for example. And if you think Claudio had no say in signings, you must have missed the story from Steve Walsh, the former head scout, about having to continously tell Claudio "Kante, Kante, Kante" so I'm sure signings he had a part of.

I'm not sticking the boot in, it was a fantastic romance but was star-crossed. I'm forever happy and grateful this wandering hero managed to finally get some reward for himself, a chance to manage all the castoffs and wanderers like himself to glory. And it was with us! Wow. 

 

As you said, some buys works and some don't. But thinking we'll somehow get 12+ million is a bit of a stretch on showing. 

[Tanya]

5 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

I hardly think it a failing by Claudio do you,  why do some fans want to consistently stick the boot into the man who guided to our biggest achievement ever at any given opportunity? 

 

Whether he was responsible or not (and he consistently denied involvement in transfers), Gray in real terms cost a paltry about 3m. A very young man who looked at the time a real prospect. Shortly afterwards he got capped for England. Whatever happens to him I think we could reasonably quadruple our initial outlay on him. Some buys work some don't but Gray is hardly a Slimani or Silva so where's the problem? IF a professional like Rodgers decides he is unable to get a tune out of him he'll be gone. Meanwhile, bearing in mind he's returned to preseason a bit later than some, if Rodgers believes that he's worth persisting with a bit longer then I think I trust his judgement, we have nothing to lose.

Agreed. The desire by some on here to belittle Claudio's achievements is bizarre and kinda tacky tbh.

 

And even if Gray doesn't work out, three million on a hot young prospect is a good, sensibe bet for a club to make. As the poster above says, if he is sold we will recoup our fee and then some. Gray wasn't a poor signing at the time, despite him never living up to his potential while at City. 

[Vlad the Fox]

1 hour ago, Tanya said:

Agreed. The desire by some on here to belittle Claudio's achievements is bizarre and kinda tacky tbh.

 

And even if Gray doesn't work out, three million on a hot young prospect is a good, sensibe bet for a club to make. As the poster above says, if he is sold we will recoup our fee and then some. Gray wasn't a poor signing at the time, despite him never living up to his potential while at City. 

That second half of the season when we won the league Gray was very good, he came on to see out games and showed to have a very mature and composed head on him. It just seems that since then he is either unwilling or unable to change his game, it’s like he gets the ball and sees the headlines and can’t help himself. 

[lgfualol]

He is fine if we don't need him to create or score. 

[inckley fox]

8 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

I hardly think it a failing by Claudio do you,  why do some fans want to consistently stick the boot into the man who guided to our biggest achievement ever at any given opportunity? 

 

Whether he was responsible or not (and he consistently denied involvement in transfers), Gray in real terms cost a paltry about 3m. A very young man who looked at the time a real prospect. Shortly afterwards he got capped for England. Whatever happens to him I think we could reasonably quadruple our initial outlay on him. Some buys work some don't but Gray is hardly a Slimani or Silva so where's the problem? IF a professional like Rodgers decides he is unable to get a tune out of him he'll be gone. Meanwhile, bearing in mind he's returned to preseason a bit later than some, if Rodgers believes that he's worth persisting with a bit longer then I think I trust his judgement, we have nothing to lose.

I fully agree with you that Gray wasn't a disastrous signing. I wouldn't be shocked if there were whispers in the club that an offer in the 15-25m range shouldn't be knocked back this time around, and that would still represent a significant profit. It's why the policy of buying young will, over time, generate funds which - in turn - is the one way a club in Leicester's position can compete with the best teams in a sustained way. We can develop youth more, give them the exposure, and then it's inevitable that we'll often accept the big bucks when they're on offer. It also means that we'll have access to very good young players who'd normally laugh off interest from a club of our stature.

 

And, of course, Gray might yet improve. He has the raw attributes, age on his side, and in terms of competition for a place the emergence of Barnes and arrival of Perez is going to give him the biggest kick up the arse he's ever had. Maybe he'll rise to this challenge better than he's risen, so far, to the challenge of proving he's mid-table (or higher) PL standard. I certainly wouldn't read too much into his performance at Rotherham.

 

However, I'm not sure you're right about Ranieri's lack of involvement in signings. At least one of those denials you're referring to was followed immediately by one of his many 'Pinocchios!', clearly indicating that, in actual fact, he did have a major role in our recruitment. We know that he gave the green light to Walsh's push for Kante - he went into a lot of detail about this. We also know that he saw Kapustka in the Euros and decided to green light his signing based on that. We know Mendy was a long-standing target of his. And there's a very clear dividing line between Walsh's acquisitions when Pearson was in charge (who also said his role was to identify a need for a player, narrow down targets, and green light the player at the end - a role which was likely to be very similar to that of his more experienced successor), and those after Ranieri took over.

 

So while I don't think it's fair to slate Ranieri for Gray, and in fact not especially fair to slate him at all, I don't think we can absolve him of blame for our post-Kante transfer fiascos, and put it all down to Steve Walsh suddenly becoming a hopeless incompetent.

[H.a.r.r.y]

22 hours ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

 

What about Rotherham’s first goal?

Silva's fault

[blaaklint]

55 minutes ago, H.a.r.r.y said:

Silva's fault

you can't really blame silva for slipping in what looks like quite wet conditions.

[v6rat]

OK, I know it was only Rotherham but Gray did some good work during the game but having watched him a lot, I still see two major flaws in his game. 1st, he still doesn’t realise when to release the ball so ends up trying to beat everybody and eventually looses the ball. Which then leads to this 2nd major flaw, of throwing up this arms as if it’s not his fault instead of tackling back to try and regain possession. 

 

The second flaw flaw goes away once he realises that it’s a team game and stops the 1st flaw happening. I don’t believe that it is greed when he has the ball, he just has to much belief in himself, (rightly or wrongly), what he now needs is that same belief in his team mates. The trouble is, season on season, he is not changing this mindset and there will only be one outcome.

 

Interestingly, I was sat with a few Rotherham fans around me, that did get nervous when Gray had the ball, but to them the biggest threat was Harvey Barnes, who in my opinion had a very good game whilst on.

[sacreblueits442]

3 hours ago, v6rat said:

OK, I know it was only Rotherham but Gray did some good work during the game but having watched him a lot, I still see two major flaws in his game. 1st, he still doesn’t realise when to release the ball so ends up trying to beat everybody and eventually looses the ball. Which then leads to this 2nd major flaw, of throwing up this arms as if it’s not his fault instead of tackling back to try and regain possession. 

 

The second flaw flaw goes away once he realises that it’s a team game and stops the 1st flaw happening. I don’t believe that it is greed when he has the ball, he just has to much belief in himself, (rightly or wrongly), what he now needs is that same belief in his team mates. The trouble is, season on season, he is not changing this mindset and there will only be one outcome.

 

Interestingly, I was sat with a few Rotherham fans around me, that did get nervous when Gray had the ball, but to them the biggest threat was Harvey Barnes, who in my opinion had a very good game whilst on.

.. very good point!! 

 A "closed mindset" is a negative outlook which in the end limits your potential in as much as you are unwilling to try something different and work hard in order to improve yourself. 

 An "open mindset" says:-

I can improve by repetition 

I can learn from others 

There are more than one avenue to get to where I want to be. 

 Grays' mindset is the former, the trick is how to convert his thinking to a positive mindset. 

  Once again I feel the club psychologist has to become a factor in this. 

[LC/FC]

4 hours ago, v6rat said:

OK, I know it was only Rotherham but Gray did some good work during the game but having watched him a lot, I still see two major flaws in his game. 1st, he still doesn’t realise when to release the ball so ends up trying to beat everybody and eventually looses the ball. Which then leads to this 2nd major flaw, of throwing up this arms as if it’s not his fault instead of tackling back to try and regain possession. 

 

The second flaw flaw goes away once he realises that it’s a team game and stops the 1st flaw happening. I don’t believe that it is greed when he has the ball, he just has to much belief in himself, (rightly or wrongly), what he now needs is that same belief in his team mates. The trouble is, season on season, he is not changing this mindset and there will only be one outcome.

 

Interestingly, I was sat with a few Rotherham fans around me, that did get nervous when Gray had the ball, but to them the biggest threat was Harvey Barnes, who in my opinion had a very good game whilst on.

This!

This is all people need to see when we talk about Gray. And we have people talking about scapegoating and armchair psychology, when simply put this is what we've seen from him in 4 years and exactly the thing our current manager can't stand for.