The Situation.

[deanolegend1989]

17 minutes ago, gw_leics772 said:

You should have read his posts in the pre match thread. 

You wait til he spends 5 pages replying to anyone who disagrees, effectively saying the same thing over and over again. 

At least with it's own thread people can concentrate on ripping his posts apart as opposed to trying to get the last thread back on track.. 

 

@deanolegend1989 are you saying mendy is actually worse than praet? I got the distinct impression he was the most limited footballer ever from your pre match posts.

 

You can disagree with me all you like, as anyone can.

its my opinion and people will soon see my point.

Hopefully  Brendan actually realises the same as I do!

 

Oh and by the way, if you read my posts ‘pre game’ you will see that I got it absolutely spot on.

which 1 did you read?
‘We 100% won’t win if YT don’t start?’

’our best chance is to keep it 0-0 until the last 20 and knick a miracle?’

’playing 2 DMs at home to Brighton is terrible?’

 

Where do we start? And that’s what most annoys me.,it’s not hindsite, it’s so glaringly obvious that I find it absolutely disgraceful that someone whose apperantly a ‘top coach’ could not see it. Not only to start the game but after that first half, to not change it until nearly 70 minutes!?

Its criminal it really is. Can I ask you were you satisfied with that performance? Are you really suprised that we laboured so badly?

[deanolegend1989]

4 minutes ago, TonyN11 said:

I may have been watching a different game but I thought that Mendy was a better performer than Ndidi today

You were watching a different game or have no understanding of football.

[tickler28]

1 minute ago, deanolegend1989 said:

What I’m saying is on performance today, yeah the rest were awful too. However I’m saying that it all revolves around creating and actually domination of the game. Mendy is simply not good enough.

Chillwell was ok, nothing more nothing less.

Madders was poor but was living off scraps.

Ndidi did some good tackles and won possession, not his best game but he oozes strength and class.

We can single out individuals for their effort or if they make mistakes but at the end of the day if your not good enough your not good enough and Mendy is just useless at this level.

If you seriously think gray had a bad game today then your clueless. What do you expect him to do with what was offered?

Is it any coincidence that Vardy , Nacho, Maddison all ‘played bad’ ‘didn’t do much’?

it all revolves around controlling the game, Brighton were just better in midfield.

They outplayed us first half, but didn’t have much quality to hurt us in the dangerous areas.

2nd half we got on top, they retreated and asked us a question. We didn’t have the question, we had 0 threat.

Watch the match again between 45-70 and you will see our absolute lack of any creativity, any forward movement and any brains from our midfield.

You cannot have Mendy in the team as this player to try and make things happen. He can’t pass and he can’t move with the ball. He is a very very basic footballer and is the main reason we struggle in games like this.

Remember this post if(I hope to god not) he ever plays again as a 2 with Ndidi and watch the game. I will tell you now we will not create anything and the only hope is for a miracle to be pulled out of nothing.

The only way we can win a game like this is for something ‘lucky’ to happen (Maddison to thrash a top bins free kick or a lucky pen given off an arm etc).

 

If we play our best 11 and actually control games, we could grind the lead a few times easier and then games will be won with less effort!

If you watch our winning run, we just controlled games better. It always felt like we had control and would eventually break a team down.

there is no doubt we have lost that connection and the players arnt really sure what to do, but that is the main reason.

build the team around Ndidi and Tielemans and we won’t go far wrong!

I wasn't singling Gray out today per se just making the point that he's had a million chances to show his worth to our team and more often than not flatters to deceive.

 

The problem is Ndidi is so good that we rely on him far to much and Rodgers knows the second he replaces him with Hamza or Mendy we go from being a good team to an average team. In this respect you are correct about Mendy but he's hardly had a fair crack at the whip and probably will go on to pastures new in the summer with my best wishes. We have to then make sure we look for an Ndidi back up player (whatever the cost) because poor Wilf can't play every minute of every game and Brendan knows that.

I like Tielemans but to be fair before lockdown his performances dropped off massively and it was beginning to look like Youri had lost his way a bit and lacked sharpness. I lost count of the number of times he'd give the ball away in a match but 1 thing you are right about him...he looks for a forward pass and today Mendy and Wilf did not (probably because they are not creative/attacking midfielders). Praet fit and raring to go has to feature on Sunday and maybe he with a fit Tielemans could be the answer....perhaps Madders needs a bench start and to come on later on (after all we are allowed 5 subs not that anyone's told Rodgers).

 

New wingers needed in the summer as well as a defensive midfielder and an attacker. We do not have enough strength in depth in this squad...Brendan clearly does not trust fringe players otherwise he'd use more subs!!

[TonyN11]

3 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

You were watching a different game or have no understanding of football.

thank you for your thoughtful reply sir

[dylanlegend]

Basically our best chance of being top 4 come the end of July is a second wave

[Oxfordfox83]

2 DM v Brighton 

Maddison out wide

 

Brendan has clearly got the dressing room on side but fvck me could he please please look at those two statements and justify them with anything other than “sorry, I was drunk”.

[urban fox]

1 minute ago, hackneyfox said:

Reading between the lines I get the idea that he’s doesn’t rate Mendy that highly.

 

I think you might just be possibly right.

I understand that people are getting nervous and i am desperately disappointed that we seem to have lost our mojo when we had been so good and taking sides apart for fun. I do not know the reasons but i am getting heartily sick of the constant carping and insulting comments aimed at certain individuals. It seems that everyone needs a scapegoat but there really is no justification for some of the vitriol and bile that gets directed at some of our players/manager. We all have our heroes and villains but everyone has a bad day at the office but it does not mean that you are useless at your job. If people got fired (or as some would seem to prefer hung drawn and quartered) every time they did not meet their targets or ****ed up occasionally the dole queue would be miles long.

Vardy is tremendous yet i would be the first to say he was not at the races today, but of course it is easy for people to excuse that by saying he had no service. Either way he had no influence on the game at all today so was poor but i am not going to call for his head.

What happened to balance and informed debate? simply slagging off individuals out of some sort of bias is not ok in my book. There are some in our squad who i believe are below the standard that we aspire to achieve, and who;s future should lie elsewhere but i do not personally insult them on a public platform.  To opine that "XYZ" is below what we need is one thing but to just say they are crap/sunday league/disgrace and much worse is totally disrespectful.

[deanolegend1989]

7 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

What about all the games we've struggled in recently - games much like today's -  when Mendy wasn't playing?

Then it’ll be Praet instead, whose a lot better than Mendy but still not got enough creativity in him.

Tielemans is the answer, he shouldn’t be getting dropped , if he had played In Southampton at home, Burnley away, Norwich away and today we’d probably have 5/6 more points at least and been locked for too 4 already!

Rotating is over rated. If we can play an entire season 15/16 with the same 11(an aging team by the way) then a young team with 3 months break have no excuses.
Absolutely ridiculous excuse to back up stupid reasons to rotate. Play your best team and the best team was the 11 we won 8 games in a row with back in the autumn

[dylanlegend]

After the 9-0 versus Soton Brenda starting rotating all the time. In my opinion the team that started that game is our best starting 11. Just keep that team, keep consistency.
 

Stop ‘rewarding’ players for good training or a good cameo, players like consistency and forming on pitch relationships. It was what won us the league after all, most good/winning teams don’t rotate that much

[deanolegend1989]

5 minutes ago, tickler28 said:

I wasn't singling Gray out today per se just making the point that he's had a million chances to show his worth to our team and more often than not flatters to deceive.

 

The problem is Ndidi is so good that we rely on him far to much and Rodgers knows the second he replaces him with Hamza or Mendy we go from being a good team to an average team. In this respect you are correct about Mendy but he's hardly had a fair crack at the whip and probably will go on to pastures new in the summer with my best wishes. We have to then make sure we look for an Ndidi back up player (whatever the cost) because poor Wilf can't play every minute of every game and Brendan knows that.

I like Tielemans but to be fair before lockdown his performances dropped off massively and it was beginning to look like Youri had lost his way a bit and lacked sharpness. I lost count of the number of times he'd give the ball away in a match but 1 thing you are right about him...he looks for a forward pass and today Mendy and Wilf did not (probably because they are not creative/attacking midfielders). Praet fit and raring to go has to feature on Sunday and maybe he with a fit Tielemans could be the answer....perhaps Madders needs a bench start and to come on later on (after all we are allowed 5 subs not that anyone's told Rodgers).

 

New wingers needed in the summer as well as a defensive midfielder and an attacker. We do not have enough strength in depth in this squad...Brendan clearly does not trust fringe players otherwise he'd use more subs!!

I agree with the majority of that to be fair . He hasn’t hit the heights of last season on loan. However he’s come on late when losing games or drawing and hasn’t started many.

Football is a tough game late in matches when teams park 2 buses, we need to start our best team and rest players if we are in control. The hard part is getting the opening goal, so why wait till 70th minute you go for it today? We wernt playing Barcelona!

I keep repeating myself now but YT should be the first name on our team sheet if we want to go for the top 4, it’s as simple as that.

[dylanlegend]

4 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Then it’ll be Praet instead, whose a lot better than Mendy but still not got enough creativity in him.

Tielemans is the answer, he shouldn’t be getting dropped , if he had played In Southampton at home, Burnley away, Norwich away and today we’d probably have 5/6 more points at least and been locked for too 4 already!

Rotating is over rated. If we can play an entire season 15/16 with the same 11(an aging team by the way) then a young team with 3 months break have no excuses.
Absolutely ridiculous excuse to back up stupid reasons to rotate. Play your best team and the best team was the 11 we won 8 games in a row with back in the autumn

I agree, praet is possibly the most consistent and hard working player than Youri, but Youri has that 1/2 passes a game that can really open up teams. I’ve got a feeling it’s more to do with his ‘perceived’ mentality but that just so happens to coincide with our poor run of form (dropping YT)

[tickler28]

1 minute ago, deanolegend1989 said:

I agree with the majority of that to be fair . He hasn’t hit the heights of last season on loan. However he’s come on late when losing games or drawing and hasn’t started many.

Football is a tough game late in matches when teams park 2 buses, we need to start our best team and rest players if we are in control. The hard part is getting the opening goal, so why wait till 70th minute you go for it today? We wernt playing Barcelona!

I keep repeating myself now but YT should be the first name on our team sheet if we want to go for the top 4, it’s as simple as that.

I agree that it was sheer madness today starting with Ndidi and Mendy....Rodgers needed to grow some balls and if he wanted to protect Ndidi play Mendy instead but start with Tielemans. Otherwise start Praet with Ndidi. 

 

Tielemans on his day is pure class (we know that) and I'd even like to see Maddison benched to give Youri a go in the number 10 role on occasions.

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, EastAnglianFox said:

 

The worry is Ric that as bang average that most teams have been this season the two clubs you mention have impressed me far more since Christmas time and that is saying something considering how laughable Man Utd have been at times so they really don't need to crank it up much further to put us in trouble.

 

Wolves look seriously good at times and they worry me big time, not just for this season either.

Agreed

[tickler28]

7 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

I agree with the majority of that to be fair . He hasn’t hit the heights of last season on loan. However he’s come on late when losing games or drawing and hasn’t started many.

Football is a tough game late in matches when teams park 2 buses, we need to start our best team and rest players if we are in control. The hard part is getting the opening goal, so why wait till 70th minute you go for it today? We wernt playing Barcelona!

I keep repeating myself now but YT should be the first name on our team sheet if we want to go for the top 4, it’s as simple as that.

Rodgers must take a lot of the blame for how things went today. We could and should have easily won that match if we were braver....passing it sideways and back drove me nuts!!! We offered nothing going forward and poor Vardy must have wondered why he bothered turning up

Edited 23 June 2020 by tickler28

[deanolegend1989]

Just now, dylanlegend said:

I agree, praet is possibly the most consistent and hard working player than Youri, but Youri has that 1/2 passes a game that can really open up teams. I’ve got a feeling it’s more to do with his ‘perceived’ mentality but that just so happens to coincide with our poor run of form (dropping YT)

I think YT was very poor vs City and Liverpool over Xmas and since then has been in an out of the team, which coincides with us being poor.

I just think we need to get a consistent starting 11 again(win or lose) and stick with it(bar injuries or suspensions).

He is the difference between being average to being good.
His passing and ability makes players move off the ball. I mean if your Vardy or madders or gray and you see Mendy on the ball, your not going to move and run as you know him limitations.

A Tielemans in full flow, with Ndidi as muscle beside him is a huge threat. I’m praying Rodgers sees this before it’s too late.

Barnes and Gray back in would provide lots of runs for him to find too. These kind of runs and movement and a player with the ability to find them, moves defences around.

Brighton today, it was food and drink. Just mark Vardy and nullify the space = no other movement, no one in midfield who can do anything threatening or burst forward. Just side to side whilst they keep tight.

Absolute food and drink it was painful.

[dylanlegend]

1 minute ago, tickler28 said:

I agree that it was sheer madness today starting with Ndidi and Mendy....Rodgers needed to grow some balls and if he wanted to protect Ndidi play Mendy instead but start with Tielemans. Otherwise start Praet with Ndidi. 

 

Tielemans on his day is pure class (we know that) and I'd even like to see Maddison benched to give Youri a go in the number 10 role on occasions.

I just don’t understand starting 2 DMs in midfield versus Brighton it’s fecking stupid! 
 

Even the sky commentators said that our tactic was to play our best team at the end of the game haha

[deanolegend1989]

4 minutes ago, tickler28 said:

I agree that it was sheer madness today starting with Ndidi and Mendy....Rodgers needed to grow some balls and if he wanted to protect Ndidi play Mendy instead but start with Tielemans. Otherwise start Praet with Ndidi. 

 

Tielemans on his day is pure class (we know that) and I'd even like to see Maddison benched to give Youri a go in the number 10 role on occasions.

Yeah you have it spot on. Dropping madders and playing Youri in number 10 role is better than what he did. He picked the open option that completely shows a lack of any ability to take the game to a low block.

[dylanlegend]

1 minute ago, deanolegend1989 said:

I think YT was very poor vs City and Liverpool over Xmas and since then has been in an out of the team, which coincides with us being poor.

I just think we need to get a consistent starting 11 again(win or lose) and stick with it(bar injuries or suspensions).

He is the difference between being average to being good.
His passing and ability makes players move off the ball. I mean if your Vardy or madders or gray and you see Mendy on the ball, your not going to move and run as you know him limitations.

A Tielemans in full flow, with Ndidi as muscle beside him is a huge threat. I’m praying Rodgers sees this before it’s too late.

Barnes and Gray back in would provide lots of runs for him to find too. These kind of runs and movement and a player with the ability to find them, moves defences around.

Brighton today, it was food and drink. Just mark Vardy and nullify the space = no other movement, no one in midfield who can do anything threatening or burst forward. Just side to side whilst they keep tight.

Absolute food and drink it was painful.

I agree plus I think Vardy and Tielemans have a good relationship and when Vardys ‘appy, I’m ‘appy

[tickler28]

1 minute ago, dylanlegend said:

I just don’t understand starting 2 DMs in midfield versus Brighton it’s fecking stupid! 
 

Even the sky commentators said that our tactic was to play our best team at the end of the game haha

Yeah didn't help they were ready to come on about 10 minutes before a stoppage that wasn't a corner 🙈

[inckley fox]

20 minutes ago, deanolegend1989 said:

Then it’ll be Praet instead, whose a lot better than Mendy but still not got enough creativity in him.

Tielemans is the answer, he shouldn’t be getting dropped , if he had played In Southampton at home, Burnley away, Norwich away and today we’d probably have 5/6 more points at least and been locked for too 4 already!

Rotating is over rated. If we can play an entire season 15/16 with the same 11(an aging team by the way) then a young team with 3 months break have no excuses.
Absolutely ridiculous excuse to back up stupid reasons to rotate. Play your best team and the best team was the 11 we won 8 games in a row with back in the autumn

I like Youri too, and would agree that he's in our best starting midfield. I also believe his range of passing is much more likely to take a game to the opposition than Ndidi's or Mendy's, even if he failed to unlock the door today. However it's debatable whether his recent form has earned him a place in the side over Praet, and it's worth remembering that Mendy featured in a couple of excellent performances before his injury. Fitness might also be an issue, given the schedule.

 

You say: if Mendy isn't the problem, then Praet is. But our only win in the past seven came with Praet in the side, and not Youri. On top of that, Youri featured on Saturday and failed to impose himself on the game. So, while I go along with the idea that Tielemans will hopefully, in the long-term, be in the side ahead of both Praet and Mendy, I also accept that that can't happen while his form is what it is at the moment. And surely you can't claim that the decisive factor which dictates whether we're effective in games or not, is that Youri has to play, while Mendy and Praet should not. Because that doesn't tally with what's been happening over recent months.

 

Needless to say, I hope he's back in the side and back to his best at the weekend.

Edited 23 June 2020 by inckley fox

[Keiriel]

In a nutshell:

 

 

[martyn]

Tielemans has been poor for sizable amount of the season. 

 

It got to the point where 1 potential defence splitting pass could no longer be used as cover for dithering on the ball, giving up cheap possession, offering very little defensively and looking out on his feet at 60 minutes. 

 

Everyone is aware of his quality, but the evidence of that has not been seen anywhere near enough this season. He should be playing now though, we need to try and get that 11 who steamrollered October and November performing quick before we stuff an unassailable position up, and that means starting games at a high tempo and taking games by the scruff of the neck with those players. 

 

Mendy is an adequate squad man, best utilised in tricky away games where a more pragmatic midfield makes sense, and to give others a rest when fixtures pile up. He isnt going to look great alongside Ndidi when you're expected to set the pace in the game, and when Maddison turns into declined midfield Rooney again to pick up the ball far too deep.

 

 

Edited 23 June 2020 by martyn

[ALC Fox]

We ended the game with arguably our strongest XI and we looked much better for it.

 

When they're fully match fit, we should be back to putting teams to the sword again. We're a good side, they're good players. I can see us beating Spurs and United in the final two games.

[Guest Fktf]

1 hour ago, jamfox said:

To be fair ,  after the re start apart from man city no one has been ripping up trees. Even Liverpool looked ok! 

Watching now , spurs are average and supposed to be fighting for their lives west ham look like dog sh*t

 

I'm not saying its been great, that incredibly good run is getting a further away , we are lucky everyone else behind man city and liverpool has also been really inconsistent. Wolves and man United worry me but remarkably we are still in a good position.  For me we need to get behind the team and manager now 

 

 

With all the arguments about home and away advantage and the integrity of the competition, the biggest thing that was overlooked was how teams would respond to what is essentially having an off season followed by an immediate return to competitive football. 

 

If you had to implement a 3 month break before a return straight to competitive action, you'd want to be a team that holds the ball and passes people to death. You'd also want the sort of quality man city have in the squad depth, especially given the 5 sub rule. 

[deanolegend1989]

2 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

I like Youri too, and would agree that he's in our best starting midfield. However it's debatable whether his recent form has earned him a place in the side over Praet, and it's worth remembering that Mendy featured in a couple of excellent performances before his injury.

 

You say: if Mendy isn't the problem, then Praet is. But our only win in the past seven came with Praet in the side, and not Youri. On top of that, Youri featured on Saturday and failed to impose himself on the game. So, while I go along with the idea that Tielemans will hopefully, in the long-term, be in the side ahead of both Praet and Mendy, I also accept that that can't happen while his form is what it is at the moment. And surely you can't claim that the decisive factor which dictates we're effective in games or not, is that Youri has to play, while Mendy and Praet should not. Because that doesn't tally with what's been happening over recent months.

 

Needless to say, I hope he's back in the side and back to his best at the weekend.

I can’t comment on YT vs Watford as I didn’t actually see any of that bar highlights.

However every other game since Southampton I’ve seen live and YT , although not at his best, is still far superior.

It reminds me of the Liverpool team under benetez, Gerrard Mascherano and Alonso. If Gerrard isn’t at his best do we drop him for Lucas? No, because same thing, if he’s below his best he’s way better than Lucas.

YT is just a top player, when he’s off form, he still offers more. Mendy and Praet(to a lesser extent) just have a lower ceiling. They work hard, maybe even as good as they can, but we lack something without YT.