The morning after the night before

[fuchsntf]

Don t get mad...get even...

 

Vardy to show his disruptive neighbours, a Thing or two

 

I aint going to Another Match this season...Now they'll understand what it feels like,when the Crowds Stay away...!!!

What the use of VAR,if you cant pss off the crowd....

They got rid of Balti pies,it was obvious that would even finally Drive the Crowds away...

Then they brought in luke warm Puels pasties,and now Rodgers soggy Rolls...When does speedway. season start,at least the hot Dogs are decent...

 

Foxesforum has only either watered down beer or weak tea,the Subscribers are always crying into their Cups of woe..!!! Bottles wont be short..

 

You wait until the new season starts....

[tickler28]

6 hours ago, jeffschlupp said:

I think it's important to only make judgements on the character of this side once we see the reaction on Thursday.

 

A result on Thursday keeps us in it until the last day, however unlikely it may be.

 

It's been a shocking last 19 games, plus the League Cup loss. And Rodgers needs to make amends to save his job.

 

But King Power must not judge him on whether he gets CL or not now. They need to see a reaction, that the players believe in his methods in the final three games. If they don't see that then Rodgers goes and we need to appoint someone swiftly. If there is a reaction - by that I mean the quality of the performance, and the mentality rather than the results - then Rodgers deserves to carry us through into next season.

 

Claude Puel took 26 points from his final 22 games. Rodgers is on 21 from 19. In that time, both lost cup games that should have been won. Neither had big January backing. 

 

The Club will discover answers to many of its questions in the next fortnight. Where does it want to go? How does it want to get there? Who are the people that will last the course, and can be trusted to go to the trenches with them?

 

I'm no longer going into these games willing them on to win. I'm willing them to prove they care for the shirt, the supporters, a city still stuck in lockdown, and the manager that picks the side.

Win Thursday but lose Sunday and Chelsea (2) and United (3) win their next matches it will be over for top 4 before a ball is kicked on the last day

[Blue ROI]

The only grain of comfort I can take from it is that Bournemouth also took 3 points off UTD and 4 off Chelsea. But god they are in freefall for a while and even their own fans are expecting relegation. The likelihood is that they are going down and their last act is they might have have taken us down with them.

 

Europa League would have been looked upon as good at the start of the season but is going to be a major anti-climax given the manner of it.

 

I try and look on the bright side but last night was just sickening.It's nearly worse today.

 

Rodgers won't be sacked if the contract is worth so much but in one half of football he has potentially caused such embarrassment to the fans and potentially such devastation to our long term prospects that its going to cast a long shadow over his reign. One things for sure he's got some making up to do for this.

[Devonfox1884]

What’s really strange for me is that I was more angry/frustrated after the Watford draw the other week than last night. No idea why but yesterday really hasn’t got to me at all, which seems all the more strange when I see the reactions on here and it being compared to Deeney day etc.

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

I woke up and convinced myself it was all a bad dream, it didn’t really happen, everything is still rosy in the garden.

[RonnieTodger]

I’m still pretty furious, but it has sunk in. I’m no longer looking at other team’s fixtures/results and I’m actually almost glad that CAS ruled in Man City’s favour. It would just prolong the misery.

 

For saying this season will see us reach our second best finish in the PL, it feels like there has been more pain than joy.

[Sunbury Fox]

7 minutes ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

I woke up and convinced myself it was all a bad dream, it didn’t really happen, everything is still rosy in the garden.

Same. It was so bizarre and implausible that I genuinely felt that I would wake up to find none of it had actually happened. Sadly, it did.

[fuchsntf]

Wipe Away the tears...Time for that seasonal turn around.....

 

 

[Steve Earle]

It’s more than 24 hours after Kasper did ‘What Kasper Did’, long enough to allow for mature reflection, though I can’t pretend the anger and frustration have gone altogether. I needed to get this off my chest and I’m sorry it’s so long – of course, no-one has to read it!

 

I’ve read threads about ‘the worst two minutes ever’ ‘worst result/performance’ and so on. It’s too early to tell just how significant that moment, and the loss that followed it will prove to be. But it felt worse than anything I’ve seen in some 55 years, and I’ll explain why in a moment. There have been other disasters too, of course, from losing FA Cup Finals to relegations to the Deeney moment. Until last night, probably the most significant loss in the last fifty years was the loss to Wycombe in the FA Cup Quarter Final. It felt bad at the time – we had the lowest-placed team left in the competition at home and were clear favourites to reach the Semi Finals. But the true significance of the Wycombe defeat revealed itself over time. We went on a losing streak to the end of that season which accurately predicted relegation the next. That spiral led, via a circuitous route that included administration and a brief season back in the Premier League, eventually to League One. It took the club over a decade to recover from ‘Wycombe at home’.

 

Am I suggesting a similar downward spiral over the next decade? Not at all. I don’t think Top would allow it! But I did feel, as it was happening, that ‘the project’ as we know it had just been dealt a potentially mortal blow.

After an hour at Bournemouth we were in complete control, with a second for us looking more likely than an equaliser for them. It looked like being a routine away win against a toothless team in the bottom three. At that point, finishing third or fourth looked realistically achievable. And with that Champions League football next season. Only Leicester outside the ‘big 6’ have qualified for the Champions League in the past 14 seasons, and we were on the brink of doing it a second time before a West Ham, an Everton or a Newcastle had done it all! Once is just that – a one-off. Twice looks suspiciously like the beginnings of a habit, that first step towards turning the ‘big 6’ into a ‘big 7’ that we hoped for after winning the league – only for disastrous recruitment and Ranieri’s tinkering to prove our undoing. Still, it was glorious while it lasted, and Schmeichel (I’ll come back to him) did more than anyone to take us to the Quarter Finals in what was his annus mirabilis for the club: rightly fans’ and players’ player of the season.

 

Dreaming then of the Champions League next season, we could with justification anticipate a serious (and necessary) spending spree: Jovic or Edouard? Bailey or Benrahma? Both?!? Lallana, obviously. Diallo or Carvalho? Demiral or Sarr? That’s not just to compete in the Champions League – a seeding in pot 4 would likely mean an exit at the group stage – but to build a squad capable of competing for a top 6 place next season. And to compete for a top 6 spot again would need that level of investment, because all the ‘big 6’ (except possibly Liverpool, who don’t need to) will be stronger next season. Man City will spend over £150M as has been widely reported. Chelsea will do similar. Man Utd are finishing very strongly and their momentum plus another couple of top level players more or less guarantees them a top 4 spot. And Arsenal and Spurs will ensure they are stronger next season, though they are the teams Leicester have to try to remain competitive with. Moreover, with CL football it’s likely that Leicester hang on to their most prized assets. With Europa League football or no European football at all, that’s a tall order.

 

So instead of a window like the one sketched out above, Europa League or worse could see just another Leicester-style window, one in which a saleable asset leaves for the big 6 (in all probability Chilwell) and one or two others (Ricardo, Maddison?) tell their agents to plan on one more year. Incomings aren’t quite at the level of your Baileys, Edouards or Jovic’s, nor are the numbers at 5 or 6. In short, we’d start next season with lowered expectations – say top 8/10, and the ‘compete in the top half, sell your best player every summer’ cycle repeats until not even a Top or a Rodgers can convince players or fans that the club is really going anywhere. In short, we might have had a summer of dreaming about the genuine prospect of establishing ourselves in the ‘big 7’, but instead it looks a whole lot less appetising in the short term, and potentially grim in the medium term. When Kasper did What Kasper Did, it might have been era defining – time will tell. But that’s why it hurt me so much that I couldn’t take in the rest of the match after What Kasper Did, nor sleep that night.

 

About our keeper – a legend, a big personality for the club and it will have hurt him more than most to have lost us that game. And he did. Not only inexplicably thumping a goal kick 13 yards onto Wilf’s back but failing to clear his head in time for their next attack such that he let in a shot that he would save 19 times out of 20. He was in the right place to save it; his head wasn’t. And that spread like wildfire through the team, instantly to Cags and then to everyone. We had lost before we kicked off at 2-1. The team’s already brittle confidence couldn’t survive What Kasper Did, and he knows it. Kasper is a top 6 keeper in terms of shot-stopping, one on ones and leadership, he’s a mid-table keeper (I'm possibly being generous here) in terms of crosses and commanding his area and unfortunately, despite pundit after pundit and manager after manager lauding his distribution, he’s bottom 6 for that. Yes, once a season he’ll provide an assist for Vardy and he does see opportunities remarkably quickly. But for all the positives it’d be wrong for us not to have a debit column for Kasper. For the goals, and opportunities against us that flow directly from his poor kicks (and it is his kicking not his throwing that’s the problem). For the shifts in momentum and confidence that his distribution causes, and for the alarm that he spreads through our defence and thence the team. He’ll remain, rightly, our number one for some time yet, but we must hope that his eventual successor has strengths where Kasper has weaknesses. Meantime, Mike Stowell’s job is obvious.

 

And that brings me finally to Brendan Rodgers. I’m aware that there are some on here and many more on Twitter who blame him for Sunday’s defeat, particularly the HT substitution. Well they may be right. But I didn’t see any real change in the pattern of the game – until WKD. Where questions must be asked though are of his leadership since December. We can see how hard it is to qualify for the CL. Being 14 points clear of 5^th with half a season to play and proceeding to play like and get results like a bottom six side since then takes some explaining.  By the way, my ‘glass half empty’ analysis acknowledges that we might still qualify for the CL, more likely the Europa League, but I really don’t see us picking up another point this season (naturally I hope I’m wrong). And that’s the final point I want to make. Rodgers sent out the wrong team to play Man City at the Etihad in the wrong formation, naively thinking we were in such a moment that we could beat them by playing our own game. Worse, he repeated the mistake on Boxing Day at home to Liverpool. The complete evisceration of our team that day was awe-inspiring. Man City beat us easily enough, but we at least looked like we were in the same league as them. Against Liverpool the gulf was embarrassing. We looked like League One or Championship against the best team on the planet. And we haven’t in my opinion recovered, mentally, from that. We have since, with odd exceptions, played like a bottom 6 side and had the results of a bottom 6 side. Rodgers and his staff have completely failed to restore confidence in six months and we should ask, why is that? Why didn’t he add experience to this young team in January? To expect them to repair the team’s confidence by Thursday when all evidence since Boxing Day points to the contrary – well, it’s doubtful isn’t it?

 

Like with Kasper, I want the manager to stay, believing that we appointed the best available man for the job. He now needs managing from above, with clear goals and targets set, appropriate resources provided, and above all else he needs luck.

 

Maybe Norwich can do us a favour?

Edited 14 July 2020 by Steve Earle
spacing

[That_Dude]

22 hours ago, Steve Earle said:

It’s more than 24 hours after Kasper did ‘What Kasper Did’, long enough to allow for mature reflection, though I can’t pretend the anger and frustration have gone altogether. I needed to get this off my chest and I’m sorry it’s so long – of course, no-one has to read it!

 

I’ve read threads about ‘the worst two minutes ever’ ‘worst result/performance’ and so on. It’s too early to tell just how significant that moment, and the loss that followed it will prove to be. But it felt worse than anything I’ve seen in some 55 years, and I’ll explain why in a moment. There have been other disasters too, of course, from losing FA Cup Finals to relegations to the Deeney moment. Until last night, probably the most significant loss in the last fifty years was the loss to Wycombe in the FA Cup Quarter Final. It felt bad at the time – we had the lowest-placed team left in the competition at home and were clear favourites to reach the Semi Finals. But the true significance of the Wycombe defeat revealed itself over time. We went on a losing streak to the end of that season which accurately predicted relegation the next. That spiral led, via a circuitous route that included administration and a brief season back in the Premier League, eventually to League One. It took the club over a decade to recover from ‘Wycombe at home’.

 

Am I suggesting a similar downward spiral over the next decade? Not at all. I don’t think Top would allow it! But I did feel, as it was happening, that ‘the project’ as we know it had just been dealt a potentially mortal blow.

After an hour at Bournemouth we were in complete control, with a second for us looking more likely than an equaliser for them. It looked like being a routine away win against a toothless team in the bottom three. At that point, finishing third or fourth looked realistically achievable. And with that Champions League football next season. Only Leicester outside the ‘big 6’ have qualified for the Champions League in the past 14 seasons, and we were on the brink of doing it a second time before a West Ham, an Everton or a Newcastle had done it all! Once is just that – a one-off. Twice looks suspiciously like the beginnings of a habit, that first step towards turning the ‘big 6’ into a ‘big 7’ that we hoped for after winning the league – only for disastrous recruitment and Ranieri’s tinkering to prove our undoing. Still, it was glorious while it lasted, and Schmeichel (I’ll come back to him) did more than anyone to take us to the Quarter Finals in what was his annus mirabilis for the club: rightly fans’ and players’ player of the season.

 

Dreaming then of the Champions League next season, we could with justification anticipate a serious (and necessary) spending spree: Jovic or Edouard? Bailey or Benrahma? Both?!? Lallana, obviously. Diallo or Carvalho? Demiral or Sarr? That’s not just to compete in the Champions League – a seeding in pot 4 would likely mean an exit at the group stage – but to build a squad capable of competing for a top 6 place next season. And to compete for a top 6 spot again would need that level of investment, because all the ‘big 6’ (except possibly Liverpool, who don’t need to) will be stronger next season. Man City will spend over £150M as has been widely reported. Chelsea will do similar. Man Utd are finishing very strongly and their momentum plus another couple of top level players more or less guarantees them a top 4 spot. And Arsenal and Spurs will ensure they are stronger next season, though they are the teams Leicester have to try to remain competitive with. Moreover, with CL football it’s likely that Leicester hang on to their most prized assets. With Europa League football or no European football at all, that’s a tall order.

 

So instead of a window like the one sketched out above, Europa League or worse could see just another Leicester-style window, one in which a saleable asset leaves for the big 6 (in all probability Chilwell) and one or two others (Ricardo, Maddison?) tell their agents to plan on one more year. Incomings aren’t quite at the level of your Baileys, Edouards or Jovic’s, nor are the numbers at 5 or 6. In short, we’d start next season with lowered expectations – say top 8/10, and the ‘compete in the top half, sell your best player every summer’ cycle repeats until not even a Top or a Rodgers can convince players or fans that the club is really going anywhere. In short, we might have had a summer of dreaming about the genuine prospect of establishing ourselves in the ‘big 7’, but instead it looks a whole lot less appetising in the short term, and potentially grim in the medium term. When Kasper did What Kasper Did, it might have been era defining – time will tell. But that’s why it hurt me so much that I couldn’t take in the rest of the match after What Kasper Did, nor sleep that night.

 

About our keeper – a legend, a big personality for the club and it will have hurt him more than most to have lost us that game. And he did. Not only inexplicably thumping a goal kick 13 yards onto Wilf’s back but failing to clear his head in time for their next attack such that he let in a shot that he would save 19 times out of 20. He was in the right place to save it; his head wasn’t. And that spread like wildfire through the team, instantly to Cags and then to everyone. We had lost before we kicked off at 2-1. The team’s already brittle confidence couldn’t survive What Kasper Did, and he knows it. Kasper is a top 6 keeper in terms of shot-stopping, one on ones and leadership, he’s a mid-table keeper (I'm possibly being generous here) in terms of crosses and commanding his area and unfortunately, despite pundit after pundit and manager after manager lauding his distribution, he’s bottom 6 for that. Yes, once a season he’ll provide an assist for Vardy and he does see opportunities remarkably quickly. But for all the positives it’d be wrong for us not to have a debit column for Kasper. For the goals, and opportunities against us that flow directly from his poor kicks (and it is his kicking not his throwing that’s the problem). For the shifts in momentum and confidence that his distribution causes, and for the alarm that he spreads through our defence and thence the team. He’ll remain, rightly, our number one for some time yet, but we must hope that his eventual successor has strengths where Kasper has weaknesses. Meantime, Mike Stowell’s job is obvious.

 

And that brings me finally to Brendan Rodgers. I’m aware that there are some on here and many more on Twitter who blame him for Sunday’s defeat, particularly the HT substitution. Well they may be right. But I didn’t see any real change in the pattern of the game – until WKD. Where questions must be asked though are of his leadership since December. We can see how hard it is to qualify for the CL. Being 14 points clear of 5^th with half a season to play and proceeding to play like and get results like a bottom six side since then takes some explaining.  By the way, my ‘glass half empty’ analysis acknowledges that we might still qualify for the CL, more likely the Europa League, but I really don’t see us picking up another point this season (naturally I hope I’m wrong). And that’s the final point I want to make. Rodgers sent out the wrong team to play Man City at the Etihad in the wrong formation, naively thinking we were in such a moment that we could beat them by playing our own game. Worse, he repeated the mistake on Boxing Day at home to Liverpool. The complete evisceration of our team that day was awe-inspiring. Man City beat us easily enough, but we at least looked like we were in the same league as them. Against Liverpool the gulf was embarrassing. We looked like League One or Championship against the best team on the planet. And we haven’t in my opinion recovered, mentally, from that. We have since, with odd exceptions, played like a bottom 6 side and had the results of a bottom 6 side. Rodgers and his staff have completely failed to restore confidence in six months and we should ask, why is that? Why didn’t he add experience to this young team in January? To expect them to repair the team’s confidence by Thursday when all evidence since Boxing Day points to the contrary – well, it’s doubtful isn’t it?

 

Like with Kasper, I want the manager to stay, believing that we appointed the best available man for the job. He now needs managing from above, with clear goals and targets set, appropriate resources provided, and above all else he needs luck.

 

Maybe Norwich can do us a favour?

They didn't, mate.

[Steve Earle]

36 minutes ago, That_Dude said:

They didn't, mate.

Nope.

 

I'm no more hopeful alas, are you?

[That_Dude]

4 minutes ago, Steve Earle said:

Nope.

 

I'm no more hopeful alas, are you?

Frankly, I don't know.

 

I've set my expectations for this season to 0. Sure, it'd be great if we somehow stay in the top 4 but what I do want to see is a reaction. From the players and the manager. I doesn't matter to me if we'd lose the last three games, it's how we'd lose them that will make a difference.

 

I don't want us to end this season with this attitude or it will cost us dearly in the next one.

[andy peake]

On 14/07/2020 at 11:59, Steve Earle said:

It’s more than 24 hours after Kasper did ‘What Kasper Did’, long enough to allow for mature reflection, though I can’t pretend the anger and frustration have gone altogether. I needed to get this off my chest and I’m sorry it’s so long – of course, no-one has to read it!

 

I’ve read threads about ‘the worst two minutes ever’ ‘worst result/performance’ and so on. It’s too early to tell just how significant that moment, and the loss that followed it will prove to be. But it felt worse than anything I’ve seen in some 55 years, and I’ll explain why in a moment. There have been other disasters too, of course, from losing FA Cup Finals to relegations to the Deeney moment. Until last night, probably the most significant loss in the last fifty years was the loss to Wycombe in the FA Cup Quarter Final. It felt bad at the time – we had the lowest-placed team left in the competition at home and were clear favourites to reach the Semi Finals. But the true significance of the Wycombe defeat revealed itself over time. We went on a losing streak to the end of that season which accurately predicted relegation the next. That spiral led, via a circuitous route that included administration and a brief season back in the Premier League, eventually to League One. It took the club over a decade to recover from ‘Wycombe at home’.

 

Am I suggesting a similar downward spiral over the next decade? Not at all. I don’t think Top would allow it! But I did feel, as it was happening, that ‘the project’ as we know it had just been dealt a potentially mortal blow.

After an hour at Bournemouth we were in complete control, with a second for us looking more likely than an equaliser for them. It looked like being a routine away win against a toothless team in the bottom three. At that point, finishing third or fourth looked realistically achievable. And with that Champions League football next season. Only Leicester outside the ‘big 6’ have qualified for the Champions League in the past 14 seasons, and we were on the brink of doing it a second time before a West Ham, an Everton or a Newcastle had done it all! Once is just that – a one-off. Twice looks suspiciously like the beginnings of a habit, that first step towards turning the ‘big 6’ into a ‘big 7’ that we hoped for after winning the league – only for disastrous recruitment and Ranieri’s tinkering to prove our undoing. Still, it was glorious while it lasted, and Schmeichel (I’ll come back to him) did more than anyone to take us to the Quarter Finals in what was his annus mirabilis for the club: rightly fans’ and players’ player of the season.

 

Dreaming then of the Champions League next season, we could with justification anticipate a serious (and necessary) spending spree: Jovic or Edouard? Bailey or Benrahma? Both?!? Lallana, obviously. Diallo or Carvalho? Demiral or Sarr? That’s not just to compete in the Champions League – a seeding in pot 4 would likely mean an exit at the group stage – but to build a squad capable of competing for a top 6 place next season. And to compete for a top 6 spot again would need that level of investment, because all the ‘big 6’ (except possibly Liverpool, who don’t need to) will be stronger next season. Man City will spend over £150M as has been widely reported. Chelsea will do similar. Man Utd are finishing very strongly and their momentum plus another couple of top level players more or less guarantees them a top 4 spot. And Arsenal and Spurs will ensure they are stronger next season, though they are the teams Leicester have to try to remain competitive with. Moreover, with CL football it’s likely that Leicester hang on to their most prized assets. With Europa League football or no European football at all, that’s a tall order.

 

So instead of a window like the one sketched out above, Europa League or worse could see just another Leicester-style window, one in which a saleable asset leaves for the big 6 (in all probability Chilwell) and one or two others (Ricardo, Maddison?) tell their agents to plan on one more year. Incomings aren’t quite at the level of your Baileys, Edouards or Jovic’s, nor are the numbers at 5 or 6. In short, we’d start next season with lowered expectations – say top 8/10, and the ‘compete in the top half, sell your best player every summer’ cycle repeats until not even a Top or a Rodgers can convince players or fans that the club is really going anywhere. In short, we might have had a summer of dreaming about the genuine prospect of establishing ourselves in the ‘big 7’, but instead it looks a whole lot less appetising in the short term, and potentially grim in the medium term. When Kasper did What Kasper Did, it might have been era defining – time will tell. But that’s why it hurt me so much that I couldn’t take in the rest of the match after What Kasper Did, nor sleep that night.

 

About our keeper – a legend, a big personality for the club and it will have hurt him more than most to have lost us that game. And he did. Not only inexplicably thumping a goal kick 13 yards onto Wilf’s back but failing to clear his head in time for their next attack such that he let in a shot that he would save 19 times out of 20. He was in the right place to save it; his head wasn’t. And that spread like wildfire through the team, instantly to Cags and then to everyone. We had lost before we kicked off at 2-1. The team’s already brittle confidence couldn’t survive What Kasper Did, and he knows it. Kasper is a top 6 keeper in terms of shot-stopping, one on ones and leadership, he’s a mid-table keeper (I'm possibly being generous here) in terms of crosses and commanding his area and unfortunately, despite pundit after pundit and manager after manager lauding his distribution, he’s bottom 6 for that. Yes, once a season he’ll provide an assist for Vardy and he does see opportunities remarkably quickly. But for all the positives it’d be wrong for us not to have a debit column for Kasper. For the goals, and opportunities against us that flow directly from his poor kicks (and it is his kicking not his throwing that’s the problem). For the shifts in momentum and confidence that his distribution causes, and for the alarm that he spreads through our defence and thence the team. He’ll remain, rightly, our number one for some time yet, but we must hope that his eventual successor has strengths where Kasper has weaknesses. Meantime, Mike Stowell’s job is obvious.

 

And that brings me finally to Brendan Rodgers. I’m aware that there are some on here and many more on Twitter who blame him for Sunday’s defeat, particularly the HT substitution. Well they may be right. But I didn’t see any real change in the pattern of the game – until WKD. Where questions must be asked though are of his leadership since December. We can see how hard it is to qualify for the CL. Being 14 points clear of 5^th with half a season to play and proceeding to play like and get results like a bottom six side since then takes some explaining.  By the way, my ‘glass half empty’ analysis acknowledges that we might still qualify for the CL, more likely the Europa League, but I really don’t see us picking up another point this season (naturally I hope I’m wrong). And that’s the final point I want to make. Rodgers sent out the wrong team to play Man City at the Etihad in the wrong formation, naively thinking we were in such a moment that we could beat them by playing our own game. Worse, he repeated the mistake on Boxing Day at home to Liverpool. The complete evisceration of our team that day was awe-inspiring. Man City beat us easily enough, but we at least looked like we were in the same league as them. Against Liverpool the gulf was embarrassing. We looked like League One or Championship against the best team on the planet. And we haven’t in my opinion recovered, mentally, from that. We have since, with odd exceptions, played like a bottom 6 side and had the results of a bottom 6 side. Rodgers and his staff have completely failed to restore confidence in six months and we should ask, why is that? Why didn’t he add experience to this young team in January? To expect them to repair the team’s confidence by Thursday when all evidence since Boxing Day points to the contrary – well, it’s doubtful isn’t it?

 

Like with Kasper, I want the manager to stay, believing that we appointed the best available man for the job. He now needs managing from above, with clear goals and targets set, appropriate resources provided, and above all else he needs luck.

 

Maybe Norwich can do us a favour?

 

3 hours ago, That_Dude said:

Frankly, I don't know.

 

I've set my expectations for this season to 0. Sure, it'd be great if we somehow stay in the top 4 but what I do want to see is a reaction. From the players and the manager. I doesn't matter to me if we'd lose the last three games, it's how we'd lose them that will make a difference.

 

I don't want us to end this season with this attitude or it will cost us dearly in the next one.

Excellent post. So true. I don’t think Rodgers should be replaced but what exactly has been going on for the last six months? I thought he was supposed to be a confidence builder. Agree this could have long term negative connotations.

[foxinsocks]

I think it was one of those things.... yet I wonder when there will be din succession planning for the next goalie

[shade]

On 13/07/2020 at 11:59, jeffschlupp said:

I think it's important to only make judgements on the character of this side once we see the reaction on Thursday.

 

A result on Thursday keeps us in it until the last day, however unlikely it may be.

 

It's been a shocking last 19 games, plus the League Cup loss. And Rodgers needs to make amends to save his job.

 

But King Power must not judge him on whether he gets CL or not now. They need to see a reaction, that the players believe in his methods in the final three games. If they don't see that then Rodgers goes and we need to appoint someone swiftly. If there is a reaction - by that I mean the quality of the performance, and the mentality rather than the results - then Rodgers deserves to carry us through into next season.

 

Claude Puel took 26 points from his final 22 games. Rodgers is on 21 from 19. In that time, both lost cup games that should have been won. Neither had big January backing. 

 

The Club will discover answers to many of its questions in the next fortnight. Where does it want to go? How does it want to get there? Who are the people that will last the course, and can be trusted to go to the trenches with them?

 

I'm no longer going into these games willing them on to win. I'm willing them to prove they care for the shirt, the supporters, a city still stuck in lockdown, and the manager that picks the side.

I agree with all of that apart from the very end. I genuinely don't care if the players care for the shirt, supporters or city, I just want them to truly care about winning and being devastated when they don't, I want them to fight, not for loyalty to the club, but because that's the type of person they are.

[fuchsntf]

On 14/07/2020 at 12:59, Steve Earle said:

It’s more than 24 hours after Kasper did ‘What Kasper Did’, long enough to allow for mature reflection, though I can’t pretend the anger and frustration have gone altogether. I needed to get this off my chest and I’m sorry it’s so long – of course, no-one has to read it!

 

I’ve read threads about ‘the worst two minutes ever’ ‘worst result/performance’ and so on. It’s too early to tell just how significant that moment, and the loss that followed it will prove to be. But it felt worse than anything I’ve seen in some 55 years, and I’ll explain why in a moment. There have been other disasters too, of course, from losing FA Cup Finals to relegations to the Deeney moment. Until last night, probably the most significant loss in the last fifty years was the loss to Wycombe in the FA Cup Quarter Final. It felt bad at the time – we had the lowest-placed team left in the competition at home and were clear favourites to reach the Semi Finals. But the true significance of the Wycombe defeat revealed itself over time. We went on a losing streak to the end of that season which accurately predicted relegation the next. That spiral led, via a circuitous route that included administration and a brief season back in the Premier League, eventually to League One. It took the club over a decade to recover from ‘Wycombe at home’.

 

Am I suggesting a similar downward spiral over the next decade? Not at all. I don’t think Top would allow it! But I did feel, as it was happening, that ‘the project’ as we know it had just been dealt a potentially mortal blow.

After an hour at Bournemouth we were in complete control, with a second for us looking more likely than an equaliser for them. It looked like being a routine away win against a toothless team in the bottom three. At that point, finishing third or fourth looked realistically achievable. And with that Champions League football next season. Only Leicester outside the ‘big 6’ have qualified for the Champions League in the past 14 seasons, and we were on the brink of doing it a second time before a West Ham, an Everton or a Newcastle had done it all! Once is just that – a one-off. Twice looks suspiciously like the beginnings of a habit, that first step towards turning the ‘big 6’ into a ‘big 7’ that we hoped for after winning the league – only for disastrous recruitment and Ranieri’s tinkering to prove our undoing. Still, it was glorious while it lasted, and Schmeichel (I’ll come back to him) did more than anyone to take us to the Quarter Finals in what was his annus mirabilis for the club: rightly fans’ and players’ player of the season.

 

Dreaming then of the Champions League next season, we could with justification anticipate a serious (and necessary) spending spree: Jovic or Edouard? Bailey or Benrahma? Both?!? Lallana, obviously. Diallo or Carvalho? Demiral or Sarr? That’s not just to compete in the Champions League – a seeding in pot 4 would likely mean an exit at the group stage – but to build a squad capable of competing for a top 6 place next season. And to compete for a top 6 spot again would need that level of investment, because all the ‘big 6’ (except possibly Liverpool, who don’t need to) will be stronger next season. Man City will spend over £150M as has been widely reported. Chelsea will do similar. Man Utd are finishing very strongly and their momentum plus another couple of top level players more or less guarantees them a top 4 spot. And Arsenal and Spurs will ensure they are stronger next season, though they are the teams Leicester have to try to remain competitive with. Moreover, with CL football it’s likely that Leicester hang on to their most prized assets. With Europa League football or no European football at all, that’s a tall order.

 

So instead of a window like the one sketched out above, Europa League or worse could see just another Leicester-style window, one in which a saleable asset leaves for the big 6 (in all probability Chilwell) and one or two others (Ricardo, Maddison?) tell their agents to plan on one more year. Incomings aren’t quite at the level of your Baileys, Edouards or Jovic’s, nor are the numbers at 5 or 6. In short, we’d start next season with lowered expectations – say top 8/10, and the ‘compete in the top half, sell your best player every summer’ cycle repeats until not even a Top or a Rodgers can convince players or fans that the club is really going anywhere. In short, we might have had a summer of dreaming about the genuine prospect of establishing ourselves in the ‘big 7’, but instead it looks a whole lot less appetising in the short term, and potentially grim in the medium term. When Kasper did What Kasper Did, it might have been era defining – time will tell. But that’s why it hurt me so much that I couldn’t take in the rest of the match after What Kasper Did, nor sleep that night.

 

About our keeper – a legend, a big personality for the club and it will have hurt him more than most to have lost us that game. And he did. Not only inexplicably thumping a goal kick 13 yards onto Wilf’s back but failing to clear his head in time for their next attack such that he let in a shot that he would save 19 times out of 20. He was in the right place to save it; his head wasn’t. And that spread like wildfire through the team, instantly to Cags and then to everyone. We had lost before we kicked off at 2-1. The team’s already brittle confidence couldn’t survive What Kasper Did, and he knows it. Kasper is a top 6 keeper in terms of shot-stopping, one on ones and leadership, he’s a mid-table keeper (I'm possibly being generous here) in terms of crosses and commanding his area and unfortunately, despite pundit after pundit and manager after manager lauding his distribution, he’s bottom 6 for that. Yes, once a season he’ll provide an assist for Vardy and he does see opportunities remarkably quickly. But for all the positives it’d be wrong for us not to have a debit column for Kasper. For the goals, and opportunities against us that flow directly from his poor kicks (and it is his kicking not his throwing that’s the problem). For the shifts in momentum and confidence that his distribution causes, and for the alarm that he spreads through our defence and thence the team. He’ll remain, rightly, our number one for some time yet, but we must hope that his eventual successor has strengths where Kasper has weaknesses. Meantime, Mike Stowell’s job is obvious.

 

And that brings me finally to Brendan Rodgers. I’m aware that there are some on here and many more on Twitter who blame him for Sunday’s defeat, particularly the HT substitution. Well they may be right. But I didn’t see any real change in the pattern of the game – until WKD. Where questions must be asked though are of his leadership since December. We can see how hard it is to qualify for the CL. Being 14 points clear of 5^th with half a season to play and proceeding to play like and get results like a bottom six side since then takes some explaining.  By the way, my ‘glass half empty’ analysis acknowledges that we might still qualify for the CL, more likely the Europa League, but I really don’t see us picking up another point this season (naturally I hope I’m wrong). And that’s the final point I want to make. Rodgers sent out the wrong team to play Man City at the Etihad in the wrong formation, naively thinking we were in such a moment that we could beat them by playing our own game. Worse, he repeated the mistake on Boxing Day at home to Liverpool. The complete evisceration of our team that day was awe-inspiring. Man City beat us easily enough, but we at least looked like we were in the same league as them. Against Liverpool the gulf was embarrassing. We looked like League One or Championship against the best team on the planet. And we haven’t in my opinion recovered, mentally, from that. We have since, with odd exceptions, played like a bottom 6 side and had the results of a bottom 6 side. Rodgers and his staff have completely failed to restore confidence in six months and we should ask, why is that? Why didn’t he add experience to this young team in January? To expect them to repair the team’s confidence by Thursday when all evidence since Boxing Day points to the contrary – well, it’s doubtful isn’t it?

 

Like with Kasper, I want the manager to stay, believing that we appointed the best available man for the job. He now needs managing from above, with clear goals and targets set, appropriate resources provided, and above all else he needs luck.

 

Maybe Norwich can do us a favour?

 Norwich didnt do us that favour.. 

 

Great post,Next to @Aus Fox  post of the month...

 

But even with only 3 games,for us to go,Chelsea next to Leicester,could still  hit problems.L'pool & Wolves still to play..!

Manutd might just waver enough to let us in....Palace/WHam/L.city,still to play.

We have it still in our hands to Finish on a high.

These 3 games is Now the test..for club, for BRodgers, for the team & squad,Plus fans positiver & encouragement.

This Time many Outsider want us to fail , all for different reasons....

What Counts now is for all Parties Leicester,to show Strength,belief,spirit & 3 individual Game discipline.spirit

From all Top 8 teams,we are wounded, hurting and a major injury list that has confirmed our lack of top cover...

 

The implosion can follow its conclusion...& Wimp the EOS

Or We all Pick ourselves up dust ourselves down, & Bloody get on with finishing this season by leaving a mark..!!

We have to go for broke..!!   It wont be about the end result.

 

Its Now about showing with commitment & fight why we were or even are competing in & for that covetted 3-5 placings.

We Should still be Professional enough to go through these games unbeaten, it is sport at the top, "The Leicester" Family

Fought hard to get to these hights,then to present &  Show their individual Skills & character,why they belong on such an high level..!!

Chelsea/Manutd/ have Youngsters that understand that..!!!

 

The Fans are not crying for  Full redemption,not crawling for Hope for the  Next seasons,but give and Show Top League fight and spirit Now..

The Performances must be there..The grind must be there all must Show they want it...If the results come then all well & good..!!!it

If we just Miss out, if we have fluffed it,accept it,!!!

but we have the right,to expect the Performance & Top of the League decision making..!! This is exactly the reason our owners shown patience

And invested more each season. We are still on the First rung,Now Take those 3 last Rungs,to prove the Investment was worth it....

 

 

 

[Steve Earle]

Thanks for the kind words @andy peake & @fuchsntf!

[mod hero]

Woke up this morning feeling fine

ive got Leicester on my mind,

Brendans got us playing, the way we shoouullldddd

 

 

Something tells me we’re into something

gooooood

 

💙🦊