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jim5000

Would Rodgers have won the league in 2015/16?

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This thread is in no way intended to slight Rodgers or the progress the club is making, but just aimed at stimulating some interesting conversation.

 

In 2015/16, Ranieri inherited a squad which he had little opportunity to change, came in with a catesrophic record having recently managed the Greek national team, we had arguably lost our greatest ever midfield player (Cambiasso), yet Ranieri  identified the best way for for the team to play and took relegation canididates to an unprecedented league title in a single season. It all turned sour the following season, but 201/16 will live on in the memories of City fans for the next 80 years, and we may yet top it!

 

If in a different timeline, we had appointed Rodgers, would we still have won the league that season?

 

Also, does this even matter? The fact we are looking at Man Utd as our 'bogey team' on Boxing day shows how far we have come as club in the past decade and the amazing management behind the scenes.

 

:scarf:

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Interesting. It was a miracle and all stars had the be aligned. Ranieri coming after Pearson was one of them. He didn’t come with any expectation so he could let the team play in the way they liked more - still heavily Pearson influenced with the coaching staff remaining the same.  The players could play in the way they were best at and were not asked to do too much re-training from round into square pegs etc. They could just express themselves. Simpson for example could just do what he does best - defending without having to also try to learn to play possession football. We had Mahrez who was a rare gem but did not track back much, so they were a great combination on the right. Ranieri had simply used the pieces he had and tried to put the best combination together and told them to play in the way they liked.

 

Rodgers is too smart and like the team to change to play his way. Unfortunately it takes time and it means round pegs trying to fit through square holes too often. Plus we did not have the players for what he wanted. We would therefore just have a team that tried to play like Man City but we don’t have the quality to do that. In fact, if Rodgers tried to play like that, we could have been relegated and he would not have felt that it was his fault (at least this is how he would defend himself) because to him the players did not understand how he liked them to play.

 

So no, we would not have won with Rodgers in 2015/16.

Edited by Tom12345
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32 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

This thread is in no way intended to slight Rodgers or the progress the club is making, but just aimed at stimulating some interesting conversation.

 

In 2015/16, Ranieri inherited a squad which he had little opportunity to change, came in with a catesrophic record having recently managed the Greek national team, we had arguably lost our greatest ever midfield player (Cambiasso), yet Ranieri  identified the best way for for the team to play and took relegation canididates to an unprecedented league title in a single season. It all turned sour the following season, but 201/16 will live on in the memories of City fans for the next 80 years, and we may yet top it!

 

If in a different timeline, we had appointed Rodgers, would we still have won the league that season?

 

Also, does this even matter? The fact we are looking at Man Utd as our 'bogey team' on Boxing day shows how far we have come as club in the past decade and the amazing management behind the scenes.

 

:scarf:

I mean he was decent, but in terms of what he actually did for us this comment is way over the top. 
Not sure he’d make the top 10 if it is based on what he did in a Leicester shirt.

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3 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

No other manager, no other group of players, no other club would have done what we did in 16/17.

It was a moment.
 

This! Everything combined in one magical unforgettable year. 
Change one small thing and the miracle doesn’t happen.

Brendan is working on the sequel as we speak.

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No. It became a very well-balanced team (once Claudio realised Kante was not a winger!) and picked itself for three-quarters of the season. But credit to Claudio for finding the blend that he wanted - replacing De Laet with Simpson, Ulloa with Vardy, and preferring Kante over Inler. Claudio also taught a team that had actually played very well in 14/15 despite being bottom for most of that season how to close out games. 1-0 became enough for us (we had a series of them in the middle of the season). 
 

i think we found a unique blend that worked well on the pitch, suited the manager’s style and also his personality, so the whole thing came together. As others have said, you change any of those elements and we’d have had a fair to middling year. It’s probably the same for most teams that win the league except maybe the 80s Liverpool or 90s Man Utd teams that felt so far ahead they could have won with anyone in charge. Even then, change the manager and it can go quickly wrong. 

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1 hour ago, jim5000 said:

This thread is in no way intended to slight Rodgers or the progress the club is making, but just aimed at stimulating some interesting conversation.

 

In 2015/16, Ranieri inherited a squad which he had little opportunity to change, came in with a catesrophic record having recently managed the Greek national team, we had arguably lost our greatest ever midfield player (Cambiasso), yet Ranieri  identified the best way for for the team to play and took relegation canididates to an unprecedented league title in a single season. It all turned sour the following season, but 201/16 will live on in the memories of City fans for the next 80 years, and we may yet top it!

 

If in a different timeline, we had appointed Rodgers, would we still have won the league that season?

 

Also, does this even matter? The fact we are looking at Man Utd as our 'bogey team' on Boxing day shows how far we have come as club in the past decade and the amazing management behind the scenes.

 

:scarf:

Rodgers wouldn't have joined a newly promoted club at that time. Took a club(Liverpool) that finished 8th to finishes of 7th 2nd and 6th consecutively and a LMA manager of the year award for 13/14. Step down in my opinion. Leicester City would have had to have been the project that he ultimately came for in 2019.

Leicester wasn't and they were promoted and then won the League. When the stars align its sometimes better to appreciate than analyze.

 

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No. 

 

He doesn't have a preference for the way we played that year, by his own admission the counter attacking football we've played this season is contradictory to his nature. 

 

I also don't think he'd have been able to resist the urge of trying to tinker throughout the year, to over think and to mess with things. 

 

Ranieri was perfect because he was almost stubbornly determined to disprove his nickname. 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Exactly. It's pointless (but harmless I admit) to speculate. We won't ever know.

I occasonally start to wonder what would've happened if McAuley's header had gone in against Stoke on the last day of 2007-08, and we hadn't been relegated to the 3rd Division.

 

It starts with ... we would've kept Ian Holloway.   At which point, I stop and wipe the sweat away from my forehead.

 

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39 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

Don't you think Pearson would have?

no, i love what he did for us and he built that squad....but i doubt he would have brought us that amazing year. His style was worlds apart from the title winning team

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