Entering a 'Transition Period'?

[StanSP]

Ignore the current form and manager speculation for a bit (although that may be linked and come about at some point).

 

But in terms of players, are we about to enter one of the most important periods the club has faced? Next 12-18 months are hugely pivotal as to how we continue to compete season by season. 

 

We've got 2 players who have been here for over a decade, still first team players, potentially approaching the end of their careers (Kasper and Vardy if you've been living under a rock!). Kasper being 35, Vardy 34. Could get a couple years more out of them. Daka has been brought in to replace Vardy. We could have Iversen or Ward as the Kasper replacements. 

 

We also have Evans who we probably won't get full seasons out of anymore. There could be any time he's out for a few weeks/months due to his injury issues and this leaves us quite short at the back. The other thing being that he (and the 2 players above) are huge characters and leaders and all will be hugely missed as a presence on and off the pitch. 

 

Then there's the players who are young, developing and could go on to better things - and this is accentuated by us potentially not having European football. The two obvious ones are Fofana and Tielemans. The latter I'm totally resigned to going in summer, if not January. Fofana is destined to bigger and better things. These are two massive players that would leave gaping holes in our squad once they're gone. 

 

Next step are the likes of Ndidi (arguable in the above category too), Soyuncu, Pereira, Barnes, Castagne, Maddison, Iheanacho... The kind of level of player satisfied here and perhaps lack some consistency to be a top performer, but now they've had that taste of European football, they'll want more. And if we can't provide it, they'll bound to go searching for it. I know there's the argument about Maddison not being good enough for anyone else above us but to me he's still a decent player with a lot to show. 

 

My point being is that there's only so long our 'policy' of selling only one big player per summer is going to last. And if we don't get European football for next season, we could find ourselves in somewhat a perilous position. 

Thankfully our transfer/recruitment team have got it right more often than they've got it wrong (yes, we know about Bertrand and Vestergaard!!), so I have a decent level of trust and faith that they'll cover it. But I do wonder how many players we may see leave because the huge clubs come calling (especially for Fofana and Youri). 

 

I know it's never been dull for us as Leicester fans, and I think that may continue as the personnel change... (again, this may be influenced if/when Rodgers leaves...). 

 

(also not saying every single player mentioned above leaves, but think we need to be prepared that some of them will want to go on to bigger and better things. Things they may not be able to achieve here?).

[urban.spaceman]

Indeed,

[shailen]

For me the injuries at the start of the season has spiraled into bad form and we've lost confidence and our way a little bit. We need to get that confidence back first and then our quality will show. The way we've passed the ball in recent games clearly shows the players are petrified to make a forward pass and lose possession. 

[davieG]

8 minutes ago, shailen said:

lose possession. 

....and yet they still lose so much.

 

As for the predicted transition It's pretty inevitable let's just hope the club can see what the fans are seeing.

[CloudFox]

3 minutes ago, shailen said:

For me the injuries at the start of the season has spiraled into bad form and we've lost confidence and our way a little bit. We need to get that confidence back first and then our quality will show. The way we've passed the ball in recent games clearly shows the players are petrified to make a forward pass and lose possession. 

It's definitely this, and then media speculation has got under everyone's skin - from manager to players, fans to local media.

 

We need a reset somehow, but football doesn't really give you that these days. Ideally we'd want an international break where none of our players went on international duty to do that. But that's just not going to happen ever again due to the calibre of our players.

 

@StanSPYou're completely right - we're in a state of transition. I think some of the players going may end up being a good thing, as gut wrenching as it will be. The spine of this team (Kaspar, Evans and Vardy) are all coming towards the end of their careers, and some of the younger talents we have (Youri, Ndidi) are highly sought after. A rebuild is inevitable. Thankfully Rudders seems to be on it with bringing in Fofana and Daka, but both are young. I think we need another (younger) semi-veteran to come in with fresh perspective. Evans was that, but his injury (and now age) are hampering that. Tarkowski would have been perfect, but that's not an option any more.

 

Basically we need an Albrighton-esque steady Eddie in the form of a CB or CM, I think. That would help the transition.

[StriderHiryu]

We shouldn’t be, but looks likely we are. Right now it looks like at season end we lose Rodgers, Tielemans and probably Ricardo so that will be quite the massive overhaul. But to be fair to Rudkin we’ve got ready made replacements for all of those positions. Whilst we are massively underperforming, the squad on paper is great and the Daka signing takes the fear out of losing Vardy. 
 

The most important appointment will be the new manager. Rodgers probably stays till the end of the season but writing looks to be on the wall to me. 

[Guest Kopfkino]

When people were banging on about becoming one of the big boys last year. I winced a lot because there’s every chance we could go on to be another Southampton. We’ve managed one transition well, can we do it again? Keep signing Southampton’s shite and adding bloat then probably not.

 

Already a significant issue that we’re not going to extract max value out of Tielemans,

Edited 21 November 2021 by Kopfkino

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

Is it transitional, suggesting something big, or is more of a refresh. I would argue the latter given all the young talent we have who will become the fulcrum of the side. Or maybe it’s just semantics.

 

All this reminds me of the post title winning period, when we really struggled to adapt to whatever we were expected to be after. Now we’ve had some success… now what? 
 

I have said in other threads that I’m not wholly convinced Rodgers is the man or has the ideas for the next phase. Maybe the grass isn’t always greener, but can anyone point out when has he been a club more than 3 full seasons to really put his own stamp on things? When he had success at Liverpool - ie nearly winning the league - it all unraveled shortly after. Is that happening here? It seems to me he’s a step up from Puel in terms of development, and he improved what he inherited - and he has a track record of that. I’m just a little unsure he can put his own team together and for it to work.

[Guest Col city fan]

Nah. Football clubs are always in a state of transition

The single main reason for us conceding so many goals this season imo was that terrible terrible challenge on little Wes

It wasn’t a tackle, it was GBH

And it’s affecting us immensely 

[Vacamion]

45 minutes ago, shailen said:

For me the injuries at the start of the season has spiraled into bad form and we've lost confidence and our way a little bit. We need to get that confidence back first and then our quality will show. The way we've passed the ball in recent games clearly shows the players are petrified to make a forward pass and lose possession. 

 

The free kick yesterday which ended up back with Kasper, then out for a corner, then a concession, was a good example of the fear they have just now.

 

We need our mojo back.

[filbertway]

I think every 2 or 3 seasons its healthy to have a bit of an overhaul. Im quite happy with the succession planning for Vards and Kasper tbh. Slightly concerned at the number of players currently expected to be out of contract in 2023 though.

 

We need to get better at shifting dead wood though, most teams seem to be able to get a decent price for their cast offs yet we rarely seem to be able to manage it.

 

Big couple of seasons in terms of the squad and I'd prefer that Rodgers and congerton were absolutely nowhere near the decision making

[weller54]

7 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Nah. Football clubs are always in a state of transition

The single main reason for us conceding so many goals this season imo was that terrible terrible challenge on little Wes

It wasn’t a tackle, it was GBH

And it’s affecting us immensely 

He's a big miss ..

But....

We looked pretty poor at times when he was playing!

Don't think you can blame the recent performances on Fofana not being available.  We've been on this crap football treadmill for a long while, admittedly losing Wes has accentuated it even further , but right now even if he was playing I don't think we'd be that much better. The rot goes far deeper than just one missing player.

[Spudulike]

Bad timing for a transition on the pitch. If something disastrous happens then it could potentially affect the infrastructure upgrades and set us back years. We have a history of this remembering the move to Freeman's Wharf almost killed the club and even back to the 1930's when a new double-decker was to be built. Different times and all that and prefer not to think about it too deeply but, you know.... 

[Spudulike]

14 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

Nah. Football clubs are always in a state of transition

The single main reason for us conceding so many goals this season imo was that terrible terrible challenge on little Wes

It wasn’t a tackle, it was GBH

And it’s affecting us immensely 

It wasn't just 'that' tackle either. His hamstring injury during the last match against Tottenham ultimately cost us a UCL qualification. 

[Mr Weller]

It’s analogous to the post title season in that the problem of where next has entered the thinking of many players and probably the manager. Tactics, injuries and form affect individual matches but it goes beyond that.

 

Perhaps if Rodgers went to Man Utd or was close to it before saying very clearly that he wasn’t interested that would reset the mood. A few more marquee performances like the one against Utd might also do it but probably it’ll take 2-3 big signings. 
 

Eventually a belief we can qualify for the CL and compete for silverware regularly will galvanise the club but whether that’s under Rodgers or not is difficult to say.

 

It’s obvious yesterday was symptomatic of a deeper malaise.

[lifted*fox]

i wish someone would reinstate a sports psychologist as a priority. 

 

we look mentally weak from top to bottom. they could all do with a sit down and a talk by the looks of things, rodgers included. 

[Webbo]

This policy of only selling 1 big player a season isn't really realistic. Its quite possible we could lose 2 or 3 closed season and there's little we can do about it. 

 

We might lose the manager before Christmas, who knows? 

 

All this would mean a lot of money to spend but a necessity to spend it and spend it well. We might luck out and find a better manager and better players but it could easily go the other way. 

[BKLFox]

8 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

The free kick yesterday which ended up back with Kasper, then out for a corner, then a concession, was a good example of the fear they have just now.

 

We need our mojo back.

If we take that 1 example of multiple within any given game does anyone truly believe that’s what Rodgers has told them to do or they are so scared of Rodgers that he has some how instilled this fear of do something wrong & I’ll come down so hard on you etc 

They can’t be scared of Rodgers because this thread is littered with the fear of the coach isn’t there, they have got to comfortable with him etc  unlike a manager like Klopp or Tuchel so do people then believe he is coaching them to do that then?

He is no way perfect but once over that line the players have to step up and manage what’s in front of them they can’t be drilled in every single scenario, collectively they have to work it out and individually they have to work out and win their individual battles, for instance why didn’t Marc realise that if he touched Chilwell with any force he would go down, he didn’t and continued to let him frustrate him and kept going through him, why doesn’t Cags realise that he 9/10 times recently will get spun when he races out to intercept and be left in no man’s land.

Rodgers has his faults but everything seems to be aimed at him currently, I bet he has identified this and spoken with the players but if the players don’t do it for themselves he’s kinda tied no?

 

 

[CloudFox]

1 minute ago, lifted*fox said:

i wish someone would reinstate a sports psychologist as a priority. 

 

we look mentally weak from top to bottom. they could all do with a sit down and a talk by the looks of things, rodgers included. 

Apparently we do have a sports psychologist again...but they must be job sharing as our set piece coach, so they're a bit stretched 😉

[Ross 'LCFC' Turner]

Almost feels like the end of a massive “what could of been” era. 2 seasons in a row we looked destined to finish in the top 4 but we’ve been crippled by the COVID break & injuries. 
 

These last couple of seasons we’ve arguably had our most talented group of players but we’ve just not been able to get them all on the pitch together to see what we could of achieved and where we could of gone. 
 

Players are now starting to run down their contracts, our older, more experienced pros are getting older, our manager is on the ropes and our big talents will be off.

 

Just feels like we’ll always look back at this period (whilst it has still been successful) but always wonder “what could of been”. 

[Matt]

Transitioning to what exactly? I thought we were in transition - That's the excuse that has been made for the past 4 or 5 years

 

So we were "worked out" after our title winning season of which we immediately ripped up and went for this tippy tappy, dreary, negative style, that's by the by, we've had that discussion of "it's not sustainable" e.t.c, that's a separate debate however you claim we've been "worked out", again, despite 90% of teams playing this godawful style, you also mention we're "transitioning" in a previous post - We seem to have been "transitioning" for the past 4 maybe 5 seasons and in terms of play, excitment, we're no further forward since the day we started it as far as i'm concerned.

 

Why does it seem we always get "worked out" or "found out"? No other teams seem to. Certainly no where near as easy as we seem to anyway.

 

How can a team "transition" for so long but just keep treading water in terms of play?

 

These just seem like buzzwords bordering on cliches.

 

You're quite correct, he cannot play matches for his team, sometimes players have to take some responsibility, however, he can can look at what players he's got, look at their strengths and play to those strengths, adapting game by game. He hasn't, He doesn't.

 

It's something I can't get behind i'm afraid, lacking alot of enthusiasm and appetite for it, we're literally going round in circles via sideways and backwards.

 

The sooner football changes the better.

 

Edited 21 November 2021 by Matt

[CosbehFox]

Absolutely. Football works in cycles. I’ve said it before it generally works in 3 to 4 year periods. Famous Guttman quote I believe.
 

Happens to every professional team going. It’s normally player turnover or managerial change what freshens it up. You look at say Spurs who have stagnated with it. Pep and Mourinho commonly suffer with it. 

Edited 21 November 2021 by Cardiff_Fox

[CosbehFox]

24 minutes ago, lifted*fox said:

i wish someone would reinstate a sports psychologist as a priority. 

 

we look mentally weak from top to bottom. they could all do with a sit down and a talk by the looks of things, rodgers included. 

There’s been one at the club ever since Ranieri left. Just not publicised in the same way the bloke who worked with Pearson did. Normally they are freelance, come in a couple of days a week if needed 

Edited 21 November 2021 by Cardiff_Fox

[StanSP]

1 minute ago, Matt said:

Transitioning to what exactly? I thought we were in transition - That's the excuse that has been made for the past 4 or 5 years

Not the excuse I've heard for so long? 

 

Last 2 seasons where we finished 5th it appears we had reached a level. I don't remember seeing such an 'excuse'? 

 

I think you know full well what I mean when I say we could be entering one because of all the player/personnel change. If you can't glean that from my post I think you are just being facetious. 

 

3 minutes ago, Matt said:

Why does it seem we always get "worked out" or "found out"? No other teams seem to. Certainly no where near as easy as we seem to anyway.

 

Other teams definitely do. We aren't the first. We definitely won't be last. A team can get found out and at that point, it's when the manager and players take responsibility for finding different ideas and creativity and think of something new. We appear to have tried too hard in doing that and are now suffering. We've not found the right solution yet. 

 

You seem to have mistaken transition as a cliché even though the points I've raised don't relate to what you have made transition out to be. 

 

I don't buy that we've been in transition for the past 4 or 5 seasons hence my question that we could be entering one... 

[North Leeds Fox]

It is definitely going to be a year of transition as it stands. With youri, cags and ricardo not signing any new contracts, it feels like they will be off which will require a bit of an overhaul of the squad along with the likes of mendy, hamza and perez. It would be good to get a firm formation in place and just get a bit of consistency. 

 

It looks rough now and cant see it turning around any time soon where we get back to our best form but we could also use the rest of the season to:

- blood daka slowly into the league

- give soumare the chance to adapt as he looks like he needs time. 

- give Thomas a run of games to step up

- give kdh a run of games to step up

- get barnes back to his best

 

A transition season allows a few more players are ready for next season who are just not quite ready yet. 

Edited 21 November 2021 by North Leeds Fox