Central midfield concerns

[Dahnsouff]

1 minute ago, lcfceaves said:

Short but sweet… this isn’t just the players, this is the manager. There is no organisation all over the pitch. 
When people just criticise the defenders for goals conceded, its does my head in, we do not defend well as a team. 

 

Whoever plays in midfield seem to be told to press with the strikers, N’Didi is sometimes so high up, there is a gap big enough for 2 or 3 buses to pass through… everyone needs to press or don’t do it at all. 
 

What I’d like to see is N’Didi just being a screen in front of the back 4 again, whether we play a diamond or 4141 etc. That is what he’s good at, that’s all he should do. 
 

Manager is so stubborn I doubt it’ll change will result him getting the sack anyway, but my point is we have been leaking goals for a while, not just this season. So it doesn’t really matter who plays. 

I don`t think it can be just the manager or just the players, this is a collective problem, so there is no single switch to flick to fix it unfortunately.

[foxinsocks]

Kdh is the future... stick with him.

[foxinsocks]

Right now ndidi is key.. there is no alternative 

[Stadt]

I've never known people be so certain about a player after 438 minutes playing time before. We've not seen much of KDH in a Leicester shirt yet and so many people have made their minds up  

[Stadt]

14 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

I don`t think it can be just the manager or just the players, this is a collective problem, so there is no single switch to flick to fix it unfortunately.

Well there is, but it'll cost us about £30m in compensation

[Dahnsouff]

Just now, Stadt said:

Well there is, but it'll cost us about £30m in compensation

Get the crowdfunding underway then would be my contribution

[reynard]

I do think the midfield is a problem. Even with Tielemans in the side we seem to be too easily brushed aside and teams just play through us.

Problem is we can't afford/haven't tried to have a decent back up to Tielemans. Thus he's had to play virtually every game. He's so key to all we do. Pretty much single handed won us the FA Cup with one of the best individual performances I've ever seen from a Leicester player.

Without him, going forwards we are half the team we can be.

I don't think Wilf has been the same since he got that nasty injury to his thigh muscle(?) a while back. He's better than he's showing right now. 

Maddison is a very good player but a bit lightweight at times. Can be awful just as often as brilliant. We need him to be more consistent.

 

As for the rest I'm afraid they are either not good enough or too inexperienced. Thus we're carrying far too many passengers in a crucial area of the pitch. Soumare doesn't look like he will ever be of the required standard for the Premier League. Yes he's got some skills but he isn't quick enough either in the mind or physically. I expected better.

The fact we have Hamza< a player of bang average ability but decent heart, on the bench sums up our lack in strength in depth TBH.

Frankly this is the area of the pitch I would have liked us to sign someone with more experience of the league and with a bit of bite about his play. e lack, badly, game nous, that bit of physical presence that can help when you're struggling.

We're far too nice at time.

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

I don`t think it can be just the manager or just the players, this is a collective problem, so there is no single switch to flick to fix it unfortunately.

...the big problem for all to see is Wilf being utilised in the way he is and his complete lack of form!!!

  Sort that problem out first of all.

We do not press fully and our counter press has gone.

Rodgers vision doesn't work with this personnel, go back to the way we used to play and get the players he wants next summer. We cannot afford to sack him, we will have to have someone desperate for his services in order to break this impasse.

[lcfc old boy]

1 hour ago, Stadt said:

I've never known people be so certain about a player after 438 minutes playing time before. We've not seen much of KDH in a Leicester shirt yet and so many people have made their minds up  

so true

[Guest Col city fan]

The midfield wasn’t a problem.

We have Tielemans who we all know can go missing in games, but when he’s on it, he’s really on it

Wilf was being considered at the best in his position in the division and Maddison was on the verge of being an England regular 

18 months ago, we did have one of the best midfields in the country

But this is what worries me about Rodgers…

Like Soyuncu, Wilf and Madders seem to have gone BACKWARDS. Maddison might be regaining some form but let’s be honest, for the last year he’s been pants!

Ndidi also looks a shadow of his former self

Rodgers genuinely looks to have taken a top class midfield and, whether it’s about how we set up, or lack of confidence or whatever, he’s made them regress.

Our midfield was never a problem over the past season or three. Now it is…

Add 2 plus 2 and you get four, I’m afraid 

[turlo]

3 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...the big problem for all to see is Wilf being utilised in the way he is and his complete lack of form!!!

  Sort that problem out first of all.

We do not press fully and our counter press has gone.

Rodgers vision doesn't work with this personnel, go back to the way we used to play and get the players he wants next summer. We cannot afford to sack him, we will have to have someone desperate for his services in order to break this impasse.

I wonder why Rodgers has changed the way we play when it worked so well for long periods in his first two seasons here? 

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, turlo said:

I wonder why Rodgers has changed the way we play when it worked so well for long periods in his first two seasons here? 

.... some managers have a set idea of how they wish to play...!!!

Rodgers is obviously attempting to turn around the way we play and we seem to be in the midst of his transition in the way we play. He sees his current players in a way that he thinks they can change how they play, the difficulty is that they can't change how they play and Rodgers will have to bring in players who can play the way he wants.

  His use of Wilf has undermined the team, if there was a player we need to rely on and have him continue to do what he does best it is Wilf. Other things will flow from that and being pushed to support the attack is not where he needs to be or should be.

  Rodgers needs to sit down with Top, tell him what his plans are and how he envisages that coming to fruition. If he needs to break this team down and rebuild then he needs to get in the personnel to do that, we are not going to know his plans, but if we look at the players he brings in from now on, we should get a good idea of which direction this club is going. 

[Sampson]

13 hours ago, honeybradger said:

Jorginho and kovacic ffs. They were average before tuchel and jorginho has been making plenty of mistakes recently. Tielemans and ndidi ability wise are at least on their level, it's our system that is causing us to get overrun.

I mean Kovacic won Chelsea's player of the season award in 2019-20 so he obviously wasn't "average" before Tuchel came in,

Tielemans and Ndidi are great players on their day no doubt, but they are quite obviously not on the same level of any of Kante, Kovacic or Jorginho. I think if you asked almost any non-Leicester fan they would tell you that.

[Angus Scott]

Just ask yourselves, would any of our players be a regular starter for Chelsea, Liverpool or Man City, the 3 teams that are miles ahead of any others in the Premier.

 

Answer - No.  

[Supergray22]

At many times during last season people were saying that some of our players would get into the starting eleven of top teams.  The current malaise is an unfortunate combination of form injuries and tactics working against us. 

[Deeg67]

On 07/12/2021 at 02:37, Finnegan said:

We've got probably the best central midfield squad in the league on paper. 

 

Toilet paper?

[volpeazzurro]

12 hours ago, Col city fan said:

The midfield wasn’t a problem.

We have Tielemans who we all know can go missing in games, but when he’s on it, he’s really on it

Wilf was being considered at the best in his position in the division and Maddison was on the verge of being an England regular 

18 months ago, we did have one of the best midfields in the country

But this is what worries me about Rodgers…

Like Soyuncu, Wilf and Madders seem to have gone BACKWARDS. Maddison might be regaining some form but let’s be honest, for the last year he’s been pants!

Ndidi also looks a shadow of his former self

Rodgers genuinely looks to have taken a top class midfield and, whether it’s about how we set up, or lack of confidence or whatever, he’s made them regress.

Our midfield was never a problem over the past season or three. Now it is…

Add 2 plus 2 and you get four, I’m afraid 

Well put together. It's food for thought which I think sadly is true. We had a very talented squad of players when he arrived which has been added to. The longer he digs his claws into them, the further we regress.

[hejammy]

It's all gone a bit quiet with Youri, is it a case of 'he's injured' and then he's off in Jan? 

[funkyrobot]

On 06/12/2021 at 17:37, Finnegan said:

KDH and Soumaré have shown enough in the glimpses they've had already this year to show Praet would have very little to offer us. Especially given he's defensively shit. 

 

We've got probably the best central midfield squad in the league on paper. 

 

The problem isn't the personnel it's the whole organisation as a team which all comes back to the coaching. 

 

Still can’t get my head round this belief. We are actually weaker in central midfield than last season, having replaced two experienced international players in Praet and Mendy with two inexperienced newcomers in Soumare and KDH.
 

We are miles off having the best central midfield team on paper and in reality. We have one player we are heavily reliant on who can clearly cut it at a higher level in Tielemans. Then we have Ndidi who has some outstanding attributes but that is balanced with his relatively poor passing and shooting so I’d say he’s at the right level with us. The rest are either unproven at Premier league level and in Choudhury’s case pretty obviously a Championship level player. 

[kiwiturk]

We don't have a central midfield problem.

We have a defensive midfielder problem. 

Soumare is not it, Wilf is not his best at the moment. 

We're simply experiencing massive issues covering the area between defense and midfield that's why our defenders facing constant pressures week in week out.

BR needs to reconsider both Mendy and Hamza in the mix.

Edited 8 December 2021 by kiwiturk