Rodgers opens up on Leicester City transfer struggles but 'won't go to war' with club

[ClaphamFox]

It’s getting to the stage where we should just leave Perez, Vestergaard, Soyuncu et al outside Seagrave with an honesty box and hope for the best. 

[thesilverbluefox]

Just can't see us not having a bucket load of injuries as per normal and not enough strength in depth of a similar quality of player to step up, we have a great squad now but only if their performances stay consistently good and stay injury free for as long as possible both of which I can't see happening. 

[Scotch]

2 minutes ago, Nick said:

I see the logic, but a formation which excludes Barnes and his scoring potential doesn't sit right with me.

We are always going to lose something. There isn't a system that fits our squad 100%. Wether it's pushing Maddison wide right or as an #8 to fit a 433, we are either going to lose his creativity centrally or he will be replacing KDH who brings athleticism to the midfield. I'd trade Maddison in his best position for Barnes on the pitch personally but do understand your point. 

[1972 Fox]

1 hour ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

Weve approached this summer in a very naive manner.

 

Even top was saying we'd be trading players. No one at he club seems to realise we're paying several players far more than we should be.

If they didn't realise it a few months ago, they almost certainly do now.

[Foxdiamond]

11 hours ago, Babylon said:

I’ll say it again, no they’ve just signed players. Proof is in the pudding. 

I tend to agree. Nobody can tell if new players will gel into the team. I suppose the Man City and Liverpools  can be confident of getting top class proven stars but still no guarantee. Perhaps we get carried away by the prospect of the shiny new signing.  Hopefully we can have fewer serious injuries and use the lack of European games to our advantage. This is where the manager will prove his mettle or not

[JimmyC74]

14 minutes ago, Scotch said:

Ok, so Brendan has laid it out. We won't be making many signings, if any at all. Fine. Its crap but it is what it is and he now needs to get on with it. 

 

What he needs to do now (and I'm not suggesting that he hasn't already) is focus on finding a system that fits our current squad/a way of playing that the team buy in to and drilling it into them. We're always going to have a player or two playing in a position they aren't completely comfortable with, its just minimising that and getting them as comfortable as possible. 

 

My personal opinion is the diamond. I think it suits who we have at the minute, the most.... It only plays with 2 CBs which is good because we only have 2 good ones. It makes use of our Fullbacks were I think we are strong. It puts Wilf in his strongest position with Mendy a decent back up. Similarly, it puts Maddison in his preferred position at 10 with Perez being most comfortable there when needed. It plays to the strength of Daka and Nacho who are both better in a 2. If Youri stays, we have a strong CM partnership with him and KDH, Praet is a good deputy if we can convince him of the role and between Soumare, Hamza and our promising youngsters... we should be able to find another squad player. 

The only first teamer it doesn't suit is Barnes who will maybe have to work at filling in as a striker, maybe as a Vardy sub with Daka and Nacho competing for the other spot. 

Agree he needs to focus on creating a system that  helps us perform to the best of our potential.

 

I think he is unlikely to go with the diamond as there would be too much pressure / risk of overloads on the full backs and he doesn’t seem to favour two upfront.

 

i suspect he will settle on a double pivot 4231 or 4411 which includes Barnes but has the long term problem of the right winger.

[An Away Move]

1 hour ago, Old Fox said:

This lack of accountability and taking responsibility is the difference for me between him being a good manager and an elite one!!

Exactly. An elite manager shoulders responsibility and protects the squad and the individuals in it. And players respect that. Mourinho does the opposite and the environment becomes toxic quickly. Rodgers is nearer the Mourinho end of the spectrum. Not as bad, but saying we have players who don’t have the quality they think they have and saying we as a team didn’t have a winners mentality until he arrived is fantasy. It irritated many of us. It must have irritated the squad too. It certainly won’t get them playing out of their skin for him. 

Edited 17 July 2022 by An Away Move

[Guppys Love Child]

My biggest gripe is Brendan's adoption of the sideways and backwards passing, and keep the possesion at all costs.  Possession to a degree is fine if you do something with it. There were far to many games last season where we just minced about with it between the 18 Yd box and centre circle.  Brendans aggressive, high pressing, high intensity football he claims to want is none existant.  All his pragmatic, defensive style does is allow the opposition time to regroup and also invite pressure i.e Spurs to name but one stand out game. 

 

[Always Next Year]

15 minutes ago, Guppys Love Child said:

My biggest gripe is Brendan's adoption of the sideways and backwards passing, and keep the possesion at all costs.  Possession to a degree is fine if you do something with it. There were far to many games last season where we just minced about with it between the 18 Yd box and centre circle.  Brendans aggressive, high pressing, high intensity football he claims to want is none existant.  All his pragmatic, defensive style does is allow the opposition time to regroup and also invite pressure i.e Spurs to name but one stand out game. 

 

Just get rid of him.

[oxtonfox]

15 hours ago, filthyfox said:

So... we will be lucky to be top 10 this year then. 

Brendan expectation management. You can see it now “We had no money for refresh so to finish 10th is a great achievement by this squad.” Not mentioning that he’s the 5th highest paid manager in the league. 

[justfoxes]

If we can just shore up the defence stop making comical errors at the back with set pieces the squad we have with the addition of a few lads from the Academy, an injury free season I honestly think we have a pretty decent squad.

 

Get Daka scoring like Vardy of old Keep Praet sort the Youri situation out if no one comes in get him to sign an extension for another year to stop him leaving for free, Maddison looks like he’s going to be our gem next season his foresight for Daka’s goal at OHL was top Bollox, and BR a getting us firing on all cylinders finally finding a formation that we can be quality at Toure sorting out the defence who knows a top 5 finish next season ???

 

 

Edited 17 July 2022 by justfoxes

[coolhandfox]

Keep our best players fit we will have a good season.

 

 

[TheUltimateWinner]

Thinking back to our championship title winning season, don’t think we made hardly any summer transfers?

 

Instead of moaning Pearson went about making a system work which would suit the squad… we played 3-5-2 all pre season I believe? Even the first couple of games? Then dropped it when he realised that wasn’t our best formation.

 

Point being, instead of moaning, a good manager adapts to the tools he has available.

 

Brendans arrogance to continue his failing systems and flaws in the way we play, coupled with this moaning in the press really makes me feel uneasy for the season ahead. 

[Finnegan]

16 hours ago, davieG said:

It's the same squad as last year less Lookman and no Europe games so there's no reason why we can't match 8th or better especially if we have less injuries. 

 

More than that, Ben Chilwell is the only member of the starting 11 that took us second at Christmas that's missing and we've probably improved on him. 

 

Vardy and Evans are a few years older sure and that's a negative but then so are guys like Madders, Tielemans, Ndidi, Barnes and Co and that's a lot of learning and development. 

 

The best eleven we can put out, on its day, is still pretty excellent. It's really just a Barnes quality right winger away from being probably the fourth or fifth best eleven on paper in the league. 

[StanSP]

1 hour ago, Scotch said:

Ok, so Brendan has laid it out. We won't be making many signings, if any at all.

He's literally not said that. 

[Royston.]

16 hours ago, davieG said:

It's the same squad as last year less Lookman and no Europe games so there's no reason why we can't match 8th or better especially if we have less injuries. 

People forget that we have a pampered weakminded squad who get bullied easily and use tactics that make us easy to play against and are worse at defending corners than the average pub team.

[davieG]

7 minutes ago, Royston. said:

People forget that we have a pampered weakminded squad who get bullied easily and use tactics that make us easy to play against and are worse at defending corners than the average pub team.

But still finished 8th and done with many players missing for long periods, Most of those can be eradicated with the correct training and motivation.

 

It obviously depends on luck, injuries and how good the management / coaching is. 

 

Rodgers and his team have managed that before, can they do it again? Who knows but there's not reason why not.

 

Even one new player can make a big difference.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, An Away Move said:

Exactly. An elite manager shoulders responsibility and protects the squad and the individuals in it. And players respect that. Mourinho does the opposite and the environment becomes toxic quickly. Rodgers is nearer the Mourinho end of the spectrum. Not as bad, but saying we have players who don’t have the quality they think they have and saying we as a team didn’t have a winners mentality until he arrived is fantasy. It irritated many of us. It must have irritated the squad too. It certainly won’t get them playing out of their skin for him. 

Just been pummelled by Forest. He was absolutely right in what he said, the best players have consistency. Very few of our players have ever shown that, and need to realise they haven’t made it.

 

As for the second part, did he actually even say that. I’d love to see the quote for context, as when people normally post this stuff it’s not what has been said at all. 
 

There is plenty to moan about with him, but we’ve about reached peak Puel again where people are finding things that aren’t even there to bash him with. 

[Royston.]

11 minutes ago, davieG said:

But still finished 8th and done with many players missing for long periods, Most of those can be eradicated with the correct training and motivation.

 

It obviously depends on luck, injuries and how good the management / coaching is. 

 

Rodgers and his team have managed that before, can they do it again? Who knows but there's not reason why not.

 

Even one new player can make a big difference.

Everyone else has strengthened and we stand still.

We don't even have an inconsistent Lookman anymore.

We will be more of a target than we were last season.

 

I don't want to be right but I am

[Chelmofox]

13 minutes ago, Royston. said:

Everyone else has strengthened and we stand still.

We don't even have an inconsistent Lookman anymore.

We will be more of a target than we were last season.

 

I don't want to be right but I am

 

No they haven't. Every other club has been active but you won''t be able to tell if they are stronger until you see the signings in action. I don't see how Leeds, who lost Phillips and Raphinha, can be consider 'strengthened' with who they have signed.. 

[copunk]

As much as I will back Brendan I genuinely believe this statement is himself getting his ducks in order, if all goes to pot within the first few months and we are in trouble he can go back to this statement and use it to defend himself

As others have stated, if we avoid injuries, sort out the defensive issues we have, get Daka firing, keep Praet as I think he could play a big part for us this season, and finally organise the defence at set pieces then we are more then capable of having a successful season, albeit pushing for top 8 

[Scotch]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

He's literally not said that. 

He didn't, you are right. He said that he won't be able to shake the squad up as much as he would have liked which was previously stated to be 5 or 6 players. Meaning we could probably be looking at 3/4 realistically but that all depends on players leaving which he said "Clubs have to want them" which suggests to me that currently... they don't. 

 

I doubt we won't sign anyone but personally, after hearing what he said yesterday... I won't expect more than 3 new faces. 

[Old Fox]

2 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Keep our best players fit we will have a good season.

 

 

If the players are playing for him and he makes better tactical decisions …..I think that fit players does not guarantee a successful season as earlier posters have suggested something is not right !

[Old Fox]

40 minutes ago, Scotch said:

He didn't, you are right. He said that he won't be able to shake the squad up as much as he would have liked which was previously stated to be 5 or 6 players. Meaning we could probably be looking at 3/4 realistically but that all depends on players leaving which he said "Clubs have to want them" which suggests to me that currently... they don't. 

 

I doubt we won't sign anyone but personally, after hearing what he said yesterday... I won't expect more than 3 new faces. 

Personally think we only need two starters if no one leaves a centre half and a right winger - investment of £50m with any peripheral players leaving this could be possible but somehow I don’t think it will happen - be interesting to see what develops with Youri as to it could be enlightening !!

[davieG]

1 hour ago, Royston. said:

Everyone else has strengthened and we stand still.

We don't even have an inconsistent Lookman anymore.

We will be more of a target than we were last season.

 

I don't want to be right but I am

But we now have, hopefully several of our best player available that were missing for long periods yet we still finished 8th.