Squad quality

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, scinnell said:

Current squad is probably our worst since our return to the first division. The 2014 team played with fearlessness and determination most games. 

I'd swap for that squad and manager right now in a heartbeat 

[davieG]

It seems to me all the basics are missing

 

Attacking set set plays and Throw ins - we obviously don't practice these.

Passing - the whole team continually gives the ball away.

Simple one / two play - It's like it's pass and forget.

This obsession with 'controlling' the game before we start to move the ball forward

When we play long the passes and the players aren't good enough or the type to play this, Barnes trying to receive long floating balls - WTF

Fitness

Belief

Confidence in their own ability and the manager

 

[smudgerfox]

8 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

Schmeichal Leeds Utd reject

Huth past it

fuchs who?

morgan championship at his peak!

Simpson spent a year at every club in the league

mahrez 400 grand wimp

kante no one before us

vardy 1 million pounds nutjob

albrighton villa reject

drinkwater rescued from a loan at Barnsley 

okazaki 7 million quid midget 

ulloa 9 million quid cost a Fvckin 

 

I’ve been wondering what Brendan would have made of the 2015/16 squad. I certainly don’t think we’d have won the league with him in charge. He thinks we have no right to beat the likes of Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool, as they’re so much richer than us. The injury record that season, he could only dream of. Playing style to suit the players we had - rather than the players he’d have liked. And just what would he have made of the wider squad that year, players who played a vital, if unsung, role? Schlupp? Wasiliewski? King? Ulloa? He’d have never played Danny Simpson. 
 

Brendan’s coaching ambitions are the overriding priority. The idea of taking an eclectic mix of players and find a way of deploying them to the max to win games is utterly foreign to him. 

[taupe]

The squad's not great, no, for whatever reasons (and I'll ignore that for now) BUT they are capable enough to be playing better than we are at the moment. We're defensively poorly organised, lose possession (as we do) and we're all over place.. This doesn't get addressed.

 

Rodgers talks of players lacking quality and making mistakes - so stop setting us up in a manner that puts players under pressure. He's continually asking them to play his game. He has to let his own ideals go and start playing in a manner the players are comfortable with. His ego driven project will see us relegated. If he's a good manager, he can find a different way to get us playing. 

[SemperEadem]

The idea that we have a good squad is evaporating now. This coupled with the lack of fight from the players is a perfect storm for us going down.

[LVFox]

We have a decent squad, that's never fully fit and is currently playing very poorly.

 

A fully fit side playing at its best is doing what Newcastle are this season, breaking into top 4. But if your relying on Ward, Amartey, Thomas, Perez etc week in week out, you're in trouble. Especially when you couple that with not one player being in form

[turkish14]

As much as I agree with some points, that we have players past it, and not good enough…

 

Newcastle and Brightons squads,  player to player are not better then ours.

 

The difference is they are playing with confidence, with a clear plan and belief in the system like our players were 3 seasons ago. 
 

Most of us have mocked the likes of joelinton and Almiron over the years, now they are different players. 
 

Ours are in reverse, lauded now appear crap. 

 

 

 

[jayfox26]

What can you do if you have players injured and the squad players aren't great? 

 

1. You can still work hard and fight. We don't. 

2. You can try and be defensively resilient and make it tough for the opposition to score. We don't, every goal we concede is pathetic. 

3. You can play tactics/a system that suits the players you have available. We don't. 

4. You can motivate the players to give 100% and cover every blade of grass. We don't.

 

All of these are down to the manager. If the manager doesn't give a shit, why will the players? I said at the start of the season when Rodgers attitude absolutely stank, that he'd lost his motivation and didn't care anymore but then we had a slight upturn before the wc and we looked organised and hard to beat again, although it was against crap teams. And now we're back where we were. Manager moaning about money, the players basically everyone and everything but himself, and a demotivated squad void of any confidence. 

 

I'm not naive enough to think this squad is good enough for top 7/8 but it's also shouldn't be relegation fodder but it currently looks like we are. 

[Fox92]

It needs a complete overhaul and this is why I think a new manager would need time to get it sorted. New goalkeeper, new wingers, new striker. Get rid of the rubbish in this squad.

[Le Renard]

If your boss continually moans about you and your colleagues and he/she doesn't think you are good enough, then you start to believe it, or you start to lose respect for your boss.

A couple of years ago we thought the squad was pretty good, now after a poor 18 months with mostly the same players our perceptions have changed.  Get a new manager in and he could possibly get some of these players up to their potential again.

[Claridge]

A team with ward, daka, amartey, Thomas , albrighton is never going to do well. All of them are basically awful or past it

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, Claridge said:

A team with ward, daka, amartey, Thomas , albrighton is never going to do well. All of them are basically awful or past it

If only we had somebody who didn't choose to play these players

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

Too much money in wages being paid to players we now don’t particularly want, they won’t leave because of their high salaries and won’t sign a new contract (if there is one) because they’re not getting the game time they think they deserve, and will wind their contracts down and leave for nothing.

Commendable but questionable loyalty from the club to injury plagued players, giving them bumper new contracts when they are hardly ever available.

Jamie Vardy, probably the clubs greatest ever player being given too long a contract, I feel sad even saying this because he’s helped us achieve so much.

 

[StriderHiryu]

11 hours ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

The squad is not what it was two years ago. I’ll happily admit that. I’ll also admit that the recruitment have royally ****ed up.

 

However, we have enough not to be humiliated so often. We have enough to be organised. You play a side which suits the players at your disposable. We’ve lost our full backs. We can’t expect Castagne and Thomas to do what Perreira and Justin do. We’ve got two utterly shit cbs - so stick the third in there. We have an aging legend who isn’t half the player he was two years ago - it happens. So get him some support. We have another striker void of any confidence - play too. We lack bottle in the middle - it could be confidence, so try to play with them for a while, not through them. 
 

That all falls on the manager. 

Great post, well written!

 

I'd also point out that the average tenure for a manager in the league is 18 months. Rodgers is coming round to 4 years. With the same message being sent out to the same set of players for that time, what we are seeing isn't a surprise. To give a relevant example, Marcus Rashford look finished under Solksjaer to the point that Man U fans thought he needed to be sold. Ten Hag comes in, rejuvenates the entire squad and he's currently one of the most in form players in the world as a result. In fact Rodgers himself managed to do this with some of our players after Puel was booted, Vardy being the obvious example.

 

There are very few managers in the history of the sport that have been good enough to reinvent their teams multiple times. Ferguson definitely, Wenger maybe but it went wrong at the end. Klopp's not doing the best job of it at the moment, Guardiola is doing well with Man City, but has huge resources at his disposal. Though IMO he does deserve praise for replacing players like Fernandinho, Kompany, David Silva.

 

It's time for our team (maybe even the whole club) to have a full reboot. I hope that's in the Premier League, but sadly it could be in the Championship.

[LFEFox23]

Ward - Average GK at this level - 5/10

Iversen - Cant comment, Not seen enough of him - N/A

 

Thomas - Young lad who's trying to learn at the highest level, not ready yet - 5/10

Justin - Plenty of pace & energy which makes up for his lack of quality on the ball, Injury prone - 7/10

Ricardo - WAS one of the best RBs in the league, Injury prone doubtful he'll ever return to former heights - 5/10

Castagna - Defensively poor/average, going forward good! Steady eddy, good squad player - 7/10

Bertrand - MEH! - 0/10

 

 

Amartey - Squad player AT BEST, tries hard but doesn't have the quality - 5/10

Soyuncu - Dropped off a cliff, Good enough to be a starter but clearly doesn't want to be here & out of favour - 6/10

Evans - Our best defender but ageing and injury prone - 7/10

Faes - Similar player to Cags, heart on his sleeve kind of defender - Bollocks will be dropped - 7/10

Vestergaard - Slow and clumsy, not good enough 3/10 

 

Barnes - Raw & direct, on his day can be problem against any side. Either a 2 or a 10 - 7/10

Tielemans - Talented and a role model professional, Would love to keep him but just cant see it. - 8/10

KDH - Very good squad player, not sure if he'll kick on to the next level in the next 18 months - 8/10

Maddison - Our superstar, a must keep! - 9/10

Ndidi - Seems to be regressing into an average DM in the premier league, needs a shake! - 7/10 

Mendy - Good squad player to have, should be more involved recently- 6/10 

Soumare - Its a no for me, shows glimpses of quality but far to inconsistent and always lazy traits - 6/10

Praet - Its really not worked out for him here, i think there is a player in there but not suited for the premier league - 5/10 

Albrighton - Good servant and will always give you 110%, quality just not there anymore - 6/10 

Perez - Efforts there but its a no, inconsistent and doesn't have a set position. - 5/10 

 

Vardy - Unfortunately seems to be on the decline, doesn't have that edge to him anymore.. Good squad player - 6/10 

Nacho - Another one, just not worked out for him here. Always been behind in the pecking order, time to move on - 5/10

Daka - Shows signs of being a good player and think giving chances he can score a hat full. Doesn't work a lone striker - 6/10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vazman]

1 hour ago, jayfox26 said:

What can you do if you have players injured and the squad players aren't great? 

 

1. You can still work hard and fight. We don't. 

2. You can try and be defensively resilient and make it tough for the opposition to score. We don't, every goal we concede is pathetic. 

3. You can play tactics/a system that suits the players you have available. We don't. 

4. You can motivate the players to give 100% and cover every blade of grass. We don't.

 

All of these are down to the manager. If the manager doesn't give a shit, why will the players? I said at the start of the season when Rodgers attitude absolutely stank, that he'd lost his motivation and didn't care anymore but then we had a slight upturn before the wc and we looked organised and hard to beat again, although it was against crap teams. And now we're back where we were. Manager moaning about money, the players basically everyone and everything but himself, and a demotivated squad void of any confidence. 

 

I'm not naive enough to think this squad is good enough for top 7/8 but it's also shouldn't be relegation fodder but it currently looks like we are. 

Excellent post, could you send that to Brendan, and the Board at LCFC please.

[ozleicester]

Poor team
Poor squad
Poor management
Poor leadership

[Haywood_6]

Most of that team that played last night are not good enough (Apart from a couple of players). I think it's that simple. There's also a lack of fight, belief, and confidence.

When you take Maddison, KDH, Justin, Ricardo and Evans out of the team. We are going to struggle. Especially when we have a manager who doesn't really seem to care that much and just moans about a lack of money. I don't trust Brendan Rodgers with money anyway. I know he's not solely responsible for recruitment but if he thought players like Perez, Vestergaard, Soumare, and Bertrand were good signings. I wouldn't give him another penny. He can **** right off. I'd rather find a manager who really wants to be here, has a positive approach, and a style of play the fans can get behind.

[Buzzell]

Just shows how much of a small squad we are. We have injury’s yes but we have no real decent back up to come in. Doesn’t help when you mix it with our confidence problem.

 

The club needs a rebuild. Too many passengers here. We need some grit, some bollocks. We’re so weak throughout. Something needs to change.

[surrifox]

we are in the middle of a relegation battle and will be competing with sides like Everton and Southampton , established prem sides who are in this position year in year out and always do enough to survive. None of the promoted sides have the same sort of dead men walking look that Norwich always have and have shown themselves much more up for a scrap than anyone in our current side does.Sadly we do look like a bunch of pussies. Time has finally caught up with JV and it's sad that he seems to just go through the motions and suffer derision from opposition supporters when he once would have shut them up with a fantastic strike. We don't appear to have any sort of dependable striker on the books for 15+ goals a season and dont have the sort of money required to acquire one

I am genuinely concerned and really think that the decisions made in the next week or so will dictate the direction of travel for possibly 5 years or longer. The current transfer strategy appears to be working down a list of targets, arrive at no.4 having lost out on choices 1-3 (by which time you're already  looking at injury prone/ surplus to requirement or easily replaceable members of another Club's squad) and then we dick around at the last minute and settle for what we have . We're all fed up with BR's bullsh*t how must the players feel .There are plenty of games left to change it around but the mood music around the whole club is as bad as the worst days of Puel 

[Guest Col city fan]

4 hours ago, Fox92 said:

It needs a complete overhaul and this is why I think a new manager would need time to get it sorted. New goalkeeper, new wingers, new striker. Get rid of the rubbish in this squad.

No offense but I’m sure you’ve written before that you think this squad is definitely good enough? Have you changed your mind now?

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

15 hours ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

The squad is not what it was two years ago. I’ll happily admit that. I’ll also admit that the recruitment have royally ****ed up.

 

However, we have enough not to be humiliated so often. We have enough to be organised. You play a side which suits the players at your disposable. We’ve lost our full backs. We can’t expect Castagne and Thomas to do what Perreira and Justin do. We’ve got two utterly shit cbs - so stick the third in there. We have an aging legend who isn’t half the player he was two years ago - it happens. So get him some support. We have another striker void of any confidence - play too. We lack bottle in the middle - it could be confidence, so try to play with them for a while, not through them. 
 

That all falls on the manager. 

Absolutely spot on, and when he feels forced to make a change to go 2 up front, 3 at the back - low and behold we look better.

 

Baffling. The sad thing is now I am getting to the point where I don’t look forward to going in person. Just had an email about Man U away - previously would definitely go. Now not so sure.

[Harpenden Fox]

The ease with which Dan Burn bustled past Chestnuts and Wilf, and then bamboozled Dan to score his goal pretty much summed it up for me. He used his strength and determination to score a goal, literally shrugging our players.

 

We lack physical and mental strength. Dan Burn seems like a decent character from his post match interviews. We could do with strong characters right now 

[st albans fox]

7 minutes ago, Harpenden Fox said:

The ease with which Dan Burn bustled past Chestnuts and Wilf, and then bamboozled Dan to score his goal pretty much summed it up for me. He used his strength and determination to score a goal, literally shrugging our players.

 

We lack physical and mental strength. Dan Burn seems like a decent character from his post match interviews. We could do with strong characters right now 

I’m not sure that the coach is actually a fan of strong characters unless they’ve pledged undying allegiance to him …….

[BKLFox]

So hang on, does he have the best squad we have ever had but can't get a tune out of them despite his supposed 10m wage or is the squad dog toffee as the way this thread & a lot of indivdual player threads suggest?