RADICAL New Idea for Saturday

[foxfanazer]

Yeah bury our heads even further in the sand. Its worked well so far so I'm game 

[Le Renard]

I have a better idea, why doesn't every bring a bucket of sand to the match, and they can all be Ostriches. 

[Merging Cultures]

41 minutes ago, Saxondale said:

You say that, but Rodgersball had us in top four form for a nice little run before the World Cup.

 

Im not pro-Rodgers by the way, I’m just being pragmatic.

In that streak it didn't look like Rodgersball to me, we were quicker and more aggressive than we had been previously. We've now reverted to what I think we see as Rodgersball, slow, ponderous, back and side-to-side passing.

[Rusko187]

52 minutes ago, Saxondale said:

Lads, I’ve got a bit of a mad new idea for Saturday. It’s a bit of a new one, and it’s going to be a struggle to get it to catch on. The idea is so left field that people are going to take some serious convincing. 

 

Hear me out: Why don’t we actually cheer the team on? You know, give them a bit of encouragement?

 

In all seriousness, we KNOW the side plays better when the crowd is bouncing. This is how momentum builds. Yes, it is a chicken / egg situation: the crowd is bouncing when the team is playing well and vice versa. When we won the league, the crowd was unbelievable every week and the team felt unbeatable. They were unbeatable. Which came first? IT DOESN’T MATTER.

 

Furthermore, professional players will openly say that they play better when the crowd is behind them. They will also explain how when the crowd is on their back, they freeze up and are frightened to play with any creativity and expression for fear of making any mistakes.

 

Look at Barnes: he can’t hit a barn door at the moment. It’s absolutely obvious what’s going on - he’s a confidence player. He goes on runs of being amazing, then being erratic; it exactly mirrors how the team is doing and how the crowd is behaving.

 

We as the fan base need to do our bit to break the cycle of negativity. With the current sour atmosphere, we could have Messi and Mbappe in the side and we’d still lose. If you were a player and your own fans were jeering and booing you, would you want to play for them? I wouldn’t.

 

We also need to dispel a few misconceptions. The “forward, quicker” mob need to have a word with themselves. We’re not Wimbledon in 1995 and - even if we wanted to be - we don’t have Ekoku and Gayle up front. It’s 2023, and football has moved on from those halcyon days, whether you like it or not.

 

When players pass it around at the back, it’s not because they’re being “negative”, it’s because they’re retaining possession and trying to draw the opposition players into a press to create a gap in midfield. When they spot a space opening up, they will progress the ball forward. Ironically, when the the defenders and DMs do take a gamble and lump a quick forward pass and it doesn’t come off, the “forward, quicker” whingers are the first to shout “RUBBISH!”

 

It amazes me the number of fans who will boast “I’ve been watching City for 55 years, I know what I’m talking about”, yet seem incapable of understanding even the very, very basics of how modern football is played. Honestly lads, if you don’t like it, no-one’s forcing you to keep coming.

 

One of these chaps came up to me at the Brighton game to have a whinge about our “negativity” or some other bollocks, which I wasn’t really in the mood to entertain. This bloke claimed very insistently “we won the league playing one-touch football”.

 

Now, I’m not entirely sure what he meant by this, especially given that a lot of our unbelievable attacking play centred around Mahrez taking thirty touches and skinning an entire opposition defence. In any case, I suspect what he was actually referring to was our quick breaks and counter attacking.

 

Yes, we famously won the league with very little possession - but even if our possession was as little as 33%, we still had the ball a third of the time. It’s funny how people’s memories are selective. We all remember the Drinkwater dinked through balls and Vardy chasing them and blazing it in the bottom corner. But people forget Drinkwater and Kante retaining possession, passing between each other and the back four, drawing out the opposition to create the space for us to launch our attacks. 

 

In summary: STOP WHINGING - we’ve heard it all before. Get behind the team. If you’re going to get upset that we’re not the 90s Crazy Gang, stay at home. Whether you like it or not, a continual negative atmosphere will send us down to the Championship.

 

P.S. I realise the very first reply to this post will be some ode git angrily retorting something along the lines of  “maybe the players should give us something to cheer about”, but don’t waste your breath.

 

P.P.S. I realise that now I’ve said that, somebody is going to post that exact thing to be comical. Fair play.

I don't see how cheering will get Brendan the sack... Top bases all his major decisions on the crowd

[OntarioFox]

There's nothing wrong with being dissatisfied with what's happening on the pitch.

I won't boo players - "through the good times and the bad, we'll always back the lads".

I will however make my feelings clear if I feel the tactics are setting us up for a fall. Which they have done every time we play Rodgers' way this season, and for big chunks of last.

Your analysis kinda falls down when it gets into trying to excuse the turgid possession-for-the-sake-of-it footy. We haven't "found a gap" by drawing the press for months. It's largely relied on individual brilliance from Youri or Madders to dig us out of games. The latter has been out since the World Cup, and we've lost every. Single. Game. I'm not counting the cup games against gash opposition, but I could even say we barely scraped past the worst side in the football league playing snore-fest possession football and gave them chances to win it in the process.

It. Doesn't. Work. Any team can line up to us with a press and counter and steamroll us, and as much as I live in a sliver of hope that they'll have an off day, the grim reality is that Brighton will do the same. We made Sam Surridge and Brennan Johnson look like prime Atletico Madrid last weekend, for Christ's sake - as others have said, we backed the lads until the second went in - not because of, but in spite of the cowardly way we were set up.

 

The pendulum of football is shifting away from this pound-shop tiki-taka - teams have worked it out. You press and counter with pace. Increasingly, it's even becoming fashionable to have an old-fashioned big man to get on the end of crosses from pacey wingers too (Haaland the obvious example, Nunez at Liverpool, Man Utd. now joining the party with Weghorst). Teams like us are the dinosaurs at this point.

And the thing that depresses me most of all is that WE were the team that set the blueprint. We won the league soaking up pressure, snapping at heels and breaking with pace - and had the big man as a back-up when needed. We caused this, so it's absolutely insane to me that we're pissing our Premier League status down the drain by insisting on playing a style that is now out of fashion and easy to play against largely because of what we did in 2016.

 

It's not the players' fault, though I did have to question their commitment when they treated an East Midlands derby like a training exercise two years running. It falls on the manager to A) set them up properly and B) galvanise them in times of adversity - and he is being paid a princely sum to do neither.

 

I want my Leicester back.

Edited 19 January 2023 by OntarioFox

[Stadt]

I lose my voice after most games from singing in the hope of trying to help the team and give them an advantage. It's been clear for a while Rodgers' management is detrimental and a net negative.

[Soar Fox]

58 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Hmmmmm......when I went on Saturday, for the first twenty minutes our support more than matched Forest's to the point their atmosphere just went. 

 

I see and hear a team cheered on week after week tbh - the majority of the away end was with them on Saturday until their second went in. 

That soon changed at the end of the game when the players came over to clap the fans. Never seen an away end of ours turn on our players like that. 
 

It was good to see though, the players couldn’t turn round quick enough to walk away.

[Lcfc098]

Just now, Steve_Walsh5 said:

That soon changed at the end of the game when the players came over to clap the fans. Never seen an away end of ours turn on our players like that. 
 

It was good to see though, the players couldn’t turn round quick enough to walk away.

Was similar in the 4-1 last year to them. That was more shock than anger though considering they were a championship side at the time

[Lako42]

10 minutes ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

That soon changed at the end of the game when the players came over to clap the fans. Never seen an away end of ours turn on our players like that. 
 

It was good to see though, the players couldn’t turn round quick enough to walk away.

Good

[whoareyaaa]

How can we do that when he plays the same way every game, surely the manager should be in the dressing room g'ing up the players .. I don't think Rodgers has that about him which is why we look so flat and out of ideas.

 

The fans can't change this

[CosbehFox]

14 minutes ago, Steve_Walsh5 said:

That soon changed at the end of the game when the players came over to clap the fans. Never seen an away end of ours turn on our players like that. 
 

It was good to see though, the players couldn’t turn round quick enough to walk away.

Which is the appropriate time. At the final whistle and I think we all agree with that 

Edited 19 January 2023 by CosbehFox

[RoboFox]

I tell you what will get the fans going.

 

Some really loud dance music before kick off. 

[CosbehFox]

16 minutes ago, Stadt said:

I lose my voice after most games from singing in the hope of trying to help the team and give them an advantage. It's been clear for a while Rodgers' management is detrimental and a net negative.

Spent Sunday sounding like Dyche 

[The Quick Brown Fox]

1 hour ago, Saxondale said:

Lads, I’ve got a bit of a mad new idea for Saturday. It’s a bit of a new one, and it’s going to be a struggle to get it to catch on. The idea is so left field that people are going to take some serious convincing. 

 

Hear me out: Why don’t we actually cheer the team on? You know, give them a bit of encouragement?

 

In all seriousness, we KNOW the side plays better when the crowd is bouncing. This is how momentum builds. Yes, it is a chicken / egg situation: the crowd is bouncing when the team is playing well and vice versa. When we won the league, the crowd was unbelievable every week and the team felt unbeatable. They were unbeatable. Which came first? IT DOESN’T MATTER.

 

Furthermore, professional players will openly say that they play better when the crowd is behind them. They will also explain how when the crowd is on their back, they freeze up and are frightened to play with any creativity and expression for fear of making any mistakes.

 

Look at Barnes: he can’t hit a barn door at the moment. It’s absolutely obvious what’s going on - he’s a confidence player. He goes on runs of being amazing, then being erratic; it exactly mirrors how the team is doing and how the crowd is behaving.

 

We as the fan base need to do our bit to break the cycle of negativity. With the current sour atmosphere, we could have Messi and Mbappe in the side and we’d still lose. If you were a player and your own fans were jeering and booing you, would you want to play for them? I wouldn’t.

 

We also need to dispel a few misconceptions. The “forward, quicker” mob need to have a word with themselves. We’re not Wimbledon in 1995 and - even if we wanted to be - we don’t have Ekoku and Gayle up front. It’s 2023, and football has moved on from those halcyon days, whether you like it or not.

 

When players pass it around at the back, it’s not because they’re being “negative”, it’s because they’re retaining possession and trying to draw the opposition players into a press to create a gap in midfield. When they spot a space opening up, they will progress the ball forward. Ironically, when the the defenders and DMs do take a gamble and lump a quick forward pass and it doesn’t come off, the “forward, quicker” whingers are the first to shout “RUBBISH!”

 

It amazes me the number of fans who will boast “I’ve been watching City for 55 years, I know what I’m talking about”, yet seem incapable of understanding even the very, very basics of how modern football is played. Honestly lads, if you don’t like it, no-one’s forcing you to keep coming.

 

One of these chaps came up to me at the Brighton game to have a whinge about our “negativity” or some other bollocks, which I wasn’t really in the mood to entertain. This bloke claimed very insistently “we won the league playing one-touch football”.

 

Now, I’m not entirely sure what he meant by this, especially given that a lot of our unbelievable attacking play centred around Mahrez taking thirty touches and skinning an entire opposition defence. In any case, I suspect what he was actually referring to was our quick breaks and counter attacking.

 

Yes, we famously won the league with very little possession - but even if our possession was as little as 33%, we still had the ball a third of the time. It’s funny how people’s memories are selective. We all remember the Drinkwater dinked through balls and Vardy chasing them and blazing it in the bottom corner. But people forget Drinkwater and Kante retaining possession, passing between each other and the back four, drawing out the opposition to create the space for us to launch our attacks. 

 

In summary: STOP WHINGING - we’ve heard it all before. Get behind the team. If you’re going to get upset that we’re not the 90s Crazy Gang, stay at home. Whether you like it or not, a continual negative atmosphere will send us down to the Championship.

 

P.S. I realise the very first reply to this post will be some ode git angrily retorting something along the lines of  “maybe the players should give us something to cheer about”, but don’t waste your breath.

 

P.P.S. I realise that now I’ve said that, somebody is going to post that exact thing to be comical. Fair play.

I agree, cheer/celebrate every backwards and sideways pass like its a goal. We would never be quiet and would really spur the team on to achieve better. 

[Fox92]

1 hour ago, Saxondale said:

 

We also need to dispel a few misconceptions. The “forward, quicker” mob need to have a word with themselves. We’re not Wimbledon in 1995 and - even if we wanted to be - we don’t have Ekoku and Gayle up front. It’s 2023, and football has moved on from those halcyon days, whether you like it or not.

 

 

I tend to agree but pace will never be beaten if it's matched with ability. Look at Forest's goals were really - midfielder plays it in behind and a winger with a good touch controls it and scores, albeit first one he has to go around the keeper first but the second one is brilliant in terms of touch and finish.

 

Can you imagine us doing that? Barnes' first touch would have seen the ball go into the Trent. We lost the ball for the second because Tielemens is trying to play a ball in behind the defender and Albrighton doesn't go.

 

These players man, they piss me off.

[LcFc_Smiv]

I don't get the lets keep it positive approach- lets be honest, with the majority of our mute support it's hardly negative, just soulless which is a product of the clubs efforts in recent times. Those who are vocal in the stands have given the team more than enough support through some pretty poor performances, results and runs of form over the past 18-24 months, but there comes a point as fans where you have to stand up and say we aren't accepting this anymore. The majority aren't talking about discouraging players, we know this team has it in them to play well above the levels which we have witnessed recently which is why questions are being asked of the management and those at higher levels. 

[Kilworthfox]

1 minute ago, LcFc_Smiv said:

I don't get the lets keep it positive approach- lets be honest, with the majority of our mute support it's hardly negative, just soulless which is a product of the clubs efforts in recent times. Those who are vocal in the stands have given the team more than enough support through some pretty poor performances, results and runs of form over the past 18-24 months, but there comes a point as fans where you have to stand up and say we aren't accepting this anymore. The majority aren't talking about discouraging players, we know this team has it in them to play well above the levels which we have witnessed recently which is why questions are being asked of the management and those at higher levels. 

End of 

[The Fox Covert]

It is very sad to see a thread like this about a club which once cheered so loud the vibrations registered on the Richter scale.

[Daggers]

Naked sexy protest or go home!

[SemperEadem]

5 minutes ago, LcFc_Smiv said:

I don't get the lets keep it positive approach- lets be honest, with the majority of our mute support it's hardly negative, just soulless which is a product of the clubs efforts in recent times. Those who are vocal in the stands have given the team more than enough support through some pretty poor performances, results and runs of form over the past 18-24 months, but there comes a point as fans where you have to stand up and say we aren't accepting this anymore. The majority aren't talking about discouraging players, we know this team has it in them to play well above the levels which we have witnessed recently which is why questions are being asked of the management and those at higher levels. 

Can’t really argue against that.

[evil jack]

8 minutes ago, LcFc_Smiv said:

I don't get the lets keep it positive approach- lets be honest, with the majority of our mute support it's hardly negative, just soulless which is a product of the clubs efforts in recent times. Those who are vocal in the stands have given the team more than enough support through some pretty poor performances, results and runs of form over the past 18-24 months, but there comes a point as fans where you have to stand up and say we aren't accepting this anymore. The majority aren't talking about discouraging players, we know this team has it in them to play well above the levels which we have witnessed recently which is why questions are being asked of the management and those at higher levels. 

Spot on. The players have to give us ‘something’.

[PAPA LAZAROU]

None attendence is the answer. They don't come and see me when I'm bad.

Edited 19 January 2023 by PAPA LAZAROU

[Lcfc-1992]

[David Hankey]

With all the negativity on these boards this thread is a welcome change, so well done Saxondale.

 

I've always clapped good play and performances.

 

What goes against the grain is applauding mediocrity and poor displays which, I guess, is not in many supporters' psyche. 

[phoneticerror]

2 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

Hmmmmm......when I went on Saturday, for the first twenty minutes our support more than matched Forest's to the point their atmosphere just went. 

 

I see and hear a team cheered on week after week tbh - the majority of the away end was with them on Saturday until their second went in. 

Agreed. Then a third of our lot exited. I stuck around and regretted my decision, could’ve got a much more pleasant train had I left when everybody else did