RADICAL New Idea for Saturday

[elvisfmcfly]

Rodgers out noooooiiiiiii.

[Guest Col city fan]

In principle it’s a good idea!

But how do you get the message across to the bulk of the attendance who will become completely silent if we go a goal down?

Answers on a postcard please.

[MancFox24]

1 hour ago, OntarioFox said:

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.

Every time we play Rodgers' way? So when we went on a good run before the world cup we weren't playing Rodgers' way? Who was in charge for them games then? I think you sum up a big portion of the Rodgers out brigade who want to wind the clock back to 2016, have 30% possession and knock it in the channels for vardy. But you ignore that we almost got relegated the year after playing that way because teams worked us out. I enjoyed seeing the team evolve to a more possession based side for the first couple of years under Rodgers and the success that brought. The reasons it's turned to shit now is for another thread but wanting to go back to 2016 tactics isn't the answer imo.

 

Every fan thinks their team is unique but being a Leicester fan really is. We got success from nowhere, managed to sustain it for a bit, and a few bad decisions have left us struggling again. I don't blame the paying fans for being apathetic, I think fans, including myself, are struggling to come to terms with going back into the pack of clubs who are shown last on match of the day and barely get a mention in the media. But I'm afraid that's the nature of a club our size and unless we get investment from human rights abusing countries or shady billionaires (which I don't want), it's always going to be that way.

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, Col city fan said:

In principle it’s a good idea!

But how do you get the message across to the bulk of the attendance who will become completely silent when we go a goal down?

Answers on a postcard please.

Fixed it for you Col.

 

And to be honest I disagree that it's a good idea. I'm sick of this notion that a good fan is one that sits there and claps away no matter what's going on. The 'proper fans' are the ones that have allowed this mess to happen

[Larry_LCFC]

So your idea is to pretend we are all happy and content with the diabolical and totally avoidable situation we find ourselves in? 

 

I suggest we do totally the opposite.

[Saxondale]

5 minutes ago, Larry_LCFC said:

So your idea is to pretend we are all happy and content with the diabolical and totally avoidable situation we find ourselves in? 

 

I suggest we do totally the opposite.

No actually, you’re right. Let’s just sulk and boo. Then when it gets to the end of season and we get relegated, we can all say “see, I told you we were shìt”.

[Guest Col city fan]

42 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Fixed it for you Col.

 

And to be honest I disagree that it's a good idea. I'm sick of this notion that a good fan is one that sits there and claps away no matter what's going on. The 'proper fans' are the ones that have allowed this mess to happen

Completely agree now I’ve thought about it mate 

👍

[FoxyJim1987]

3 hours 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.

While I understand the general sentiment, and I fully agree about creating a real loud atmosphere, the amount of goals we have conceded when we have lost the ball in our own half or near our own box is ridiculous. Most people understand lumping it blindly forward is not the answer, but at least if the ball is in row Z or down the other end, we can't concede. Teams press us knowing we nervously pass it around from the goalkeeper. There needs to be a balance. Don't pass for the sake of it, don't pass to someone marked, don't pass to someone isolated and certainly don't give the ball away near your own box.

 

But about the crowd thing I completely agree, if it's silent and negative, the inevitable will happen, Brighton will thrive, the players will freeze and it will be a hard watch. What we need is a loud start and hopefully the players follow suit.

[FoxyJim1987]

20 minutes ago, Larry_LCFC said:

So your idea is to pretend we are all happy and content with the diabolical and totally avoidable situation we find ourselves in? 

 

I suggest we do totally the opposite.

How will this help though? Moan in the pub, on here and at work, but actually at the game, try and spur the team on. I don't get how being either silent or derogatory will help the team?

[Guest Mee-9]

Does this fool go to the games?

 

 

[Nolucklcfc]

Well we are a bit of a “sing when you’re winning fanbase” however you could argue at home, people at the moment are just going to moan and critique, which you can understand. But it doesn’t help. I don’t like Everton one bit and can’t stand that ****ing wooooooo evertooooooon song but their crowd kept them up last season. We might need similar here. I remember last season when we were playing Liverpool and we were proper up against it but our crowd was brilliant and shock horror we won. 
 

Having said all this, the players need to give the fans more. When you see a lack of desire and fight, it’s difficult to watch. So it’s two sides as is always discussed. Forest at home, we had been shit for weeks and I can’t remember a better atmosphere since the CL days. 
 

we have it in us but it just seems to vary depending on who we play. Brighton at home is unlikely to gain a rousing atmosphere but then it’s up to the players to get the fans going. 
 

we aren’t a small club, we have a good fanbase on the whole and right now the team needs the fans more than ever. So I’m game ✌️

[Fox92]

1 hour ago, foxfanazer said:

Fixed it for you Col.

 

And to be honest I disagree that it's a good idea. I'm sick of this notion that a good fan is one that sits there and claps away no matter what's going on. The 'proper fans' are the ones that have allowed this mess to happen

How have fans allowed this mess to happen? How have fans contributed to us being in a relegation battle? This is the fault of the club, the manager and players.

 

You seem to have this notion that if the same fans sang "Rodgers out" instead, he'd get sacked and suddnely we'd be fine again? Rodgers is at fault for results and performances, of course because he's the manager, but things above him need a change too. There have been protests by clubs up and down the Country for years without change, you only have to look at how long Newcastle fans chanted against Ashley before he left (what was it, a decade or more!?).

 

I do believe a protest of somesort should happen but to indicate that the fans are the ones that have allowed this to happen is just wrong.

[Lcfc098]

2 hours 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. 

Agreed, I’m one who will always be vocal whether we’re shit or we’re good and I probably will for the first 10-15 minutes but then you see the same boring football being replayed week after week and you think what’s the point.

[CrazyKopCorner]

Why don't we hiss and boo before and after the game and support during? 

 

A sort of bipolar afternoon of support? 

[harpendenfox]

1 hour ago, foxfanazer said:

Fixed it for you Col.

 

And to be honest I disagree that it's a good idea. I'm sick of this notion that a good fan is one that sits there and claps away no matter what's going on. The 'proper fans' are the ones that have allowed this mess to happen

It is blatantly obvious that a player like Barnes is woefully down on his confidence. So your plan when he makes mistake would be to get on his back, right? To me, this shows a basic lack of understanding of human nature on your part

[PAPA LAZAROU]

1 hour ago, David Hankey said:

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. 

Given you hands a rest this lately then I guess.

[Larry_LCFC]

46 minutes ago, FoxyJim1987 said:

How will this help though? Moan in the pub, on here and at work, but actually at the game, try and spur the team on. I don't get how being either silent or derogatory will help the team?

Because some happy clappy culture won't bring change. Top needs to understand the fans are not happy and we will not put up with it. It's not pleasant, but it seems to work for every other team that aren't happy

 

[Lcfc098]

5 minutes ago, Larry_LCFC said:

Because some happy clappy culture won't bring change. Top needs to understand the fans are not happy and we will not put up with it. It's not pleasant, but it seems to work for every other team that aren't happy

 

Yeah but our fans idea of not being happy is sitting in silence. Not gonna change much is it. May aswell sit at home

[foxfanazer]

34 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

How have fans allowed this mess to happen? How have fans contributed to us being in a relegation battle? This is the fault of the club, the manager and players.

 

You seem to have this notion that if the same fans sang "Rodgers out" instead, he'd get sacked and suddnely we'd be fine again? Rodgers is at fault for results and performances, of course because he's the manager, but things above him need a change too. There have been protests by clubs up and down the Country for years without change, you only have to look at how long Newcastle fans chanted against Ashley before he left (what was it, a decade or more!?).

 

I do believe a protest of somesort should happen but to indicate that the fans are the ones that have allowed this to happen is just wrong.

I'm just bored of this 'back the lads bollocks' to be honest. As a club we're just too nice and comfortable. Just seems like there's a real culture of just being happy to be there. 

 

Maybe it's wrong of me to lay blame on these fans but I reckon more could be done to force some change. The Mike Ashley comparison is a bit of an extreme example imo

[foxfanazer]

19 minutes ago, harpendenfox said:

It is blatantly obvious that a player like Barnes is woefully down on his confidence. So your plan when he makes mistake would be to get on his back, right? To me, this shows a basic lack of understanding of human nature on your part

No I'm not suggesting we get on players backs. I actually feel sorry for our players right now to be honest 

[THE MAGICIAN]

4 hours 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.

Best post of the Decade, no actually it's the best post EVER, let's get behind them while they are playing, stay behind and vent ya anger after should you need to but for the 90 minutes plus. Let's av it 

[LeePhilpottsBaldSpot]

Totally agree with shelving the negativity and supporting the team during matches.

But the OP's rather patronising suggestion that fans who are unhappy don't understand modern football seems to negate the fact that week after week, the opposition is playing much a more attractive style while carving us up.

 

There's a difference between metronomic passing and not allowing any free thinking, risks or flair (Rodgersball) and playing with a purpose to trick the opposition out of shape then trigger your attack (like we'll see from Brighton this weekend).

Edited 19 January 2023 by LeePhilpottsBaldSpot

[Dan]

4 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. 

Basically this. Wasn't like our fans were straight on their backs. They turned when they were served up the usual.

 

I mean I will be doing this anyway but I fully expect it to go the way of the last few games.

[Kitchandro]

4 hours ago, OntarioFox said:

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.

Great post.

 

 I’m sick of all the happy clappy nonsense. It’s reflective of society. We should be demanding change both at games and outside of them. Not waiting for things to get worse and cheering along.
 

Things are not going to get better with this style of play and under this manager, no matter how raucous the atmosphere is. We are a poor side.

 

2 hours ago, MancFox24 said:

Every time we play Rodgers' way? So when we went on a good run before the world cup we weren't playing Rodgers' way? Who was in charge for them games then? I think you sum up a big portion of the Rodgers out brigade who want to wind the clock back to 2016, have 30% possession and knock it in the channels for vardy. But you ignore that we almost got relegated the year after playing that way because teams worked us out. I enjoyed seeing the team evolve to a more possession based side for the first couple of years under Rodgers and the success that brought. The reasons it's turned to shit now is for another thread but wanting to go back to 2016 tactics isn't the answer imo.

 

Every fan thinks their team is unique but being a Leicester fan really is. We got success from nowhere, managed to sustain it for a bit, and a few bad decisions have left us struggling again. I don't blame the paying fans for being apathetic, I think fans, including myself, are struggling to come to terms with going back into the pack of clubs who are shown last on match of the day and barely get a mention in the media. But I'm afraid that's the nature of a club our size and unless we get investment from human rights abusing countries or shady billionaires (which I don't want), it's always going to be that way.

If you think this then you simply did not watch the matches. it's completely false. I'm a bit fed up with correcting people on this.

 

We did the exact opposite of what you are suggesting - we tried to change to a more ‘considered’, possession based style of play (probably because we lost Kante) and that is why we nearly got relegated. Shakespeare came in and changed it back for a spell, resulting in us beating Sevilla and a dramatic improvement in form.

 

To be clear, the key components of our 2015/16 style (and of pretty much every good side nowadays) is a high press and a high tempo with emphasis on pace. It's not necessarily just long balls in the channels and it wasn't when we won the league either. We won the ball high up the pitch and got near the goal as quickly as posible, that is how you win games, statistics have proven this.

 

Edited 19 January 2023 by Kitchandro

[J. James]

For me it goes like this: team show effort and fight, fans cheer them to the hilt, they then play better and (hopefuly) get a result.

 

But effort comes first.

 

Also I'm not paid thousands of pounds for the 90 minutes, l pay to be there and to be  entertained or at least not to be so p!ssed off with a weak and lazy display that l don't want to go again.

 

Our spectators are or seem to be in the main the silent type anyway atm, content to sit quietly and politely applaud whatever.

 

It's certainly a joint effort between team and support but the lead MUST come from the players and Rodgers not the other way around imo.