We do not have a superior squad to our relegation rivals.

[BenTheFox]

Iheanacho despite (wrongly) being third choice here, would start, or at least feature more regularly, for a fair few clubs in the bottom half. 

[Old Fox]

3 hours ago, trooky said:

Maddison, YT and Barnes are quality Nacho is good  but not valued by Rodgers and therefore inconsistent.

 

Ricky P, Justin and Evans have been ravage by injury, Ndidi and Castagne have zero confidence. Vardy is showing his age.

 

Ward, Amartey, Soumare and Mendy are not PL standard 

 

The rest of the players are of a similar standard to our relegation rivals. 

 

There are also obvious issues with morale and players frozen out, not playing for Rodgers after what happened in the summer.

 

The squad has been in steady decline from the FA cup and 5th place finishes and should have been improved. 

 

 

Disagree on Mendy - played the right way he can be an asset but not with Ndidi

 

The other three I would agree and debate are stealing a living in football tbh 

[Old Fox]

6 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

Iheanacho despite (wrongly) being third choice here, would start, or at least feature more regularly, for a fair few clubs in the bottom half. 

He will get snapped up by a prem team if we go down and score 10+ goals a season 

 

we have wasted him 

[BenTheFox]

2 minutes ago, Old Fox said:

He will get snapped up by a prem team if we go down and score 10+ goals a season 

 

we have wasted him 

Which would be a real shame because if he we were somehow able to keep hold of him, I reckon he'd score more than 25 goals in the championship. 

[indierich06]

2 hours ago, MancFox24 said:

So if they would walk into squads below 10th then they would have also been in a relegation threatened team this year? Maddison and Youri aside, I'm not sure I share your confidence in these players' abilities. Barnes has 1 good game in 4- might be enough to get him a move but the price will put teams off. We were looking for buyers for Kel and Cags in the summer and none came. If ricky, castagne, and ndidi get moves then it will be purely based on performances 2 years ago rather than the last 2 years

Barnes gets an insane amount of flack from City fans. His stats this season are better than Jack Grealish's in a team that's been circling the drain for most of the time.

[The boy Linacre]

6 hours ago, Number 6 said:

We do though? It's maybe not as good as some make out but the squads at Bournemouth, Southampton, and Everton for instance, are absolutely honking.

And a year ago THIS WEEK we were heading for a Euro semi final and 6 weeks later would end up 8th & in the Oct/Nov we beat Forest 4-0 and won away at Wolves, Everton & Wet Spam without conceding and looking easy doing it.

6 weeks ago we ripped Villa apart Away & Spurs at home, what gives then????  That's a decent group of players, when on song and thinking anything is possible and working to make it happen.

The thinking and the working aren't there currently and fear and lack of confidence has struck.

Are Liverpool and Chelsea's the 8th and 11th best teams in England????  Only the table says so, of course that is all that counts BUT.....

[BenTheFox]

6 minutes ago, Old Fox said:

He will get snapped up by a prem team if we go down and score 10+ goals a season 

 

we have wasted him 

He'll be available really cheap as well with one year left on his contract. I can't see many clubs outside of the top 6 not taking him as another forward option for around £10-£15 million. 

[AKCJ]

We have a very talented but highly unmotivated squad that's lacking in form, direction and confidence.

 

Note that very talented doesn't mean top 6. It means it shouldn't be anywhere near the bottom 3 provided we bring in people that are experienced, can get the players onside and are tactically sound enough to get the best from them.

 

I think Smith, Shakespeare and Terry are able to do it. We just have to pray to the high heavens that they can.

 

Then in the summer get Potter in early doors and start the rebuild properly. The first thing we need to do is get shot of every player that thinks they're above us and start buying players that want to play for Leicester City again. We as a fan base need to be humbled by this season as well by the way. The aim for next season is to either to get promotion if we go down or simply to avoid relegation again.

[Clever Fox]

12 minutes ago, BigGibbo said:

I agree that the recruitment has been sub standard at best and we need to get back to actually scouting players based on what we need, but that is not THE biggest reason world class or even competent Premier League players turn to shite overnight.

 

This exact squad under good management is still top half is what I'm saying.

 

It's been worse than sub standard it's been amateurish. And whoever signed off on tem football wise should be dismissed. Otherwise we'll likely make the same mistakes again.

Recruitment needs to be split into two or three types. Junior players, Development playerswho we feel might make the step up.

And First team players. But they also need to be signed to do the job required.

We spent 3 years signing a right winger and still got it wrong. Tete isn't good enough for this league.

The same with Vesty and others.

As to the current squad I have to disagree.

We need to get more ruthless on and off the pitch.

We should have moved Youri and Cags on, the minute we new they weren't going to renew.

Likewise with players who suffer bad injuries.

We're stuck with the squad we have until the end of the season.

Let's just hope they deliver enough to keep us up. Then we need a serious overhaul

in the Summer Window. Regardless of what league we are in.

[Old Fox]

10 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

He'll be available really cheap as well with one year left on his contract. I can't see many clubs outside of the top 6 not taking him as another forward option for around £10-£15 million. 

Completely and we won’t be able to afford to offer him a new deal as he will into his last year - some of ineptitude in managing our talents is frightening - Kel should be playing week in and week out - guarantees goals and also the occasional brain fart but he’s a talent !!

[Clever Fox]

20 minutes ago, indierich06 said:

Barnes gets an insane amount of flack from City fans. His stats this season are better than Jack Grealish's in a team that's been circling the drain for most of the time.

That's because he has so much more to offer.

But you are right he has been better than Grealish.

I sometimes wonder what the Coaches do all week.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

To analyse this: I'll try and put them in categories, relevant to other squads in the bottom 5 or 6 teams.

 

Outstanding / good / average / below standard

 

Ward - below standard

Iversen - average

 

Ricardo - outstanding

Castagne - good

Thomas - below

Kristiansen - good

Souttar - good

Faes - good

Amartey - below

Soyuncu - good

 

Ndidi - good

Mendy - average

Tielemans - outstanding

Praet - average

Maddison - outstanding

KDH - average

 

Tete - average

Barnes - good

Vardy - nowadays below

Daka - below

Kel - good

 

So I'd say we do have a better squad based on that, we should be mid table with these players really.

[SkidsFox]

1 hour ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

To analyse this: I'll try and put them in categories, relevant to other squads in the bottom 5 or 6 teams.

 

Outstanding / good / average / below standard

 

Ward - below standard

Iversen - average

 

Ricardo - outstanding

Castagne - good

Thomas - below

Kristiansen - good

Souttar - good

Faes - good

Amartey - below

Soyuncu - good

 

Ndidi - good

Mendy - average

Tielemans - outstanding

Praet - average

Maddison - outstanding

KDH - average

 

Tete - average

Barnes - good

Vardy - nowadays below

Daka - below

Kel - good

 

So I'd say we do have a better squad based on that, we should be mid table with these players really.

I think you're basing scores for Ndidi, Ricardo and Tielemans on previous seasons. Okay, Ricardo may still get back to his peak form but surely Good is where he's at now. Equally NDidi is not the player he once was, and is at the Good level. And does Youri still perform at the Outstanding level? I'm not sure we'll see him again at that level. One thing I'd agree with you is that Faes is at Good level, despite the many critics he appears to have here.

[whoareyaaa]

Youri to score 3 bangers before the end of the season

[Guest Col city fan]

A lot of people quite dramatically over estimated this squad earlier in the season. Even right up until the last few weeks really.

I’ve tried to maintain from the off I thought it looked a bang average squad, especially at CB.

Though I didn’t think we’d quite do THIS badly. Losing Justin was a major blow.

[SkidsFox]

29 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

A lot of people quite dramatically over estimated this squad earlier in the season. Even right up until the last few weeks really.

I’ve tried to maintain from the off I thought it looked a bang average squad, especially at CB.

Though I didn’t think we’d quite do THIS badly. Losing Justin was a major blow.

Yep. We've also lost (for different reasons) Fofana, Soy, Evans and Schmeichel. So no wonder our defence is not what we'd hoped for.

[Dan]

We do. I'd go as far as saying if we go down we'll have more players poached by top tier clubs than the other two we go down with combined.

 

I'm not defending their displays but it's quite unprecedented for a team to finish 9th, 9th, 5th, 5th, 8th.. relegated.

 

It's not quite at previous years levels but there are plenty I'm taking it over when at its best.

There are collective issues with it though - particularly in leadership and bottle.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

14 hours ago, SkidsFox said:

I think you're basing scores for Ndidi, Ricardo and Tielemans on previous seasons. Okay, Ricardo may still get back to his peak form but surely Good is where he's at now. Equally NDidi is not the player he once was, and is at the Good level. And does Youri still perform at the Outstanding level? I'm not sure we'll see him again at that level. One thing I'd agree with you is that Faes is at Good level, despite the many critics he appears to have here.

Yeah maybe so. Still think quality wise we are generally a cut above

[Sampson]

Agree what people are saying that too many are judging the likes of Tielemans, Ndidi, Ricardo, Castagne and Justin by how good they were 2 years ago when all gave either been done by injuries or look completely burnt out. The fact I keep seeing people saying we miss Justin when he’d been generally really poor and costing us goals since his return from his long term injury shows how much people are still thinking about their performances from years back too much.

[Tommy Fresh]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

Agree what people are saying that too many are judging the likes of Tielemans, Ndidi, Ricardo, Castagne and Justin by how good they were 2 years ago when all gave either been done by injuries or look completely burnt out. The fact I keep seeing people saying we miss Justin when he’d been generally really poor and costing us goals since his return from his long term injury shows how much people are still thinking about their performances from years back too much.

He'd come back in to a pretty honking team though, I'd judge a lot of players now based on appearances under a new manager

[Sampson]

25 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

He'd come back in to a pretty honking team though, I'd judge a lot of players now based on appearances under a new manager

I’m willing to give him a clean slate too. But I remember him making individual errors such as missing headers and losing his man leading to goals which weren’t really about his teammates or how he was being played.

Felt to me like he just never had the same levels of fitness and athleticism since his long term injury and so much of his game was built around that (which I also think is true of Ricardo and Ndidi, who also just look done in by injuries more than anything else). 

Edited 12 April 2023 by Sampson

[Tommy Fresh]

18 minutes ago, Sampson said:

I’m willing to give him a clean slate too. But I remember him making individual errors such as missing headers and losing his man leading to goals which weren’t really about his teammates or how he was being played.

Felt to me like he just never had the same levels of fitness and athleticism since his long term injury and so much of his game was built around that (which I also think is true of Ricardo and Ndidi, who also just look done in by injuries more than anything else). 

There were also a lot of times where he seemed to take the blame for having to cover for one of our centre backs going walkabout. Agree he wasn't near the standard he'd set prior to his injury but think if we become harder to beat overall he'll start flourishing again.

[MattFox]

10 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

We do. I'd go as far as saying if we go down we'll have more players poached by top tier clubs than the other two we go down with combined.

 

I'm not defending their displays but it's quite unprecedented for a team to finish 9th, 9th, 5th, 5th, 8th.. relegated.

 

It's not quite at previous years levels but there are plenty I'm taking it over when at its best.

There are collective issues with it though - particularly in leadership and bottle.

Yeah said this before

 

If we go down it’ll arguably be the worst relegation in the last 30 years at least by any club

 

[gerblod]

On 11/04/2023 at 07:36, SkidsFox said:

We still get posters claiming our squad is better than our rivals. What planet are they on? We have regular first team starters - Amartey, Soumare, Daka, Vardy (sorry not the great player he once was), NDidi (ditto), Ward, Castagne, Mendy who would struggle to be chosen elsewhere. Yes we have the odd star player like Barnes and Maddison, but every Premiership team has at least a couple of good players.

I'm not saying it's totally impossible to avoid relegation, but let's not kid ourselves we have a superior squad.

We don't have to kid ourselves about the level of technical ability in the squad - it's been evident as recently as the Villa game.

In most walks of life confidence accounts for success, but, in sport, especially team sport, it's everything.

The best tennis players are masters in the art of self-belief. Djokovic's defiance of the Covid code was antisocial, but it showed an innate resistance to any issue presented to him that he couldn't accept. In the middle of a match with a 20k crowd booing him, he still remained 100% focused and committed on winning. He doesn't really care if Joe Nobody in the crowd hates him, his aim is to play the best tennis possible. And he has a team around him 100% committed to him winning.

The bulk of the squad are proven Premier footballers, who sustained a high level of performance until it became obvious to them and us that there wasn't the commitment there to support them in the job they wanted to do.

The uncommitted - those who let Rodgers continue, those who did such bad recruiting, are the people who let the players down. Because of them great and good players have been undermined and, hence, lost direction and self-belief.

Even if we do stay up, the necessary shake-up will mean the departure of players who don't believe in Leicester City FC any longer and we'll be left scratting around in the pool of recruits who once might have jumped at the chance to play here. We've become mediocre because of all those extraneous factors that those tennis players would have cut off immediately had they thought it was damaging their careers.

 

[Beachyboy]

21 hours ago, AKCJ said:

We have a very talented but highly unmotivated squad that's lacking in form, direction and confidence.

 

Note that very talented doesn't mean top 6. It means it shouldn't be anywhere near the bottom 3 provided we bring in people that are experienced, can get the players onside and are tactically sound enough to get the best from them.

 

I think Smith, Shakespeare and Terry are able to do it. We just have to pray to the high heavens that they can.

 

Then in the summer get Potter in early doors and start the rebuild properly. The first thing we need to do is get shot of every player that thinks they're above us and start buying players that want to play for Leicester City again. We as a fan base need to be humbled by this season as well by the way. The aim for next season is to either to get promotion if we go down or simply to avoid relegation again.

This attitude of get us safe and then **** Smith off for Potter while simultaneously saying get rid of the players who think they are above us is beyond me. Potter didn't want the scrap now, there's no way I wanna guy in like that. I'd actually argue Smith has proved as much in the premiership as Potter and more in English football.