State of the squad and rest of the season, an opinion.

[Chrysalis]

2 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

Full backs, centre backs, midfield, striker...where do you ****ing start?

Its bad, we need a striker as basically all we got of adequate quality is vardy, who cant go on forever.

At least one quality midfielder, and another full back who can play either side, but we have a new problem now as well of course with fatawa injured.  Cant think of anyone who would play in his place, it would have been ricardo but hes injured as well.

Edited 30 November 2024 by Chrysalis

[adam]

9 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Unfortunately, finances comes into any decision the board makes.

 

If you're "well off" you shop at Waitrose or M&S and get better quality and choice.

 

If you're a bit strapped, you go to The Company Shop where you have to accept whatever is available, because that's all you can afford. 

 

 

Yeah but if you have a bit of rummage at the company shop you find a little waitrose pork pie.

Thats what we need to do in January.

[FoxyPalace.com]

Massive reset needed even if that means relegation then so be it. The feeling around the club has changed ever since the bosses death. I can’t put my finger on why this has happened but slowly we have been in a death spiral. Recruitment has suffered badly both on players & managers. Failed projects like the stadium - cash flow problems - being overly loyal to mediocre players killing us. Top and the board need to be much more ruthless. God knows how this will end ! Maybe it’s just our cycle has finished. 

Edited 30 November 2024 by FoxyPalace.com

[RowlattsFox]

I can't imagine the shite we are going to panic buy in Jan 

[shailen]

11 minutes ago, Parafox said:

Unfortunately, finances comes into any decision the board makes.

 

If you're "well off" you shop at Waitrose or M&S and get better quality and choice.

 

If you're a bit strapped, you go to The Company Shop where you have to accept whatever is available, because that's all you can afford. 

 

 

You do sometimes get M&S or Ocado branded products at Company Shop but I get the analogy

[adejo92]

Glad Coopers gone don't get me wrong, but I don't think anyone's going to save this lot.

 

I genuinely believe that every single player could play to their very best week in week out and us still not survive. Players just aren't good enough full stop.

Edited 30 November 2024 by adejo92

[phoneticerror]

22 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

I would honestly go that far - I think we're worse than Southampton, a side we finished comfortably ahead of last season.

This isn’t an exaggeration. A few fluky results from moments of brilliance from individuals are putting a plaster over a huge wound. We’re shite. 
 

Most of our standout players are gone. Shambles.

Edited 30 November 2024 by phoneticerror

[shailen]

Look we have some quality in the squad to stay up. But the issue is we look like we have no game plan in games we've played this season. There's no patterns of play and we've won games on the back of individual brilliance largely. 

 

It's going to take a lot of coaching to get us going but we need to be more solid as a team if we're gonna win any games at this level. 

[funkyrobot]

1 hour ago, Chrysalis said:

there is more to a game of football than the moments around a goal.

You could argue though that these moments are absolutely key because it’s goals that win & lose games. Too many times goals have directly come from Justin’s area and he has to take some responsibility for that. I would’ve started Hamza rather than him today because of his long term poor form.
 

There are definitely questions about whether this team is good enough to stay up. I’m not sure tbf but what I can say is that first Cooper and now the shambolic Dawson have never picked their best team to create winning opportunities. Leicester’s best team at least until the January window should currently mean Vestergaard, Winks, Buonanotte, El Khanouss and Mavididi pretty much always start as they are the best options from a creativity perspective. The other on field players may rotate in and out but without our best creative core we are going to struggle to create. Alves and McAteer should always be options on the bench too as they offer a similar level of creativity. 

[drew]

Hopefully Ruud can make the sum of the parts equal way more than the individual worth, some appalling play today. 

[Parafox]

2 minutes ago, shailen said:

You do sometimes get M&S or Ocado branded products at Company Shop but I get the analogy

 

We had a lovely M&S ham joint for £2 last week. 

[Dan]

24 minutes ago, Cropwellfox said:

Agree, thought they looked pretty decent last night, just as Ipswich did last weekend. We’ve got absolutely nothing about us at all at present. Damage will be done in December. 

We're only above 20th because we completely fluked results against Southampton and Ipswich too. Huge strokes of luck in our two biggest games.

 

Van Nistelrooy needs to be good.

 

I actually hate everything about that XI we've played today. It's a complete disgrace. Bordering on unprofessional.

[kingfox]

Said before the season started that elements of this team just fvcking suck. Was quite surprised to see some posters were adamant that this squad was strong enough to comfortably stay up. 
 

Back in August this team was giving me strong Sheffield United of last season vibes, we are now on the brink of December and as I said on here the other week, this team currently gives me vibes of our 01/02 and 03/04 seasons. 
 

Our defence and midfielders are just so unlikeable, this defence is easily comparable to when we had the likes of Scimeca, Heath, Thatcher and Dabizas. 
 

Van Nistelrooy needs to be a miracle worker, if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll be pointing my finger to the recruitment team. 
 

To go from the likes of Morgan, Huth, Wasilewski, Simpson, Fuchs, then Maguire, Evans, Fofana to having to watch the likes of Wout Faes shows exactly how far we’ve fallen. 
 

Mini rant over. 

[CrispinLA in Texas]

9 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

Full backs, centre backs, midfield, striker...where do you ****ing start?

We've  been buying players for between 10 to 20m and then not play them and send others out on loan....I really don't trust our recruitment department 

[Parafox]

1 minute ago, Dan LCFC said:

We're only above 20th because we completely fluked results against Southampton and Ipswich too. Huge strokes of luck in our two biggest games.

 

Van Nistelrooy needs to be good.

 

I actually hate everything about that XI we've played today. It's a complete disgrace. Bordering on unprofessional.

 

Then we need to look at the interim manager and his decisions to field the team and formation that he did. 

 

I just got the impression that he really couldn't be arsed.

[Spudulike]

At least we're not in the situation of having to sack Cooper tonight. Should've been done before, obviously, but we are a week ahead with a new manager now. 

[dannythefox]

First thing I’d do is get Cannon back and play him in a two with Vardy 

[kyleolly]

There’s no strength or creativity and the defence is abysmal 

[Spudulike]

39 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

Today reality hit that we are the worst team in the division. I think ruud has to work wonders to turn us around. 

Suspect that Wolves and West Ham fans are also claiming that crown tonight.

[splinterdream]

15 minutes ago, Ross 'LCFC' Turner said:

Is this the most dislikable squad ever? A handful of them aside, I hate the majority 

no, i dont hate any players. JJ is doing his best but just totally off form, needs dropping, faes thinks hes better than he is, his arrogance means hes 20% short every game, needs dropping, ndidi is past it as a midfielder, needs dropping or playing in defense, soumare isnt suited to the PL, their confidence is at all time low, theyve been mismanaged 

Ruud needs to form a band of brothers group, perhaps constantly changing is having a negative effect. i just cant believe the coaching staff have prepped any of the games properly, Top really does need to get rid rudkin and whelan, he needs to freshen the club from top to bottom

[MrLuke]

Really difficult place to start from, but you'd imagine Ruud is well aware of the challenge ahead. 

He needs to instill some belief in the players and get them to buy into his ideas. He does this and at the very least I hope we see some effort from the players. Thats a good starting point. 

He also needs to instill respect; something cooper clearly had none of.

[Finnegan]

I'm definitely someone that sees the positives in our players more than the negatives, I think, whilst others tend to get stuck seeing our players only as 'shit.' I don't mean this in any happy-clappy, get-behind-the-lads, not-allowed-to-criticise them sense. It's just my bias, if you play for Leicester than I usually tend to look upon you more favourably than if you didn't (unless you're Jordan Ayew.)

 

So I accept that I might be a little bit naive and occasionally slightly delusional but I don't think our squad is beyond hope and I think there's a lot to work with there for the right coach.

 

We've all seen Jamie Vardy, James Justin, Wilfred Ndidi and Ricardo Pereira win the FA cup and muster back-to-back 5th place finishes. We know they have the potential to play at that level.

 

Caleb Okali looks quite a bright prospect as do both Facundo and Bilal, Harry Winks is an exceptional footballer that would have been right at home in a top-six challenging Rodgers side and Mads Hermansen is destined for much bigger things than Leicester City.

 

Even looking at the likes of Faes, Vestergaard, Daka, Coady, Kristiansen, Mavididi and Skipp you've got players here who have played in and won plenty of games in the Premier League or Europe's top 5 equivelants, in UEFA continental competitions and, in some cases, playing for their country.

 

I think the squad lacks depths in some key areas but even with the injuries I think we're able to put out an 11 that I'd be confident would be beating any side currently in the bottom half if Enzo was still here.

 

But almost every player on the planet is going to look shit if the team around him isn't a team. We are an abject mess, there's no plan, there's no structure, there's no tactics. A guy with next to no management experience just threw a change of formation together today and sent a bunch of demoralised and despirited young men out on to a football pitch with minimal instructions to play one of THE most settled and well coached teams in the league. What did anyone think was going to happen?

 

Individuals look like better players when the team around them is playing, at very least, as the sum of its parts if not more so. Midfielders look shit when the passing options aren't there, forwards look shit when nobody creates chances for them, defenders look shit when they're alone and isolated with no support and a chaotic mess of a defensive shape and EVERYONE makes more brain-fart mistakes when they're scared, under pressure and lacking confidence.

 

I don't feel like we can particularly write off most of the players in the squad right now when a lot of this team has only played together in the Premier League under Cooper. Anyone suggesting that last year we looked poor is a moron, we absolutely smashed the league despite almost every team parking the bus and making life hard. We won probably the most competitive Championship season is recent memory and we did it with an absurd amount of points and goals.

 

There's loads of potential in this side to come together, put in a good run and stay up. How many people were on here in 14/15 when we were rock bottom saying things like "I'm sorry, the players just aren't good enough" and suggesting the likes of Danny Simpson, Marc Albrighton and even Wes Morgan weren't cut out for the Premier League? I doubt any of you moaning bastards lurking are honest enough to put your hands up and admit that was you.

 

Yeah, sure, we could probably use with an injection of quality in January if we want to give ourselves a better chance but the biggest thing the squad needs right now is just an injection of spirit and self belief because it'd have an enormous impact on how they played, individually and collectively.

 

[coolhandfox]

Stop tying to play open, expansive football, that doesn't mean going long, just simple patterns of play.

 

Play a simple system, where everyone understands there role and responsibilities, structured and stick with it.

 

Shot ourselves in the front we spent 45m on Skipp and El Khannouss and don't play them.

 

 

Edited 30 November 2024 by coolhandfox

[pazzerfox]

I’m genuinely baffled by the calls for Cooper to go. While I’ve been aware for some time that the squad wasn’t up to scratch, I actually think Cooper has been doing reasonably well with the players at his disposal. Yes, the style of play hasn’t been anything to write home about, but given the limitations of the squad, I believe he’s been trying to keep us competitive and stay in games. My concern is that if we suddenly shift to a more expansive style, we could end up on the receiving end of some heavy defeats. 

[Matt]

42 minutes ago, Ross 'LCFC' Turner said:

Is this the most dislikable squad ever? A handful of them aside, I hate the majority 

Nah. Not at all, no where near.

 

This lot are simply just not good enough.

 

The lot who got us relegated were top players, who have gone on to be picked off by teams in European competition, they are players who engineered moves away while not being arsed and phoning in performances resulting in our relegation. That's unlikable.

 

Edited 30 November 2024 by Matt