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

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

22 minutes ago, dannythefox said:

So what. Cooper didn’t rate Ricardo, probably in our top 3 players at the club.

Ricardo has hardly set us alight when he's played this season. Shadow of the great player he was before injury. 

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

1 hour ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

There’s still absolutely no doubt in my mind that we have a better squad than Ipswich, Everton and Southampton.

 

I don’t think our squad it too dissimilar to the likes of Palace and Wolves either and Fulham aren’t exactly streets ahead.

 

We just look incredibly poorly coached as a team and add in the fact that Faes is an absolute bomb scare then that’s why, performance-wise, we are lucky to not be BOTTOM of the league.

 

Ruud will command respect and hopefully he gets in the right coaching staff to get us going again. 
 

I believe Ruud will believe in Alves, too. 
 

With 3-4 additions in January we should be absolutely fine. 

Our defence options are poor. That's a big issue. 

[Edingleyfox]

I cannot see a lot of money being spent in January so Leicester are going to need to make the best of the squad they have. IMO playing only 3 attacking players as has happened on a few occasions will invite pressure on the best of defences. Everything feels like  a damage limitation compromise that is not getting the best out of anyone. I'd like to see more of Vesty and Bilal they are quality passers of the ball. Could we not recall Souttar Sheffield United have conceded 9 goals in 18 games this season.

Edited 1 December 2024 by Edingleyfox

[Stadt]

The best thing we can do defensively is to play much further up the pitch. Thankfully RVN likes to press high.

 

VK, Faes, Okoli and Justin are better suited to that than defending the box for 70 minutes. 
 

Under Cooper we were abysmal as soon as we lost possession, RVN just being a million percent more contemporary with his methods than 2018 Cooper will go a long way.

 

We know this can score goals, we can’t keep many clean sheets so we’re going to have score two and three a game to win. We don’t achieve that playing with three central defenders.

[dannythefox]

3 hours ago, Cadno'r Cymoedd said:

Ricardo has hardly set us alight when he's played this season. Shadow of the great player he was before injury. 

Played twice in the league and got injured mate 

[honeybradger]

Does anyone else feel that looking at the money we've spent on players over the last few years and the quality of the squad right now that they could do a better job at recruitment than the club has done?

 

It barely seems professional the way the club has been run looking at the players we have at our disposal and the quality of players you can find with about 20 minutes of research that are available on the market for cheaper prices than we bought our players.

[StevieH]

These days it's all about work rate and intensity and keeping the ball when you get it back. Problem is we are rubbish at all three!

[Dahnsouff]

33 minutes ago, StevieH said:

These days it's all about work rate and intensity and keeping the ball when you get it back. Problem is we are rubbish at all three!

Not sure that’s true, getting the ball back is our second best thing, following only picking the ball out our own net…

[Ric Flair]

I still believe in a chunk of this squad. It looks bleak right now with the added injuries to a crucial player like Fatawu + a few others but I think we can get to 35-40 points.

[Cadno'r Cymoedd]

6 hours ago, dannythefox said:

Played twice in the league and got injured mate 

He's gone sadly. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

We CAN put out the core of ateam that's good enough,

 

Mads

Okoli

Vestergaard

Winks

Ndidi

Buonanotte

Mavadidi

Vardy

 

it's if Ruud can get the best out of them, but I don't think it would be very flexible and certainly no strength in depth.

 

Long term injury to Riccardo and Fatawu haven't helped, two of our most creative players.

 

Ruud needs to find a system to play essentially the same players every game with very little rotation. Some of our squad really are just making up the numbers.

 

Maybe, just maybe, RVN can get a tune out of the likes of BDR or Soumare or Choudhury.

 

I can hope.

[john ridley]

I'm  sure Ruud knows what's needed ,after all he did a job on us twice  so he'll have  some idea .It may take till some loans or signings  in January come in but he'll  know by now a shake up is needed.

[dmayne7]

We should know better than anyone how much difference having players with high confidence can make. Literally the difference between a good prem player and bang average championship player. Unfortunately, some of these guys are never going to get back to heights they once hit, or at least don't look like doing so (Vardy, Ndidi, JJ, Ricardo etc). Still, a bit of confidence and enthusiasm could completely change the makeup of the team.

 

Biggest issue is that we are absolutely desperate for some players in lots of positions now; RB/LB, CB, LW/RW and a ST. Ideally would still get a more dynamic midfielder in there, ala KDH but that's bottom of the list. Defensively something has to change and we have to find a way to replace Abdul

[dmayne7]

6 hours ago, honeybradger said:

Does anyone else feel that looking at the money we've spent on players over the last few years and the quality of the squad right now that they could do a better job at recruitment than the club has done?

 

It barely seems professional the way the club has been run looking at the players we have at our disposal and the quality of players you can find with about 20 minutes of research that are available on the market for cheaper prices than we bought our players.

I think we all feel like that at the best of times! But I do think that plenty of us would at least have been more cohesive in our approach.

 

Take Skipp for example. I actually think he's a pretty good player who's been underused and given his age, English tax etc, not necessarily a terrible value deal, if we needed another home grown player. However, in the context of limited funds, how desperate we were for a ST/another Winger/strengthening the defence, and worst of all, the fact that we already had 3/4 defensively minded midfielders, it was an absolutely mental transfer. It's that complete lack of any strategy behind the deals that is so infuriating.

[J. James]

I said when Cooper was appointed that he would "need to be a tactical genius to keep us up and he aint that".

 

I get why people wanted him out, l didn't like watching us either, but l honestly think he got close to the best out of the dross we have, and sadly l don't believe any manager that would come here will do any better, and RvN is very far from the best atm.

 

Clearly lots of the most vocal Cooper outs also believe this squad is not good enough to survive, hence they are saying now that we need serious talent in January, why should this be the case if it was all down to Cooper l ask myself.

 

The fact is our owner and dof gave him all the ingredients to make dumplings and sacked him when he didn't produce a wedding cake!

 

But apart from ability there is also their attitude, which, reading between the lines frankly stinks, if they took their "Copenhagen night club" attitude onto the pitch then its little wonder that Cooper left certain players out and is it possible he was being undermined by players who didnt want to play his way?

 

Probably not, they are quite simply rubbish.

 

I was also of the opinion that hiring Cooper was wrong and that he was set up to take the fall for the owner and directors total mismanagement - well he has and now he's gone.

 

But sadly the real reasons for our rapid and accelerating decline have not.

 

 

[honeybradger]

22 minutes ago, dmayne7 said:

I think we all feel like that at the best of times! But I do think that plenty of us would at least have been more cohesive in our approach.

 

Take Skipp for example. I actually think he's a pretty good player who's been underused and given his age, English tax etc, not necessarily a terrible value deal, if we needed another home grown player. However, in the context of limited funds, how desperate we were for a ST/another Winger/strengthening the defence, and worst of all, the fact that we already had 3/4 defensively minded midfielders, it was an absolutely mental transfer. It's that complete lack of any strategy behind the deals that is so infuriating.

I think we would all be relatively happy with Skipp if he was bought for £5mil. He's decent enough and can do a job as a rotation player. Even for that price maybe you would look for a player with a higher ceiling than him. For example you can get someone like Lennon Miller for £5mil.

 

Us spending £20mil and not getting a player who is  definitely good enough to start at PL level in the position we were in this summer is ludicrous, it really is.

 

Add in the fact that this sort of business (spending large amounts on mediocrity) has been our transfer strategy since 2019 and there really should have been some senior people at this club sacked by now. There were a few exceptions like Fatawu and Fofana but even then we spent a lot of money on them. I just wish we would go back to our old strategy of buying low and selling high.

[Lichfieldfox.]

On 30/11/2024 at 19:17, adam said:

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.

Like Gary Taylor -Fletcher?