Style of play

[Corky]

1 hour ago, CosbehFox said:

Irony being Man City are now uber direct. Went to a shot saving keeper this summer. Use their wingers and full backs for crosses. Aim to get the ball as quickly as possible into Haaland whose the most physical striker going 

It'll take a while to catch up. We still view Southampton as the role model based on what they did in 2014. By 2037/38 we will have changed our philosophy.

[coolhandfox]

Forget about style we need to get back to basics, fitness/running, organisation, good culture.

 

Build the foundations before your worry about putting the roof on.   

[ceebeefox]

2 hours ago, FoxinNotts said:

We have two strikers on the books, Daka and Evans (I don't include Ayew as a striker. He should be used sparingly, to come on, as a replacement for Abdul, on 80mins, and nothing more!)

We have currently two fit 'number 10's' (if you can call them that, as I'm not convinced with either, for differing reasons). Page and Bobby Reid.

 

I think our best formation with the current state of the squad would be to line up as a rigid 4-3-3. The biggest problem with our squad is we have no fit creative number 10 (barring Page who is yet to prove himself).

4-3-3 a la Eddie Howe's Newcastle is the way forward for us.

 

RB-CD-CD-LB

CM-CM-CM

Abdul - Daka/Mavididi - Monga

 

Stop this side to side nonsense, get it up the pitch quickly, through the lines.

Like everything you’ve said there, but, for time on the ball in the hurry scurry of championship midfields and vision and speed in tackle and thought I’ve seen enough of Page to say he has proven to be the equal or better than all bar James.

He needs more game time.

[Dan]

It's just astounding to me that we can win the league in the style that we do and then obsess over the literal total opposite.

 

I think our general recruitment, fitness, attitude etc... are bigger issues, but what he's said in that interview substantiates this idea that he wants to play in this kind of way and it's a problem. Our fans collectively will never resonate with slow football and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. You only had to see the reaction to Maresca, who was successful.

[cityfanlee23]

I'd love to see a really chaotic Klopp/Rangnick style system here, straight from the Red Bull playbook (I'd happily see us become RB Leicester over King Power, Red Bull please buy us if you're reading this) But we would need to really adopt that over the summer rather than right now, this system requires players to really understand the system and know when to press, and requires players with good agility and stamina to press effectively, so it wouldn't work right now. 

The big issue right now, is that it's the job of the club to set out a blueprint, then the job of the staff to follow it, the problem is, the board/ownership are not capable of building a good foundation, previously it was Pearson who developed that foundation and Puel revitalised it. 

Right now we need a strong manager to come in, kick over a few tables and set the club back onto the right path, signing young, hungry players who have a point to prove and will run through walls for the club, the manager needs the freedom to bring in like minded staff, and as a club we should be nurturing those staff members for internal promotions. The assistant manager should not just be an assistant manager who leaves the moment the manager gets sacked, the assistant manager should be a viable option to take over and continue the work, much like Keith Andrews has done at Brentford, and how Red Bull bring through coaches and managers through their network of clubs. 

LCFC should not just be trying to develop players, we need to develop coaches too. None of this is possible with the clownshow we have running the club, we need to somehow find a Pearson style manager, or bring in a Rangnick style Director of Football/Technical Director. 

[BrilliantFox]

1 hour ago, cityfanlee23 said:

I'd love to see a really chaotic Klopp/Rangnick style system here,

Will Rangnick leave Austria after the World Cup? Another reason why its best to wait till summer to make the permanent managerial decision.

[cityfanlee23]

10 minutes ago, BrilliantFox said:

Will Rangnick leave Austria after the World Cup? Another reason why its best to wait till summer to make the permanent managerial decision.

Not sure, I know management wasn’t really his priority a few years ago but international is obviously much less demanding than club management. 
 

So I guess if they do well and he feels they have some good talent coming through over the next 4 years he might stick around, but I’d imagine if the right club offer comes in he might call it a day, even if he stayed at Austria, an advisory role could work alongside it maybe?

 

 

Edit: 🤣🤣🤣🤣 who am I kidding, the club probably don’t even know who he is, we would end up with Ralph Wiggum 

Edited 26 January by cityfanlee23

[BrilliantFox]

13 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Not sure, I know management wasn’t really his priority a few years ago but international is obviously much less demanding than club management. 
 

So I guess if they do well and he feels they have some good talent coming through over the next 4 years he might stick around, but I’d imagine if the right club offer comes in he might call it a day, even if he stayed at Austria, an advisory role could work alongside it maybe?

 

 

Edit: 🤣🤣🤣🤣 who am I kidding, the club probably don’t even know who he is, we would end up with Ralph Wiggum 

The thing with Ragnick is, he needs a DoF who shares his vision. Because he would want to do "open heart surgery" at Leicester City and rebuild the squad in his image.

We have quite a few lazy players who would need to be sold.

[murphy]

. 

Edited 26 January by murphy

[lcfc sheff]

9 hours ago, AjcW said:

I went to watch Notts County on Saturday.

 

They've adopted my preferred approach to football which is a bit of a combination of passing football and direct football.

 

They pass it around but they do it at speed and it goes forward, even if they risk losing it at times.

They also play with a clear target man, he's there for crosses as they get it out to their wingers quickly, he's also there as an escape route if they're pressed in defence or midfield and need to get it up quickly. 

 

I think more managers are moving towards this style now. Sadly not the ones we keep hiring  

although their fans give their owners a grilling at times, they’ve got a really good system and remind me of a lower league Brentford. 
 

we could do with their kind of thinking 

[AjcW]

12 minutes ago, lcfc sheff said:

although their fans give their owners a grilling at times, they’ve got a really good system and remind me of a lower league Brentford. 
 

we could do with their kind of thinking 

I think it's understandable why their owners get a grilling, it's a hard concept to put in place at Non League/League 2 level with that sort of staunch old school support.

 

They seem to have got the manager right this time round, definitely need to go up this year though.

[StevieH]

I've said it before we are just not physical enough for the Championship. Apart from our centre halves we are lightweight all over the park. We are a small side that gets bullied off the ball and loses individual duals all over the park. Fans say bring the youngsters in but they are all lacking physicality as they are still developing. Look at Oxford on Saturday all big guys who bossed the game.

[Mike Oxlong]

7 hours ago, demon_dog said:

Went to the women's game yesterday, although they lost they showed far more passion and commitment to playing the game than this present bunch of men!

Football was also far more entertaining, not to much tippy tappy around at the back 

You football slut 🤣👍

[lcfc sheff]

7 minutes ago, AjcW said:

I think it's understandable why their owners get a grilling, it's a hard concept to put in place at Non League/League 2 level with that sort of staunch old school support.

 

They seem to have got the manager right this time round, definitely need to go up this year though.

I’ve gone to quite a few games especially recently, a lot of their fans are Cretins to put it nicely. 
 

I think they’ll go up this year but the beauty in what they are building is that the club is becoming more sustainable each year. I really like the fanzone area “the nest” and the padel courts outside I use regularly 

[AjcW]

7 minutes ago, lcfc sheff said:

I’ve gone to quite a few games especially recently, a lot of their fans are Cretins to put it nicely. 
 

I think they’ll go up this year but the beauty in what they are building is that the club is becoming more sustainable each year. I really like the fanzone area “the nest” and the padel courts outside I use regularly 

Assumed you were Sheffield

 

The infrastructure they're building is great, and the other revenue streams like you say. We're looking to do a work event in the nest during the world cup, it's great!

 

I was left wondering what they do with the ground as they potentially grow though. Might be worth them tarting up a stand each year if the money is there!

[lcfc sheff]

5 minutes ago, AjcW said:

Assumed you were Sheffield

 

The infrastructure they're building is great, and the other revenue streams like you say. We're looking to do a work event in the nest during the world cup, it's great!

 

I was left wondering what they do with the ground as they potentially grow though. Might be worth them tarting up a stand each year if the money is there!

Went uni there! 
 

If they get to the stage the ground becomes an issue then they would’ve done a very good job to get there

[Analysethis]

I`d go for passing from the back, maybe a spot of Counter attack. Champions of England........

 

I think we need to learn that we have to pay to our strengths. This passing it about from the GK makes me panic, especially as the ball heads for some of our slow coach midfielders with someone bearing down on their backs.

 

We need to be a bit more pacey with the ball and look forward. I also want to see lots more movement. Those running stats that I saw somewhere the other week that we run the least of any team in the league was worrying. A new manager needs to get these lot running. We just need to be 6-0 up though as you know the tank will be running on empty for the 2nd half.

[Sly]

Whilst we have Stolarkzyk as a goalkeeper, no point in us adopting a philosophy of ball retention. He’s not good enough to play the sweeper / keeper role and become the 11th outfield player. 
 

Our next challenge is though, that we lack both fitness and physicality in my opinion. That is understandable when you consider our squad has lots of younger players who are still developed in

 

For me though, it’s got to be a 4-3-3 setup as we don’t have the players to play any other way. We aren’t going to dominate the ball, therefore we need to be slightly more directly. 
 

You sort of end up with:

 

GK - Stolarkzyk - Shot stopper, needs to command area better.

LB - We need a fullback that can support higher and push us up the pitch. Ricardo is the one to this as he doesn’t invert as much at left back. It sort of isolated Mavididi being ineffective at left back with any other fullback. Kristiansen is an option once fit.

 

CB - Vestergaard, for the more directly, accurate passing out to the wide players if we go more directly.

 

CB - Nelson, as above with Vestergaard. If Nelson is playing left back, It’ll be Souttar or Okoli. 
 

RB - Choudhury, however he needs to up his game and not invert. He’s playing wide to generate space for Fatawu to cut inside. He needs to sit in behind him and get forward to overlap where possible. He’s one that has the physical attributes and an engine. He needs to use it correctly. 
 

CDM / Double Pivot - Skipp and Winks, purely so he can do the ball winning role and become the water carriers with the press. 

 

10s - I’d go with James or Ramsay as an option, should he ever be fit. Page is an option but he’s better later in games. 

 

Front free is Mavididi, Daka and Fatawu.

 

Daka needs to play just to push the other team back, as they’ll be worried about him running in behind. We’ve allowed so many teams to squeeze us when we can’t keep the ball, which caused our own problems. 
 

Again, Monga and Thomas can be options late in games. 
 

We than go directly from the centre backs to the wide areas, using the midfield to press for the 2nd ball if it isn’t won. The double pivot helps with this. 
 

We need out wide players to isolate fullbacks and not rely on them to be deeper undertaking defensive work.
 

The entire team needs to tilt though once we play the ball out to either wide player. We’ve been terrible at this all season. If it goes out to Fatawu, the entire team needs to shuffle to that side. Skipp

needs to hold his position and pick Up opposing 10s breaking the lines. The centre backs hold the line so they don’t get caught. Something Faes was so guilty of. 
 

We also need to sort out press out and do it as a team. Currently it’s all over the place. 
 

 

 

 

 

[AjcW]

Interesting to hear him say "Football has changed from Pep Guardiola football to everyone throwing it into the box"

 

It's a ****ing basic assessment but at least it means he's aware he needs to drop the obsession.

[Sly]

3 hours ago, AjcW said:

Interesting to hear him say "Football has changed from Pep Guardiola football to everyone throwing it into the box"

 

It's a ****ing basic assessment but at least it means he's aware he needs to drop the obsession.

Football goes though cycles. 
 

However one style doesn’t dictate the world

of football. Whilst Pep was doing his thing, Simeone was still playing a much darker arts game and we were counter attacking.

 

The reality is on us, we have played that can’t adapt, or aren’t as effective. Once Tielemans, Maddison etc were gone; we were in effect a pound shop Pep club from 10 years ago. 

[Tommy G]

Get fit for starters, then try and keep clean sheets (not got the personnel for that unfortunately) and play some fast flowing attacking football. A bit like 2016??

[Russell sprout]

On 26/01/2026 at 10:56, BrilliantFox said:

The only style of play I want is winning football. I think we are going to get exactly that.

 

That’s wot we all want but if your suggesting 

Andy king will be a front footed manager when he was a backwards,

sideways player,

then your gonna be left disappointed