It's the Ball that counted

[Manwell Pablo]

Thracian - let me stop you there... you are talking rubbish.

Porter giving the ball away and making poor decisions is nothing to do with his team mates. Constantly when there are people in space, he'll try something stupid.

I don't want to get on his back, I think he has a decent future here... but everything you say about him is complete garbage and it won't help him one bit.

You should know how it works by now.

Player who is liked gives ball away - lack of options

Player who is disliked gives ball away - poor pass

Player who is liked is unfit - fault of coaching staff

Player who is disliked is unfit - fault of player

player who is liked scores a goal whilst on loan to Rochester Village from 6 yards- Rave, rave, told you so, damn site better than horsfield he'll tell you that much, fantastic variety of goals.

player who is disliked scores vital equaliser agaisnt top of the table after skinning a centre back twice and finishing tidily - He'll have to a damn site more to impress me.

King= god

Jarret=devil

[The People's Hero]

You should know how it works by now.

Player who is liked gives ball away - lack of options

Player who is disliked gives ball away - poor pass

Player who is liked is unfit - fault of coaching staff

Player who is disliked us unfit - fault of player

player who is liked scores a goal whilst on loan to Rochester Village from 6 yards- Rave, rave, told you so, damn site better than horsfield he'll tell you that much, fantastic variety of goals.

player who is disliked scores vital equaliser agaisnt top of the table after skinning a centre back twice and finishing tidily - He'll have to a damn site more to impress me.

King= god

Jarret=devil

Manwell - Spot on. Good bit of tellin' it like it is.

[Thracian]

Thracian - let me stop you there... you are talking rubbish.

Porter giving the ball away and making poor decisions is nothing to do with his team mates. Constantly when there are people in space, he'll try something stupid.

I don't want to get on his back, I think he has a decent future here... but everything you say about him is complete garbage and it won't help him one bit.

Porter was used in an particularly defined role by Kelly and had little movement around him.

He generally retained possession well but often had a serious shortage of options and I wish we could sit with a video and I'd demonstrate precisely what I mean because I've rarely seen a professional team as static as Leicester - and in almost every area.

But we can't watch a video so, as usual, we'll agree to disagree.

[London_Fox]

I've rarely seen a professional team as static as Leicester - and in almost every area.

I'd have to agree with Thracian on that bit at least. We are a very static side. What makes watching the great teams play so good is the space they make for each other by moving off the ball, we don't do that one bit. That could be because we lack the quality to do, it could be the coaching, it could be the style of play we employ here.

Porter giving the ball away is often because he is young and inexperienced. With time he will learn to pick the right pass at the right time better (some people like Maybury never will) and his game will improve. Give the kid some time though!

[Phube]

You should know how it works by now.

Player who is liked gives ball away - lack of options

Player who is disliked gives ball away - poor pass

Player who is liked is unfit - fault of coaching staff

Player who is disliked is unfit - fault of player

player who is liked scores a goal whilst on loan to Rochester Village from 6 yards- Rave, rave, told you so, damn site better than horsfield he'll tell you that much, fantastic variety of goals.

player who is disliked scores vital equaliser agaisnt top of the table after skinning a centre back twice and finishing tidily - He'll have to a damn site more to impress me.

King= god

Jarret=devil

No really I'm lost (stupid), who is this your referring to??

[potter3]

No really I'm lost (stupid), who is this your referring to??

Fryatt I think..

[The People's Hero]

I'd have to agree with Thracian on that bit at least. We are a very static side. What makes watching the great teams play so good is the space they make for each other by moving off the ball, we don't do that one bit. That could be because we lack the quality to do, it could be the coaching, it could be the style of play we employ here.

Porter giving the ball away is often because he is young and inexperienced. With time he will learn to pick the right pass at the right time better (some people like Maybury never will) and his game will improve. Give the kid some time though!

I didn't disagree with all the post, I realise that Leicester City have been static for the last few years. Hume isn't though... and neither is Hughes... Hughes has often played poorly in terms of execution, but he's always on the move and his movement off the ball is sounds. Yeates too... for all his deficiencies, showed willingness to move. RK must shoulder some of the blame, but so must the players.

Like Manwell says - when Fryatt shows lack of movement, Thracian is straight on his back. When Porter can't be bothered/lacks the ability, it's because he's been told to stand still/give the ball away/play sh it.

It's laughable, it really is.

The thing is Porter isn't a bad player, so Thracian's rubbish does him no favours!

[Geo V]

I wouldn't play him as a winger in the first place and wouldn't have played 4-4-2 either. Nor would I have played static players, defensive left-backs, negative midfielders, people who weren't fit or strikers that weren't either fit or functioning.

Porter would have played in a three-man midfield with attacking full-backs and three strikers so he'd have been able to take his choice from a range of passes, attacks would have been pressed and we wouldn't have been begging for goals.

I agree about people improving by playing witb better players though - and Christiano Ronaldo is surely the best contemporary example. The bloke is barely recognisable from when he joined the club. United are brilliant at giving him early ball and finding him space to drive at people one v one. But then their players never stop moving for each other.

They've worked on making him 100% positive in everything he does, from the pace of his drive at people to his choice of final ball, be it pass or shot.

Porter is not the ideal but Maybury would stare at him for ages before he fed him the ball, meaning all the space was squezed. Speed of pass from defence is vital yet we have defenders who can't pass to save their lives and only Wesolowski's return has helped to counter that.

Levi in central midfield wont work at all.

As for your example of Ronaldo, we`ll he was a different class player already and just needed his diving about and selfishishness to brush up. He has added goals to that but still needs to improve as the game against Milan showed when he didnt runback or want to pass. Levi hasnt got the raw attributes in abundance like someone like him. What are Levi`s strengths for you to want to play him in central midfield or in a midfield 3?? Having 4 midfielders in place and Levi in the middle wouldnt work in a million years never mind 3.

The time has come where you stop going on about every single academy player and trying to accomodate them into the team somehow and get realistic and accept that a few academy players should be featuring but the time has come to up the quality in the first team and maybe send Levi out on loan somewhere instead of making him out to be the next Steve Gerrard or Ryan Giggs!! Get real man, get real!

[The People's Hero]

Comparing Porter to Ronaldo reminds me of Thracian's post about Elvis Hammond when he said 'I don't understand why Rooney doesn't get slaughtered for being occasionally offside'.

He just doesn't appreciate the gulf in quality.

[Thracian]

Manwell - Spot on. Good bit of tellin' it like it is.

Typical nod of agreement from TPH for whom anything that makes fun reading is liable to get a nod whether it bears any relation to the truth or not.

Yes I have players I think merit their place more than others but anyone who scores is a hero to me at the time - we don't score often enough to ignore them or not celebrate.

But, for instance, four goals a season from a frontline striker is unacceptable. It has sod all to do with "not liking" the bloke.

And with Horsfield two goals in whatever is another misfire.

If either scored, say, one goal in 2.5/3 games I'm sure I'd be singing his praises. Liking and disliking don't come into it.

With any player I'd try to sort problems but if I failed I'd drop my own son if he was a striker and not scoring at the rate expected as anyone who knows me would readily confirm.

I'd drop Porter too if there were better options but what you and Manwell consider good players and what I consider good players are totally different on occasions.

And so it will always be, I suppose.

[Manwell Pablo]

I'm only going to say this once more.

CRISTIANO, IT'S FUKING CRISTIANO, NO FUKING H.

Thank you.

[Geo V]

Typical nod of agreement from TPH for whom anything that makes fun reading is liable to get a nod whether it bears any relation to the truth or not.

Yes I have players I think merit their place more than others but anyone who scores is a hero to me at the time - we don't score often enough to ignore them or not celebrate.

But, for instance, four goals a season from a frontline striker is unacceptable. It has sod all to do with "not liking" the bloke.

And with Horsfield two goals in whatever is another misfire.

If either scored, say, one goal in 2.5/3 games I'm sure I'd be singing his praises. Liking and disliking don't come into it.

With any player I'd try to sort problems but if I failed I'd drop my own son if he was a striker and not scoring at the rate expected as anyone who knows me would readily confirm.

I'd drop Porter too if there were better options but what you and Manwell consider good players and what I consider good players are totally different on occasions.

And so it will always be, I suppose.

Peoples opinions are usually respected by others if they dont hold any bias. The problem with you is that you have a strong acadamy lean and whatever any of the players do in your book is right and you hardly ever talk of dropping them. If we get Hendrie and Murphy in midfied you`ll somehow want to accomodate Levi and King. If we sign Todorov and Fowler you will be screaming at getting Dodds playing behind them as a link man or Gradel on the wing. The day you actually put your hand up and say "Yes, Ive made a mistakem Elvis is shite" or maybe a "Dodds hasnt progressed as his early potential showed and maybe isnt right for this Leicester City side" will be a day that people actually started agreeing with some of your posts. Maybe its because your about 70 that its difficult for you to say you made a mistake or that you were wrong on something ???!!

[The People's Hero]

I'd drop Porter too if there were better options but what you and Manwell consider good players and what I consider good players are totally different on occasions.

Yes, we consider ability, application, fitness etc.

You just consider age.

Glad we've found we can agree on this though.

[Thracian]

Peoples opinions are usually respected by others if they dont hold any bias. The problem with you is that you have a strong acadamy lean and whatever any of the players do in your book is right and you hardly ever talk of dropping them. If we get Hendrie and Murphy in midfied you`ll somehow want to accomodate Levi and King. If we sign Todorov and Fowler you will be screaming at getting Dodds playing behind them as a link man or Gradel on the wing. The day you actually put your hand up and say "Yes, Ive made a mistakem Elvis is shite" or maybe a "Dodds hasnt progressed as his early potential showed and maybe isnt right for this Leicester City side" will be a day that people actually started agreeing with some of your posts. Maybe its because your about 70 that its difficult for you to say you made a mistake or that you were wrong on something ???!!

Exactly when have we had King and Porter competing with Hendrie and Murphy in midfield?. I'll tell you who we had in midfield - we had few-goal Hughes, no-goal Jarrett, one-goal Johnson, one-goal Tiatto, one-goal Williams and if you think I'm going to admit to being wrong about preferring King or Porter you'll wait a long time.

And Dodds was competing against 4-goal Fryatt and two-goal Horsfield, hardly prolific Hammond so you'll wait a while on that one too.

But if you honestly believe I'd mention Dodds in the same breath as Todorov, Fowler and Solksjaer you must think me five bullets short of a barrel-full. But had Dodds been here it would still have been no reason to have a perfectly promising striker standing around unfit and idle.

Elvis too was up against the same sort of players and remains ahead of all of em as far as goals are concerned. The reality is that I'd never have dreamed of signing him but seeing he was here he deserved to be judged on what he did not how he looked and he did a damned site more than Horsfield and Fryatt so decision wise it wasn't a problem.

You talk about my bias but how often have the pots that call the kettle picked the likes of Fryatt this season without any just cause whatsoever or any indicatioon that the lad was even close to hitting form.

My conscience is clear and the same goes for Gradel seeing we've had two goals all season from recognised wingers Newton and Yeates, the odd goal fromHughes (when in central midfield) and Gradel would never have gone through any season scoring less than a few and making a few more.

No, I don't necessarily think he ready for the first team. But I do think he's better than five or six options we chose before Newton. and he's quite possibly a better bet than Newton too.

There is no sentiment with me regarding players, young or old, legends or tossers.

But some of the players who have been chosen by people on here to wear our shirt wouldn't have got close to a team of mine, nor the second team either. And you have the gaul to call me biased and unwilling to admit mistakes.

Broadly I've touted Sheehan, Logan, Porter, Mattock, Dodds, Gradel and King for our team, or our bench, so far. Sheehan's been injured, Dodds, King and Gradel ignored and the other three have more than held their heads up...as has Hammond by comparison to others.

So, no apologies. I see no clangers within the options available.

But given better options, they'll be on the bench and learning again. Ready to make the 20/30 minute appearances they should be making as part of a proper apprenticeship and proper acclimatisation to first team demands.

[Geo V]

Exactly when have we had King and Porter competing with Hendrie and Murphy in midfield?. I'll tell you who we had in midfield - we had few-goal Hughes, no-goal Jarrett, one-goal Johnson, two-goal Tiatto, no-goal Williams and if you think I'm going to admit to being wrong about preferring King or Porter you'll wait a long time.

And Dodds was competing against 4-goal Fryatt and two-goal Horsfield, hardly prolific Hammond so you'll wait a while on that one too.

But if you honestly believe I'd mention Dodds in the same breath as Todorov, Fowler and Solksjaer you must think me five bullets short of a barrel-full. But had Dodds been here it would still have been no reason to have a perfectly promising striker standing around unfit and idle.

Elvis too was up against the same sort of players and remains ahead of all of em as far as goals are concerned. The reality is that I'd never have dreamed of signing him but seeing he was here he deserved to be judged on what he did not how he looked and he did a damned site more than Horsfield and Fryatt so decision wise it wasn't a problem.

You talk about my bias but how often have the pots that call the kettle picked the likes of Fryatt this season without any just cause whatsoever or any indicatioon that the lad was even close to hitting form.

My conscience is clear and the same goes for Gradel seeing we've had two goals all season from recognised wingers Newton and Yeates, the odd goal fromHughes (when in central midfield) and Gradel would never have gone through any season scoring less than a few and making a few more.

No, I don't necessarily think he ready for the first team. But I do think he's better than five or six options we chose before Newton. and he's quite possibly a better bet than Newton too.

There is no sentiment with me regarding players, young or old, legends or tossers.

But some of the players who have been chosen by people on here to wear our shirt wouldn't have got close to a team of mine, nor the second team either. And you have the gaul to call me biased and unwilling to admit mistakes.

Broadly I've touted Sheehan, Logan, Porter, Mattock, Dodds, Gradel and King for our team, or our bench, so far. Sheehan's been injured, Dodds, King and Gradel ignored and the other three have more than held their heads up...as has Hammond by comparison to others.

So, no apologies. I see no clangers within the options available.

But given better options, they'll be on the bench and learning again. Ready to make the 20/30 minute appearances they should be making as part of a proper apprenticeship and proper acclimatisation to first team demands.

But surely the talk now should be about next season and the team then? I do wonder what you will say and which of the academy kids you will be begging to be included if we do manage as expected to up the quality in personnel over the next few weeks.

I for one would love more real quality kids to make the first team if they warrant the position but now it should be all about signing seasoned pro`s who are hungry and can actually assist in the development of the youngsters coming through the academy. The first team should want to see the younger players joining in and something that I read about Academy kids and first team which stuck in my mind was Sir Alex Feerguson when he was trying to put a side together at Man Utd in the early days. Ryan Giggs skinned Viv Anderson in a practice and from that point Viv disliked what happened and the rest of the squad would ask Sir Alex practically every week "when is young Giggs joining the first team squad". Once our first team is at a good enough level I hope that some more of the succesful academy players make it into the first team squad but I hope the bar is raised and the its harder to get in because I have serious doubts if Levi. Logan, COG and Weso would have played as many games if they were at say Derby or a Sunderland???

[Manwell Pablo]

Exactly when have we had King and Porter competing with Hendrie and Murphy in midfield?. I'll tell you who we had in midfield - we had few-goal Hughes, no-goal Jarrett, one-goal Johnson, two-goal Tiatto, no-goal Williams and if you think I'm going to admit to being wrong about preferring King or Porter you'll wait a long time.

And Dodds was competing against 4-goal Fryatt and two-goal Horsfield, hardly prolific Hammond so you'll wait a while on that one too.

But if you honestly believe I'd mention Dodds in the same breath as Todorov, Fowler and Solksjaer you must think me five bullets short of a barrel-full. But had Dodds been here it would still have been no reason to have a perfectly promising striker standing around unfit and idle.

Elvis too was up against the same sort of players and remains ahead of all of em as far as goals are concerned. The reality is that I'd never have dreamed of signing him but seeing he was here he deserved to be judged on what he did not how he looked and he did a damned site more than Horsfield and Fryatt so decision wise it wasn't a problem.

You talk about my bias but how often have the pots that call the kettle picked the likes of Fryatt this season without any just cause whatsoever or any indicatioon that the lad was even close to hitting form.

My conscience is clear and the same goes for Gradel seeing we've had two goals all season from recognised wingers Newton and Yeates, the odd goal fromHughes (when in central midfield) and Gradel would never have gone through any season scoring less than a few and making a few more.

No, I don't necessarily think he ready for the first team. But I do think he's better than five or six options we chose before Newton. and he's quite possibly a better bet than Newton too.

There is no sentiment with me regarding players, young or old, legends or tossers.

But some of the players who have been chosen by people on here to wear our shirt wouldn't have got close to a team of mine, nor the second team either. And you have the gaul to call me biased and unwilling to admit mistakes.

Broadly I've touted Sheehan, Logan, Porter, Mattock, Dodds, Gradel and King for our team, or our bench, so far. Sheehan's been injured, Dodds, King and Gradel ignored and the other three have more than held their heads up...as has Hammond by comparison to others.

So, no apologies. I see no clangers within the options available.

But given better options, they'll be on the bench and learning again. Ready to make the 20/30 minute appearances they should be making as part of a proper apprenticeship and proper acclimatisation to first team demands.

[lee7]

Exactly when have we had King and Porter competing with Hendrie and Murphy in midfield?. I'll tell you who we had in midfield - we had few-goal Hughes, no-goal Jarrett, one-goal Johnson, two-goal Tiatto, no-goal Williams and if you think I'm going to admit to being wrong about preferring King or Porter you'll wait a long time.

And Dodds was competing against 4-goal Fryatt and two-goal Horsfield, hardly prolific Hammond so you'll wait a while on that one too.

But if you honestly believe I'd mention Dodds in the same breath as Todorov, Fowler and Solksjaer you must think me five bullets short of a barrel-full. But had Dodds been here it would still have been no reason to have a perfectly promising striker standing around unfit and idle.

Elvis too was up against the same sort of players and remains ahead of all of em as far as goals are concerned. The reality is that I'd never have dreamed of signing him but seeing he was here he deserved to be judged on what he did not how he looked and he did a damned site more than Horsfield and Fryatt so decision wise it wasn't a problem.

You talk about my bias but how often have the pots that call the kettle picked the likes of Fryatt this season without any just cause whatsoever or any indicatioon that the lad was even close to hitting form.

My conscience is clear and the same goes for Gradel seeing we've had two goals all season from recognised wingers Newton and Yeates, the odd goal fromHughes (when in central midfield) and Gradel would never have gone through any season scoring less than a few and making a few more.

No, I don't necessarily think he ready for the first team. But I do think he's better than five or six options we chose before Newton. and he's quite possibly a better bet than Newton too.

There is no sentiment with me regarding players, young or old, legends or tossers.

But some of the players who have been chosen by people on here to wear our shirt wouldn't have got close to a team of mine, nor the second team either. And you have the gaul to call me biased and unwilling to admit mistakes.

Broadly I've touted Sheehan, Logan, Porter, Mattock, Dodds, Gradel and King for our team, or our bench, so far. Sheehan's been injured, Dodds, King and Gradel ignored and the other three have more than held their heads up...as has Hammond by comparison to others.

So, no apologies. I see no clangers within the options available.

But given better options, they'll be on the bench and learning again. Ready to make the 20/30 minute appearances they should be making as part of a proper apprenticeship and proper acclimatisation to first team demands.

one goal williams he got he important goal against hull

[Thracian]

one goal williams

Easily forgotten!

[Thracian]

But surely the talk now should be about next season and the team then? I do wonder what you will say and which of the academy kids you will be begging to be included if we do manage as expected to up the quality in personnel over the next few weeks.

I for one would love more real quality kids to make the first team if they warrant the position but now it should be all about signing seasoned pro`s who are hungry and can actually assist in the development of the youngsters coming through the academy. The first team should want to see the younger players joining in and something that I read about Academy kids and first team which stuck in my mind was Sir Alex Feerguson when he was trying to put a side together at Man Utd in the early days. Ryan Giggs skinned Viv Anderson in a practice and from that point Viv disliked what happened and the rest of the squad would ask Sir Alex practically every week "when is young Giggs joining the first team squad". Once our first team is at a good enough level I hope that some more of the succesful academy players make it into the first team squad but I hope the bar is raised and the its harder to get in because I have serious doubts if Levi. Logan, COG and Weso would have played as many games if they were at say Derby or a Sunderland???

I won't be begging for anyone to be included who doesn't deserve a place cos they're better than what we have.

And I too hope the bar is raised.

As someone mentioned, the youngsters' progress ought, theoretically, to be faster with better players around - but only if someone has the strength of character to see they get a fair chance and are not denied that chance because of bigger wages being paid for signings from outside.

[Guest]

Already been covered - they were next to top the previous season too with virtually the same personel so it's perfectly clear these lads are above average for their level and have been for a while.

And when we did have a reserves team, we often played much of the same side in both competitions because there seemed to be a policy not to play returning first team players in the Reserves unless they particularly requested/agreed to it.

Ridiculous, I know, and apologies if I'm wrong, but that seemed to be how it worked and it seemed to be implied at a supoporters meeting with the club when the subject of a reserves team was brought up.

This meant the crop who are in and around the first team now had considerable experience against strong/adult players whereas the next group will not have had anything like that opportunity.

What fans meeting was this?

[Jonbluefox9]

What fans meeting was this?

Could be this one as it says that you weren't in attendance and the topic of the Reserve league was brought up?

Link

[blue blood]

weso porter and ball are all short, only time will tell if they first two win the same level of accolade as ball.

[The People's Hero]

I'd like to point out that I'm short and unfit too, so going by Thracian's selection criteria, it's a neck and neck battle between Weso and myself for that central midfield slot.

[The People's Hero]

And here I am thumping in a volley. What do you reckon Thracian. I'm only 23... but I was 8 once. Honestly.