Ric Flair Posted 20 April 2005 Posted 20 April 2005 After watching another typical Leicester performance last night it frustrates me immensly that we bring our problems on to ourselves. We talk about how inept our players are, but the fact is we technically have better players than nearly every team in this league. As Brian Clough once said 'there are alot of managers that make football complicated, the one's that do will always fail' or along those lines anyway. The fact is we are complicating things at Leicester, when we have a full squad to choose from we persist in playing players out of position. In almost every match it seems one or two of the players take it upon themselves to let us down by either commiting god awful mistakes or getting sent off and leaving us in the shit. These two examples are basic mistakes, mistakes that shouldn't happen. If we work as a unit and get the basic things right then we can move onwards, but if we continue to let ourselves down then we'll keep going round in circles. There has been a cycle this season where we've played relatively well, but apparently 'luck has gone against us' and lost or drawn. Then we've played badly and apparently 'deserved what we've got'. It's gone on and on, but the reason why we've not been winning games is because if you leave yourself exposed in the most basic of areas then time and time again however well you play, you'll shoot yourself in the foot. I've watched Leicester for 15 years and this season and last season has been the first time that myself as a fan could honestly see what the root cause of our problems was. I've seen us way out of our depth before fighting for results and losing matches, but you can accept that if you're technically not good enough. But when a team brings things on theirselves it's criminal of the highest rank. So when people get defensive when fans question what the club is doing, giving people time isn't good enough as an answer. Levein might well be on his way to righting a few wrongs, but I can see him starting to make the same mistakes others have as in team selection, substitutions, discipline, etc. If we get the right components and mould them together we'll succeed it's as simple as that. Time is needed, but it's not essential. 6 months of day in, day out training with players is enough time to stamp your authority and assess what the problem is. We are lucky we've just about scraped through the most embarassing season of our history because these basic aspects we are doing wrong, would be even harder to put right in an even lower league than we are in. I'm not getting at Levein as this club has been run badly for a fair few years and if the root cause is deep enough then you can't rip it out and start again as quickly as some fans would like. But i'm sick and tired of watching us make these same mistakes time and time again. It's groundhog day over and over again, but Bill Murray isn't the lead part unfortunately and this isn't acting it's for real and I wish it wasn't. Lay down the basic foundations of a football team, keep things simple and the quality will come through. If we haven't got the quality then obviously we won't succeed, but in my opinion i've seen teams alot worse than ours achieve things. 6 things we need to get right before we can achieve are: 1) Play players in their strongest position at all times if possible. 2) In this day and age subsitutions aren't required just to cover injured players. They are there to be utilised so changing things during the match is a good thing as it can freshen things up. This must be done, if a player or a team as a whole has been unsuccessful for 60 or 70 minutes chances are they'll continue to be ineffective for the whole 90! 3) The team must work as a unit, defending together and attacking together. Set pieces aren't that hard to defend mark your man, defend your patch and get it clear. Easier said than done? It's taught at school boy level, not that advanced is it? 4) Discipline. Our discipline has been awful for years, any bookings/sendings off for dissent or other inexcusable reasons should be punished. Players should be fined and dropped if need be. Allowing this to happen time after time and costing us points is unforgivable and Levein needs to sort it or take the blame himself. 5) Pick players on merit and merit only. Picking them because of their reputation is wrong and especially in this league. I have found that in The Championship it's about who wants it the most and not just about who's got the best players/ego, etc. So if a youngster is performing well in the reserves, give them a chance. Stearman is proof of this, confidence in this league can go a long way to securing 3 points. Younger players also don't have any respect for anyone and all they want to do is play football, not line their pockets just yet. 6) Motivation. This and discipline is something I thought Levein would instantly install as he seems to be that kind of character. There seems to be no motivation or if there is then the players are letting Levein down deliberately. If they won't respond to motivation, hit them hard where they'll feel it most. If we get those basic things right along with a few others i've no doubt missed out then we won't go far wrong. Organisation, discipline, motivation and keeping things simple is what we need most. Quality will always come through, always. O'Neill kept things simple, although things always look simple when things are going successfully but that's the whole point. When the shit hits the fan, everything is put under scrutiny and people go nit picking. Start from the basics if they are in place and working and things are still unsuccessful then the problems lie elsewhere but ours clearly start from the lack of discipline in most things we do as a team. We have the nucleus of players that can be successful in this league and Levein will no doubt add to that, so as far as i'm concerned the resources are there to succeed and if we don't then there's a damn good reason for it. The manager and club have failed, we are good enough and we are in a position to improve the resources so the club and manager need to lay down the simple fundamentals to take this club forward. Every team that's currently successful will have these fundamentals in place, some that aren't successfull will too but we haven't and that's where we are going wrong it's as simple as that. Ask anyone in football and they'll tell you the importance of the things we are doing wrong, it's easy it honestly is. The end.
Fox in a Box Posted 20 April 2005 Posted 20 April 2005 A club is like a machine/engine. You have certain parts of a engine that wears out or get old. These need replacing before something bigger in the engine goes. You service your engine on regualr intervals to stop these occurances happening. All the smaller parts are vital to making the engine work. The ball boys, the canteen, the youth set up, the laundry, the reseves, the directors, the team, the admin, the ticketing. Without these all pulling in the same direction it causes a strain. I feel this is the hangover from administration and La manga and about 50 playing staff turnover in two years, whatever qualities DB/HW/MA had technically the things that matter the most may not have been addressed correctly. I feel the slump is due to engine not running to its best potential, we need a person CL to Identify how to correct this. Results are one thing that cannot be pre determined, It can be luck of the draw on the day, the other issues should be looked at right from the bottom up. If players arnt happy, let them go, if we have players from a prev regime (canero) let them go... If tickets are selling then offer at reduced rates to create a better atmosphere. Paul Mace and Co. speak highly when things are positive but can you find them when things arnt rosy in the garden. Martin George is a true man of his word and never i repeat never hid under any stone or left any stone unturned. Back to Basics yes thats the way we have a tremendous setof fans and a staduim to boot. I dont care for results anymore this season, I had high hopes but thats all changed. A big shake up is needed and someone with the nerve to do it.....stability is a must A hope CL has the foresight to see all this, he inherited 90% of everything LCFC. The only thing in his error so far is an unfit, unscoring MDV. IM WAITING FOR THE TIDE TO CHANGE ...good luck for next year CL
Ric Flair Posted 21 April 2005 Author Posted 21 April 2005 Totally agree with Hoof, spot on there. Great post.
Fox in a Box Posted 21 April 2005 Posted 21 April 2005 Totally agree with Hoof, spot on there. Great post. 96290[/snapback] yeah and fox in the box!?
shen Posted 21 April 2005 Posted 21 April 2005 Totally agree with Hoof, spot on there. Great post. 96290[/snapback] :laugh:
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