Massive concerns

[hackneyfox]

Oh get a fooking grip mate. I think you need to get real. We've conceded 3 goals 3 times this season. And it's our 5th Fixture tonight. How many times did we concede 3 goals last season?

I can think of Bristol City (Home) Watford (Away) WBA (Away) and Forest (Away)

I need to get a grip?

Your post is hysterical.

The team has changed and will continue to change, hopefully for the better, but if we'd have won all 3 games you'd be running around praising Sousa as the second coming.

Grow up

[Mack]

Whilst I share many of your concerns, I'm trying to keep my gob shut and give the bloke a fair crack of the whip. Negative comments snowball on here and other forums, we've all seen it before and it does nobody any good.

Exactly my thoughts.

[Heskey2011]

I think the problem isn't down to the manager but more so the timing,

When a new manager is appointed during the season, the players have a chance to prove themselves immediately in important matches, this sometimes creates a bit a run and the new manager simply can't change playing styles,if it aint broke you don't fix it, only minor gradual changes happen like Spurs with HR

Sousa came in after a massive disappointment after the playoffs, and some players will have had time to impress during training, but as anyone would know who's seen city train there's a massive difference in applied ability shown in competitive games and effort/skill shown in training.

I went to 3 of the pre-season friendlies and honestly the boys just didn't look up for it, defensively and in goal Weale looked well off pace, i'd love to know where the lack of motivation coming from, the Swansea fans i've spoken to said we wouldn't concede many goals this season but that's not happening (i know boro and Burnley are top teams) so what can be done? Worth noting that DJ looked a different class in these games i can only imagine we was playing for contract at City or elsewhere.

off to Leeds tonight, praying for a decent performance hopefully kick starting the season,

Got to give Sousa the support he deserves, he did a great job in wales and to be honest we're stuck with him for at least a year, can't afford the payoff!

I'll be singing loud and proud tonight, have faith in Paulo let's turn it around.

[LCFC-Till I Die]

The problem was nigel pearson, he had too many loans that were all going to go back so we therefore had to start again, that is what sousa is doing

[Corky]

It is a worrying start, not just the points but the defence that is completely different from the mostly resolute force it was last season.

Two wins this week will go a way to settling some concerns no doubt. We are trying to play a different style of football which will take some time to adapt to, but as davieG said in the post-match thread there doesn't seem to be the togetherness and determined attitude that was prevelent before.

Sousa deserves time to show what he is about but the concerns so far are understandable.

[Tommy G]

I think the problem isn't down to the manager but more so the timing,

When a new manager is appointed during the season, the players have a chance to prove themselves immediately in important matches, this sometimes creates a bit a run and the new manager simply can't change playing styles,if it aint broke you don't fix it, only minor gradual changes happen like Spurs with HR

Sousa came in after a massive disappointment after the playoffs, and some players will have had time to impress during training, but as anyone would know who's seen city train there's a massive difference in applied ability shown in competitive games and effort/skill shown in training.

I went to 3 of the pre-season friendlies and honestly the boys just didn't look up for it, defensively and in goal Weale looked well off pace, i'd love to know where the lack of motivation coming from, the Swansea fans i've spoken to said we wouldn't concede many goals this season but that's not happening (i know boro and Burnley are top teams) so what can be done? Worth noting that DJ looked a different class in these games i can only imagine we was playing for contract at City or elsewhere.

off to Leeds tonight, praying for a decent performance hopefully kick starting the season,

Got to give Sousa the support he deserves, he did a great job in wales and to be honest we're stuck with him for at least a year, can't afford the payoff!

I'll be singing loud and proud tonight, have faith in Paulo let's turn it around.

Much better in comparison to the miserbale goofs that surround this forum.

Don't let them drag you down to their depressed level

Up the City!

[hackneyfox]

but as davieG said in the post-match thread there doesn't seem to be the togetherness and determined attitude that was prevelent before.

Sousa deserves time to show what he is about but the concerns so far are understandable.

The lack of togetherness is hopefully down to the fact that over half of them will no longer be with the club by the end of second transfer window.

If you can't pass a ball then you must know that it is only a matter of time till you are replaced.

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

I've had a few beers on my lunch and i'm sat at my desk watching videos of fookin Japanese midfielders and other foreign players we've been linked with. The problem with this is, how many foreign players actually make an impact outside of the premiership in England?

If you add that to the fact that our current crop of players from last year look a shadow of their former self and there is a disaster waiting to happen. Sousa will get the sack soon, mark my words and then we'll be left with a plethora of players who will need to be shipped on by our next manager as they won't fancy them, this happend under Allen and Holloway and cost us a fortune.

I can't help but be disillusioned with what's unfolding at Leicester, even the takeover has left me feeling uneasy. I'm now having to pin my hopes on Robbie Neilson, Matt Oakley and Steve Howard to try and win us games that will keep this club afloat. Hoping and praying that Mandaric and Hoos stay for a while too, so that we atleast have someone with a basic knowledge of English football to appoint a new manager is a farce given it's these clowns that have been responsible for a hideous ratio of shithouse managers.

It just get's worse. Pinning all our hopes on DJ Campbell, a player who hasn't wanted to be here since Allen got the sack and i'm sure he was delighted that Sousa rejected several bids for him. DJ will be a waste of space again soon, I can see it and that is another £1.5 million and a seasons wages down the bastard pan. The relentless offsides and glaring misses have become more evident since the opening game of the season.

I wasn't buying in to this rumour at first, that the players were unfit with Paulo's new regime but look at the injuries we have already picked up. Vitor, Gallagher, Weale, Dyer and Fryatt all in quick succession. It just adds insult to injuries.

Our defending has been atrocious in the games i've seen us play so far and I cannot accept that. It doesn't look to be a minor blip either, Sousa has blantantly got them trying to play a zonal marking system and they can't. Nigel had Hobbs, Berner, Morrison and occasionally Neilson playing very well as a unit and teams would never rip us apart. It's unforgivable and no doubt he'll think he needs 4 new defenders and waste more money.

This whole summer has been an utter disgrace and i'm sure some of you will find my outburst ludicrous, but i'm genuinely serious. We are heading for relegation under Sousa and god knows what else.

I expect him to be removed within the next 6 weeks. Season over already for me.

What an over reaction! How many beers did you have? You even slag off Ian Hollaway, who got Blackpool promoted to the Premiership.

Typical knee jerk reaction.

[RowlattsFox]

Most people thought we were decent after the Middlesboro game but one poor performance later and we're going to get relegated again. I'm not getting worried yet, it's too early and I can't be bothered to read about misery, I've not looked in the Burnely Post-Match thread because I know what it will be like.

Middlesboro and Burnley will both be up there come end of the season and they are good teams, Pearson had a poor record against the top teams last year, if by end of September we are still struggling then I may consider joining the negative bandwagon.

I don't think we'll go up this year, a season in midtable probably beckons. Sousa proved last year he can get a side near the playoffs, he'll just have to figure out and adapt his style to the players he has at his disposal.

[Edmund]

I share your concerns Mr Flair. It's just a gut feeling. I don't have the same positivity as I did in the last two seasons.

My main gripe is with the on goings over the summer and how we just couldn't accept stability. The way Pearson left and Sousa came in raises so many questions which haven't been answered and the fans have had the wool pulled over their eyes with transfer figures.

[MrSpaM]

Can't help but feel like if we win tonight all this ranting about the unfit squad and useless manager will mean nothing any more.

I can't believe people are looking for Sousa's head after 3 games.

We've had a very tough start, and have been playing catch up since Pearson left.

The only thing i really agree with is we need a proven goalscorer, but from what i can fathom from Sousa's interviews, is this is the position thats being looked at last, this worrys me slightly.

[Salieri]

Most people thought we were decent after the Middlesboro game but one poor performance later and we're going to get relegated again. I'm not getting worried yet, it's too early and I can't be bothered to read about misery, I've not looked in the Burnely Post-Match thread because I know what it will be like.

Middlesboro and Burnley will both be up there come end of the season and they are good teams, Pearson had a poor record against the top teams last year, if by end of September we are still struggling then I may consider joining the negative bandwagon.

I don't think we'll go up this year, a season in midtable probably beckons. Sousa proved last year he can get a side near the playoffs, he'll just have to figure out and adapt his style to the players he has at his disposal.

This is key at the moment. It's all very well wanting to play passing, attractive, attacking football but if the players don't possess the necessary skills then you're fighting a losing battle. He needs to be flexible and try to get the best out of what he has at his disposal.

In time, as he makes new signings and creates a team of his own making then hopefully his ideas will come to the fore and generate success, but in the meantime he has to be patient.

Sometimes you have to fit a system around the players, dependant on what attributes they have, and not the other way around.

[hackneyfox]

Most people thought we were decent after the Middlesboro game but one poor performance later and we're going to get relegated again. I'm not getting worried yet, it's too early and I can't be bothered to read about misery, I've not looked in the Burnely Post-Match thread because I know what it will be like.

Middlesboro and Burnley will both be up there come end of the season and they are good teams, Pearson had a poor record against the top teams last year, if by end of September we are still struggling then I may consider joining the negative bandwagon.

I don't think we'll go up this year, a season in midtable probably beckons. Sousa proved last year he can get a side near the playoffs, he'll just have to figure out and adapt his style to the players he has at his disposal.

Spot on although I would sooner he adapted the players (discard and buy new ones) to his style of play.

[Jon the Hat]

Don't Drink and Drivel.

[MC Prussian]

I'm not concerned, rather only slightly worried about the current development of our season.

Yes, it's only three league games played and with a new manager come new brooms and a new style of play.

I think what we've been lacking in the past 7+ years was a bit of consistency and when you have a guy like Nigel Pearson staying with the club for two years, dragging it out of League One back to the Championship and even into a Playoff Semi-Final, I and many others was/were really, really looking forward to a new dawn and exciting times ahead.

Letting Pearson go was a bad move. But that's just my two cents about the story. It wasn't the nicest of decisions and it was certainly at a very bad point in time.

Sousa has had little time to get to know the players (they must've loved waiting for and guessing the new manager themselves, eh?), so what we're witnessing now in the beginning of the 2010/11 campaign is essentially the continuation of a rather short off-season, with players not yet fully in sync with the system.

Going from Pearson's solid tactics to a one-touch football kind of game is almost a 180-degree turn. How can you expect players to change that quickly?

However, buying a couple of new, foreign players in quite a short amount of time (panic purchases?) and throwing a player like Moreno into the first team so rapidly, without any prior experience in English football, hasn't helped, either.

Basically, I wonder how much Sousa identifies with this club and I wonder about his real commitment.

Oftentimes, I still think of that popular scary scenario that Sousa was only brought in to make the club more attractive to a potential buyer.

That's not a very sportive decision and it hurts in a way to see the owner(s) taking care of their own business, yet for the price of losing out on all that has been built on in the past two years.

We're essentially starting from scratch. Again.

Not just because he's Portuguese (and thus Latino), Sousa seems to be a strange man to figure out.

He appears to have a hard time communicating his philosophy to the players - personally, his post-match interviews and the few appearances on the Phone-In haven't instilled me with too much confidence.

I'm only asking myself: "What is it that he's talking about?" "Does he know what he's talking about'?" "Is he angry at himself for not being able to be any clearer/more specific?"

Could very well be that Sousa himself is battling with the thought that he himself was only brought in as a "tool" in the grand scheme of things. Not too encouraging a position to start in, is it?

Or maybe Oliveira acts as a translator, who knows.

In any case, the players need more time to adapt to the new regime and it is slower than they'd had probably hoped.

This ain't the typical moaning exercise - I have the utmost respect for Sousa and he deserves a lot of credit of what he has achieved at Swansea.

But let's be honest: Expectations at Leicester differ massively from those in South Wales.

They were really lucky to finish just outside the playoffs, whereas we were almost thrown back to the glory of the Premier League days when we met Cardiff over two legs in May and almost had them on the verge of losing out.

The definition of success is different. We nearly had a taste of top-flight football a couple of months ago and I think this year, Sousa will have to overcome a lot of hurdles to keep up with people's positive image of Nigel Pearson.

There's always the fair amount of (healthy) scepticism going around in the Leicestershire area, especially now with the first ever Non-UK manager at the helm of the club.

I am looking forward to the 40+ games to follow this season and I am confident that we'll get back on a winning track - but it'll very probably just take more time than some Leicester fans are ready to accept.

I hope there won't be too many fans calling for some heads to be chopped off should we not be able to repeat the feat we've had under Pearson.

Bite the bullet. Blame the chairman (if there's anyone to blame) for setting his own priorities right and placing financial success ahead of sportive success.

Now, where has that new signing gone...?

[Samilktray]

Pearson got sacked?

[Bellend Sebastian]

It's a shite start for sure, but I'm not unduly worried because the bloke's come into the club with a plan that's more at odds with the previous set up than that of some of his predecessors, so I think it's bound to take a while for things to get moving. I'd be surprised if turns out to be an O'Neill-esque situation where it gets to the point where nearly everyone is wondering what the hell is happening before it comes good, but I'm sure that at some point, sooner rather than later the team will put together a good run of results and we'll all be pretty pleased with how it's going. Before the season started I didn't think there was much chance of us steamrollering the division with the current squad, and I think that whoever was going to be in charge would be doing very well to match last season's showing without spending serious cash.

Some of the stuff that's come out about the sports science department, fitness regime etc does sound a bit worrying, but I find it hard to believe that someone that's played where he has to the standard that he has isn't going to have a pretty full understanding of the importance of such things and is going to neglect them, even if the emphasis on certain elements changes a bit

[Stig the Lawnmower]

The problem was nigel pearson, he had too many loans that were all going to go back so we therefore had to start again, that is what sousa is doing

that's a fair point. sousa does need time to build his own team, and i'm sure he will be succesful. I know it's been said before, but look at fergies start at united all those years ago. we need stability and of course need to stick with sousa, anybody who calls for his head at this stage is a willy puller.

[Fez of Mahrez]

Heading into injury time on Saturday, it suddenly felt like the end of something that should only just be beginning. The booing from the away section as Sousa and the players trudged towards us, where the tunnel was placed, felt very wrong. Not that I want to get into a discussion about the merit of booing your own players or management. It's just that the atmosphere was that of the end of a managerial spell (Taylor and Adams spring to mind) rather than the start.

It was fuelled by one or two of the more vocal members of our support, one of whom blamed it on Sousa's "lack of passion" as if the World Cup hadn't just happened.

I think fans base a lot of their views on the recent past and, unluckily for Sousa, that includes a period where we signed some terrible foreigners. It would be the same if he was buying wholesale from the SPL. City fans are suspicious of anyone coming in from abroad. Where previously it was exciting, now a lot of our supporters are just waiting for one poor performance to label them the next Kaebi or Kermorgant.

It's tough when the season starts with poor results and the conspiracy theories come out. Who was at fault for the breakdown in relations between Pearson and other, more powerful, figures at the club? Who wanted Pearson to move to Hull? Was it him or someone else? Again, we only have the recent past to base it on and the mystery surrounding Martin Allen's departure.

For me, despite all of the above, the key factor is that a new manager needs to be able to count on a winnable fixture at the start of the season. For us, that was probably the Palace game on the opening day. A few minutes of madness at the back and that was down the pan.

The pressure increases for Boro, who are not making the most of their squad but still possess some top players for this level, and we couldn't quite nick that one.

And it builds for a trip to Burnley and now a trip to Leeds and, even if we win tonight - which I would say is very unlikely - we then have to face Reading with a huge amount riding on a game against a team with some excellent players. They could easily do again to us what they did at the end of last season. Three or four tough games to start the season with and there is already anxiety.

By the time the "easier" games come around, our "easier" opponents might be viewing playing us as the "easier" game.

I just hope there isn't an overreaction to tonight's result if it goes against us. Leeds away is difficult at any time. We didn't win it under Pearson either. They played really well against Millwall at the weekend and it sounds as though Grayson is going to stick largely with the same team to maintain momentum.

Regardless of tonight, the main thing is to ensure there is a positive atmosphere on Saturday.

[hackneyfox]

Oh get a fooking grip mate. I think you need to get real. We've conceded 3 goals 3 times this season. And it's our 5th Fixture tonight. How many times did we concede 3 goals last season?

I can think of Bristol City (Home) Watford (Away) WBA (Away) and Forest (Away)

And you're the one who posted:

'Leicester944, on 23 August 2010 - 12:45 AM, said:

Your talking out your arse.

When he played for us, he spent most of the time on the deck. Whenever he was through on goal, he'd hit the floor, try get a foul. He can't score for shit.

Why should a player like Steve Howard, (Who has had a great end to last season, and a decent start to this season) be pushed out to make way for a signing, that will only be here to boast to other clubs.

It's bullshit. Just because the guy is supposedly 'a legend' when in my eyes, he wasn't much kop here when he started out. A Leicester City legend for me, is the likes of Weller, Worthington, Banks, Lineker, Walsh, Shilton. Not Emile Heskey.

Let the quick-fired ripping of my opinions commence. It's my opinion.'

Many people think that you can judge a person's knowledge of football by what they think of Heskey.

Says it all.

[Bryn]

Ric Flair's post echoes my own worries precisely.

[Callabinho]

Pearson got sacked?

He left, he was still here when Hull approached him.

[WardyisPukka]

Jesus Christ seriously what has this forum come to !! wat a joke some of you are !! bellends in fact!! THREE FRICKIN GAMES !! NEW SYSTEM , NEW MANAGER , NEW PLAYERS , yes ill be worried if we havent won a game by the middle of september but its still august !!

[Bellend Sebastian]

Jesus Christ seriously what has this forum come to !! wat a joke some of you are !! bellends in fact!! THREE FRICKIN GAMES !! NEW SYSTEM , NEW MANAGER , NEW PLAYERS , yes ill be worried if we havent won a game by the middle of september but its still august !!

And there I was sticking up for him!

I don't know why I bother

[Guest Basildon Fox]

There is far too much hysteria at the moment. Whilst I have concerns the biggest problem for Sousa is he is following a manager who hasn't failed when managing us. The rather lame smoke screen of we gave him permission to speak to Hull without thinking he would really go has many (including me) a little dis-enchanted with the club. The fact that PS was at the Cardiff game seems to indicate that this is all a set up which was done for the new owners.

Unfortunately because of the poor start we have had this has exasperated peoples negative feelings towards PS and it seems to be catching. People need to get behind the team at the moment as negativity will spread through to the team and before you know it they will end up with a relegation fight on their hands. At the end of the day you can not blame PS for taking the chance to manage a bigger club than Swansea and 3 league games it not enough to start calling for his head and doubting what he can do. As has already been said by others we almost made that mistake under O'Neil and where would we have been if he had jumped ship?