We need a bigger boat!

[sphericalfox]

Sven has worked miracles so far with the squad and limitations he has been forced to deal with. January will be the month where he can be judged on real transfers and tactics he can use following this. At the minute he is clearly fed up of the square peg round hole scenario.

I have explained more in detail here. I think our season can commence from here. Though I imagine a few contributors will disagree.

Spherical Bloggins

Feedback welcome as per usual!

[Zingari]

perhaps we could try not rocking the one we've already got first

[Trav Le Bleu]

Nicely written, but you don't explain why Sven can't play 4-4-2 with the players he's got. Why not field Dyer, Abe, King, Vassell as a midfield 4? or why not go MON style 3-5-2 (personally I think Cunningham and Naughton would be excellent as wing-backs). He's not REALLY stuck with 4-3-3 now is he? He's got options.

Which worries me slightly, becuase if he can't see options already maybe a bigger boat is just gonna attract a bigger shark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBIxJ331vzs

[sphericalfox]

Nicely written, but you don't explain why Sven can't play 4-4-2 with the players he's got. Why not field Dyer, Abe, King, Vassell as a midfield 4? or why not go MON style 3-5-2 (personally I think Cunningham and Naughton would be excellent as wing-backs). He's not REALLY stuck with 4-3-3 now is he? He's got options.

Which worries me slightly, becuase if he can't see options already maybe a bigger boat is just gonna attract a bigger shark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBIxJ331vzs

Sorry Trav, Sven has stated in interviews, and I mentioned this in previous articles on my blog, that he feels we do not have the strength in midfield to play 4-4-2, that whilst we have a technical, good passing midfield, in a roundabout way of trying to say the players a easily shoved off the ball.

That'll be why I've been suggesting to those who'll listen that we need the likes of Stephen Ireland/Alan Smith or the like. With Richard Dunne commanding a CB.

[sphericalfox]

perhaps we could try not rocking the one we've already got first

I think this boat needs rocking.

Sven is the man to do it in my opinion. If we continue on the way we are going will soon be shipwrecked

[Jon the Hat]

There is not a chance in hell of any of those three dropping to the championship.

[sphericalfox]

There is not a chance in hell of any of those three dropping to the championship.

Alan Smith must have taken a vacation last year then, either that or got his twin brother to play for him instead.

All three mentioned have got connections with Sven, and are the type of players Sven has been rattling on about needing to improve the squad. He has said that he is going for Prem players. Name other Prem players that fit our needs and have those level of connections with Sven. You'll struggle. If we got one of those listed I'd be a very happy man.

[cc_star]

Stephen Ireland, Alan Smith and Richard Dunne are not going to drop down to a club which has zero chance of getting in the play-offs.... Celtic is beckoning, plus clubs like Wolves, West Ham, Birmingham, Wigan Fulham & the new super-rich Blackburn will surely be interested.

but at least have steel about them and are far more plausible than the renta-celebs like Owen, Beckham & Thierry Henry who would add nothing but headlines in the Bangkok Post

Sven only has himself to blame, he has 75% of the defence that was amongst the best in the country to call on, and he has added to it with 4 signings of his own & he still can't stop the leaky defence thanks to his appalling motivation skills & total & complete lack of tactical awareness... If something's not working, change it - don't keep plugging away with exactly the same thing expecting the outcome to be different.

[sphericalfox]

Stephen Ireland, Alan Smith and Richard Dunne are not going to drop down to a club which has zero chance of getting in the play-offs.... Celtic is beckoning, plus clubs like Wolves, West Ham, Birmingham, Wigan Fulham & the new super-rich Blackburn will surely be interested.

but at least have steel about them and are far more plausible than the renta-celebs like Owen, Beckham & Thierry Henry who would add nothing but headlines in the Bangkok Post

Sven only has himself to blame, he has 75% of the defence that was amongst the best in the country to call on, and he has added to it with 4 signings of his own & he still can't stop the leaky defence thanks to his appalling motivation skills & total & complete lack of tactical awareness... If something's not working, change it - don't keep plugging away with exactly the same thing expecting the outcome to be different.

Have you actually read the article I wrote? I am suggesting that Sven's has had to deal with the limitations of the loan market to improve a defence that was totally demoralised and disheartened. He probably knew this was going to be a temporary stop-gap until he got to a transfer window to do something abou it. Also he has said specifically that we are weak in midfield, and is loking to sort this out as he would prefer to play a 4-4-2. All adding up to options tactically and a variety of formations to choose from.

Whilst I appreciate that you've given up hope, or simply dislike Sven and anything he's doing, he's hardly able to motivate players who don't want to play for fans like your good self. I am assume with your positive outlook on things you must be a motivational speaker.

Quick get yourself down the Walkers, cos Sven doesn't know what he's doing!

[B52]

Sa club which has zero chance of getting in the play-offs....

Sven only has himself to blame, he has 75% of the defence that was amongst the best in the country to call on, and he has added to it with 4 signings of his own & he still can't stop the leaky defence thanks to his appalling motivation skills & total & complete lack of tactical awareness... If something's not working, change it - don't keep plugging away with exactly the same thing expecting the outcome to be different.

Wich team do you support?

Clearly not Leicester.....

Why "zero chance of getting in the play-offs"??? Are you a ****?

So we had 75% of the countrys best defence.

[cc_star]

Wich team do you support?

Clearly not Leicester.....

Why "zero chance of getting in the play-offs"??? Are you a ****?

So we had 75% of the countrys best defence.

Sorry, but what a dick, you really think those players would turn down Celtic, Birmingham, West Ham, Wigan, Fulham, Wolves & Blackburn for a minimum of 1.5 season's in the 2nd tier, perhaps if Sven had put a run together to put us within a realistic chance of the playoffs, but not after this abysmal spell.

I've supported Leicester all my life & always will do but it doesn't mean I have to be blind like plenty of gullible fools seem to be (feel free to include yourself in this group)

No team has ever gotten into the playoffs from our position... Of course that doesn't mean we can't, but looking at Sven's record so far I've seen nothing to suggest we're capable of a record breaking points haul in the 2nd half of the season... We can't even do it for 90mins, nevermind get over 2 pts per game for whole remainder of the season to reach 74pts (the average for 6th place AFAIK)

No we didn't have 75% of the country's best defence, but Leicester were one of the best defences in the country last season & we still have 75% of that back 4 available.

The LOLs are all on you & blind sheeple like you I'm afraid

[Alpha Gifts & Awards]

Now, now - you have different views, that's OK!

[Thracian]

Sven has worked miracles so far with the squad and limitations he has been forced to deal with. January will be the month where he can be judged on real transfers and tactics he can use following this. At the minute he is clearly fed up of the square peg round hole scenario.

I have explained more in detail here. I think our season can commence from here. Though I imagine a few contributors will disagree.

Spherical Bloggins

Feedback welcome as per usual!

It's hard to take anything seriously when it's based on such an untruth as your first sentence.

Sven has not worked any sort of miracle not even in a footballing sense. Holloway guiding Blackpool to eighth on £3m opens the eyes even if his world subsequently collapses.

Grayson taking his workmanlike Leeds into promotion contention perhaps deserves an honourable mention.

But Leicester lingering in the bottom third of the table with the "limitations" of the money Sven's had? Do me a favour.

Any half-decent manager in the world, thwarted in using one system or by the limitations of his players, would come up with answers to cope. Hell, we seem to play well enough to win most games at some stage of procedures and our shots/chances statistics don't point to any great problem with players not coping with systems.

Put simply, you're making excuses for the bloke.

Just like we make excuses for the performance of certain players because they come from the Premiership, play in the world cup, have an exotic foreign name or have persuaded the boss to pay them big wages.

I'll read your blog anytime. But go away and have a think first. Cos talking about the "limitaions" poor old Sven has to deal with is laughable.

The bloke has contacts and a certain panache. He wants to play some decent football too. All big plusses. But what I'm doubtful about is whether Sven could take any footballer you might name and make him play better than he's ever done before.

I've seen no evidence and am not sure he's tactically astute or a psychological mastermind either. Nor does he seem to be a man who can just recognise brilliant players so that all he needs to do is assemble them and watch em play.

I've seen very little on-field improvement in our technical failings. Be it corner kicks, free-kicks, throw-ins, goalkeeping distribution, movement off the ball, cross-overs and dummies, fast closing down, more accurate shooting, onfield aspects of leadership, nothing seems to have improved. We show the same basic inadequacies as have been around for ages.

I'd even accept it if there were signs that we were trying to change yet making errors in doing so. But generally we're not.

Wellens is shooting more and sometimes there are signs that the whole team has been urged to shoot. Sometimes too we nervously try a different type of corner. But even then it's all so short lived. We show no real conviction - any more than we do for the idea of playing pass-and-move football. At the first sign of failure we either hide or resort to nothingness football.

Of course we can't play short, fast passes on snow. But we can still pass and move. A big pass so the chance of en-route error is negated and the feed-ons or feedbacks can be picked up by fast-supporting runners like Ipswich did. But we don't. Too often we don't much do anything until we're shown the way by the opposition.

But there have been examples of what we're capable of - and often enough to make a nonsense of Sven's "limitations". Doncaster second half, Oldham first half, Leeds when we played em away in the Cup and many more.

But even when we have success we never build on that. Instead of Sven inspiring more of the same he makes unnecessary changes and leaves players wondering what they have to do to please the guy.

Something just doesn't seem right to me. Whether too many promises have been made to players with too high an opinion of themselves I don't know. Or whether perhaps the internal atmosphere is being poisoned by the outcasts or by the demands of the owners, it's all a mystery. Whatever, the cancer's have to be treated and our team picked on merit by the manager and for footballing reasons.

And it shouldn't matter because if Sven's as good as his publicity he should be able to take a perfectly ordinary bunch of footballers and make them something special. A bit like Pearson in terms of results - or Holloway to my great surprise. But then Holloway isn't doing what he did at Leicester, is he? He's having a go.Going for goals. And that's what we've got to do.

Cos cheap publicity will soon turn to sniggering laughter if we carry on as we are.

i

[cc_star]

@ Thracian

Amen to all that

It doesn't feel right & it's feeling less right all the time IMO.

[B52]

No team has ever gotten into the playoffs from our position... Of course that doesn't mean we can't, but looking at Sven's record so far I've seen nothing to suggest we're capable of a record breaking points haul in the 2nd half of the season... We can't even do it for 90mins, nevermind get over 2 pts per game for whole remainder of the season to reach 74pts (the average for 6th place AFAIK)

No we didn't have 75% of the country's best defence, but Leicester were one of the best defences in the country last season & we still have 75% of that back 4 available.

The LOLs are all on you & blind sheeple like you I'm afraid

A fairly decent answer...

I think you should get those last-season-goggles and throw them in the trash.

If Sven has the chance to build a squad after januarys addition and fails I will listen to your doomsday prophecy. Before we even know wich players we have it's kind of stupid to go on with crap like that.

[sphericalfox]

It's hard to take anything seriously when it's based on such an untruth as your first sentence.

Sven has not worked any sort of miracle not even in a footballing sense. Holloway guiding Blackpool to eighth on £3m opens the eyes even if his world subsequently collapses.

Grayson taking his workmanlike Leeds into promotion contention perhaps deserves an honourable mention.

But Leicester lingering in the bottom third of the table with the "limitations" of the money Sven's had? Do me a favour.

Any half-decent manager in the world, thwarted in using one system or by the limitations of his players, would come up with answers to cope. Hell, we seem to play well enough to win most games at some stage of procedures and our shots/chances statistics don't point to any great problem with players not coping with systems.

Put simply, you're making excuses for the bloke.

Just like we make excuses for the performance of certain players because they come from the Premiership, play in the world cup, have an exotic foreign name or have persuaded the boss to pay them big wages.

I'll read your blog anytime. But go away and have a think first. Cos talking about the "limitaions" poor old Sven has to deal with is laughable.

The bloke has contacts and a certain panache. He wants to play some decent football too. All big plusses. But what I'm doubtful about is whether Sven could take any footballer you might name and make him play better than he's ever done before.

I've seen no evidence and am not sure he's tactically astute or a psychological mastermind either. Nor does he seem to be a man who can just recognise brilliant players so that all he needs to do is assemble them and watch em play.

I've seen very little on-field improvement in our technical failings. Be it corner kicks, free-kicks, throw-ins, goalkeeping distribution, movement off the ball, cross-overs and dummies, fast closing down, more accurate shooting, onfield aspects of leadership, nothing seems to have improved. We show the same basic inadequacies as have been around for ages.

I'd even accept it if there were signs that we were trying to change yet making errors in doing so. But generally we're not.

Wellens is shooting more and sometimes there are signs that the whole team has been urged to shoot. Sometimes too we nervously try a different type of corner. But even then it's all so short lived. We show no real conviction - any more than we do for the idea of playing pass-and-move football. At the first sign of failure we either hide or resort to nothingness football.

Of course we can't play short, fast passes on snow. But we can still pass and move. A big pass so the chance of en-route error is negated and the feed-ons or feedbacks can be picked up by fast-supporting runners like Ipswich did. But we don't. Too often we don't much do anything until we're shown the way by the opposition.

But there have been examples of what we're capable of - and often enough to make a nonsense of Sven's "limitations". Doncaster second half, Oldham first half, Leeds when we played em away in the Cup and many more.

But even when we have success we never build on that. Instead of Sven inspiring more of the same he makes unnecessary changes and leaves players wondering what they have to do to please the guy.

Something just doesn't seem right to me. Whether too many promises have been made to players with too high an opinion of themselves I don't know. Or whether perhaps the internal atmosphere is being poisoned by the outcasts or by the demands of the owners, it's all a mystery. Whatever, the cancer's have to be treated and our team picked on merit by the manager and for footballing reasons.

And it shouldn't matter because if Sven's as good as his publicity he should be able to take a perfectly ordinary bunch of footballers and make them something special. A bit like Pearson in terms of results - or Holloway to my great surprise. But then Holloway isn't doing what he did at Leicester, is he? He's having a go.Going for goals. And that's what we've got to do.

Cos cheap publicity will soon turn to sniggering laughter if we carry on as we are.

i

Well Thracian it's not like you to be negative is it

Are you still holding a torch for Pearson? Are you of the brigade that we had a perfectly awesome team when Pearson left, and with a small bit of tinkering would be Premiership bound and should he have stayed would be fighting for auto-promotion?

Are you of the opinion that the player's that we have don't have limitations to their skills, strength or motivation? That any other manager other than Sven would be able to make them play beyond this limitless ceiling. Sousa found this out, and was given little opportunity to turn this collective of superstars into promotion chasing wunderkinds.

I take you'll be of the opinion that there's no such thing as momentum, especially psychological momentum, from a previous seasons exploits? It seems to me that teams like Norwich & Leeds are up the top because they have an abundance of Premiership quality players at their disposal? Momentum has nothing to do with their current season. Yes good management and good players keep that momentum going, but without carrying it over we would not have reached the heights we achieved last year. That of course is my opinion.

I just have to understand where you're coming from on this, because there are several posters on Foxestalk who have very loud voices, primarily negative ones, who decry any attempt at a positive outlook as delusional, simply retarded, and use the angle that they know all the facts when there's not one person on here who knows any better than another as forums are endless reams of speculation.

My definition of limitation is different to yours. That's fine. I've explained that sometimes, and inevitably we were going to tonk someone, as someone was not going to turn up, but the players we brought in during an emergency loan are always going to carry limitations. Whether that's limitations in quality, limitations in availability, or limitations in motivation (see Davies), so to even say this isn't the case is ridiculous. Bednar wasn't Sven's first choice and considering the lack of striker's available, he thought he'd give it a go. On paper, he looked as though it would be worth a shot.

Clearly you have issues with Sven, but the team was spoiled before he got here, and I don't think anyone could have stepped in and magically waved a wand and made it better. Any other manager would have to make changes to their style of play, their style of team. Sven will do this given the proper opportunity.

Also I have not seen Sven courting the press once this season looking to enhance his profile/reputation. In fact the entire opposite. He's played down any links to big-name players, and has only on occasion when pressed stated the club's and owners intentions to bring in Premiership quality. He's no publicity craving ego-maniac as you might suggest.

I'd love for us to take the Blackpool approach and attack consistently and with vigour our opponents. We don't have the set-up to be able to do this. We can't swap formations easily, as we haven't got the midfield strength and the motivation of our defenders is shot to pieces by Sousa, and the drubbings we have received.

Thracian, I appreciate a good dialogue about Leicester, but a balanced one. Your tone could easily be read as condescendingly negative. I'd like to think I don't live in cloud cuckoo land, and it's nice to be wishful, but reasonably grounded too. I don't read all your posts, so maybe I shouldn't jump to conclusions about you either.

So I guess I'm hardly going to change your opinion about Sven. But I think he's taken us out of the relegation fodder, at least made us competent at home, and will address the away form with a few additional players to the squad. You of course can disagree, it's your prerogative.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

Thruth is PEARSON wasnt the be all and end all and neither is SGE, both have different qualities, PEARSON was a good defensive manager and SGE has us playing nice flowing football, usually good going forward but not so clever at the back at present. A few additions in the January transfer window and we could push on in the 2nd half of this season although my own personal view is that next season will be a better bet for a proper promotion push - heres hoping

[sphericalfox]

Thruth is PEARSON wasnt the be all and end all and neither is SGE, both have different qualities, PEARSON was a good defensive manager and SGE has us playing nice flowing football, usually good going forward but not so clever at the back at present. A few additions in the January transfer window and we could push on in the 2nd half of this season although my own personal view is that next season will be a better bet for a proper promotion push - heres hoping

jj, youv'e not even attempted to be negative and critical of Sven in your comment! At least have a pop at Sousa, or the owners or something!

[shiv]

Sorry, but what a dick, you really think those players would turn down Celtic, Birmingham, West Ham, Wigan, Fulham, Wolves & Blackburn for a minimum of 1.5 season's in the 2nd tier, perhaps if Sven had put a run together to put us within a realistic chance of the playoffs, but not after this abysmal spell.

I've supported Leicester all my life & always will do but it doesn't mean I have to be blind like plenty of gullible fools seem to be (feel free to include yourself in this group)

No team has ever gotten into the playoffs from our position... Of course that doesn't mean we can't, but looking at Sven's record so far I've seen nothing to suggest we're capable of a record breaking points haul in the 2nd half of the season... We can't even do it for 90mins, nevermind get over 2 pts per game for whole remainder of the season to reach 74pts (the average for 6th place AFAIK)

No we didn't have 75% of the country's best defence, but Leicester were one of the best defences in the country last season & we still have 75% of that back 4 available.

The LOLs are all on you & blind sheeple like you I'm afraid

I'm pretty sure Palace were 19th in January the season they went up...

[sphericalfox]

I'm pretty sure Palace were 19th in January the season they went up...

Shiv weren't Sunderland in a worse position than us only a few seasons ago. i don't have the info to hand, but I think they went up too........not sure what the actual stats were. I may have to ask a Mackem.

[okie fox]

I don't think Ireland, Dunne and Smith are the answer. Ireland doesn't tackle much so wouldn't make the midfield more physical, Dunne is a good player but way out of form at the moment, and Smith, although physical, is too slow nowadays, a shadow of the player he used to be.

[deep blue]

Shiv weren't Sunderland in a worse position than us only a few seasons ago. i don't have the info to hand, but I think they went up too........not sure what the actual stats were. I may have to ask a Mackem.

Unfortunately not. 2006-2007 , their bad start was dramatic, but only lasted for a month or so. They ended up just pipping Brum to the title. Link http://www.suite101.com/content/sunderland-and-roy-keanechampions-a20671, though it doesn't give the detail of the points accrued/date at the lowest point.

[Sylvie85]

The season Hull got promoted they only had 30 points at this point!!

[sphericalfox]

The season Hull got promoted they only had 30 points at this point!!

Hmmm

Statistics don't lie Sylvie, we have absolutely, categorically, 0% chance of even thinking about the playoffs! Delusions and fantasy are conjured up by the coal fairies! There's no hope at this club, nothing but a future of destitute and misery forced upon by failure and incompetence!

[ibbosuk]

The season Hull got promoted they only had 30 points at this point!!

Maybe...........But they didn't look like losing every away game they played.<_<