Thracian Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 So after considerable commitment last season and £14m spent on a new team this season Sven has a team that stands 15th in the table, is below the likes of Hull City and Derby, has not a chance of finishing in the top two league places and is about as entertaining as a rabbit sitting in the middle of a field. Our crowd yesterday, a few faces short of 24,000 said it all. The signings might have cost a packet but the crowd hardly reflected a sense of excitement. One day the penny will finally drop for Leicester City and they will commit themselves to the kind of football which has launched Southampton to the top of the table. Football that is based on adventure, on scoring goals and on winning games with style and energy. We might have signed enough players to form the basis of an online petition but even now we don't have a cause...we don't represent anything in the way we play. In supposedly strengthening our defence we seem to have slaughtered our ability to attack...and not for the first time in recent seasons. We have so much money but we're philosophically ruled, not by the well-meaning Thai owners, but by fear. Instead of being a team to be afraid of we've assembled a team to be so easily mocked. We may huff and puff but we're just paper puppets filled with the wind of publicity just blowing about in random directions with no patttern, cohesion or sense of purpose. Matt Mills captain? He may be a rock but he'd never get anywhere near a team of mine and what a joke it was to see his laboured excuse for football while the cultured, constructive Tunchev was helping Palace win 2-0 against a Burnley team we hardly ever do well against. "Can we keep him," is the Palace fans' plea and with the unseeing lunacy apparent in Leicester's camp right now I'm not sure I'd want to hear the answer. Why are we incapable of assembling a team which compliments each other towards one aim only - winning with style. To do that is abundantly simple. You attack as a team and defend as a team. But three of our four back line defenders show no signs of being able to attack constructively so, straight away, you've got a major weakness and one that would, in economic terms, contibute to a significant lack of income i.e. goals. In football, income equals goals for and expenditure equals goals against and we are just like Britain under Labour, we spend too much and amass too little. Mills might be an anchor but he's a fixed anchor and that's no good when the ship wants to leave port. Given fair winds we might send swift-sailing full-backs out in his stead but Pantsil and Konchesky are no Fairlines. They're the attacking equivalent of tramp steamers, they just have no natural aptitude...so there'll be not many goals created, much less scored, from there. And in the centre of our fleet - do we have a pair of glamorous cruise liners oozing class and the promise of excellence beyond expectations? No we have Abe and Wellens, the footballing equalivalent of rubber dinghies with Abe rowing round in circles, passing the ball aimlessly and Wellens having a small outboard motor which occasionally enables him to chug into sight of land but rarely sees him shoot between the harbour walls. On the wings you'd think we'd have speedboats, scary unpredictable boats with a frightening turn of pace and the ability to blaze a trail through every storm. But in fact what we have are mirages, boats that don't belong and effectively aren't actually there in any meaningful sense. Up front we have the pocket battleships of Nugent and Schlupp - except that Schlupp was shrouded in mirage mist and placed out wide (how did we manage to make him look so bad?) and Nugent ws left wallowing in the waves without the armed supply ships of King, Gallagher and Dyer. Yesterday our reportedly impressive Armada was routed as emphatically as the Spanish when they fell foul of Drake, beaten by the greater organisation and more purposeful manoueverability of a Reading team that operated as one well-motivated unit which had each "boat" suited to purpose. We need to do the same. First we need a leader and Schmiechel looks the only one who stands out for that role, unless we get Tunchev back. Second we need to have a mobile defence that can quickly and accurately turn defence into attack. Then, for the umpteenth time, we need fast passing, goals-capable players in central midfield who have the energy to see gaps in defences to go through them. Out wide we need, tricky, challenging people who can help make those gaps for the central midfielders and up front we need a big man and a smaller man with such a ruthless desire to shoot and to score that they just cannot be left alone for one minute. As a whole this complete unit needs to be capable of getting four or five men into the box when we are attacking and of being sufficiently astute to constrain the opposition when they have the ball so that our team can recover. In other words, like Tunchev, they need to be able to read the game and think ahead. I've spelled all this out because no-one seems to realise it at Leicester any more than they realise the folly of not varying and practising set-pieces, of lobbing hopeful crosses across the box to short-arses, of having defenders who can't pass and support, midfielders who take too many touches and don't make things happen and playing people out of position. Our owners talk about achieving excellence in everything - and I believe they mean it. But just as they can't get our sodding season tickets into our hands in time for the season's opening and would have us stand for ages in the ticket office queues, they are failing miserably on the field for all their spending. Nor is it just about replacing this player with that. It doesn't work so simply and nor does the longtime Leicester habit of trying to fit square pegs in round holes (it's never worked so why keep trying?). What it requires is a philosophy and the conviction to put that philosophy into action. But we have no philosophy. We just seem to buy what's available. The bigger the name the better. But we don't buy what we need and we play with the brakes on in any case. From the ticket situation onwards, yesterday was a shambles from start to finish - a day when the whole club should hang it's head in shame. I was shell-shocked when I left the ground and feel a damned site worse this morning. There will be strong words said and we'll doubtless play better against Bristol. But that won't solve our problems which were there to see as plainly in the win at Coventry as in the defeat against Reading. Our team needs atitude - and by that I mean a willingness and ability to work as one cohesive unit towards our end. And our end should be focused first of all on scoring goals. "Nil" is a shameful return - home or away - for a group of people who should spend their working week trying to score them. It is a condemnation plain and simple.
purpleronnie Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 I agree in the main. I didn't understand why people thought with our new squad of players that we were a shoe in for promotion, the players we have signed are decent but thats it, to me the squad isnt much stronger than last years and this seasons championship is tougher than last year, I hope I'm proved wrong and yesterday was just a blip.
Zingari Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 good post thracian , you did a lot of "naval gazing" in the middle
Kent Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 So after considerable commitment last season and £14m spent on a new team this season Sven has a team that stands 15th in the table, is below the likes of Hull City and Derby, has not a chance of finishing in the top two league places and is about as entertaining as a rabbit sitting in the middle of a field. You lost me within the first 2 lines. I didn't even read the rest. WE'VE PLAYED TWO LEAGUE GAMES NOT TWENTY.
sphericalfox Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 F**K ME! I genuinely gave up reading anything further than first line when you actually started using the standings in the league to make your point. I'm sure you have a good view points in there somewhere, but if the first line is an indication of your argument then :frusty: :frusty: :frusty:
Alpha Gifts & Awards Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Too early to make such sweeping generalisations and the table after two games is irrelevant. May be we just had a very bad game, shit happens - patience.
blueharmie Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 we have played two games you idiot!!!!!! everyone moaned about yesterdays performance, but why take time to write all that shit. gave up after 3 lines. zzzzzzzzzzzzz
m00nie Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 thats a whole lots of words for just a bad day at the office...
lcfcsmith Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 You lost me as soon as you referenced our position in the table and compared it to others, we are TWO games in, if we are 15th after 20 games then yes, by all means complain. As for saying the players we have brought in are "decent" well Schmeichel was great yesterday, okay he conceded two, but I'm fairly sure his Dad conceded two at times in his career and he's one of the best ever! Pantsil looked to have a touch of class about him yesterday and, when match fit, should be able to keep a very impressive Lee Peltier out of the team. Again, Konchesky yesterday, nothing too fancy, but he knew how to defend properly. Fernandes, well if he's "decent" in the championship then I don't know who you think is good in this division, he dominated yesterday, last season we always lacked someone that would fight and shout and kick people, it's why we lost to Portsmouth, it's why we nearly threw points away to Bristol City, and it's why we fell short at the end. Nugent, now he's played 2 and a bit games up front, on his own. That's tough enough, but we've gone out at the begininning of this season with the mentality of "stay solid and don't give silly goals away." It worked against Coventry very well, and yesterday the solidity factor worked well. The problem against Reading is that we played some poor passes and our tempo wasn't high enough to create chances, as well as bringing on the distinctly poor and uninterested Waghorn. So instead of saying that Sven is poor, and he should leave, he's only brought in poor players blah blah blah, why not support your team when they need you? Two games isn't enough, didn't Sheff Utd. sack Blackwell after two games last season? Look where they are now? That's right League 1. If you want to be in that division then by all means, find a way to get Sven sacked now, while you're at it, offer to take over and get rid of all these decent players and see where it leads us.
Awaydayfox Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Typical fickle football fan! 2 games in to a season with a host of new players and you're already slagging em off, get real and get a grip! Typical fickle football fan! 2 games in to a season with a host of new players and you're already slagging em off, get real and get a grip!
Callabinho Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 All we know is we can do better! As a post above alludes to, bad day at the office!
Adster Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 So after considerable commitment last season and £14m spent on a new team this season Sven has a team that stands 15th in the table, is below the likes of Hull City and Derby, has not a chance of finishing in the top two league places and is about as entertaining as a rabbit sitting in the middle of a field. Stopped reading after this line, most idiotic comparison and statistic ever when we're only two league games in.
Salieri Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Stopped reading after this line, most idiotic comparison and statistic ever when we're only two league games in. Ditto.
Callabinho Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Just to point out we are a place below West ham...
Happy Fox Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Just to point out we are a place below West ham... I would take that at the end of the season in that 2nd automatic slot
Rocky Dennis Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Very Entertaining! Particularly the part where you have analysed and drawn conclusions on the league table after TWO GAMES!
wellsy Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Comments like this get to me so much. Overhearing comments similar to this, we have played 2 league games! And you say were 15th or wherever we are, does it matter after 2 games!? 3 points off the top, fcuk me!
demon_dog Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Oh dear Thracian, you must have had a bad day and night to come up with such a post. As people have pointed out, it's only our second game. Yesterday was an appalling game to show all the home fans how not to play football. How many of us went to the stadium filled with hope and anticipation of the new dawn of LCFC only to come away with shattered dreams. It's time to step back and take a realistic look at the players and seek out the positive's and negatives from the game. To me it looked like a team with some very gifted individuals who need time to gel as a unit. I hear cries of "we have had all pre season to get them to play as a team" This is only partly true, however friendly matches are exactly what they are termed. They purely and simply exist only for the benefit of rasing players fitness levels and blending in new players, trying different formations etc.. Nothing can compare to when the season starts in earnest and the games take on a different meaning. It is not until then and only then that the team comes under any pressure, yesterday it clearly showed our lack of cohesion as a working unit. This is going to take time to come right, I do however expect that going into the festive period that we will be hovering around the playoff zone. Hopefully then we peak at the latter half of the season to acheive automatic promotion. As people have said "It's a marathon not a sprint" as yet there is no reason to be as bleak a picture you paint. It's a rollercoaster ride, just sit back and see where the ride takes us.
Thracian Posted 14 August 2011 Author Posted 14 August 2011 You lost me within the first 2 lines. I didn't even read the rest. WE'VE PLAYED TWO LEAGUE GAMES NOT TWENTY. I see you forget all last season's potential building too. But why should I wait longer to express my disappointment? Or are you expecting the players' abilities to change overnight? I'm not saying we can't grind out any wins I'm saying that I cannot see an 'appeth of flair or excitement's been added to our team. In fact, with people like King, Gallagher and even Dyer reduced to bit parts there seems to be less potential than before. For some reason people have screamed out for Abe and Wellens and, time and again, I've said they don't score enough or make enough runs into supporting areas yet how many goals did King and Gallagher account for last season? Lots. Plus a good few assists. With no-one else making runs into the box or in suport we're just running out of ideas before we even get to our opponents penalty box. How many shots on target in the Reading and Coventry games? And you say it's just two games. It's two games and we're already four points off the pace - three plus the goal difference! A familiar story and one I'd rather not have repeated. I've ben talking to one of my son's today. He's a Southampton fan. They've just sold what he describes as a fairly average player for £12m and bought a dangerous Belgian winger for £2m to doubtless boost their already considerable goals potential. That's the kind of management I like. We've gone for quanitity not quality from all I can see. Yes, there will be exceptions. Schmeichel and Fernandes may prove decent buys and perhaps one or two more. But that's nowhere near good enough to get us promoted given the players who've been so far displaced. And, ironically, we seem to be displacing postive players and leaving more negative ones in situ! If you understand it, fine. But I don't.
DJ Barry Hammond Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Stopped reading after this line, most idiotic comparison and statistic ever when we're only two league games in. Ditto. Well maybe you should go back and read the rest as Thracian often makes a good and constant point and there's boat anaologies too! We may have had only 3 official games, but Sven had plenty last season and a whole pre-season and the points made are in relation to the team philosophy and signing policy and makes some fair points. It's certainly worth discussing more than just the kop out of not reading a long post because you've seen something at the start you don't like.
Thracian Posted 14 August 2011 Author Posted 14 August 2011 Typical fickle football fan! 2 games in to a season with a host of new players and you're already slagging em off, get real and get a grip! Typical fickle football fan! 2 games in to a season with a host of new players and you're already slagging em off, get real and get a grip! Fickle? I've had 54 seasons supporting City and we didn't get what success we've had in that time by playing like we did against Reading and Coventry. But then we didn't change the whole sodding side every season either.
Larry_LCFC Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Lets remember the start we had last season. It was so shit I dont even know what the exact figures were. But look where we could have ended up. Had it not been for the blip in the last 10 games were could have easily been in the playoffs, even with the awful awful start. Too early to say we wont be up there.
purpleronnie Posted 14 August 2011 Posted 14 August 2011 Lets remember the start we had last season. It was so shit I dont even know what the exact figures were. But look where we could have ended up. Had it not been for the blip in the last 10 games were could have easily been in the playoffs, even with the awful awful start. Too early to say we wont be up there. Maybe we should have kept last years team then?
Thracian Posted 14 August 2011 Author Posted 14 August 2011 Oh dear Thracian, you must have had a bad day and night to come up with such a post. As people have pointed out, it's only our second game. Yesterday was an appalling game to show all the home fans how not to play football. How many of us went to the stadium filled with hope and anticipation of the new dawn of LCFC only to come away with shattered dreams. It's time to step back and take a realistic look at the players and seek out the positive's and negatives from the game. To me it looked like a team with some very gifted individuals who need time to gel as a unit. I hear cries of "we have had all pre season to get them to play as a team" This is only partly true, however friendly matches are exactly what they are termed. They purely and simply exist only for the benefit of rasing players fitness levels and blending in new players, trying different formations etc.. Nothing can compare to when the season starts in earnest and the games take on a different meaning. It is not until then and only then that the team comes under any pressure, yesterday it clearly showed our lack of cohesion as a working unit. This is going to take time to come right, I do however expect that going into the festive period that we will be hovering around the playoff zone. Hopefully then we peak at the latter half of the season to acheive automatic promotion. As people have said "It's a marathon not a sprint" as yet there is no reason to be as bleak a picture you paint. It's a rollercoaster ride, just sit back and see where the ride takes us. You're right I feel bad. Just like Schmiechel clearly did. If we had 11 with his attitude - to the fans as well as the game - I'd be a lot happier. Without his one-v- one blocks we might well have been hammered as well as beaten.
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