I'm glad the squad isn't as unbalanced anymore

[_Fatboyslow_]

Yeah, he's bought in about 7 players this summer to stick on the bench so he can play his favourites in the first team week in, week out.

To right he has !!! Are them kids he brought in going to give him any grief? I think not

[_Fatboyslow_]

Now had this thread been

"has Pearson redressed the imbalance in the squad/midfield ?"

that would have been so much easier to debate

[kingfox]

Very good posts today, that includes you Mark aswell.

[_Fatboyslow_]

Very good posts today, that includes you Mark aswell.

My oh my a change of meds ?

[kingfox]

My oh my a change of meds ?

Just cut down on full bottles of calpol, to half a bottle.

[_Fatboyslow_]

I could ask which half you drink first, I am sure we could drag that out untill the start of the season, by the way has anyone seen the bus?

[kingfox]

I could ask which half you drink first, I am sure we could drag that out untill the start of the season, by the way has anyone seen the bus?

Better things to talk about.

And the bus, I see Arriva buses every day so yeah I seen the bus.

[Mark_w]

Very good posts today, that includes you Mark aswell.

(If you mean me)

[Guest Col city fan]

Is it me or is this thread a little bizarre?

How can this squad not be more balanced than Sven's?

We now have:

Central mid.... Danns, James, king, Drinky, Wellens

Right mid.... Gally and Marshall

Left mid.... Dyer and Knocky

Sven had.... Centre mids....

Am I missing summat?

[kingfox]

(If you mean me)

No meant Mark De Vries

[indierich06]

Is it me or is this thread a little bizarre?

How can this squad not be more balanced than Sven's?

We now have:

Central mid.... Danns, James, king, Drinky, Wellens

Right mid.... Gally and Marshall

Left mid.... Dyer and Knocky

Sven had.... Centre mids....

Am I missing summat?

I think the OP is the one missing something Col.

[Guest Col city fan]

I think the OP is the one missing something Col.

I stopped reading a few posts in to be fair...

[Raw Dykes]

Is it me or is this thread a little bizarre?

How can this squad not be more balanced than Sven's?

We now have:

Central mid.... Danns, James, king, Drinky, Wellens

Right mid.... Gally and Marshall

Left mid.... Dyer and Knocky

Sven had.... Centre mids....

Am I missing summat?

I don't really get it, either.

For starters, all Pearson said was that the squad he inherited from Sven was unbalanced. This could mean a few things. If we're just going to assume he meant the ratio of central to wide midfielders, then he was right - there were way too many central, and too few wide. I can't believe there were 7 pages worth of comments about this.

[marbelladave]

The consensus on here is that we lack both a 'proper' defensive midfielder and a creative playmaker.

Given that we have at least half a dozen central midfielders who are neither of these, then I think we are pretty unbalanced.

[Mark_w]

The consensus on here is that we lack both a 'proper' defensive midfielder and a creative playmaker.

Given that we have at least half a dozen central midfielders who are neither of these, then I think we are pretty unbalanced.

Until we've seen Matt James play a few games at this level (The United fans seemed to think he's a decent defensive midfielder) and until we've seen Knockaert play (Potential creative playmaker) then we can't say that the squad is lacking either of those things, we can't say the squad is unbalanced and we can't judge Pearson's attempts to give us some balance. Simple.

[Wymsey]

I still feel that we need a good proven left-back back-up for Konchesky. Kennedy's ok, but we need to look at a better quality one than him (if we're to progress further as a club).

[Bluetintedspecs]

Wow my eyes are bleeding after reading that Think there needs to be some time for quiet contemplation and a nice smile.....I suggest if you've not seen it watch the "Dancing Horses" from todays Olympics quality

[marbelladave]

Until we've seen Matt James play a few games at this level (The United fans seemed to think he's a decent defensive midfielder) and until we've seen Knockaert play (Potential creative playmaker) then we can't say that the squad is lacking either of those things, we can't say the squad is unbalanced and we can't judge Pearson's attempts to give us some balance. Simple.

I included neither in my assessment as I have not seen them play.......

The point remains, NFP has not brought in either an established defensive midfield player or playmaker. We have a squad full of 'bits and pieces' players, none of whom dominate in the positions under discussion.

Personally I think we have some great options with our current squad but they all require us to change our playing style, formation and, in all probability, attitude. So far I have not seen any evidence that NFP is prepared or capable of doing that.

What really bothers me is this, the stats show that from January onwards our results merited a play off place, which was achieved, in the end, by playing mostly longball 4-4-2.

This will not be lost on NFP, I fully expect us to continue in the same manner as it was 'successful' last season. Sadly, not only will it be awful to watch but I can not see it being successful over the full season.

This will not stop me being their on the 18th (when I could be at Lords..... ) and probably shouting myself hoarse but I am not at all optimistic.

[Guest MattP]

I included neither in my assessment as I have not seen them play.......

The point remains, NFP has not brought in either an established defensive midfield player or playmaker. We have a squad full of 'bits and pieces' players, none of whom dominate in the positions under discussion.

Personally I think we have some great options with our current squad but they all require us to change our playing style, formation and, in all probability, attitude. So far I have not seen any evidence that NFP is prepared or capable of doing that.

What really bothers me is this, the stats show that from January onwards our results merited a play off place, which was achieved, in the end, by playing mostly longball 4-4-2.

This will not be lost on NFP, I fully expect us to continue in the same manner as it was 'successful' last season. Sadly, not only will it be awful to watch but I can not see it being successful over the full season.

This will not stop me being their on the 18th (when I could be at Lords..... ) and probably shouting myself hoarse but I am not at all optimistic.

You will seriously regret that next Saturday.

[marbelladave]

Why, I can get to the cricket on friday and probably sunday too.......

Or are you suggesting that my pessimism will be fully justified and so I will have the hump for a week.......

[Mark_w]

I included neither in my assessment as I have not seen them play.......

The point remains, NFP has not brought in either an established defensive midfield player or playmaker. We have a squad full of 'bits and pieces' players, none of whom dominate in the positions under discussion.

Personally I think we have some great options with our current squad but they all require us to change our playing style, formation and, in all probability, attitude. So far I have not seen any evidence that NFP is prepared or capable of doing that.

What really bothers me is this, the stats show that from January onwards our results merited a play off place, which was achieved, in the end, by playing mostly longball 4-4-2.

This will not be lost on NFP, I fully expect us to continue in the same manner as it was 'successful' last season. Sadly, not only will it be awful to watch but I can not see it being successful over the full season.

This will not stop me being their on the 18th (when I could be at Lords..... ) and probably shouting myself hoarse but I am not at all optimistic.

I'm saying that you shouldn't be making any assessment at all on how good our Defensive Midfield and Playmaker roles are until you've seen the players who are likely to be in those roles on a regular basis. We didn't play an awful lot of long ball football last year under Pearson last year in my opinion, but you seem to think we did, and as it was successful last year according to you, and it was successful the previous two years Pearson was here I can't really think of any reason why if it was played again next year you think it would fail. I'd love to know if you have any basis for thinking that or if you're just unnecessarily pessimistic.

The squad is obviously more balanced than it was last year in that we no longer have 8 players fighting for 2 positions, which was always likely to cause problems off the pitch and your main arguement for the squad being unbalanced seems to be that we don't have a good enough defensive midfielder or playmaker, but until you've had a chance to watch James and Knockaert on a regular basis that point is kind of irrelevant. Just because they aren't 'established' doesn't mean they aren't good, Marshall wasn't established at Championship level when he came in, Grant Holt wasn't established at this level when he joined Norwich, it didn't stop them or countless other players being successfull in this division.

None of us have seen the new midfielders, but it seems James at least has been written off before he has even had the chance to put on a Leicester shirt with all the claims that we need a new midfielder when we've already gone out and signed one. How many midfielders do we have to sign before we can say 'Yeah that isn't a problem anymore' or at least 'That might work lets see how we do at the start of the season', people can't keep saying the midfield isn't good enough when we potentially haven't seen 50% of it play anything but a couple of friendlies. If we had it your way we'd end up with 8 central midfielders and no idea what to do with any of them (Now what does that remind me of...).

[_Fatboyslow_]

What of Pearson meant that some of the players are unbalanced !!!! Now that would make a lot of sense

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

Just informing him because he obviously misunderstood the OP. Sorry if me not hating NP upsets you so much.

Oh deary me! I think you have put the cart before the horse here. It must be those rose tinted glasses you wear, confusing you "Sonny Jim"

[marbelladave]

I'm saying that you shouldn't be making any assessment at all on how good our Defensive Midfield and Playmaker roles are until you've seen the players who are likely to be in those roles on a regular basis. We didn't play an awful lot of long ball football last year under Pearson last year in my opinion, but you seem to think we did, and as it was successful last year according to you, and it was successful the previous two years Pearson was here I can't really think of any reason why if it was played again next year you think it would fail. I'd love to know if you have any basis for thinking that or if you're just unnecessarily pessimistic.

The squad is obviously more balanced than it was last year in that we no longer have 8 players fighting for 2 positions, which was always likely to cause problems off the pitch and your main arguement for the squad being unbalanced seems to be that we don't have a good enough defensive midfielder or playmaker, but until you've had a chance to watch James and Knockaert on a regular basis that point is kind of irrelevant. Just because they aren't 'established' doesn't mean they aren't good, Marshall wasn't established at Championship level when he came in, Grant Holt wasn't established at this level when he joined Norwich, it didn't stop them or countless other players being successfull in this division.

None of us have seen the new midfielders, but it seems James at least has been written off before he has even had the chance to put on a Leicester shirt with all the claims that we need a new midfielder when we've already gone out and signed one. How many midfielders do we have to sign before we can say 'Yeah that isn't a problem anymore' or at least 'That might work lets see how we do at the start of the season', people can't keep saying the midfield isn't good enough when we potentially haven't seen 50% of it play anything but a couple of friendlies. If we had it your way we'd end up with 8 central midfielders and no idea what to do with any of them (Now what does that remind me of...).

I have tried to make my reservations clear without having a go at any of our players, whether I have seen them or not, so saying I have written any of them off is just a bit unfair.

Lets make this clear, I am happy with the new players and the squad pretty much as is (give or take a center back) and I think they could be fashioned into a pretty decent team.

My concern is that, having played (predominantly) long ball 4-4-2 in the second half of the season and produced results that would have got us 5th or 6th place in the league, NFP will consider that a 'success' and set us up to play more of the same.

Now obviously my crystal ball might be pretty murky, but NFP's track record suggests that that is exactly what he will do, conveniently forgetting the woeful performances that these tactics produced, particularly against the lower placed teams.

Just maybe James will turn out to be the midfield anchor so many seen to want (not me, I have wanted such a player) and maybe Marshall and Knockeart will tear the opposition apart down the flanks providing Nugent and Vardy with a stream of great chances but as you can see I'm not holding my breath.

[Mark_w]

Now obviously my crystal ball might be pretty murky, but NFP's track record suggests that that is exactly what he will do, conveniently forgetting the woeful performances that these tactics produced, particularly against the lower placed teams.

Seems like you're conveniently forgetting the 5th place finish those tactics produced as well.