Brendan Rodgers

[Mickyblueeyes]

7 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

....thought I could see what was out there!!!

This is a copy from an online article:

Poor recruitment

After the success of winning the first FA Cup in the club's history, there was expectation for Leicester to kick on and really challenge the hierarchy of the Premier League. However, that hasn't gone to plan.

The first issue lies with the recruitment. Normally an area where the Foxes excel, this year has seen gaping holes.

Signings such as Patson Daka and Ademola Lookman have proved to be a success, but Boubakary Soumaré has failed to hit the ground running - though there are still hopes he will live up to his price.

 

Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand have been less than impressive.

Furthermore, the latter two go against the club's recruitment model but as revealed by The Athletic, the two defenders from Southampton were signed by Rodgers himself - who overlooked the recruitment team's advice not to bring them into the club.

Wow. I didn’t know this. This is a live by the sword sort of decision. 

[Dusty]

7 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

....thought I could see what was out there!!!

This is a copy from an online article:

Poor recruitment

After the success of winning the first FA Cup in the club's history, there was expectation for Leicester to kick on and really challenge the hierarchy of the Premier League. However, that hasn't gone to plan.

The first issue lies with the recruitment. Normally an area where the Foxes excel, this year has seen gaping holes.

Signings such as Patson Daka and Ademola Lookman have proved to be a success, but Boubakary Soumaré has failed to hit the ground running - though there are still hopes he will live up to his price.

 

Jannik Vestergaard and Ryan Bertrand have been less than impressive.

Furthermore, the latter two go against the club's recruitment model but as revealed by The Athletic, the two defenders from Southampton were signed by Rodgers himself - who overlooked the recruitment team's advice not to bring them into the club.

I’m not really sure I believe this. The only place I’ve seen this reported is the athletic, which is usually a really good source of info. However, this has come from Rob tanner and I don’t think he’s every really had much inside info so I’m not sure why this would have changed specifically for these transfers. Justin and Castagne were both wanted by Rodgers when he was at Celtic so it all seems unlikely to me that he and congerton were making these signings against the wishes of recruitment team. To me, feels like everyone was on board. 

We’d also been tracking vestergaard a while and nearly signed him 18 months earlier in January 2020 so it wasn’t a spur of the moment signing. I struggle to believe that there’s been an argument between Rodgers and the recruitment team for 18 months about signing this player.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

If Rodgers has stuck his neck out to sign Vestetgaard and Bertrand then that's almost a stackable offence in itself! 

 

Vest may have some value at a team that defend deep but does not fit our playing style. Bertrand is just god awful and doesn't give a shit. What was he thinking? 

[filbertway]

19 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Has our style of play changed much in the time he's been here? I think sometimes this gets mixed up with us just not performing well enough. The pressing stats seem down but the way we approach retaining the ball is no different. Are you saying possession based football doesn't suit this squad? 

 

I'm most annoyed that we're over 3 years in to Rodgers tenure here and we still don't have the attacking positions sorted, whether that's a central striker and 2 wide forwards or playing a system that suits the only other forwards to Vardy which is a front 2. We are so weak at right wing and have been the entirety of his tenure. 

I'd say there's noticably less desire to take the game to the opposition in their half. He's definitely got more cautious, but also asks us to play passing football. Which puts our defenders in a very awkward position of rarely having passing options but the manager demanding them to pass. So we either go backwards or play risky balls. We definitely pressed higher and transitioned quicker in his earlier days.

 

He's always clearly moved away from "we will always try and score whether it's the first or the last minute".

 

We're closer to Puels football than Rodgers first season now. Rodgers just doesn't have to select a two of Mendy and Ndidi every week.

[HighPeakFox]

I'm not sure it's totally wise to treat one article as gospel truth. 

[Ric Flair]

3 hours ago, filbertway said:

I'd say there's noticably less desire to take the game to the opposition in their half. He's definitely got more cautious, but also asks us to play passing football. Which puts our defenders in a very awkward position of rarely having passing options but the manager demanding them to pass. So we either go backwards or play risky balls. We definitely pressed higher and transitioned quicker in his earlier days.

 

He's always clearly moved away from "we will always try and score whether it's the first or the last minute".

 

We're closer to Puels football than Rodgers first season now. Rodgers just doesn't have to select a two of Mendy and Ndidi every week.

Yeah I do agree it's turned turgid at times but we still play some blistering stuff that is down to the way he has coached or given at least the platform for these players to do.

 

My issue is I think he's too focused on the structure and philosophy and there's very little room for players to have the freedom to do what they see fit in the attacking third, I know that's a bit of a wishy washy thing to say but it doesn't feel like there's any licence for unpredictable brilliance and this is often why we don't see players support attacks in numbers, because he's drilled in to the team what the pattern of play must be and unless the opposition roll over and let us play exactly how we we want to, we seldom get to flood the box. How many times do we work an opening and Barnes, Lookman, Maddison or whoever has got on the ball beyond the defence, only to have very little options around them to put them in with a scorable chance. It's why our xG is the absolute pits as well.

[Lako42]

Big week for the fella

 

If he manages to get us dumped out of another European competition (one he's never heard of) with a 2 goal lead then we should leave him in France. 

 

[Ric Flair]

26 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

Big week for the fella

 

If he manages to get us dumped out of another European competition (one he's never heard of) with a 2 goal lead then we should leave him in France. 

 

This is why I'm very relaxed. I've my issues with this last year with Brendan and he either proves me wrong or there's absolutely no defence of him any longer.

 

If we don't progress on Thursday then it's going to be a huge disappointment on the back of plenty this season and he really will have fewer and fewer people to defend him. That said, I don't think he'll be sacked if we do get dumped out unless it's a huge embarrassment and then the focus turns to how well he ends the season. On paper we've a fairly pleasant set of fixtures left at home and if we don't win most of them then as far as I'm concerned he's got to go, his excuses have developed, changed, manifested in to all sorts of weird and wonderful things but if we continue to get injury after injury or when we do get Fofana, Vardy and possibly Evans and Castagne back and there's no real signs of progression back to the form we are capable of then why does he deserve more time and a summer rebuild with a suspect track record of doing so?

 

I hope he's still here come mid August 2022 but because he deserves it.

[Guest SO1]

3 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

I'm not sure it's totally wise to treat one article as gospel truth. 

And just because its repeated multiple times doesn't make it more truthful. Reporters need to fill space its how they get paid and its the nature of the business. Truth has nothing to do with it. Integrity is a lost virtue in the news business. As if it ever existed without an agenda. And not just football.

[Ric Flair]

21 minutes ago, SO1 said:

And just because its repeated multiple times doesn't make it more truthful. Reporters need to fill space its how they get paid and its the nature of the business. Truth has nothing to do with it. Integrity is a lost virtue in the news business. As if it ever existed without an agenda. And not just football.

All we do have is an indication that the club acknowledge mistakes have happened or under performance has happened in regard to recruitment and player fitness and rather than come down on the manager, the specific areas are taking the fall. Both Congerton and English were told their contracts would not be extended and both have been in position less than their predecessors were (We wanted Macia to stay) so it's unusual for them to be moved on if it weren't because of past mistakes or it not really working.

 

Rodgers, although hasn't been directly impacted on from this, they were both appointments he had a big role in and therefore indirectly it might be a move from the club to wrestle back control. It's positive in my opinion, let's just hope Rodgers sees it that way. 

[HighPeakFox]

6 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

All we do have is an indication that the club acknowledge mistakes have happened or under performance has happened in regard to recruitment and player fitness and rather than come down on the manager, the specific areas are taking the fall. Both Congerton and English were told their contracts would not be extended and both have been in position less than their predecessors were (We wanted Macia to stay) so it's unusual for them to be moved on if it weren't because of past mistakes or it not really working.

 

Rodgers, although hasn't been directly impacted on from this, they were both appointments he had a big role in and therefore indirectly it might be a move from the club to wrestle back control. It's positive in my opinion, let's just hope Rodgers sees it that way. 

Which is rather a more balanced and nuanced contribution than some have managed. 

[Fox92]

Regardless of who has the "final say", recruitment was poor, yet again, when we should have kicked on (just like when we won the league).

[Ric Flair]

5 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Regardless of who has the "final say", recruitment was poor, yet again, when we should have kicked on (just like when we won the league).

Quite scary when you look at the last 2 seasons recruitment and only 1 stand out signing has improved our XI in Wesley Fofana. Castagne it's too hard to ascertain due to several injuries and other options in his position and Daka is still nowhere near the finished article but a very worthwhile succession planning signing.

 

Lookman has done fairly well but not as a right winger which continues to be a weakness of ours and is it no surprise we struggle to play 1 up front without 2 sufficient quality wide forwards to support?

 

Vestergaard dog mess, Bertrand dog mess, Soumare done absolutely nothing, Ünder very disappointing after a promising start. It's really not great. 

[sacreblueits442]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

I hope he's still here come mid August 2022 but because he deserves it.

....is this a typo!!!

[Ric Flair]

12 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

....is this a typo!!!

Haha no, I hope we win the ECL or at the very least he gets players back fit, keeps them and others fit and we end the season well. If he does that then I've no real remaining major issues with him that I couldn't consider him being given the summer and part of next season to prove he's still the right man.

 

The worries around his inability to build his own successful squad, rather than rely on what he's inherited will hopefully be negated by the club wrestling back control of recruitment. Obviously we don't know that for certain but we don't know the length and breadth of every facet of what's going on either.

 

My current concerns aren't unfixable but I'm also old enough and cynical enough to measure that it's more likely than not that his best days and effectiveness are gone here. Time will tell.

[Fox92]

32 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Quite scary when you look at the last 2 seasons recruitment and only 1 stand out signing has improved our XI in Wesley Fofana. Castagne it's too hard to ascertain due to several injuries and other options in his position and Daka is still nowhere near the finished article but a very worthwhile succession planning signing.

 

Lookman has done fairly well but not as a right winger which continues to be a weakness of ours and is it no surprise we struggle to play 1 up front without 2 sufficient quality wide forwards to support?

 

Vestergaard dog mess, Bertrand dog mess, Soumare done absolutely nothing, Ünder very disappointing after a promising start. It's really not great. 

Exactly. Not getting in a quality right winger was a massive miss too.

Might have pushed us over the line in terms of top 4 if we had someone like Bowen consistently popping up with goals and assists.

[Kilworthfox]

4 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Regardless of who has the "final say", recruitment was poor, yet again, when we should have kicked on (just like when we won the league).

Recruitment is extremely important, and its a fair assessment, that LCFC have been excellent in this area since we were relegated to League 1. 

 

What is disappointing is that we have not been consistent. I appreciate this isn't an easy task. How can you credit BR with Justin, but then also Bertrand? The contrast is so large, I am unable to find the logic. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. So is it pot luck under this regime?

 

I am uncomfortable with hard and fast rules when recruiting. To suggest we shouldn't sign older players would be unwise in my opinion, just as unwise, to only sign players with potential. Having some experience, you MUST understand the levels within the elite environment where we are competing. When you can understand the levels, at key moments, the game becomes quite predictable. So it is curious for me to understand why certain players were signed. Having watched RB & JV I am unable to see why these players were signed at all, unless they have both had a huge dip in performance this season?

 

I am unsure how specialised we have become at the sharp end of our 1st team recruitment. To have a Veto on players BR doesn't fancy is completely acceptable, as he is the manager and has the responsibility to bring success any way possible.

That said I am unsure LCFC should completely abandon their processes because of the Fofana injury. Injuries are a part of football. They will have been factored in to the recruitment plans surely?

Hence the recruitment team will have many options, that will be categorised, certainly by age, highlighting the strengths & weaknesses of each player. 

 

This being the case, I am surprised that the players on these lists were overlooked (for many valid reasons I am sure) for BR to just request we sign JV & RB.

 

I think the key issue is that, these 2 signings have been as poor on the pitch, as you could reasonably expect from a professional. I could analyse them both, but lets just accept this as a consensus fact.

 

One thing I know of the club is a lack of belief within the club. We won the Premier League because of a few factors, but within the club, there was no Leadership, no plan, that made you believe this was anything but a fluke. However it was not a fluke. You cant win any League by 10 points and it be unexplainable.

 

My issue is, what came next after 2016. We have not built on the success. We have not become consistent on the pitch, because of our actions off the pitch, it is very simple when you break it down, irrespective of who the manager is.

 

We were always going to struggle to replace players like Mahrez & Kante. However lets not forget we kept our League winners here in the main, and we still have an extremely strong spine. We have replaced Kante with N'Didi, this was excellent recruitment. We have never replaced Mahrez's ability / productivity, but Barnes is a different threat entirely, but he deserves his place in the first 11 on the wing.

 

We have such a good squad in the main! We are massively underachieving, but I accept we have had a really bad time with injuries, and cover has not been adequate, meaning we are where we are over this season, which isn't what we expect, and lets be clear its not acceptable! We STILL shouldn't be out of the Europa League, We shouldn't be in the bottom half of the Premier League table, and we should have seen some improvements on the pitch, especially defending high balls into the area. 

 

This all comes back to the manager. It is his responsibility, that is what a senior figure in any organisation is employed for. With great power comes great responsibility! 

It is so frustrating to watch, the same show every week, and depending on the opposition, their strengths & weaknesses, delivers the outcome. We don't change our philosophy on the pitch even when it is clear, a change is required. 

 

Against Arsenal (the latest failure), after 20 minutes it was clear that a change was needed in terms of tactics, BR always sets out to control the game, and dominate possession. The create opportunities with quality play in the final third. We didn't have any control, we had 40% possession. We created nothing of note. Our striker (Just the 1) is isolated, and gets no service (this is every week)! Combine this with a defence that can not defend, and you will be an unsuccessful team, hence we have an unsuccessful season.

 

Finally, The Europa Conference League. 

 

This third rate competition, is now something we are clearly clinging on to, to claim any crumb of respectability from this season. The big IF is... if we manage to win this, which from what I see, is very possible, we will be back to The Europa League. This is not a factor that is going to attract the best players to want to come to LCFC.

 

I have never been a fan of BR, however I am LCFC through & through. It is with a lack of genuine passion that I support my team at present, because I see so much incompetence, coming from the office of our manager.

[sacreblueits442]

3 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Exactly. Not getting in a quality right winger was a massive miss too.

Might have pushed us over the line in terms of top 4 if we had someone like Bowen consistently popping up with goals and assists.

....I would think a lot of our posters would not have considered Bowen to be of a sufficient quality to come here!!!

We have as a forum deem certain players from the Championship to be not good enough, we have had this conversation regarding this player before.

[Kilworthfox]

41 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Quite scary when you look at the last 2 seasons recruitment and only 1 stand out signing has improved our XI in Wesley Fofana. Castagne it's too hard to ascertain due to several injuries and other options in his position and Daka is still nowhere near the finished article but a very worthwhile succession planning signing.

 

Lookman has done fairly well but not as a right winger which continues to be a weakness of ours and is it no surprise we struggle to play 1 up front without 2 sufficient quality wide forwards to support?

 

Vestergaard dog mess, Bertrand dog mess, Soumare done absolutely nothing, Ünder very disappointing after a promising start. It's really not great. 

Fofana

Justin

Castagne

Praet

Lookman

 

For me are all good signings.

 

Soumare is still young, and we need patience for him to adapt, but that time has a limit.

 

 

Vestergaard & Bertrand I concur, just dreadful.

 

We should also look at the departures as well as the arrivals.

 

Silva wasn't awful and was given a free, saved on wages.

Slimani wasn't awful and was given a free, saved on wages.

Praet on loan is an odd decision, I still dont understand as he was excellent cover.

Diabate was an odd decision, he was young, and looked ok in the opportunities he got here.

Kapustka was a star before he arrived here, another odd decision, he never had a chance.

Benkovic, we outstayed £13M, and he goes on a free after Winning the SPL, very odd.

Ghezzal was not at our level and was good that he was moved on for a fee. 

James had to be moved on, good decision, as he was on £40K p/w

 

 

 

 

[coolhandfox]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

All we do have is an indication that the club acknowledge mistakes have happened or under performance has happened in regard to recruitment and player fitness and rather than come down on the manager, the specific areas are taking the fall. Both Congerton and English were told their contracts would not be extended and both have been in position less than their predecessors were (We wanted Macia to stay) so it's unusual for them to be moved on if it weren't because of past mistakes or it not really working.

 

Rodgers, although hasn't been directly impacted on from this, they were both appointments he had a big role in and therefore indirectly it might be a move from the club to wrestle back control. It's positive in my opinion, let's just hope Rodgers sees it that way. 

Makes sense to me, you need to have checks and balances in place, anyone having to much power is a bad thing in any walk of life.

 

 

[Fox92]

56 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

....I would think a lot of our posters would not have considered Bowen to be of a sufficient quality to come here!!!

We have as a forum deem certain players from the Championship to be not good enough, we have had this conversation regarding this player before.

I did personally.

I like to dip into the Championship and pick out the better players but overall you're probably right.

[st albans fox]

56 minutes ago, Kilworthfox said:

Fofana

Justin

Castagne

Praet

Lookman

 

For me are all good signings.

 

Soumare is still young, and we need patience for him to adapt, but that time has a limit.

 

 

Vestergaard & Bertrand I concur, just dreadful.

 

We should also look at the departures as well as the arrivals.

 

Silva wasn't awful and was given a free, saved on wages.

Slimani wasn't awful and was given a free, saved on wages.

Praet on loan is an odd decision, I still dont understand as he was excellent cover.

Diabate was an odd decision, he was young, and looked ok in the opportunities he got here.

Kapustka was a star before he arrived here, another odd decision, he never had a chance.

Benkovic, we outstayed £13M, and he goes on a free after Winning the SPL, very odd.

Ghezzal was not at our level and was good that he was moved on for a fee. 

James had to be moved on, good decision, as he was on £40K p/w

 

Praet - he is a solid player but not sure he was worth £20m +

 

bertrand - something not right. He cannot have dropped his levels so far in a few months. Still think covid has affected him a lot 

 

silva - not physical enough for the role he wants to play 

 

slimani - spent too long away from here for there not to have been something going on off the pitch. 

 

Diabate - not good enough 

 

kapustka - not good enough

 

benko - issues

 

gehzzal - not as bad a player as he is according to most on here 

[sacreblueits442]

4 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

gehzzal - not as bad a player as he is according to most on here 

....I could not understand the amount of space he was afforded but consistently chose not to utilise it!!!

He tended to stay higher up the pitch than you would expect or want a Right Winger to be, that probably overemphasised they space he had to operate in. For us he failed to demonstrate basics in Wing play and his lack of application and bravery meant we were never likely to see him at his best.

  He soon changed when he left, you can see the pleasure he gets playing for his new club, you can only believe with like minded players, with language and lifestyle similarities it has allowed him to step forward and be himself.

[Dahnsouff]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Quite scary when you look at the last 2 seasons recruitment and only 1 stand out signing has improved our XI in Wesley Fofana. Castagne it's too hard to ascertain due to several injuries and other options in his position and Daka is still nowhere near the finished article but a very worthwhile succession planning signing.

 

Lookman has done fairly well but not as a right winger which continues to be a weakness of ours and is it no surprise we struggle to play 1 up front without 2 sufficient quality wide forwards to support?

 

Vestergaard dog mess, Bertrand dog mess, Soumare done absolutely nothing, Ünder very disappointing after a promising start. It's really not great. 

Fair, but would give Soumare next season before judging, always refer back to Vardy as an example of patience (not that I am suggesting Bouba would become that level of player of course!!)

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Fair, but would give Soumare next season before judging, always refer back to Vardy as an example of patience (not that I am suggesting Bouba would become that level of player of course!!)

Yes I'm not writing him off at all, he's another succession signing bit I questioned at the time how essential his signing was given we had other immediate priorities and probably not enough funds to get all the players we needed in the positions we needed to strengthen.

 

That said recruitment whether successful or u successful is sometimes not linear. Some of them may come good and then you look back and measure the window a success, even if it wasn't immediate and the team suffered in the interim.