Dean Smith New Interim Manager - Official

[MattFox]

Think he thought the job would be a lot easier than it’s turned out to be

[lcfc_forever]

58 minutes ago, nettle said:

He got the tactics right last night but that midfield is shocking regards creativity obviously Tielemans in his pomp was good but that's not been on show for a good while now. The problem Smith has got is who do you put in there to be creative? 

Yeah, I think it's either Maddison or Tielemans. Feel far more assured with Mendy in the team. KDH, Mendy and Maddison would be my 3 in midfield, and if KDH and Ndidi are both out, Soumare plays. 

[Adster]

1 hour ago, MattFox said:

Think he thought the job would be a lot easier than it’s turned out to be

And who could blame him? Looking from the outside (and literally 99% of non-Leicester fans do this), we have an excellent squad "on paper" so it could easily be forgiven for thinking such things. 

 

 

[Les-TA-Jon]

12 hours ago, Adster said:

I am leaning to agreeing with this viewpoint to be honest. 

 

Dean Smith cannot win either way and he has been given an extremely difficult hand - he knew that when he walked in. 

 

What do fans realistically expect him to do? We go too attacking, we concede a bucketful of goals, we go to defensive, we get a performance like we did today. On paper it looks dreadful and today was a turgid watch at times, but we did almost nick it at the end and we finally kept a clean sheet. 

 

Smith obviously has looked at it with the management team and there is too little time to work on our defense and (more importantly in my opinion) midfield contribution to helping the defensive and decided to, against a very good Newcastle team, essentially park the bus. 

 

It's a difficult balance, and he got parts right today with the cards he has available, but I fear it's too little too late. But that's hardly the fault of Smith, no matter what kids armed with hindsight (and who could obviously do a better job than Smith) say on here. 

Also note that one of Rodger's many failings was never setting us up like a team in a relegation battle. 

 

Had we taken the approach we had last night, in even just 1-2 more games this season, we'd already have the few extra points we need. 

[Gamble92]

Give him the job whatever happens.

Guarantee we won't and end up with someone worse.

[Gamble92]

15 minutes ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

Also note that one of Rodger's many failings was never setting us up like a team in a relegation battle. 

 

Had we taken the approach we had last night, in even just 1-2 more games this season, we'd already have the few extra points we need. 

this man speaks pure facts

[sacreblueits442]

51 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

Give him the job whatever happens.

Guarantee we won't and end up with someone worse.

.. absolutely not!!!

Pretty clear he is not up to it, irrespective of which league we will be playing in.

  His obsession with Tielemans is a blindspot and puts us at a disadvantage straight away. His reluctance to play Mendy surely does not come down to size,  Kante is the same diminutive figure.

 He must have said or done something in training to be so consistently overlooked by Smith.

  Eight games is a small window to come in and assess what you have to work with, and perhaps the positions which needed a cerebral approach, in respect of their scrutiny, is the ones where he gets the personnel wrong.

[Gamble92]

7 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

.. absolutely not!!!

Pretty clear he is not up to it, irrespective of which league we will be playing in.

  His obsession with Tielemans is a blindspot and puts us at a disadvantage straight away. His reluctance to play Mendy surely does not come down to size,  Kante is the same diminutive figure.

 He must have said or done something in training to be so consistently overlooked by Smith.

  Eight games is a small window to come in and assess what you have to work with, and perhaps the positions which needed a cerebral approach, in respect of their scrutiny, is the ones where he gets the personnel wrong.

I hear you on Tielemans, but don't let that blind you either. Absolute shitshow of a team

 

You make a good point about training though. I've wondered what Ndidi and Soumare do to get over Mendy. Mendy has been our best player this season and that in itself is laughable.

Edited 23 May 2023 by Gamble92

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

Also note that one of Rodger's many failings was never setting us up like a team in a relegation battle. 

 

Had we taken the approach we had last night, in even just 1-2 more games this season, we'd already have the few extra points we need. 

...that is true, but until last night, neither had Smith!!!

[Fox92]

1 hour ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

Also note that one of Rodger's many failings was never setting us up like a team in a relegation battle. 

 

Had we taken the approach we had last night, in even just 1-2 more games this season, we'd already have the few extra points we need. 

When though? In what games?

 

It was boring last night and this place would be up in arms, rightly so, if we approached games like that earlier in the season.

[sacreblueits442]

6 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

When though? In what games?

 

It was boring last night and this place would be up in arms, rightly so, if we approached games like that earlier in the season.

...Rodgers went with 10 games to go, he made his utterance of: perhaps his greatest achievement would be to keep this team from going down speech,  a long time before he went, so he was aware there was a problem,  and we needed points on the board!!!

  It was much the same team every week, the only difference was Maddison being pulled from pillar to post, and us getting defeat after defeat.

  He had no interest in the outcome for this season, he was waiting for the call from Khun Top,  to get his big pay off.

[Bert]

1 hour ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

Also note that one of Rodger's many failings was never setting us up like a team in a relegation battle. 

 

Had we taken the approach we had last night, in even just 1-2 more games this season, we'd already have the few extra points we need. 

Or not missing a penalty kick to kill a game off which would’ve seen us be in pole position to stay up. But the amount of points we’ve thrown away this season is laughable and you’re right. Just off the top of my head: 

 

Brentford 2-2 

Villa 1-2 

Everton 2-2 

Brighton 2-2

Palace 1-2

Bournemouth 2-1 

Southampton 1-2 

 

 

[Fox 4 Life]

8 minutes ago, Bert said:

Or not missing a penalty kick to kill a game off which would’ve seen us be in pole position to stay up. But the amount of points we’ve thrown away this season is laughable and you’re right. Just off the top of my head: 

 

Brentford 2-2 

Villa 1-2 

Everton 2-2 

Brighton 2-2

Palace 1-2

Bournemouth 2-1 

Southampton 1-2 

 

 

This feels just like the 2x 5th place finishes in a weird way, when we look at back at the finest margins and overall come to the conclusion we were not good enough over 38 games. I can't see any other outcome unfortunately. That Maddison missed pen will likely be the difference between staying up and relegation. 

[Jobyfox]

[Gazza M]

If he keeps us up I think he should be rewarded with the job perm. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[southfox66]

I think he's done ok except for Fulham, to be honest I don't think he had enough time, he's come to club with a group of players who were shattered and unmotivated. If we got last minute goal last night, Maddison scores penalty Everton and two goals ruled out by VARs at Leeds, we'd be singing his praises and congratulating him an amazing job. If we got him straight in maybe the two games before we might have got at least a win. 

Edited 23 May 2023 by southfox66

[Quorndon_Fox]

Even if we stay up the club needs to decide what the future looks like and appoint a manager we can back to put us back in the top half. The squad will be cleared out and it needs someones DNA/ accountability to make it successful.

[Aus Fox]

4 minutes ago, Gazza M said:

If he keeps us up I think he should be rewarded with the job perm. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If he keeps us up, I’ll be very grateful for all he has done, but by no means would I be excited for him to get the full time job next season.

He came in a short term contract and whatever happens next week, we should shake hands and move on to the next chapter.

[OntarioFox]

2 hours ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

Also note that one of Rodger's many failings was never setting us up like a team in a relegation battle. 

 

Had we taken the approach we had last night, in even just 1-2 more games this season, we'd already have the few extra points we need. 

This is it, isn't it?

 

Going at Newcastle would have been a death wish. Spurs tried it and managed to inflict on themselves a 20-minute scoreline worse than we inflicted that fateful day in Derby.

 

But for an inch either side, Timmy scores that, the game plan pays off and we're in the driver's seat going into Sunday.

 

We got lucky with a few glaring misses from them. The goalposts ran Souttar close for our Man Of The Match. But overall, yesterday was a defensive performance to be, dare I say it, proud of?

 

The problem is that we've lacked that grit all season. Save for a short purple patch before the world cup, this defence has been appalling, pathetic under any sort of pressure. It's a shame they've only now shown that they are indeed capable in a game we really needed to have won, but full marks to them for doing their bit to give us a chance.

 

I don't blame Smith for the tactics in this one. Our midfield is full of donkeys. We were always going to struggle, but likewise we'd have collapsed at the back as usual with Barnes and Maddison on the pitch from the get-go.

 

I'm not fully convinced that we have the right managerial team at the helm, but I can't place too much blame on them when yesterday proves there are still players in there. We've still got the spine of a good team - the question is, do we trust them to identify the right players - especially in midfield - to start improving us again?

[filbertway]

We played a back 8 and Newcastle hit the woodwork 3 times and missed some very good chances. People confusing luck with a good performance I think.

 

This is why I hate seeing these tactics rewarded. Some weird people absolutely love rubbing one out over a team actively not playing football.

[Guy]

36 minutes ago, Fox 4 Life said:

This feels just like the 2x 5th place finishes in a weird way, when we look at back at the finest margins and overall come to the conclusion we were not good enough over 38 games. I can't see any other outcome unfortunately. That Maddison missed pen will likely be the difference between staying up and relegation. 

Still to this day I don't know why Tielemans or Vardy never insisted firmy on taking it. Very costly......

Edited 23 May 2023 by Guy

[ClaphamFox]

25 minutes ago, Quorndon_Fox said:

Even if we stay up the club needs to decide what the future looks like and appoint a manager we can back to put us back in the top half. The squad will be cleared out and it needs someones DNA/ accountability to make it successful.

The club apparently wants Potter irrespective of what division we're in. It sounds like its his to turn down. If he does turn it down, it will be interesting to see what our plan B is...

[sacreblueits442]

1 minute ago, ClaphamFox said:

The club apparently wants Potter irrespective of what division we're in. It sounds like its his to turn down. If he does turn it down, it will be interesting to see what our plan B is...

...unless they have had assurances from Potter, then they need to keep on looking!!!

[Les-TA-Jon]

1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

When though? In what games?

 

It was boring last night and this place would be up in arms, rightly so, if we approached games like that earlier in the season.

Virtually any game vs the Big 6/7. 

 

Any of the most not lose games vs relegation rivals (that we did lose in the end...)

 

Any of the countless games in which we dropped stupid points. 

 

I'm not saying a carbon copy of last night - but setting us up to defend more solidly, have some grit and fight and to actually scrap for points. 

 

I'd argue last night is the only point of the entire season that was an 'ugly' point. All the rest of our points come from wins when we clicked/opposition had an off day, or in draws in which we dropped points. 

[Number 6]

6 points from 7 so far, the best is that he ends with 9 from 8. He should get no blame for this season really, we were deep in it when he arrived, but he's not done enough to get the permanent role whatever division we end up in.