Cooper & Miquel To Host Fan Q&A

[Sol thewall Bamba]

9 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

I hope he does! If you want to connect with fans, why not spend 20 minutes each morning taking a look at what the fans think, or at the least get someone to do it for you. Getting the fans onside is a huge part of the job. I don't think any Leicester fans even except the team to win trophies, just represent the fans and area and try to be competitive.

 

His words sound great, and a big strength that has been associated with Cooper is that he does try to connect with the local fanbase, which is why the Forest fans got behind him for so long. Who was the last one that really did that for us? Ranieri maybe? I'd probably say it was Pearson, despite the former's success.

 

Strong home form is what we will need to survive you would think.

 

 

Sums up our dinosaur fanbase to a tee, who seemingly don't understand that there's a lot more to football than mindlessly pumping the ball into the box at every opportunity.

 

I'll leave this here, even though it's totally lost on many of our fans.

 

 

Man I don't remember us being that good in that game. Must have been the Zubrs I had on the walk to the ground.

 

Back to Cooper and I've also read some very encouraging stuff from people that went. 

[AKCJ]

11 hours ago, westernpark said:

Miquel received a huge applause when referencing that football should be an easy game, ‘why try and score in 50 passes, when it only takes 3’, to paraphrase her.

Because it's important to control football matches and not be open to the counter attack.

 

I get that scoring a goal on the counter attack is wonderfully exciting and a pleasure to watch but playing that football these days means you get swamped in midfield and cannot get out of your own area. Look at all the top teams these days. They have incredible athletes that play in defence to make sure they aren't open to the counter attack. The game has simply moved on and it's not sustainable to think "oh we'll just play like we did in 2016". Teams have realised you don't need technically brilliant defenders any more and defenders that are fast and strong are much more important.

 

Being able to hold the ball and keep it is clearly important but I sincerely hope that Cooper doesn't think that a kick and rush style is the way forward. That's not to say that I want us to pass the ball 3000 times a game between the defence but there's a balance to be found.

[westernpark]

7 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

Because it's important to control football matches and not be open to the counter attack.

 

I get that scoring a goal on the counter attack is wonderfully exciting and a pleasure to watch but playing that football these days means you get swamped in midfield and cannot get out of your own area. Look at all the top teams these days. They have incredible athletes that play in defence to make sure they aren't open to the counter attack. The game has simply moved on and it's not sustainable to think "oh we'll just play like we did in 2016". Teams have realised you don't need technically brilliant defenders any more and defenders that are fast and strong are much more important.

 

Being able to hold the ball and keep it is clearly important but I sincerely hope that Cooper doesn't think that a kick and rush style is the way forward. That's not to say that I want us to pass the ball 3000 times a game between the defence but there's a balance to be found.

What I’ve maybe missed, is that Miquel was appealing to a more pragmatic style of play. She said she likes her teams to get the ball forward, quicker.

[daddylonglegs]

9 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Sums up our dinosaur fanbase to a tee, who seemingly don't understand that there's a lot more to football than mindlessly pumping the ball into the box at every opportunity.

 

I'll leave this here, even though it's totally lost on many of our fans.

 

 

I agree that our fanbase has its fair share of dinosaurs but for every one of these clips, there are 15 examples of us boring the stadium to death last season. 

 

[Gamble92]

41 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

Because it's important to control football matches and not be open to the counter attack.

 

I get that scoring a goal on the counter attack is wonderfully exciting and a pleasure to watch but playing that football these days means you get swamped in midfield and cannot get out of your own area. Look at all the top teams these days. They have incredible athletes that play in defence to make sure they aren't open to the counter attack. The game has simply moved on and it's not sustainable to think "oh we'll just play like we did in 2016". Teams have realised you don't need technically brilliant defenders any more and defenders that are fast and strong are much more important.

 

Being able to hold the ball and keep it is clearly important but I sincerely hope that Cooper doesn't think that a kick and rush style is the way forward. That's not to say that I want us to pass the ball 3000 times a game between the defence but there's a balance to be found.

You're absolutely right but you can keep the ball a lot more without the ultra safe style we seen on play too often last season.

 

We were easy to play against for most the teams towards the end. Not even good teams. 

 

Theres 15 home games last season where the opposition barely even attempted to beat us. Quicker tempo, better ideas and pragmatism were needed at so many times and we didn't get that. 

 

I won't go into a debate about Maresca again because anyone who's seen my posts know what I think of that "style". I just hate to think we are accepting football should be that boring now. 

[AKCJ]

5 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

You're absolutely right but you can keep the ball a lot more without the ultra safe style we seen on play too often last season.

 

We were easy to play against for most the teams towards the end. Not even good teams. 

 

Theres 15 home games last season where the opposition barely even attempted to beat us. Quicker tempo, better ideas and pragmatism were needed at so many times and we didn't get that. 

 

I won't go into a debate about Maresca again because anyone who's seen my posts know what I think of that "style". I just hate to think we are accepting football should be that boring now. 

I've was watching some 19/20 highlights the other day and we played exactly the sort of football I like to watch.

 

We dominated teams and never took our foot off the gas. We held the ball, pinned teams in and had the individual quality needed to unpick locks. That 9-0 against Southampton summed the mentality up. We'd have won that 3-0 with Maresca.

[StriderHiryu]

38 minutes ago, daddylonglegs said:

I agree that our fanbase has its fair share of dinosaurs but for every one of these clips, there are 15 examples of us boring the stadium to death last season. 

 

Yep fair enough.

[Finnegan]

10 hours ago, brucey said:

Basically any comment by either manager which could be perceived as opposite of Enzoball was well received

 

God I hate our fans. 

 

[Finnegan]

1 hour ago, daddylonglegs said:

I agree that our fanbase has its fair share of dinosaurs but for every one of these clips, there are 15 examples of us boring the stadium to death last season. 

 

 

No there aren't.

 

There are 15 examples of Rotherham, Preston, Millwall, Stoke, Huddersfield, etc boring the stadium to death.

 

I will absolutely die on this hill, I'm fed up of the team that wants to attack and score goals being criticised and the team parking the bus refusing to leave their half dodging any blame for making a game dull. 

 

To be clear, I understand why they did it. We were the Man City of the Championship last year. We had infinitely more quality and financial resources than any of those sides could dream of. They did what they had to do. 

 

But it was them making the games boring. They wouldn't have been magically less boring if we'd play Klopp style faster football instead, we'd probably have just had more nil nils because we couldn't break them down being that impatient. 

 

Leeds had better attacking players than us last year and finished miles behind us and are still in the Championship. Is that what you'd have preferred? 

 

As soon as we had the opportunity to play faster and get the ball forward quickly last season we did. Not just against the top teams, even Plymouth came to Leicester and (naively) tried to high press us and play a stretched game and we absolutely murdered them on the break. 

 

Edited 9 August by Finnegan

[daddylonglegs]

Just now, Finnegan said:

 

God I hate our fans. 

 

Difficult one isn't it. There's a lot that are very unappreciative of the work Enzo did. It's easy to forget how much of a shambles it was when he came in. 

 

We also won the league under him. You can't take that away from him. 

 

 

But I do understand the negativity towards last year, because football to a lot of people (myself included) is about how it makes you feel over the course of a game. Honestly, I didn't enjoy a lot of last season. I very rarely felt excited watching us or even worse by the prospect of watching us. I basically was just waiting for Fatawu to be given the ball or hoping for a feeling of nostalgia by seeing Vardy score. Given how good our squad was comparatively to the rest of the league, I wanted to enjoy the football a lot more. That may be a 'me' problem, but I'd suggest a good % of the naysayers probably feel a similar way. 

 

So the news that maybe we will play a different style of football this year is actually good news to me. Not sure it should be reflected by essentially mocking the previous manager, who did a lot of good. But last year was such a conflicting season for the fanbase that I can understand why fans are particularly excited at the prospect of seeing something new this year. 

 

[daddylonglegs]

Just now, Finnegan said:

 

No there aren't.

 

There are 15 examples of Rotherham, Preston, Millwall, Stoke, Huddersfield, etc boring the stadium to death.

 

I will absolutely die on this hill, I'm fed up of the team that wants to attack and score goals being criticised and the team parking the bus refusing to leave their half dodging any blame for making a game dull. 

 

To be clear, I understand why they did it. We were the Man City of the Championship last year. We had infinitely more quality and financial resources than any of those sides could dream of. They did what they had to do. 

 

But it was them making the games boring. They wouldn't have been magically less boring if we'd play Klopp style faster football instead, we'd probably have just had more nil nils because we couldn't break them down being that impatient. 

 

As soon as we had the opportunity to play faster and get the ball forward quickly last season we did. Not just against the top teams, even Plymouth came to Leicester and (naively) tried to high press us and play a stretched game and we absolutely murdered them on the break. 

 

I get your point in the first half of the post but the piece I've bolded is just fundamentally not true. 

[Finnegan]

1 minute ago, daddylonglegs said:

Difficult one isn't it. There's a lot that are very unappreciative of the work Enzo did. It's easy to forget how much of a shambles it was when he came in. 

 

We also won the league under him. You can't take that away from him. 

 

 

But I do understand the negativity towards last year, because football to a lot of people (myself included) is about how it makes you feel over the course of a game. Honestly, I didn't enjoy a lot of last season. I very rarely felt excited watching us or even worse by the prospect of watching us. I basically was just waiting for Fatawu to be given the ball or hoping for a feeling of nostalgia by seeing Vardy score. Given how good our squad was comparatively to the rest of the league, I wanted to enjoy the football a lot more. That may be a 'me' problem, but I'd suggest a good % of the naysayers probably feel a similar way. 

 

So the news that maybe we will play a different style of football this year is actually good news to me. Not sure it should be reflected by essentially mocking the previous manager, who did a lot of good. But last year was such a conflicting season for the fanbase that I can understand why fans are particularly excited at the prospect of seeing something new this year. 

 

 

In fairness, there is something in this. 

 

Michael Zorc is one of the best sporting directors / directors of football there's ever been. He was instrumental in the creation of what we think of as Dortmund now. Almost their entire identity, the style of play we think of, their recruitment and youth development, the way they operate, it came from him. 

 

The "heavy metal football" we associate with Klopp, high pressing, fast, attacking, quite direct football is something Zorc thought was important to the fanbase. 

 

Dortmund is a working class, coal mining area and he felt the football should be uncomplicated and represent the people and the fanbase. 

 

He said:

 

Our philosophy is linked to our region, a working-class region. So it has to be daring, it has to be attacking. The fans don’t like it when the team plays like chess on the field. That’s a very important point. 

 

I actually think we're very similar. The core fanbase of City is still pretty working class, certainly in the more vocal support and I think there's a very similar appreciation here for simplicity and hard work. There's a reason the likes of Albrighton always got more love from the crowd than Riyad, the same reason Vardy is beloved (more than just his goals) and it's why guys like Praet have had way more sympathy and patience from people who still think he could have made it here over the likes of Maddison. 

 

We love a grafter, we love someone that'll run around a lot. We love Iain Hume and Joey Gudjonson, not because they were talented but because they were honest and hard working. 

 

I don't actually hate our fanbase. If I owned Leicester City I'd very much be looking for our own Michael Zorc, I think the biggest flaw with the King Power way is that they never truly understood the region and the fanbase as much as I do think they've tried very hard to embrace us. 

 

Pearson's team was more beloved than Enzo's because it just represented us more. 

 

But I do hate how tactically dense a lot of people are still. I get it, football is a genre more than just one hobby. There's lots of ways to enjoy the sport. Some people love the fan culture, some people love the gossip, some people love the match day experience. I like the game technically, I love the tactics of it but plenty don't and just aren't interested and I guess that is OK. But they still want their opinion and they still want to yell it and it is frustrating when what they're talking is pure waffle ha. 

 

Enzoball was largely what people do want. Those wins against Southampton, Plymouth, Norwich, that is Enzoball. And were some of our best goals last season all that different to 15/16? Enzo had us press high, work hard and counter when we could. Yes he had us maintain possession against stubborn defences but when defences are that relentlessly stubborn is literally the best approach. 

 

I'm gutted he's gone. Cooper can charm the fans with charisma and his one of you act but he's got the same football philosophy as Enzo he's just not as good at it. You're going to see a similar approach this year to what you'd have had under Maresca. The difference will be that the entire Prem isn't going to park the bus against us this year.

 

[Gamble92]

1 hour ago, AKCJ said:

I've was watching some 19/20 highlights the other day and we played exactly the sort of football I like to watch.

 

We dominated teams and never took our foot off the gas. We held the ball, pinned teams in and had the individual quality needed to unpick locks. That 9-0 against Southampton summed the mentality up. We'd have won that 3-0 with Maresca.

I like the balance that Klopp found with it where they have an engine on midfield that dictates the play and relentless pressing with high tempo. It's just a much better watch than Pep's teams. 

 

I hate how it's become either you want to play like Man City or you're an out of touch dinosaur who wants kick and rush. 

 

No one wants to be bored going to watch their team play. I think it's a bit of a common misconception that football fans ask for a lot. I think in the main we don't. We are quite patient. But anyone who thinks winning the league with that Leicester team in the championship is a complete vindication of those tactics are absolutely deluded. 

[Gamble92]

48 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Pearson's team was more beloved than Enzo's because it just represented us more. 

 

*Because Pearson made a much less in depth squad unbelievably more exciting to watch, then went on to build the foundations for every success we have. Also got more points than Maresca managed. 

[filbertway]

I find it mad that people think there's only one way to play the game. Usually it's either people are coaches that has been on courses and taught that there's one way to play or it's people that religiously follow these coaches on twitter. Completely stuck in a bubble and they don't even see it.

 

Ultra obsession with playing percentages, "control" and being risk averse are absolutely destroying the enjoyment of the game as a neutral.

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

5 minutes ago, filbertway said:

I find it mad that people think there's only one way to play the game. Usually it's either people are coaches that has been on courses and taught that there's one way to play or it's people that religiously follow these coaches on twitter. Completely stuck in a bubble and they don't even see it.

 

Ultra obsession with playing percentages, "control" and being risk averse are absolutely destroying the enjoyment of the game as a neutral.

Absolutely. I think if we’d have stuck to Enzos philosophy we may have fell short last season. It’s said isn’t it that when we had that bad run (Millwall, Plymouth etc…) that the players called a meeting and decided to be more pragmatic - we then thumped Southampton which laid a real marker and got us over the line. So you can have a philosophy, but it needs to the suit the players you have, the league you’re in and the opposition. As Burnley proved last year sticking to a dogmatic approach around control and possession saw them relegated pretty convincingly. So in our situation there is clearly a need to be more pragmatic. Yes we can try and have control, but when we don’t we also have players who can hurt teams on the counter etc.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

12 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

*Because Pearson made a much less in depth squad unbelievably more exciting to watch, then went on to build the foundations for every success we have. Also got more points than Maresca managed. 

Finnegan's point was right though, Pearson's squad represented us because it got more out of less squad depth and less ability. It punched above it's weight and that's what Leicester quite often does as a city.

[Finnegan]

28 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

I like the balance that Klopp found with it where they have an engine on midfield that dictates the play and relentless pressing with high tempo. It's just a much better watch than Pep's teams. 

 

Yeah absolutely and his teams have generally struggled to win titles because it's harder to keep up for a whole season and it's harder to break down a low block. 

 

Watch Klopp's teams play a low block, it isn't exciting at all, it's just as tedious as watching a Pep team. 

 

People watch Liverpool play against other top clubs, they watch Liverpool play Man City and win (or watch Leeds beat us and win) and they think that's great. 

 

But go watch Liverpool play 90 minutes against a stubborn bus parking job or watch Leeds try and break one down in the Championship and tell me you found it fun. 

 

[Finnegan]

15 minutes ago, Wasyls Pec Deck said:

Absolutely. I think if we’d have stuck to Enzos philosophy we may have fell short last season. It’s said isn’t it that when we had that bad run (Millwall, Plymouth etc…) that the players called a meeting and decided to be more pragmatic - we then thumped Southampton which laid a real marker and got us over the line. So you can have a philosophy, but it needs to the suit the players you have, the league you’re in and the opposition. As Burnley proved last year sticking to a dogmatic approach around control and possession saw them relegated pretty convincingly. So in our situation there is clearly a need to be more pragmatic. Yes we can try and have control, but when we don’t we also have players who can hurt teams on the counter etc.

 

What the **** is this narrative? 

 

We played Southampton twice last year and had the same tactical approach and hammered them both times. 

 

We never stopped playing Enzoball last season, the players never went in to open revolt and started changing the tactics to be PrAgMaTiC. The **** is that. 

 

Yes, they had a meeting between themselves to clear the air and set their minds straight because we were starting to bottle it but it wasn't about undermining the manager. 

 

Seriously. This revisionism is getting stupid. We get it, the dude went to Chelsea and a lot of people are salty about that but let's not ignore the fact he got us comfortably promoted at the first attempt in his first full season in management. 

 

[Nolucklcfc]

https://www.coolasleicester.co.uk/takeaways-from-steve-coopers-fan-qa/
 

 

gives a really good breakdown of what was discussed for those interested 

[Gamble92]

3 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Finnegan's point was right though, Pearson's squad represented us because it got more out of less squad depth and less ability. It punched above it's weight and that's what Leicester quite often does as a city.

He also achieved a hell of a lot more. He was also very disliked by sections too because of his antics. He's from from liked by some on here. 

[Gamble92]

3 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

Yeah absolutely and his teams have generally struggled to win titles because it's harder to keep up for a whole season and it's harder to break down a low block. 

 

Watch Klopp's teams play a low block, it isn't exciting at all, it's just as tedious as watching a Pep team. 

 

People watch Liverpool play against other top clubs, they watch Liverpool play Man City and win (or watch Leeds beat us and win) and they think that's great. 

 

But go watch Liverpool play 90 minutes against a stubborn bus parking job or watch Leeds try and break one down in the Championship and tell me you found it fun. 

 

I think it's unfair to say struggled to win titles when they amassed the points tally they did over those 3 seasons. They were a better team than most the teams who have won the Premier League. Just in an era where Man City have been allowed to have basically 2 elite XIs

 

 

[Fox92]

3 hours ago, filbertway said:

I find it mad that people think there's only one way to play the game. Usually it's either people are coaches that has been on courses and taught that there's one way to play or it's people that religiously follow these coaches on twitter. Completely stuck in a bubble and they don't even see it.

 

Ultra obsession with playing percentages, "control" and being risk averse are absolutely destroying the enjoyment of the game as a neutral.

Everyone seems to be a football coach on here nowadays.

 

I hate the attitude of "teams have to attack". It's what the likes of Rhodri and De Brunye come out with when they can't knock 5 goals past a team.

 

And wanting direct football doesn't mean you're a "dinosaur" either. There's not one way to play football.

[Gamble92]

3 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

What the **** is this narrative? 

 

We played Southampton twice last year and had the same tactical approach and hammered them both times. 

 

We never stopped playing Enzoball last season, the players never went in to open revolt and started changing the tactics to be PrAgMaTiC. The **** is that. 

 

Yes, they had a meeting between themselves to clear the air and set their minds straight because we were starting to bottle it but it wasn't about undermining the manager. 

 

Seriously. This revisionism is getting stupid. We get it, the dude went to Chelsea and a lot of people are salty about that but let's not ignore the fact he got us comfortably promoted at the first attempt in his first full season in management. 

 

I think the biggest revisionism has come after he got away with one big time because of others bottling it. He was genuinely clueless many times towards the end of the season and we absolutely did not play Enzo ball against Southampton so I'm unsure why you're so annoyed at people saying we didn't. Even Enzo moaned after the match we didn't play how he likes. 

 

You'll die on your hill and I will on mine. Our team absolutely should have won the league and I think playing better and with more points. Leeds failing doesn't make us doing exactly as expected any better. 

 

I am thankful we got out that league but we are just very lucky so many didn't try and play against us. Especially at home. As soon as he got worked out the form was relegation worthy and he wouldn't have got any better. 

 

Good luck Chelsea. You're gonna ****ing need it. 

[adejo92]

3 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

What the **** is this narrative? 

 

We played Southampton twice last year and had the same tactical approach and hammered them both times. 

 

We never stopped playing Enzoball last season, the players never went in to open revolt and started changing the tactics to be PrAgMaTiC. The **** is that. 

 

Yes, they had a meeting between themselves to clear the air and set their minds straight because we were starting to bottle it but it wasn't about undermining the manager. 

 

Seriously. This revisionism is getting stupid. We get it, the dude went to Chelsea and a lot of people are salty about that but let's not ignore the fact he got us comfortably promoted at the first attempt in his first full season in management. 

 

Don't think it's anything to do with people being salty.

 

He certainly split opinions but I for one was over the moon when he fvcked off.

 

 

Edited 9 August by adejo92