Tottenham 3-0 Leicester - Sunday 19th July, 2020

[LFCMadLad]

I'm a Rodgers fan to an extent but even I can tell you that Rodgers is absolutely no good when it comes to Europe. 

[Guest]

58 minutes ago, Stan said:

No chance of getting rid. He's got us to Europe (which no doubt was an objective) and it's just a shame it's not CL after our positive start.

Would be ridiculously expensive to get rid of him anyhow. I think he deserves a chance at managing us in Europe but I fear for him if we don't get off to a good start in the league as well.

There's no point us being in Europe just for the sake of it if our league form is going to suffer because of it. It makes our recruitment before next season all the more important.

That's fair. You have had a bad run but I would say it would be a bad idea to get rid of him given where you are overall 

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

I'm a Rodgers fan to an extent but even I can tell you that Rodgers is absolutely no good when it comes to Europe. 

He wasn't that good with you. His other games were with Celtic to be fair and I wouldn't expect much from them anyway. However he did have a few bad results with them as well. I remember them losing to a team from Gibraltar

[LFCMadLad]

2 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

He wasn't that good with you. His other games were with Celtic to be fair and I wouldn't expect much from them anyway. However he did have a few bad results with them as well. I remember them losing to a team from Gibraltar

He put prime Gerrard on the bench against Madrid when we could still qualify for the knockouts in the CL. 

That was basically the beginning of the end for him.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

He put prime Gerrard on the bench against Madrid when we could still qualify for the knockouts in the CL. 

That was basically the beginning of the end for him.

Well I don't know the story behind that but sometimes managers have reasons for decisions we don't know about. 

[Stan]

44 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

I'm a Rodgers fan to an extent but even I can tell you that Rodgers is absolutely no good when it comes to Europe. 

Don't kill my hope just yet please.

[LFCMadLad]

33 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

Well I don't know the story behind that but sometimes managers have reasons for decisions we don't know about. 

There was a reason! Rodgers had gave up winning the tie before it'd even started. 

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

There was a reason! Rodgers had gave up winning the tie before it'd even started. 

Does seem a bit strange. Didn't  you have a big game on the weekend and it was unlikely you would qualify even with a win?  I don't agree with it myself but at the end of the day you and me aren't football managers. He is. We can disagree but we shouldn't be shore we are right and he is wrong 

[Dan+]

Just got back from Germany hence my lack of detailed responses (moans ) but that was an odd game - ultimately another which demonstrated our mental fragility, questionable decision making of the manager, and quite honestly just some pretty bad luck as well. Yesterday was the game that pretty much confirms we won't be in the Champions League next season but really the damage was done a while ago.

I'm a bit torn on that first half. I actually thought for large periods of it we played quite well. Ultimately though we're succeeding in all the wrong areas. What's possession when you're losing to a Mourinho side? What's the point in dominating a game when you're sticking three slow centre halves in a line that high? The personnel wasn't the problem yesterday (bar Bennett who is simply out of his depth), the set up was, but ultimately this is why I said the Bournemouth game and everything that came with it, in-particular the loss of Soyuncu, was the reason we were dusted. What the hell was he thinking? Spurs were always going to rip us to shreds on the break.

I wouldn't be surprised if Manchester United blow it on Wednesday against West Ham and make us think we've got another chance - but I've seen enough to be convinced we simply aren't going to win that game. Even if we turn up I'm sure Manchester United will get a penalty for a handball that VAR checked hitting Evans in the face anyway, so I can't even really get excited.

For now it's about arresting the slide ahead of next season. I've given up on the top 4. It's gone. We had it in our grasp and somehow blew it. We have to look at why this happened, why it went so wrong, and what can be done to prevent us carrying the slide into next year. How you finish a season does matter. We finished superbly in 2014/15 and carried that right into next season despite a change of manager. To enter next season on a low (which sounds mental given we've overachieved really) is a worry, combine in the extra travelling, likelihood of Thursday night games in Eastern Europe and our best source of goals hitting 33, I think we're more likely to be around 13th/14th than 3rd/4th next year, and the business of others really will highlight what a terrible missed opportunity this has been.

As a fan I am buzzing for the Europa League - genuinely, I've always wanted a run in that and wanted to get myself to some bizarre places following Leicester, I am massively grateful we have at least achieved that.

But for a team as streaky as ours you have to be a bit concerned. The only thing that ever seems to upturn our form over a long period of time is a change of manager, and that to me is unacceptable.

[Dan+]

 

I honestly don't think Rodgers will see Christmas.

That is such a piss poor collapse in form. How do you go from 2nd to that?

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 hours ago, Dan said:

I'm a bit torn on that first half. I actually thought for large periods of it we played quite well. Ultimately though we're succeeding in all the wrong areas. What's possession when you're losing to a Mourinho side? What's the point in dominating a game when you're sticking three slow centre halves in a line that high? The personnel wasn't the problem yesterday (bar Bennett who is simply out of his depth), the set up was, but ultimately this is why I said the Bournemouth game and everything that came with it, in-particular the loss of Soyuncu, was the reason we were dusted. What the hell was he thinking? Spurs were always going to rip us to shreds on the break.

These sort of matches are where Rodgers' sides look the absolute worst when they're in a slump. It's just shitloads of pointless possession with no penetration against a side content to sit back and hit you on the break and with stubborn insistence on using a defensive setup that's weakest against sides content to hit you on the break.

Honestly, I think part of the problem is when Rodgers finds something that works for a squad, it works really really well and he'll stick with it for a while. But when it gets figured out, he sort of loses all sense of how to adjust properly and he'll do things like new formations (which sometimes put square pegs in round holes) to try to tinker and get back to what worked. And I think part of it is Leicester are pretty one dimensional, in that if you take away Vardy's threat... you take away a whole lot of Leicester's threat. He went out of form a bit before covid struck and coincidentally Leicester went out of form as well.

Which isn't exactly a surprise, you take away most sides best player (or what makes them effective) and they won't look anywhere near as good. And really at the end of the day, yeah Leicester had a great start to the season - but almost everyone thought they were punching above their weight. How much of this second half collapse isn't so much of a collapse as leveling out. And unfortunately Manchester United signing Bruno seems to have given so much balance and quality to their midfield, which has led to them looking significantly less shit this half of the season compared to how they looked in the first half of the season (annoyingly).

I'm not so sure this is evidence Rodgers has lost the plot as much as it is that Leicester are around the same level as Wolves right now, and the inconsistency has just reared it's head in two halves of a season rather than being consistently inconsistent.

Recruitment is going to be absolutely key for Leicester progressing. I don't think it's coincidental Rodgers' best ever season in England came from having Gerrard, Sterling, Suarez and Sturridge fit and in great form. And when it just became Sterling and Balotelli ahead of Gerrard (since Sturridge was always fucking injured after last season)... he really struggled to get anywhere near the same level (truth be told, we never did). Vardy's obviously a brilliant player and Rodgers did really well to get the most out of him, but I think other attacking signings Leicester have made in recent seasons aren't anywhere near the same level as Vardy. As it's become more apparent if you can stop Vardy you've got a good chance of stopping Leicester from getting 3 points against you, I think the attacking recruitment this season is critical.

Because we've already seen Chelsea invest heavily (basically bought themselves a whole new attack for next season) and you know United and Wolves aren't going to rest on their laurels. I'd say Spurs too, but who knows how they'll spend post-covid, they're already notoriously tight with money. And Everton have the ambition for those spots as well (although a lot of work needs to be done to that squad to get it competing with the rest imo). To me, from the outside looking in, it seems like this might be a make or break transfer window for Leicester truly kicking on under Rodgers.

[Dan+]

32 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

These sort of matches are where Rodgers' sides look the absolute worst when they're in a slump. It's just shitloads of pointless possession with no penetration against a side content to sit back and hit you on the break and with stubborn insistence on using a defensive setup that's weakest against sides content to hit you on the break.

Honestly, I think part of the problem is when Rodgers finds something that works for a squad, it works really really well and he'll stick with it for a while. But when it gets figured out, he sort of loses all sense of how to adjust properly and he'll do things like new formations (which sometimes put square pegs in round holes) to try to tinker and get back to what worked. And I think part of it is Leicester are pretty one dimensional, in that if you take away Vardy's threat... you take away a whole lot of Leicester's threat. He went out of form a bit before covid struck and coincidentally Leicester went out of form as well.

Which isn't exactly a surprise, you take away most sides best player (or what makes them effective) and they won't look anywhere near as good. And really at the end of the day, yeah Leicester had a great start to the season - but almost everyone thought they were punching above their weight. How much of this second half collapse isn't so much of a collapse as leveling out. And unfortunately Manchester United signing Bruno seems to have given so much balance and quality to their midfield, which has led to them looking significantly less shit this half of the season compared to how they looked in the first half of the season (annoyingly).

I'm not so sure this is evidence Rodgers has lost the plot as much as it is that Leicester are around the same level as Wolves right now, and the inconsistency has just reared it's head in two halves of a season rather than being consistently inconsistent.

Recruitment is going to be absolutely key for Leicester progressing. I don't think it's coincidental Rodgers' best ever season in England came from having Gerrard, Sterling, Suarez and Sturridge fit and in great form. And when it just became Sterling and Balotelli ahead of Gerrard (since Sturridge was always fucking injured after last season)... he really struggled to get anywhere near the same level (truth be told, we never did). Vardy's obviously a brilliant player and Rodgers did really well to get the most out of him, but I think other attacking signings Leicester have made in recent seasons aren't anywhere near the same level as Vardy. As it's become more apparent if you can stop Vardy you've got a good chance of stopping Leicester from getting 3 points against you, I think the attacking recruitment this season is critical.

Because we've already seen Chelsea invest heavily (basically bought themselves a whole new attack for next season) and you know United and Wolves aren't going to rest on their laurels. I'd say Spurs too, but who knows how they'll spend post-covid, they're already notoriously tight with money. And Everton have the ambition for those spots as well (although a lot of work needs to be done to that squad to get it competing with the rest imo). To me, from the outside looking in, it seems like this might be a make or break transfer window for Leicester truly kicking on under Rodgers.

Think that is on the whole a very fair analysis, but unfortunately I think the whole 'levelling out' thing, whilst I don't totally disagree, I think the fact we're finishing on such a slump can only be a concern ahead of next season. I really do think if we were here but had been around 5th all season, with general inconsistency but on the whole, pretty good, I think there would barely be a complaint.

I think most of the moans are because of worries of where it's heading.

The recruitment is a vital part of this.

@Inverted will testify this I'm sure (and has done in the past) but we brought in Lee Congerton along with Rodgers, from Celtic, and his track record is frankly dreadful. Association with both Sunderland and Hamburg in recent years seriously concerns me as I consider strong recruitment to be the single most important thing to progressing a club - those are two of the worst possible clubs to have an association (and that is being generous) with in recent years. The signing of Ryan Bennett from Wolves in January - he's not good enough for Wolves to include in their top 5 centre backs, is that the best we can really attract when 2nd in the Premier League? To me the Bennett signing signifies what might be on its way, and to me that's really quite bleak. They will undo everything good they have done here in no time if that's the level we're aiming for.

I would love nothing more than to be wrong but I really think we've got a huge summer ahead here which will set the tone for the next 5 or so years, and it's going to be spearheaded by somebody with a dreadful track record. Merge this with what'll be an even trickier season than this one next year and I don't think we're going to do well, to be totally honest.