Other PL Round 19 Matches - Sunday 26th December, 2021

[Cicero]

Does Rodger’s survive this?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Cicero said:

Does Rodger’s survive this?

It's not his fault they have loads of injuries 

[Smiley Culture]

4 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Does Rodger’s survive this?

Yes. 

[Stan]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Doing well in the league is always a more sustainable way of showing progress than putting all your hopes into a cup. Especially if the specialist in bottling is gonna put his side out and then bottle it against our fringe players and kids.

Now with the injuries you’re less likely to be able to contend in the league.

Gambling on the league cup seems like a terrible idea to me.

Hardly considering it's another chance of a trophy as well. We're not the kind of side who can turn our noses up at a trophy. 

And we're not doing well in the league. Precisely why we put more eggs in the League Cup basket. I don't think it's that hard to comprehend. 

[Dan+]

4 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

It's not his fault they have loads of injuries 

Debateable. There's only so much of it that can be put down to bad luck. Serious ones like Fofana are bad luck but the rate we get them in general I fail to believe it's not linked to something we're doing wrong.

[Stan]

1 minute ago, Dan said:

Debateable. There's only so much of it that can be put down to bad luck. Serious ones like Fofana are bad luck but the rate we get them in general I fail to believe it's not linked to something we're doing wrong.

Wonder if it's the new training ground. Purely speculation but just a hunch. Don't think it helps when the back up players are fucking useless too (Vestergaard and Bertrand, looking at you...). 

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 minute ago, Stan said:

Hardly considering it's another chance of a trophy as well. We're not the kind of side who can turn our noses up at a trophy. 

And we're not doing well in the league. Precisely why we put more eggs in the League Cup basket. I don't think it's that hard to comprehend. 

We weren’t doing well in the league for months last season and somehow fought our way back up to 3rd place despite relying on a player most fans wanted us to sell at the beginning of the season, a kid who was nowhere near ready for premier league football, and a player we loaned in from Schalke that I would best describe as “pretty shite”

You can’t just write off a league campaign mid-season, it’s the manager’s job to right the ship when things aren’t going your way. And he’s mostly going to be able to do that by turning around the club’s league form rather than by going on a cup run.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Dan said:

Debateable. There's only so much of it that can be put down to bad luck. Serious ones like Fofana are bad luck but the rate we get them in general I fail to believe it's not linked to something we're doing wrong.

Yeah I agree if you keep getting so many injuries it has to be something the club is doing wrong. Whether that is his fault or the medical team I dont know. I think Leicester fans need to be careful what they wish for. You have done very well under Rodgers. I wouldn't want to get rid of him. I dont think getting rid of managers the second it goes wrong is the way to move a club forward 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Yes. 

@Cicero always wants to sack managers after a few bad results 

[Dr. Gonzo]

4 minutes ago, Dan said:

Debateable. There's only so much of it that can be put down to bad luck. Serious ones like Fofana are bad luck but the rate we get them in general I fail to believe it's not linked to something we're doing wrong.

I think almost every club is going to have at least one injury crisis during these Covid years & with the mid-season World Cup.

Condensed seasons + extra matches from the Nations League competition when players would usually be resting means many players don’t get the same rest they used to & pre-season ends up being shorter. It’s a recipe for more players getting injured.

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

@Cicero always wants to sack managers after a few bad results 

Tbf Chelsea fans are used to their club, which doesn’t really operate in a way that most clubs do with respect to their managers.

Having said that, if I’m a Leicester fan I’d be 50-50 on sacking Rodgers - but that’s probably because I’m a Liverpool fan and I see many parallels to when he lost the plot with us to what I’m seeing now.

[Dan+]

4 minutes ago, Stan said:

Wonder if it's the new training ground. Purely speculation but just a hunch. Don't think it helps when the back up players are fucking useless too (Vestergaard and Bertrand, looking at you...). 

It's hard to say what specifically, I'm far from an expert in it, but I fail to believe it's solely bad luck. It never used to be this bad. The schedule has been tough and the calendar has been distorted but I feel we've come out of it particularly badly.

Inevitable somebody key gets an injury second half. I'll go Maddison.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Tbf Chelsea fans are used to their club, which doesn’t really operate in a way that most clubs do with respect to their managers.

Having said that, if I’m a Leicester fan I’d be 50-50 on sacking Rodgers - but that’s probably because I’m a Liverpool fan and I see many parallels to when he lost the plot with us to what I’m seeing now.

I'd be very surprised if Leicester did better without Rodgers 

[DeadLinesman]

Pep will be claiming another 10 players get Covid between now and the next game so they get another rest. Also, it means the cheque can clear in the refs bank account and he can visit the Middle East to ask for another £500mill for players as they’re stretched.

 

[The Artful Dodger]

Rodgers has overachieved with Leicester, if anything. Very harsh a lot of these views.

[Dr. Gonzo]

4 minutes ago, Gunnersauraus said:

I'd be very surprised if Leicester did better without Rodgers 

Depends who they bring in really

[The Artful Dodger]

This idea that Rodgers is a serial bottler is odd. That Liverpool side of 13/14 had no business being that close to a far superior Manchester City side. They then lost a game against Mourinho when he was still at his best. It happens. 

Then Leicester got caught by squads with far more talent and far larger wage bills to ‘only’ finish 5th, and pick up a cup in one season. 

[Stan]

24 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

We weren’t doing well in the league for months last season and somehow fought our way back up to 3rd place despite relying on a player most fans wanted us to sell at the beginning of the season, a kid who was nowhere near ready for premier league football, and a player we loaned in from Schalke that I would best describe as “pretty shite”

You can’t just write off a league campaign mid-season, it’s the manager’s job to right the ship when things aren’t going your way. And he’s mostly going to be able to do that by turning around the club’s league form rather than by going on a cup run.

I haven't said we've written it off. Just that we had a better chance of winning against an expectedly-weaker Liverpool side and progressing there than we would actually succeeding in the league. 

A cup run could have helped build momentum, no? Same with the FA Cup. I'd hate if we ever went weak in that just because league was there to focus on. We didn't last season and winning that means we should go for it again. 

Agree is the managers job to be responsible for when it goes bad but there's several mitigating circumstances currently which impinge on that.

[Dan+]

I think that's part of the problem with him though. He will give a team a shot in the arm and improve things very quickly, but it does feel like the longer he's around the more it starts going to shit. We've been crap all season. We are simply a poorer team than two years ago. How can that be?

As a club we've overachieved. Not sure the squad has though. It's not a bad squad at all and hasn't been at all in the last couple of years.

[Stan]

Comeback on... 

[Stan]

We out-Pepped Pep. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Just now, The Artful Dodger said:

This idea that Rodgers is a serial bottler is odd. That Liverpool side of 13/14 had no business being that close to a far superior Manchester City side. They then lost a game against Mourinho when he was still at his best. It happens. 

Then Leicester got caught by squads with far more talent and far larger wage bills to ‘only’ finish 5th, and pick up a cup in one season. 

We didn’t lose the league in any one match really. It was the coaching staff’s inability to shore up our defense that cost us more than anything that season. He could have been a legend if he had a slightly better idea on how to organise a defense and then just riding the high of Suarez and Sturridge being absolutely unplayable.

And I think it’s now at least twice Leicester have been top 4 for most of a season and bottling it at the tail end of the season.

I’m also not sure Leicester have overachieved. On paper I think they have a very good squad at full strength. It’s one that can compete for top 4 imo.

2 minutes ago, Dan said:

I think that's part of the problem with him though. He will give a team a shot in the arm and improve things very quickly, but it does feel like the longer he's around the more it starts going to shit. We've been crap all season. We are simply a poorer team than two years ago. How can that be?

As a club we've overachieved. Not sure the squad has though. It's not a bad squad at all and hasn't been at all in the last couple of years.

This is what I’d be most worried about as a Leicester fan. Because the downward spiral under Rodgers was sudden and he has no answers as we got worse and worse.

Any seeming step forward would have 2-3 steps back. And a lot of the same “excuses” were kind of there to take the pressure off Rodgers, key injuries & new players not quite gelling with the side.

I don’t think Rodgers is a bad manager. But I think he’s a flawed manager and those flaws can be quite devastating. 

[Dan+]

Nice counter. Caught them out a couple of times here.

[Stan]

4-2...

[Dan+]

4-2