It's been a while since I've written an article on here, but given the reaction to yesterday's poor performance I've decided to make some points. I tend to lurk rather than post nowadays as I find the forum to be a little too kneejerk and borderline hysterical these days, something I will go into a little deeper later.
OK, so there a few things I want to mention, on where we are now and where we're going in the future.
1. We had a bad start
A fact that I think is being forgotten a little in people's rush to criticise Puel is just how bad we were at the start of the season, on and off the pitch. Shakespeare was a poor choice for manager. I can understand why the owners appointed him, and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but he was never cut out for management. He led us to a poor start, culminating in a 1-1 draw to a poor WBA side which left us in the bottom 3 and resulted in him being sacked. Appleton took us out of the bottom 3 and Puel got us into the top half, but if we had kept Shakey for much longer I think we would be in a relegation battle now. But let's also remember the Silva debacle which left us short of one midfielder, and left another in limbo for half a season (it's no surprise that now Silva is up to full fitness, he is starting to look like a good player). With all this taken into account, sitting in 8th with an outside shot of European football doesn't seem too bad.
2. We have an imbalanced squad
This follows on from my previous point, but the squad that Shakespeare put together is hugely imbalanced, both in terms of positional imbalance and age imbalance. Positionally, we started the season with an abundance of midfielders and strikers but with only one designated right back, two centre backs until we got Dragovic on loan, and only three first team wingers (we now have four with Diabate). There's also a big age imbalance in the squad. We have a lot of players coming towards the end of their careers with us (Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs, maybe Vardy) and a lot of good, promising youngsters (Ndidi, Gray, Diabate, Chowdhury, Chilwell, Hughes) but not that much inbetween. Puel wants to play the younger players, as he did at Southampton, and has made some progress, but I wonder if some of the older players and their stature at the club might be holding us back. IMO, Morgan should not be playing for a side aiming to be in the top 7, but is player power meaning that he feels obliged to play him? I don't know. But sooner or later, whether it's Puel or not, the older players are going to have to be moved on. Making sure that the young players we have are capable of coming in and being up to standard has to be a priority, and I think Puel recognises this.
3. We don't have the players to play the Puel Way
It's clear that Puel wants to revolutionise the way we play. He accepts that we can't rely on the style of football we played under Ranieri during the 15/16 season and wants us to move to a more possession based style. The problem is that, whilst the likes of Maguire and Chilwell are comfortable with playing from the back, our older players aren't. Simpson and Morgan are not ball playing defenders and they look out of their depth. We've also not good a No.10 who can link the play together well enough, with Okazaki still being a best option. This leaves Vardy far too isolated and relying on the kind of passes that Mahrez delivered against WBA. If we do stick with Puel, we need to bring in players who can play his style.
4. Our resources aren't matching our ambitions
We know that the owners want regular European football and for Leicester to be regularly competing for top 5/6 finishes. Which is a perfectly reasonable ambition, as long as the resources you are giving your manager matches your ambition. This is where I think there's a bit of a gap between ambition and reality. Since the title win, we haven't really imposed ourselves in the transfer market. Our big signings since the 16/17 pre-season have been Slimani (£30m), Iheanacho (£25m), Ndidi (£20m), Silva (£20ishm), Maguire (£17m), Musa (£16m) and Mendy (£13m). Some of the have been good, some haven't. And there's limitations as to what kind of players want to join Leicester City. But considering that the club has made something in the region of £300m since the title win, and we brought in around £60m from the Kante and Drinkwater sales, our net spend isn't that high. And in the last transfer window, our total spend was £2m. Our owners have been fantastic and continue to be great for us (although I did find the fireworks for the chairman yesterday a little embarrassing and a bit too North Korea) and they are putting significant resources into expanding the stadium and building a new trading ground, but if they want the club to continue to progress, we need to see more transfer funds being made available.
More below...
Where we go from here
posted on 8/4/18
this problem is two seasons old and no i only want to sack the players who will not be good enough for what we need.
posted on 8/4/18
comment by Nevsaysagoal2city (U5194)
posted 2 minutes ago
this problem is two seasons old and no i only want to sack the players who will not be good enough for what we need.
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So for two seasons we have tried to change the style without changing the personnel then. Hardly the players fault. Just poor running of the club from a footballing perspective basically
posted on 8/4/18
The thing is Nev, giving fringe players a run-out in the last 6 games isn't the best way forward to getting 7th spot.
7th is still up for grabs. The Burnley game now is our 6-pointer. It's must win time - a draw - say goodnight.
We need the best players out there doing what they do well.
If Puel asked them what would work to get these wins i'm pretty sure they would opt for the counter-attacking football with a bit of the Puel composure on the ball?
The owners have a dilemma if we don't win this one.
Do they wait until the end of the season and sack the manager (giving the new one no time to get his targets in) or do they pull the trigger after Burnley, get someone in pronto, to see all the players before the season ends?
Or do they keep him on, give him millions to buy players in the hope he turns it around? If he then does ...............great! If not, the new guy starts from scratch sifting through the squad, maybe getting rid of some of the new buys aswell as the deadwood , costing the club more money aswell as paying off Puel.
The owners have a difficult situation in all aspects.
Realistically, our club should be aiming for 7th or upwards as a bonus this season and next. Al the talk about 4th or 5th is a bit much to ask, no matter how much money they throw at it.
City linked with Norwich City's James Maddison at around £17 million as a replacement for Mahrez. Looks gifted where he is at the moment. Could he cut it in the Prem? Have a look on Youtube.
posted on 8/4/18
This is the problem now, it's alright saying sack the Manager now or in the Summer but then we most likely start the spiral back down to the Championship.
Sean Dyche mentioned, no way he'd come to Leicester and no way our Club will even be considering him, Rafa would be great but the sale of Newcastle is reportedly back on so he'll be staying.
Where does that leave us, a Continental Manager we've hardly heard of to Evolve our 'Journeymen' squad or some one who has failed elsewhere?
posted on 8/4/18
Interesting article, Foxello. Some of it familiar and most of it I agree with (but not all, as discussed by others). But I wanted to address points 4 and 5 as they bring up good discussion IMO.
On investment, I'd advise taking note of the names you've mentioned and just how much money has been wasted. Musa, Slimani, Mendy, current return on Iheanacho - all I think demonstrate how difficult it is to get a decent high-priced player in the Prem. It was the big point John Gee always missed - he thought you get what you pay for in this industry. That's not the case. All you can do is do the best scouting you can and make considered signings.
What the owners are doing is spending on stadium expansion and a new training facility - long term plans. Meanwhile they aren't scrimping on identified players even if they aren't spending everything they've had over the last two years at once. Essentially, they've chosen to be sensible rather than ambitious and, while some would argue this to be an opportunity missed, I agree with that approach.
On point 5, here are my personal thoughts on Puel: When he was signed, I was underwhelmed. But that was partly my fault because I believed at the time we should have gone all out for Dyche and that we would have got him. My view on Puel since has been very much head over heart: I can see his value and how he fits into a long term plan. I've never particularly taken to him and find it impossible to sit through an interview with him, but neither do I dislike him as I do Klopp, Koeman or Marco Silva. (My opinion. I'm allowed to dislike people.) I still feel "meh", and have no wish to call for his head. I still want him to succeed as I agree with the potential long-term vision. But many more instances like yesterday's second half (discussed elsewhere as to why) and I think his removal will be inevitable.
posted on 8/4/18
"down to the lake i fear"
posted on 8/4/18
Slavisa Jokanovic
posted on 9/4/18
Some good discussion here.
Nev - if Claude uses the last 6 games to try out players and as a result we have a poor end to the season I wouldn't be surprised to see him getting the boot. As he has already suffered something similar I don't expect him to take risks.
I have reservations about Claude but it would be interesting to see what he can do with a summer transfer window, clearly we need to recruit more suitable players for a possession based style.
posted on 9/4/18
Both the Telegraph and Guardian reporting a similar story.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/08/leicester-claude-puel-squad-unrest
posted on 12/4/18
Foxello.
Just belatedly read your post as, like you, I am getting somewhat tired of the kneejerk comments and personal insults on this board, which is a shame as it used to be some much better.
As for your article, you have word for word set out my own thoughts, which is a bit spooky.