Or do we? is the honeymoon period over for Sven? Like many I thought we had the man to take us to the next level...why will he not listen? Everybody knows his tactics are wrong, we have not got the players to play the way he thinks is right. We need 4 4 2 an a settled side. Last season when he came here we took off.. then he started tinkering with the side and we dropped away from the playoffs. The start of this season we have been abysmal..a laughing stock to other teams! We have not only lost to Bristol City and Reading but we lost at home and both of them are in the bottom three. IMO we have the best centre back in the division...alas proving his fitness at Palace... but will he be recalled... I dont think so!!!! he will not be given a chance with Sven like a few other players that were in the team before Sven took over. I know this new rule of only five subs is not helping him but we had no forward on the bench yesterday. I personally would like to see Howard given a chance alongside Beckford with Schlupp as back up on the bench and perhaps brought on for the last part of the game. I dont see a lot in Vassell and think he is only a squad player... perhaps I am missing something here. I still think Sven is the man.. am not calling for his head would just like to see him listening to the fans.
It's plain and simple, what he did for england by putting 4 centre midfielders into a 4-4-2, is clearly showing the exact mentality With Leicester. I remember when he thought gerrard was the answer at left or right wing!
Kinda rated Sven at one stage in his career, but he looks broken now-a-days. Even his excuses have been inadequate..
A right midfielder with pace. Any right midfielder with pace. Bring him in. No, not a right-footed fast striker. Not a '4-3-3' right sided player. A 4-4-2 right midfielder with pace to burn. i dont care how bad they are. Dany N'Guessan even would do a job. I dont care whether its on loan from a league 2 side or a 16 year old from fulham, just bring him in!!
To be fair, when you think about it SGE has been with us since the summer, if you catch my drift. Now it´s his team as of the summer & I think he needs to have more time than 6 games, BUT having said that he does need to look at his tactics abit better. "COME ON LEICESTER, COME ON LEICESTER"
All he needed was a keeper, a CB, a striker and a winger. We have loads of players... and not anyone out wide? danns is a fine player, but why sign him if you wanted him out wide initially... he doesnt play there becuase there are players out there better in that position- wingers! Kebe, Gradel, McAnuff, Ajose, N'Guessan and maybe even add Titus Bramble to that... all players who if played on the wing could improve us!!
Take out the first two home games which were probably freak results and we have won 2 and drew 2. I still trust Sven and I'm not going to second guess his purchases or tactics because he has vast experience in world football and I am just a spectator.
Eriksson has been the emperor's new clothes for so long it's old hat. The guy is given a fine set up, you feel players are deluded in their pride by being signed/selected by him, there's an illusion of some sort of progress and professionalism, some vague point the future is alluded to as a time to judge... nothing happens and he leaves, a complete fraud. This charmed life of Sven needs to end, best sack him.
I was angry when i read the title but after reading a little about the formation and subs saga im calm. You are correct, sven is lost. Its so weird, last season EVERY decision he made was mighty, what changed? I do however think it is a joke to rid of sven so early, We fans need some humble pie and shut up. Lets give sven until december, if we arent in the top six then moan all you want. But i know hand on heart sven will see us to the premiership because of the size of his brain! Believe!
For me, this falls into two questions; Do I trust Sven? - Not completely. I think he has made many tactical errors this year, in terms of both formation and personnel, and his reluctance to drop his favourites is very reminisent (sp) of his England days. I am somewhat disappointed in him tbh, he has clearly achieved a lot in his career but I am beginning to wonder if his time at this kind of level is up. I also wonder if he has the same hunger and drive he would have had if this had been a bigger club with a chance to win more than simply promotion. I think the signings he has made have been very good, but whether he can get them all into a formation that works is another thing. Do I think we should stick with Sven? - Absolutely yes. As I have just said on another thread, chopping and changing has done us no good in the past and all it leads to is disruption. Wait and see where we are come Christmas and if we're a long way behind, whilst still churning out uninspiring crap, then maybe he should go. However I'm more inclined to say give him the season and see where it goes.
Why were they? Our performances haven't improved very much since those games, in fact our last 135 minutes have been worse than the Reading game. I wouldn't mind if we were just getting unlucky or showing some promise but we're not. It's the performances that are so disheartening.
I think the one reason he's here is his hunger and desire. The desire to prove people wrong. He's pretty much a laughing stock in some of the media and he's out to prove them wrong and prove he is still a manager capable of doing well in English football. I think this spell oh his career will be a milestone for Sven and his career. Do badly and it'll re-afirm the notion that his career is on a downward spiral and he'll just be described as a mercenary but do well and he'll show he's still a good manager and force some to eat humble pie.
We've certainly been unlucky with injuries, losing Nugent and Beckford in the last two games. I was very happy with the performances against Forest and Southampton (until we attempted to played defensive football in the second half of both games - something that rarely works). Barnsley, performance-wise, appears to be a step back, but it appears Sven intends to be more defensive (4-5-1) away from home and more adventurous at home (4-4-2). He's obviously keen on the philosophy of winning your home games and avoiding defeat away. That said, I'm sure we'll play 4-4-2 home and away when Nugent and Beckford are both available. Overall, it's been an average start to the season, nothing great, but miles better than last year. I think after about 10 games we want to start seeing more consistently positive results - people are saying Sven has had a year but our first team - with the exception of King, Wellens and Bamba (who's only been at the club for 9 months) - is brand new (I haven't included Vassell as he's not in the first 11 for me) - it will take time to gel whether we like it or not. On the subject of not liking what's going on, I think as Leicester fans, we need to be more patient and understanding. Fans of other clubs that I know (not the WUM idiots we get on here) can't believe that some of us are calling for Sven's head. We're 6 games in and 10th - hardly a disaster. We're beginning to get a reputation as fickle and embittered by years of "failure". I know we see things on the field sometimes and think we know what's wrong and the manager doesn't - but Sven has been in the game a hell of a long time and knows better than any of us. We just need to show a bit of faith - and remember there's 46 games in a season. We nearly made the play-offs after a disastrous start last year with a lesser squad, so I'm sure we can build on this start.
Marginally better, not miles. Last season we showed glimpses of lovely football and were very unlucky with refereeing decisions etc. We were atrocious at the back, we are poor at the back now, we were very poor on the whole but there haven't been many positives to take out of our start so far either, least of all our style of play. So you were happy with the first halves of Forest and Southampton, so was I. But that means our best performances still didn't last for 90 minutes - one lasted for 45 and the other about 70. Sven has always been cautious but I'm afraid it continually backfires on him and I can't understand why he hasn't realised that that mentality is bollocks. We have one of the best squads in the league, the players will never play with confidence though if he is telling them to play negatively at Coventry and Barnsley. Surely they should be going out and taking the game to those kind of teams, whether we are away or home? (Those 2 grounds are hardly fortresses or intimidationg cauldrons of noise in any case). If he continues to be negative away our results will get worse. I'm not calling for Sven's head, but at the same time I'm struggling to have faith in him because some of the things he has done have been absolutely ******ed, the formation he played at Barnsley being a prime example, considering all the evidence he has seen in our games so far. We will improve but will we improve enough to be auto promotion chasers? We are quite a way away from that from what I can see, and if Sven keeps making the same mistakes over and over again as he is doing then we've got no chance. Sven has had almost a year, yes he's got pretty much a completely different team to last season but that is his own doing and so is not an excuse. He has been in charge and he's done things his way. Surely he didn't prepare for us to gel after 7 or 8 games? He should be preparing for us to gel within 2 or 3.
This years start has been much better than last years! We were being hammered week in week out and were heading for relegation last year. This year we're heading for midtable at this rate - but the team will improve. Beckford, who I believe will be a key contributor, has only played once! Yes I wasn't happy that Sven went defensive against Forest and Southampton, but to be fair, we won the latter and were robbed by a ref in the former. And besides, any one that was happy with Sven's appointment, yet is now shocked that he takes this defensive approach, obviously doesn't really know Sven. Sven has been at Leicester almost a year - and drew the verdict that nearly every aspect of the team needed an upgrade. We can't expect a full overhaul - most of which has been done of the summer - to happen and a completely new team to click straight away. We just have to be patient, there's nothing else for it. Regarding how much we will improve - I think it's becoming clear that no team is going to walk this league. We're only 5 points behind West Ham who everyone is calling favourites, and I'll put by house up against the possibility of Brighton getting automatic. So I remain optimistic - for now!
Sorry, I meant performance-wise, not results-wise. Results are quite a bit better I agree but performances are only slightly better. In what area of our performances are we miles better than last season? Chance conversion (though we are creating less chances than under Sousa) and ball winning in midfield is far better. But creativity is no better, arguably worse, passing and moving is far worse, defending is a bit better but not loads, organisation and playing as a unit is about the same, manager's display of tactical awareness is again better, but still pretty ****. I'm not shocked at at Sven's defensive mentality at all, then again, we didn't play defensively at all under him last season, we were very attack minded and it partly cost us in terms of conceding goals. However, he has now gone so far the other way, we now have almost no flair at all, our fullbacks are **** going forward and we have very little pace anywhere else. The fact of the matter is, his defensive and negative style is not working, so he has to change and be more positive. There didn't need to be a complete overhaul in the summer, as I've said many times. In January, he could have prepared for this season by bringing in 2 or 3 players on permanent transfers. Instead, he brought in loans, quite a few of which were unsuccessful, in a desperate attempt to go straight up. That was his decision and it didn't work. Nobody expected us to go up last season but he has shot himself in the foot by not considering the possibility that we wouldn't go up last season, or at least not preparing for it. This is why I don't think it's an excuse for the bad football we are witnessing. In addition, I'm sorry but I just don't buy this thing about the players haven't gelled. Even with what I have said in the previous paragraph, the majority have spent plenty of time with each other - they have a had a pre-season and 6 league games in a number of weeks in which they've trained with each other as well. How hard can it be to pass and move? Why do you even need to know your teammates to do that? Granted, some things will be missing early on in a season, but if we had a squad and manager good enough for the top 2 I don't think we'd be missing this many aspects of a successful side even after 6 games. I want Sven to succeed as much as anyone but I have to say that at this point I'm going to put myself on the line and say we won't finish in the top 2. There are too many aspects of our play that need to improve, some coming from the manager, some coming from the players, and some things that we can't solve until January, by which time Sven may have woken up and realised where we are short personnel-wise. I'm sure you'll say I'm just being negative but I really hope I'm wrong. We will improve sooner or later when we get a bit of luck and/or a good result, confidence will get a boost and our form will get better for a short time. But I don't think we'll improve enough.
