I wish him well but he became too stubborn in his approach to games for my liking, lacking flexibility in tactics, resulting in some really poor, boring football.
I wonder if the Leicester fans are excited by this appointment. I wouldn’t have thought a guaranteed promotion is nailed on.
Field is a cracking player, imo. You could see how much we lacked without him when he was out injured for a while last season. Without him, we struggled to play out from the back. His big main job is easing the pressure from other teams by dropping for passes and making good passes among the back line to spring them out, which I saw many a time. Without him, we'd spend long periods of games just pinned back with nothing else. His job doesn't get noticed all that much as it's not the pretty part of the game. He has also played well when managers have opted to push him forward a little when in need, creating chances, assists and even scoring from time to time. Not to mention some very good tackles and last minute shot blocking. I can't think of many in the squad who play with more passion and determination.
For my sins a few of my best friends are Foxes. They are very disappointed with this appointment, but I might have influenced that as I felt Cifuentes was definitely a big part of our problems last season, despite the great escape the season before. Even before it, given that they are skint, haven’t done any business in this window - and they need to sell to buy - and reckon a points deduction is inevitable, they feared a drop straight down to League One. At the moment they only have one experienced striker, Daka, who has been an expensive failure for them to date. A good season for them would be safe mid table and developing some youth, but think a lot of the more clueless fans and possibly the owners expect to be promoted. They really aren’t looking forward to more possession based football with no attack - they had that under Maresca and hated it, despite the promotion. Amazing that ten years ago they won the league and are now nearing basket case status, with a manager who had a 30% win record in this league last season. But at least they have recent memories of glory…. I think we’ll finish above them this season but we could both be near the bottom. This prediction is of course a near guarantee that they will walk the league, given my record in such guessing.
