Hopefully history will not repeat itself at Leicester but things looks very grim as relegation would be a destroyer difficult to cope with
Yesterday at 05:33 PM
Leicester are in a relegation fight, but still hope to survive, having a group of players that should be of the quality needed to get out of trouble. The squad is in real a bit out of shape as it have too many players on the same level and on high salaries. Everything looks very unbalanced and far from harmonic.
We have seen some very grim examples of squad errors done in the past as a certain Frank McLintock comes to mind. To see him making all those strange decisions over such a short period, regarding transfer deals, you cannot understand how it was possible, ignoring what had been done under the previous man in charge and not building on his playing career with men like Matt Gillies, Bertie Mee and Dave Sexton to learn from. Hopefully it will not be a copy with RvN, as he hopefully have his time at PSV Eindhoven to call on. Hopefully the errrors of McLintock will not be repeating it self.
In your group of players, you should split it up in three categories. The players you have in your team, a settled first eleven, then three to four challangers and the rest of the squad should be what it is, squad members. You cannot buy or sign a player you need as a squad member, believing he should play every single week, then you are in trouble. You need a certain structure, something we have seen so fantastically done at this football club by two successful managers in the past, Jimmy Bloomfield and Martin O’Neill, also credit to Nigel Pearson who had a certain balance, but far from the structure seen under the two others.
Bloomfield guided Leicester to a 7th and 11th position in his last two seasons at the club, Martin O’Neill managed to establish the club as one to watch, becoming a strong and solid unit at Premier League level. They had a similar approach and did it with a special and clever hand, doing shrewd transfer business in and out, as well as bringing forward young talent from the academy. Robbie Savage is one to remember, coming from third tier football with Crewe, to establish himself as a first teamer in his first season in Premier League. Savage had been part of the famours Man Utd “Class of 92” appearing as a striker, but at the time joining Leicester, a good and solid midfielder. He found it easy to cope with the level and with his past, you understand that he had the correct mindset to succeed at the highest level.
Lovely shot of the late great Jimmy Bloomfield, Leicester City manager (1971-77) #LCFC#TheFoxes#leicestercity
— Football Back Then (@FootballThen) July 3, 2021
[Credit: Dick Williams/Mirrorpix] pic.twitter.com/xA0sjcTZHn
When you look up Leicester from previous seasons, you will find it easy to recognize a number of important facts regarding certain players. Famous players at Leicester such as Steve Whitworth, Dennis Rofe, Gary Lineker, Ian Wilson, Alan Smith, Emile Heskey, Muzzy Izzet, Neil Lennon, Matt Elliott, Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Wes Morgan, Steve Guppy and Kevin MacDonald, too just mention a few, had time to build success from playing several games and being established first teamers at the second tier, either with Leicester or another club, as they had a grounding to becoming part of the backbone in the team.
When Leicester did the magic act under Claudio Ranieri, he build on what had been done under Nigel Pearson. Steve Walsh and Craig Shakespeare were still very much in place and the trio managed to build a unit so strong you would not really believe it could all be over in a season. This was the perfect set up, the perfect blend, everything knitted together in something close to magic. Claudio Ranieri never managed to build on his success doing strange additions over the summer that had on relevance for the future of this team. The only player to replace at the time was N’Golo Kantè, as his move to Chelsea in real was a catastrophic affair, as it was possibly even more damaging than losing Frank Worthington or Emile Heskey in the teams before.
If it was a coincidence or a clever act we are not certain, but you had players in the 5000/1 team that had an upbringing at clubs with massive Premier Leauge winning experience, not saying that Danny Drinkwater and Danny Simpson, were steady first teamers at Man Utd during their league winning seasons, but they were both at the club when it happened and new inside their head what type of mindset you need to bring with you to get a Premier League trophy in the cabinet. Robert Huth and Mark Schwarzer were two other members who had an experience of this as well, so you had that inside the team at the time. Very important and something to recognize when you try to build a team with ability to win trophies.
Early days for Ruud van Nistelrooy, but we would like to see him build his squad in the same manner as Jimmy Bloomfield and Martin O’Neill as it will be the formula needed to get Leicester up the table and into a safe position, but as it stands at the moment, that looks a very difficult act to accomplish with the structure, contracts and players at the club at the moment, too many at the same level, too many on wages they cannot get elsewhere. Looking at the squad at his point it is far from balanced.
At this point we do feel that the team lack quality needed to bring points no board, having a 38 year old forward leading the line, no one in that midfield area, besides Wilfred Ndidi, that shows the quality needed week in and week out. In defence Jannik Vestergaard could have been the trusted man, but why no one would like to give him his job back as he had under Enzo Maresca is a difficult one, being juggled with other defenders and in real no settled unit in the back four. Leicester should have recruited one or two players on a shelf above hopefully getting players in that could have given this team a boost, instead they decided to send a number of players out of loan and sign dead wood who is not in use. This is in real poison as the club are carrying heavy wage bills without getting anything for it, makes no sense as this must stop and before you get rid of a geat number of players, you cannot sign the quality needed to lift the club into a better position.
We just have to trust RvN as he navigate in this difficult area, and hopefully will get his squad into the correct shape to able to have that ground structure needed to become a strong unit. A settled first eleven, then three or four challengers, the rest players who know their position as a squad member and understand that, hopefully also having four or five young and hungry players that sees an appearance as a christmas gift everytime it happens and delivers to that standard.
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