Yep

I do wonder though, if we hadn’t of done the impossible and won the League, would we be quite satisfied with our progress from promotion?

Yes, there’s always room for improvement and we all have opinions about what should be done, I just wonder how far off the owners plan we really are?

Of course, we could be heading for oblivion, it’s happened to us before and loads of other teams as will he the case for a few more this Season again, such a fine line between safety and ‘progression’ and total failure.

Interesting piece KTF1 and very much along the lines of what I’ve been thinking.

My worry is very much that Puel doesn’t turn this poor run of results around and we see reasonable change in the summer. Mahrez and potentially Bardy leave with the old guard shifted from defence for a more dynamic and forward thinking back line. Simpson’s days are clearly numbered as are Fuchs I believe. Wrong type of full back.

But this new formation and style relies on attacking flair, and we mistakenly think Gray is our replacement for Mahrez.

We start the season poorly and our expensive summer signings from europe flop as the fail to adapt. James comes back in and we recall Andy King from his second season loan. They fail to keep us up and the financial burden sees us struggle in the championship.

That’s obviously over pessimistic, but that’s the genuine risk of Puel not finishing the season well. Players will start to lose trust in him, want to leave and his summer job becomes much harder. Instilling a new team with new belief. That’s fine if they click quickly. It’s likely they won’t.

Times are changing. Puel better start winning football matches, because ultimately this is a result business.

Yey football.

“...wonder though, if we hadn’t of done the impossible and won the League, would we be quite satisfied with our progress from promotion?”


I am happy with our progress, definitely!!! But concerned about our momentum going into next season irrelevant of past seasons, what league we are in and where we finish.

I’ve been saying for some time that we are still dining off the success of Walsh and Pearson in terms of the players recruited. Where do 80% of our goals come from? Mahrez and Vardy. Albrighton is still key as is Okazaki in terms of how well we perform as a team.

The acid test is what happens when Mahrez goes because that is really the last remaining piece of the title winning jigsaw - with Walsh, Kante, Pearson, Shakey and Ranieri being the other vital parts. Vardy is to an extent but hugely reliant on service, far more so than other strikers

When that day comes then my worry is that the owners, rudkin and macia could become extremely exposed in terms of their footballing decisions. Lineker has already alluded to the poor running of the football club. Peter Schmeichel, once a proud amabassador of how Leicester were run as a club reportedly no longer feels quite the same.

Ambitions of Europe are all well and good but only making the right footballing decisions at the right moment will get you there

I think my concern is similar, specifically in relation to the changes he is making. I feel Puel is looking to make changes to areas that shouldn’t be a priority. Yes, if he wants to adapt eventually, he may need diffeeent full backs. But our current problems are not arising from that area of the field. Whilst the way our back line is set up may not be his vision, it should not be the first thing he is looking to change, far from it. Short term: get Okazaki in and deal with the lack of link up PPA with Vardy - that is an immediate, objective problem.

Medium term over the summer/next season:
Consider the creativity, both out wide and in terms of a new, regular partner for Ndidi...because if not both our best Striker and midfielder will start to be tempted by other options.

Long term: When that is sorted THEN think about changing how we play at the back...adapting a team defensively is a delicate job anyway and certainly making our full backs more attacking shouldn’t be prioritised when we aren’t attacking enough in front of them!!

And there are other little things to be tweaking and considering as well before any big changes at the back ....set piece delivery...defending of set pieces...where does Silva fit in? Can Nacho progress here? Gray’s inclusion?

I’m hoping that his bizarre decision not to include Simpson on the bench and even more bizarre decision not to bring on Dragovic at RB was a moment of senility and too hope that it is only injury that would have kept Okazaki out of this team....because if it comes to light that at the moment, he doesn’t see Okazaki and Simpson as imperative in our team because of various reasons, then I will start to worry!

Just to add to concerns Mahrez is almost certain to leave, possible interest in Vardy from Everton but also both Ndidi and Maguire will also most likely be targets this summer.

It could well be a Summer of discontent and if we don’t have a strong end to the Season or there is discontent at the Managers style this will only be exacerbated.

I'd agree with quite a lot of the OP, except that maybe I'm more enthusiastic about the possibility of European football next season for myself rather than just for the club. I was lucky enough to go to Copenhagen last season and, despite the turgid match and a couple of rattly plane landings into Berlin then Copenhagen itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The possibility of another European tour, even if just in the Europa league and with fewer points on my season ticket card meaning a likely lower priority, is exciting.

I think you're bang on about building momentum as well, not just into next season but into the summer transfer window, demonstrating that we're serious about progressing, going places and giving the Europa league a serious shot. That could both convince good players to join and stay respectively. I hope that this is impressed upon the players because they do seem to have slowed down and relaxed a lot of late and I don't believe it's all down to trying to adopt a new style from the manager. Time for a refocus among the squad.

comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
" Mahrez and potentially Bardy leave "
I don't think we'd miss Bardy - after all we've managed without Shakespeare!

I'm unsure about Europe. Hugely enjoyed Copenhagen, Porto (apart from the result and irritating announcer) Seville and Madrid, so more of the same would be good (perhaps less so going to the far reaches of Eastern Europe ), but the Europe League is very disruptive to the season. So, perhaps not the best idea when we may still be struggling to get into our new shape and learn to cope without Riyad?

Agree we need a good end to this season though.

Europa League