Ranieri Sacked

You didn’t see the games at Brighton and Leeds then? Could include Liverpool but you have to take account of the quality of the opposition, we created about as much against them as we did at Brentford despite having far less possession and they’ve been destroying a fair few other teams this season.

But yes, the second half was probably as bad as any we’ve played this season. Apart from the King chance that was easily saved and a hopeful punt into the box after the penalty, did we even venture once into their penalty area?

 

To be fair, at least QSF did not have to accommodate WTE....

 

The only reason I would support this notion would be for Claudio's own health.

We'll be stuck with another Xisco next season

 

Who would you have liked him to pick instead of WTE from our group of world class and available centre backs?

 

Sacking Ranieri would be idiotic, even by Pozzo standards.

 

Kabasele?

At least try something different.

 

Yeah but he's not available. Clearly wasn't fit enough despite being named in the squad and now he's picked up another injury.

 

Why put him on the bench then, if he was never going to be used?

 

I think Ranieri is probably the best manager we could hope for with our situation and reputation, and the performances and tactics have largely been better than Xisco's PL reign. Although it's a results business, and Xisco's record is better than Ranieri's, even when allowing for Ranieri's tougher fixtures.

 

Sack Ranieri for what? Inheriting an absolute dog sh*t defence?! Yeah, good one!

Hopefully Duxbury steps down and the Owners sell up.

That would be the ideal situation.

 

I'm far from slagging Ranieri but he has made mistakes. Louza should 100% started. Pedro shouldn't of come on for Cleverly. These are solely his choices. But I inheriting a joke of a defensive line is not his fault. Back him in January and I reckon we may just scrape a position in the Premier ne t season. But we really need to back him.

 

Having been to all three games, Brighton was a limp performance with one awful error, Brentford was worse because of the lack of control of the game throughout and the throwing away of an unwarranted lead, but Leeds was definitely the worst of all. There was nothing at all to commend in that performance - it was jaw-droppingly bad.

 

Don't remember Xisco being given the 'yeah but the defence is ****' pass too often...

 

Prior to Friday I think you could easily count the mistakes he’s made on one hand, I think he made more mistakes on Friday than he’s made in total, so I’m willing to give him a pass for that.

For all the mistakes he made on Friday the players are equally culpable. He knows, and we know just how awful our defence was so you can see what he was trying to do bringing Pedro on, unfortunately it just didn’t work. How many managers in that position would’ve gone defensive, and would that have been the right decision for us?

Although he made mistakes on Friday, he was still undone by inexplicable errors that he can’t control. If WTE wasn’t such an utter shambles of a footballer we at least get a point. Kucka lost the ability to actually pass the ball 10 yards for the entire 90, again if that doesn’t happen we at least get a point.

I also don’t for a second think it was Ranieri’s strategy to go long all second half, and for Bachmann to constantly kick the ball to their keeper as well. The players just mostly gave up and couldn’t be bothered to even try battling in the middle because they had the lead so gave up trying, that is at odds with his Pedro sub.

If the players aren’t up for the fight we’ll see a very similar outcome against Burnley.

 

Football owners not being dodgy?!
More chance of the Boris being truthful!

 

Probably because there was nobody else in the travelling party! The U23s were up in Newcastle so none of them were available either.

 

I think that's probably because the rest of the team was a shambles as well. The midfield was a total mess under Xisco, at least under Ranieri we now have some structure and the attacking play is better.

 

Good point, well made.

 

It's not Ranieri's fault he inherited this squad. It isn't his fault that we seemingly have a scattergun approach to transfers, never learning from poor ones I.e. Glenn Murray (buying in ancient and/or unfit players).
It isn't his fault we were put in the financial position last season.
It wasn't his fault we were relegated the season prior because of seemingly no transfer strategy.
Yeah I'm a bit depressed footballing wise at the moment because I can't see us avoiding the inevitable this season. The trap door beckons.

 

Reported by Leventhal, he picked up a knock on Wed/Thurs beforehand. I imagine that meant he wasn't able to start but could've been an emergency option off the bench.

Although all the talk was about Brentford's COVID issues, we are in a real injury crisis too. The only available defenders to put on the bench were Kaba and Rose. Have a lot of sympathy for Ranieri right now for that, though he also got it wrong on Fri.

 

All true, but both goals came primarily by mistakes from players who aren't defenders. The first Pedro, gets back and makes a token effort to stop the cross, hanging a leg out whilst turning your back, isn't something CR can imagine would happen from a professional footballer whose team is winning a game with 5 mins to go, but then again he is the one who brought him on. The second goal, as much as it is ultimately WTE for such a **** ******* challenge, probably more culpable is Kucka, gives the ball away to start with and then let their player run of him, without tracking, go watch him for the 15 secs before the goal, he was out on his feet, can't do 90 mins ( Cleverley must have been truly ****ed if Kucka was fresher than him on 60 mins). It's clear he should be an impact player to close out games from the bench. Yet it was CR who started him and never hooked him. All round the old boy seems to have the measure of the frailties within the squad, but a lot of it was down to him on Friday and people can't keep blaming **** CB's and LB's. There are lot of other donkeys and players not pulling their weight. As a side note if Ken Sema is the answer, I havent a scooby what the question was.

 

I'm 100% in Ranieri's corner. I think he has done a fantastic day so far and no-one is perfect. Tactically it was a very bad day at the office, but the players that he picked did not perform.

From hearing Ranieiri's interviews post match it is clear he is well aware of WTE shortcomings and he would not be playing if he had someone else fit to play. I'm annoyed on 2 levels regarding this situation. Firstly, the most obvious and common annoyance among supporters is the absolute lack of investment in this area. Other than Dawson a couple of seasons ago, the last time we actually spent money on any defenders was 2016 where we brought in Janmaat & Kaboul.
Secondly, it's the fact we apparantly don't have an academy CB that could fill in. The club spends money on running an academy and year after year we see promising youngsters released without being given a chance in the first team. What is the point in having an academy if we can't utilise some young talent? I was actually quite impressed with Derek Agyakwa when he played in the cup a few seasons ago but he has not had a chance to feature again since. Now would be an amazing opportunity to see what he is made of. He can't be any worse than WTE and we have no one else fit. The fact we are relying on Kabasele to get fit is hilarious. He wasn't the answer any other season and he definitely isn't really answering now.

 

And to compound it all, we sold Wilmott & loaned out Pollock....utterly clueless. Unconvinced as I am by the former, and taking full cognizance of the latter's lack of experience, I do not believe either would have made such massive errors as those of WTE at Leicester & Brentford.

 

Is there a recall clause in the Pollock loan deal? Because if there is we should invoke it as he is probably better than who we have in defence at the moment.

 

Edit: Mattie is also under 21 so he would not take up a place in the 25 man squad, which makes a recall an even better idea to cover for AFCON and our hideous injury list if nothing else.

 

By the time we sold Wilmot, it was a justifiable decision (albeit not for the bargain basement price we let him go for), the problem was his almost total lack of football under Xisco (see any young player apart from JP, and his alternatives were gruesome)

 

Good points Nemo! Interestingly, when Janmaat & Kaboul came in they also spent a lot of the time on the treatment table. What is it about our CB's that so many are always seemingly injured?

 

Did mention that in a previous post, just saying that fans weren't quite as forgiving for the situation the ownership left him in, and the results (so far) have been worse.

 

Xisco was a Gino shirt wearing yes man. Ranieri is not. Expect him to either be sacked or quit if he doesn’t get his way.