Football: fixture congestion

[Philokles]

I love the Europa League. Last minute winner for Anderlecht earlier to knock Zenit out on away goals having blown a 2-0 lead. 11 minute Lars Stindl hattrick to come back from 3-0 down against Fiorentina, when Gladbach had all the play but couldn't score. Looks like there will be a brilliant finish at Wembley too with that Wanyama goal.

[polishgenius]

The thing about the Leicester thing is that it's properly ungrateful and overlooking that they're reverting to their standard level rather than dropping from where they 'should' be- but on the other hand if the new manager gets just five good games out of Riyad Mahrez that could be enough to keep them up on its own.

[Consigliere]

Heh, that goal is the killer. Spurs really have sucked in Europe.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Leicester's owners deserve a kick in the balls now. Bastards.

[ljkeane]

Huh, that's brutal. 9 months after managing Leicester to the greatest achievement the club's ever going to have. There's certainly no sentiment there.

[Winterfell is Burning]

29 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Huh, that's brutal. 9 months after managing Leicester to the greatest achievement the club's ever going to have. There's certainly no sentiment there.

Also, while the club is still with a chance of winning the CL- a 1-0 victory against Sevilla wouldn't be shocking.

[baxus]

The big question is who are they going to get to replace Ranieri.

I might be missing someone on the market right now, but I can't think of anyone who'd be a significant improvement.

Is Pardew available?  

[Consigliere]

I saw speculation that Mancini is frontrunner.

 

I'd have sacked Ranieri too. Last season is last season. Just because Ranieri achieved the impossible last year doesn't mean he should have the job for life. Bottom line is that Leicester are in freefall, a point above the relegation zone and Ranieri does not look like he is capable of turning things around. Besides, his sacking comes as no surprise. Everyone should know by now that when the owners/board publicly back the manager, that's code for "your sacking is immanent".

[mormont]

Nobody's suggesting Ranieri should have had the job for life, but one whole season isn't unreasonable. Yes, the players aren't performing but there are reasons for that and they're not Ranieri's fault. Mahrez is transparently regretting his decision not to leave, Vardy always had issues with confidence and fitness, Kante has turned out to be irreplacable and the rest of the team are just reverting to their usual performance levels.

Timing the sacking for right after one of their better results is weird too. I hope it means they have someone lined up. I'd hate to see Leicester go down.

[Consigliere]

Like I said before, getting rid of one man is much easier than getting rid of a bunch of underperforming players and something needed to change. Whether the reasons for players underperforming are Ranieri's fault is irrelevant. Managers have always been held accountable for performances.

[baxus]

1 hour ago, Consigliere said:

I saw speculation that Mancini is frontrunner.

To be honest, I'm pretty confident Mancini won't solve their problem. If you look at his success in the past it was either with Inter while Juventus and Milano were in shambles in the aftermath of Calciopoli, and the rest of the pack were nowhere to be seen, or with City where he had a shitload of money to burn on new signings. He'll have none of that in Leicester.

Despite joking about Pardew taking over earlier, I think he might even be a better solution for them, at least short term. He's a lot more experienced with fighting relegation and might just rally them for a few good games that would get them out of the relegation battle which is all they can hope for at the moment.

[Consigliere]

1 hour ago, baxus said:

To be honest, I'm pretty confident Mancini won't solve their problem. If you look at his success in the past it was either with Inter while Juventus and Milano were in shambles in the aftermath of Calciopoli, and the rest of the pack were nowhere to be seen, or with City where he had a shitload of money to burn on new signings. He'll have none of that in Leicester.

Despite joking about Pardew taking over earlier, I think he might even be a better solution for them, at least short term. He's a lot more experienced with fighting relegation and might just rally them for a few good games that would get them out of the relegation battle which is all they can hope for at the moment.

Yeah, I don't think Mancini is the right choice for a relegation fight either. If the rumours are true and he does come in then I see him only signing a contract until the end of the season. Don't think he will fancy managing in the Championship. I'm waiting for these 'pundits' to start talking up Giggs for the job.

The timing of Ranieri's dismissal is indeed strange and I can only think that it is because the club may already have someone lined up. If not, then the timing is even more strange. If these rumours about the players turning against Ranieri as well as unrest among the management team are true then the club really had only one choice. This is the harsh reality of football.

[mormont]

2 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Like I said before, getting rid of one man is much easier than getting rid of a bunch of underperforming players and something needed to change. Whether the reasons for players underperforming are Ranieri's fault is irrelevant. Managers have always been held accountable for performances.

The problem with this is that it's basically the old 'we need to do something, this is something, so let's do it' thing. Firing a manager sometimes works but, as Crystal Palace are finding out, often doesn't. This situation is unusual because I feel it's one of the rare occasions when a firing does damage to the brand: everyone loved Leicester because of their unlikely success, but now that goodwill is gone along with Ranieri. Still, I know, remaining in the EPL trumps everything.

[Philokles]

The only reason people think Leicester should be doing better is that Ranieri got so much out of them last season. He is directly paying the price for his own success. Had Leicester finished 17th-15th last season, then nobody would bat an eyelid at his results this year. Especially as he has their mental exhaustion and Champions League success as mitigating factors.

[Consigliere]

30 minutes ago, mormont said:

The problem with this is that it's basically the old 'we need to do something, this is something, so let's do it' thing. Firing a manager sometimes works but, as Crystal Palace are finding out, often doesn't. This situation is unusual because I feel it's one of the rare occasions when a firing does damage to the brand: everyone loved Leicester because of their unlikely success, but now that goodwill is gone along with Ranieri. Still, I know, remaining in the EPL trumps everything.

Yeah, Leicester have undoubtedly lost the goodwill of neutrals. At the end of the day though, sticking with Ranieri and maintaining that goodwill is meaningless if the club goes down. The owners had two choices: keep Ranieri on and hope he can turn things around (even though there has been precious little to no evidence that he can) or bring in someone else in the hopes that they will give enough of a short term boost to keep the club up. If these rumours about players turning against Ranieri are true, then the owners really only had the one option.

[Castel]

6 hours ago, Horse of Kent said:

The only reason people think Leicester should be doing better is that Ranieri got so much out of them last season. He is directly paying the price for his own success. Had Leicester finished 17th-15th last season, then nobody would bat an eyelid at his results this year. Especially as he has their mental exhaustion and Champions League success as mitigating factors.

If you're spending 30 million on Slimani and even more on others I don't think you should be 17th though.

Going down can be disastrous, especially if they have players like Vardy on big contracts. If they wanted to be a 17th place team they wouldn't have any of these big expenditures.

[Philokles]

11 minutes ago, Castel said:

If you're spending 30 million on Slimani and even more on others I don't think you should be 17th though.

Going down can be disastrous, especially if they have players like Vardy on big contracts. If they wanted to be a 17th place team they wouldn't have any of these big expenditures.

That is just the modern Premier League. Bournemouth didn't spend over half as much on Ibe to be struggling, and they had not lost any key players. Same could be said for Ndong to Sunderland and Benteke to Palace.

It is far from a perfect measurement, but Leicester are in the bottom half for net spend this season.

[Robert Baratheon's hammer]

7 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Yeah, Leicester have undoubtedly lost the goodwill of neutrals. At the end of the day though, sticking with Ranieri and maintaining that goodwill is meaningless if the club goes down. The owners had two choices: keep Ranieri on and hope he can turn things around (even though there has been precious little to no evidence that he can) or bring in someone else in the hopes that they will give enough of a short term boost to keep the club up. If these rumours about players turning against Ranieri are true, then the owners really only had the one option.

No one knows if Ranieri would have kept them up or if the new manager will. Therefore they should have given him the chance to try and keep them up after winning the league for a team who has never won it and may never win it again. He qualified for the second round of the champions league which they still have a chance of winning and getting through to the quarter finals. They overachieved last season and now there doing only a bit worse than expected.

The fact of the matter is the players have been bang average apart from the keeper all season. The players aren't motivated which reminds me of Chelsea last season.  

He deserved better from the players and the owners. Panic decision.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Yes, but Leicester had (arguably) a better squad to begin with this season than Bournemouth or Palace.

Yes, Leicester had lost Kante, the best midfielder in the league and their true key player. Yet, the fall from Champions League to Championship is pretty deep. So I can see why Leicester pulled the trigger. Ungrateful? Yes. But professional football is not about gratitude.

YES. Gnabry!

[Philokles]

I'm not sure I would agree that Leicester's squad is better than Bournemouth or Palace's, once the 10 or so players performing way above the level they had been at the rest of their career have reverted to average. There is a good reason why Simpson, Drinkwater and Morgan have spent the bulk of their careers as average Championship players.