Bare with me people. FIRST EVER BLOG. (beware rambling probably will occur)
I believe a few small simple mistakes cost Leicester a place in the play offs 2010/2011 season. OBVIOUSLY, the idiot that is Paulo Sousa left us starting the season around 13 games behind the pack which put us all in disbelief at the shambles the club was in but we moved on and missing out on the play offs was infact a failure on our part considering our February position.
1. Dropping Weale.
Yes i did just say that - even though he went on to chuck in a couple of clangers notably againt the fools of the forest this i believe was one of Sven's worst decisions as Leicester boss and this is why.
Tuesday February 1st - LCFC 1 SUFC 0 whereby we had no right to win the game having a mere 2 shots on target compared to the Blade's 9; Chris Weale basically single-handedly won us that game and our season looked to really be taking shape. He then played in the 4-1 home win vs Barnsley all smiles and happy days.
Sven then for some unknown reason i will never understand chose to play 'the flapper' Ricardo & IMO it all went downhill from there. Teams such as Portsmouth and Norwich came to The Walkers & left happily with 3 points after highlighting the fact they targeted Ricardo's inability to deal with crosses.
Seeing him continue to get picked frustrated everyone but Sven continued to do so. If the in form highly confident Weale had kept his place, i wonder where we could have ended up.
2. Favouring poor 'big name' Chelsea Loanees.
Sven's rotation of his loanee's bemused me totally and also almost definitely is part of the blame for our end of season 'bottling job' of making the play offs.
Ben Mee impressed most during his time at the club yet Sven did choose to play Jeffrey Bruma at CB multiple times - basically due to the 'loan fee reduction clause' Chelsea agreed with the loan of him & Van Aanholt.
Jeffrey Bruma i believe managed just one win when playing for Leicester - this notably when he SMASHED in 2 SCREAMERS but this was him playing in midfield. In defence he was simply a liability but seemed to be favoured due to Chelsea influence.
3. Final one. Team of individuals.Yakubu. Diamansy Kamara. Darius Vassell. Sol Bamba. Jeffery Bruma. Kyle Naughton. you look at the individual talent there and you wont find much better in the championship. However, they definitely lacked some team chemistry which we loved so much from the team of 09/10.
Simply. Sven made a couple of dodgy decisions which cost us. But, bottom when he turned up? None of us were even dreaming of play offs at that stage. & that can be sorted in no time. IN SVEN WE TRUST.
Hope thats what people wanna read. Anyone agree or think i am a fool?
:)
(all feedback, notes, views, abuse, etc welcome. kthanksbye)
Pretty much nail & head scenario.. Weale made some schoolboy errors but his replacements were useless.. Bruhma definitely better in midfield but I think playoffs were a long shot.. Sven bought entertaining football to the walkers and a real sense of hope & optimism but the absolute blame for lack of premiership in 2011/2012 lies squarely with Sousa
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