Sitting in G1, just to the right of the singing section, is like the middle ground. There’s still some of the ‘gerrit forward gang’ in close proximity and I can feel the negativity from many areas of the ground, but equally I can continue to get involved in the bid to provide positive atmosphere.

For me, this whole debate comes down to a complete entitlement which got us into this mess in the first place.

Enzo has picked up the club’s sorry arse from the pits and instead of being greeted with a hero’s welcome, people are slapping him round the face with moans and groans.

Audible collective frustration and the classic ‘gerrit forward’ – that, may I add, if we had implemented bans for shouting, like I suggested post-Liverpool away, we might not be in this position – are getting louder most weeks.

The argument that ‘I’m paying my money so I’ll support the team however I want’ has some legs, but isn’t that just it? *support the team* in that statement is key – is vocally moaning at the process (or leaving early) supporting the team in any way?

If the manager, who has led your side to 22 wins from 29, 10 points clear at the top, on for a record points total (insert other ridiculously positive stats here), is calling something out as unhelpful, should you consider whether you should do it? To be clear, the answer is yes, you should consider this, and if your outcome is not ‘maybe I should tone it down’ at the very least, I’m worried.

Discuss it in the pub if you have to, but don’t moan when we pass back to Hermansen or scream forward at any opportunity when that’s not the plan. You don’t have to enjoy the style of play but surely you can accept the results it’s getting and accept football is a results business?

Over the past 24 hours I’ve seen people say things like they can’t get excited about games against the likes of Swansea, Rotherham or Millwall. Begrudging ‘having to watch this monotonous drivel every week’. And ‘we should be winning this league comfortably, so what’s there to get excited about?’

I’m completely flabbergasted in truth. What we’ve accomplished in the last 9 years is astonishing, but it’s absolutely not the norm, it’s in the past and we have no god-given right to do it again or even be back in the top flight. That Premier League stay seems to have ruined us.

Supporting Leicester for me should be the same regardless of who we play. ‘Can’t get excited playing Swansea’ absolutely stinks of entitlement. If we can only support the team positively when we are in the Premier League against the ‘big teams’ then I’m out.

The boring comments also fascinate me. There’s so much to analyse about the style of play; that’s for another time. It’s not the high-octane counter-attack football of 2015/16 – but check the dates, we are not there now. We aren’t the underdog any more and you have to manage that differently.

Anyone who has played football knows it can be difficult to raise your game or reach your potential against weaker opposition and equally it takes time to gel with a new team.

My favourite part of the moaning is the subsequent moaning when we go long, lose the ball and another groan comes about.

People don’t like change. I get that, but I challenge anyone who doesn’t enjoy watching us romp this league to reframe what they’re watching. They’re not passing backwards to wind you up, but as part of an intelligent plan.

To go a little sensationalist and off-piste for a second, there are fans of clubs having to fight to even have a team to go and support and there’s people in our fanbase moaning incessantly because we make an extra 5 passes.

Enzo has made it very clear on his ‘idea’ from the start. If it came as a surprise to begin with fair enough, but we are around 6 months into this, he’s proven it’s working, yet the moans are getting louder.

The ‘we shouldn’t be relegated, we are too good for that’ mentality last year across the board got us relegated. The mentality of ‘well, we should be promoted, and we should be battering everyone every week and I will moan’ will lead us to Enzo walking away from the club.

After years of a ‘yes man’ manager saying whatever he thinks people want to hear, Enzo isn’t one for sentiment, he is honest and it’s refreshing. People don’t like to be questioned which is absolutely apparent with people’s reactions.

For the record, we played a lot of the same style last season, the difference being there was no clear plan and it was very predictable, whereas now there is clear purpose and ideology that the team have regularly come out backing.

People moaned at those voicing their frustrations at the manager last year because they weren’t supporting the team, yet many are now the ones moaning it’s boring and we should be doing more. The key difference is the negativity is during the game and is being felt by the team (as Enzo’s comments testify).

I have to say I think we are the only fanbase who would manage to have a full-blown meltdown and ‘blue on blue’ action when being comfortably at the top of a league. What a club.

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14 responses to “Top of the league and we’re having a meltdown: Time for the groaners to grow some cojones”

  1. Spot on! I was originally of the opinion that Enzo’s style of play was boring but the more I watch the more I appreciate the technical ability he has bought to our beloved team. How he has changed our players and is moulding them into better players. How unlike his predecessor he analyses the opposition and tweaks our formation to counter their style. It is different! give it a chance and please don’t drive away an honest and open manager with a mentality to play football in the progressive way that most of the best teams in the premier league are adopting.Pete

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  2. Alan TaylorNot much more to add, football is the beautiful game, keeping the ball, using it well, scoring creative goals, yes occasionally long balls from Callum, Marc and Yunus getting to the intended team mate, but not hoof it up the field where 90+ times ends up with the opposition

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  3. Gerrit forward doesn’t necessarily mean hoof it. for me it means play in their half with as much passing/possession as you like where it is safer (if we lose it, we’re not on the edge of/in our box)And I’m afraid Enzo needs to accept he isn’t going to please everyone whatever style he plays – throwing a tantrum and threatening to leave isn’t the response he should make

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  4. It took Arsenal years to recover from the split in their fan base over their Wenger in / Wenger out civil war. For years after they were a narky, complaining, disunited rabble who had forgotten how to support their team. Complaining not supporting became the norm. Only since Arteta has taken over have they become supporters again. We went through a similar toxic experience between our fans last season and I fear that, like Arsenal, complaining not supporting has become our norm.

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  5. It’s a results game. Enzo gets results. We should do everything in our power to keep him. We have seen the alternative. End of.

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  6. Well said. I believe it’s a hangover from last season where the team kept possession with no plan. It also takes two teams wanting to play to get a good game. Some of the teams coming to the KP are looking for damage limitation. As said in the article there are many parts of the game to admire. The press is very aggressive and effective and DH goal was a great build up. It is a new way of playing for us and it is successful – look at the stats and table. The players are buying into it. Pity we must be the only team with a fan base moaning when we are winning. I wonder if Swansea fans would be moaning in our position??

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  7. I am one of the older supporter brigade and my take on Enzo ball is that, given time and with even better players added to the squad in the next window, it could be a very effective indeed. If we make the Premier League for next season, my feeling is that Enzo ball might be a very different animal indeed.

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  8. there are times one as to pass the ball backwards they get a free kick in there half were does it end up back with the goal keeper and a few times nearly in the back of our net instead of theres, yea you cant knock the fact there sitting top of the tree 10 points clear,but i expected them to not be out the top 3 al season even with the players there got rid of.they have struggled against a few teams this season the stronger ones out of a bad bunch but theres about 20/22 even stronger ones wen they go up.hes doing wat man city do but with 2/10 million pound players they have 50/100 mill players on the bench .he will learn the hard way

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  9. For me the facts are simple. We are top of the league. We have had our best season ever so far in terms of results. We have won the most games in the league. We have scored the most goals in the league. We have let in the least goals in the league. At just over half way we are clear of everyone else by a minimum of 7 points assuming wins for the games in hand. Any other team would love to be us right now. 9 months ago we had no manager, we had to sell our best players to balance the books, and we thought our future was about surviving in the championship. Yes a lot of things went wrong last year within all levels of the club. But so far this year……… everything is about as perfect as it can ever get. The only thing we aren’t going to get is an invincible season in the league – but hey it may just be a record breaking one instead.There have been many lows since I started supporting Leicester as a student in the city in 1988. There have only been a handful of highs. This season is going to be another high and potentially give some confidence that next year might be alright too.

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  10. Read somewhere that there was a comparison with us and Man City, its easy to see that the quality of players are miles apart however we have a manager that has served his Apprenticeship with Pep and has the same philosophy on playing football and wont change his beliefs.We need to get out of this League and stay out !,how we do it doesn’t matter and come the end of the season if/when we go up it will be a massive achievement by Enzo considering his CV.He said at the recent Q&A event its about results and he is delivering, generally its not pleasing on the eye but I would sooner be in our position than the chasers.I along with others have said " if we play like this in the Prem we will get slaughtered " well lets just get up and see what happens,Enzo aint daft and must be thinking about they type/quality of players he needs so he/they must have recruitment plan.The two away games have come at a good time, 3 home games in a week for fans who want to be entertained have taken its toll, you pay your money and you do what you want ( moan/dont sing/ leave early) .We are all in this together,lets just get out of this shitshow of a League and dine at the top table,it wont be easy ( just look at Burnley) but we need to learn from what they are doingMonotonous it may be,I may not be a big fan of it but its modern football and if it gets us up so be it

    In Enzo we trust !

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  11. Great article! Really encapsulates everything succinctly. Your point about the comparisons to last season is spot on. Evans, Faes, & Amartey were doing the same things but with less positive results. I think Madividi is brilliant and gives us a lot of what Harvey gave us. I think what is missing is the genius & unpredictability of Maddison who was always likely to make something happen.Finally we have a nasty habit of not fully appreciating the talent we have, Barnes, Maddison, Tielemans are the most recent examples and then booing them childishly when they return. Fofana and the way he behaved, fair enough! Forza Enzo! 👍🦊

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  12. Absolutely agree with this. Sometimes our football is breathtaking. Believe in Enzo

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  13. It’s a fascinating debate and I’ve enjoyed reading the comments as much as I enjoyed reading the article. Enzoball obviously works in the championship and will work in the Premier League but … and it’s a big but… to upgrade our players to make this style of play successful in the Premier League will take more than £100million easily. And the Club just doesn’t have that kind of money, as we’ve seen over the last few years, which got us into this mess in the first place

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  14. We are looking like we are going through the motions.If every team understand what we are attempting to do, then they just will not bite. Just sit off hold their position and we will have to play through them. When they press it is all out, and we go into full panic mode, clear it anywhere, just get it away from the goal. There are clear opportunities for the ball over the top to get the wingers in, but we ignore it to build, only to find ourselves passing back to the Keeper. Can we just do something out of the ordinary, make the opposition think twice because any club in this league has got us sussed, and the wins that we need are not going to be forthcoming.I really believe the players are frustrated with what we are doing, someone needs to speak to Maresca, it seems he only has one way of playing and everyone knows.The wingers not improving all season is the biggest surprise, they should have double digit goals and assists, but Enzo allows them to make play what they see and they need specialist coaches to move them forward.They have no clue how to take on their fullback and shooting at goal is a joke. The fact that Maresca has allowed them to fail due to no individual input, certainly does not help the club. Funny thing, we need to use Fatawu as a deadball option, he looks a natural.

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