What are the first 3 things the new Leicester City manager must do?
As the dust settles on the Rodgers era, we asked what should be top of the new manager’s in-tray. What can they do right now to try to make Leicester great again?
Get 3 wins? That'd be the ideal 3 things, we can only dream at this point!
1. Instil some confidence into the players, by any means possible. A certain someone has wiped it out of the team and thrown some of them under the bus. A bit of love is the priority for me.
2. Play to our strengths. Sounds obvious, but we haven't done it. Forcing Daniel Amartey to play out from the back religiously when he's not comfortable on the ball has been one of many bizarre decisions. Back to basics, play to our strengths, bring the energy and chaos.
3. Start Vardy and Kels. Probably controversial saying Vardy considering his form this season, but I'm adamant he's got one last dance in him. Get him in, bag 5 goals in the last 10 and finish his film by firing us to safety.
Special mention to getting Cags out of the jail Rodgers had him in.
Becky Taylor
In the short term, we need to get back to doing the basics well. Being well organised and press from the front out of possession, disciplined at set-pieces and ensuring we tighten up at the back and try get some clean sheets under our belt. In possession, we've got enough quality to create chances but we need to get the ball forward quicker and be more clinical in front of goal.
I'd stick with the 4-2-3-1 formation and in terms of personnel, I think the new manager will largely have their hands tied due to the amount of injuries. I'm not sure Soyuncu will be match fit and ready for a relegation battle, but i'd love us to find a way of playing Ricardo Pereira higher up the pitch.
At the time of writing, we've got two massive home games before a free hit at Manchester City and then a run of four winnable games before a tricky final three. I think a minimum of 13 points from 30 should be enough to keep us up and if the squad react how you would imagine then we should have enough to survive.
If we do manage to stay up, whoever is in charge has a monumental task in pre-season of overhauling the squad with so many players out of contracts and a desperate need for a new goalkeeper and a replacement for Vardy.
Jordan Halford
1. Sort out the defence. Despite the familiar dispiriting result against Villa, I did feel we were better defensively. The fact Villa had half the shots Palace had (and many of them vs 10 men) was definitely a step in the right direction. It's incredible that it's took the goalkeeping coach to up come up the vaguest outline of a plan to improve the defence rather than the 'elite level' former manager.
I'd bring in Ricardo for the suspended (and frazzled) KDH, move Castagne forward and Maddison across. We've got to stop conceding 2 goals a game. That's the key to survival and the above team gives us better balance than the one vs Villa.
2. Get Vardy scoring. If he gets 1, he could get 10! I know he's been like a ghost this season and the eye test says this is a massive straw clutch but, but... he did look better vs Villa. We can't let him bow out like this.
3. Bring back the clappers! It's all gone t*ts up this season since they went! The atmosphere was good vs Villa and UFS got a lot of songs going. Get the clappers back to re-engage the other 28k!
Iain Wright
En route to Leicester for the Aston Villa game on Tuesday, I made a short list on my phone of eight things I wanted to see Sadler and Stowell do. They did five of them, including bringing Nampalys Mendy back into the side, not starting Tete again until he proves himself from the bench and moving James Maddison back to the wing to accommodate three midfielders.
The last one is slightly controversial but I simply don't think we have the quality in central midfield to play with just two. And after all, Maddison had been effective out there before Tete signed. Some people seem to have forgotten that. I was in favour of him moving inside but we're just too open at the moment and we need to stop conceding goals.
So handily enough for this question, that leaves three they didn't do - for Ricardo to be one of the first names on the teamsheet, to start Kelechi Iheanacho and to minimise the amount of time Wilfred Ndidi receives the ball facing our goal.
I can't fathom why we didn't start Ricardo. He brings the kind of pace, energy and quality on the ball we're sorely lacking all over the pitch. I've been a huge advocate of Iheanacho for a long time now and he let me down with his terrible form during a long-awaited run of starts but I still think he's the best option we have (and certainly if not him, then Daka).
As for Ndidi, I thought he had a pretty good game for the most part but that kind of error is why, as things stand, we absolutely 100% deserve to go down. I'd still start him for lack of other options. And that probably says it all.
David Bevan
