Are Leicester City really better off under Eriksson than Sousa?

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http://soccerlens.com/are-leicester-city-really-better-off-under-eriksson-than-sousa/69206/

Are Leicester City really better off under Eriksson than Sousa?
By David Cockcroft on April 27th, 2011.

The reign of Portuguese legend Paulo Sousa will never be one remembered too fondly around the City of Leicester. A man that tried to bring a certain art of football to the Walkers Stadium was, in my view, probably not given enough time to get his ideas across, and in time, develop his players at a level to sustain them.

After a run of 9 league games that saw Sousa’s Leicester pick up just 5 points, the club decided to part company with the man who was brought in by Chairman Milan Mandaric, whilst seemingly pulling the rug from under the successful Nigel Pearson in the process.

Fast forward to the present day and it is the former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson that you’ll find in the dugout, sometimes gingerly prowling the technical area of the Walkers Stadium.

Leicester City fans have taken to the Swede well, a man that propelled the club from its bottom three position to the verge of the playoffs.

If it wasn’t for a poor run of form in the run up to this seasons finale, Leicester’s dreams of Premiership football might well have been realised too.

However, after going on a dismal run since late February, which saw the club only manage to pick up just 12 points from a possible 36, Leicester now look set to finish in mid table mediocrity.

To put things in perspective here, Sousa’s eleven games in charge at Leicester, albeit two were Cup successes over Macclesfied Town and Leeds United, brought three victories. Sven Goran Eriksson’s Leicester have achieved that exact total of wins in their last eleven outings too.

Was Sousa really that bad after all?

Both Sousa and Eriksson arrived at the Walkers Stadium with a style of play in mind that would abolish former manager Nigel Pearson’s organized and counter attacking systems. Each managers ideas of how the game should be played is admirable, especially Sousa’s as he was first at Leicester to try them.

The difference between the tenures of Sousa and Eriksson is simply time. Time to allow the manager to get those ideas across and imprint his style on how Leicester City play.

The team that Pearson built consisted of strong organized defenders like Wayne Brown and Jack Hobbs, one hundred percenter’s such as Martyn Waghorn and plenty of pace for breakaway goals supplied through the likes of Lloyd Dyer and Matty Fryatt.

Sousa and Eriksson have replaced the tried and tested ways of Pearson for possession football, slick interchanges of passes and a 4-3-3 formation that’s operated in a completely different manner.

For better or worse both Sousa and Eriksson, not so coincidentally the first foreign coaches Leicester City have had, have brought football to the Walkers Stadium that builds from the back, and the players seem to have reacted in a positive manner about the change.

Midfield playmaker Ritchie Wellens embraced the appointment of Paulo Sousa, knowing what it meant for the teams style back in the summer of 2010. “As soon as he was announced as manager I was looking forward to playing the same style as Swansea played” said the former Manchester United trainee.

The difference in Leicester’s adoption to a game of football this season has been there for all to see. The team now likes to play a more patient, shorter game. Evidently it hasn’t worked all the time for them this year but the Foxes seem adamant that this style of play will suit and benefit them in the long run.

Leicester’s promotion ambitions may well be dead for another year but going into the new season, with Eriksson and with money to spend, the Foxes will no doubt be one of the favourites to achieve their aim of Premiership football next term.

How much easier did Sousa make the transition for Sven Goran Eriksson is open for debate, but I suggest to you that the Portuguese manager’s style of play was not as outrageously ambitious as some fans led others to believe back in October 2010.

He bedded them in nicely for Eriksson to pick up and Leicester’s rise through the Championship ranks have rewarded their persistence in the style of football the club want to play.

Leicester City are far from the finished article Paulo Sousa first envisaged last summer and the latest run of ‘form’ under Sven Goran Eriksson suggests there’s still a lot more adapting to be done at the Walkers Stadium. Ambitions however are high in the east midlands and with the money now readily available to help back up their new style of play, its warranted ambition too.
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Bollocks
 
It is worthy of noting that Mr Eriksson have had the disasterous start to the season and been sacked he would not struggle to find another club. The guy has a pedigree that is obvious, Sousa does not and, barring a small miracle, will not.
 
I think he's underselling Sousa. Wasn't there a fourth victory in the LC against Pompey? Lamey, Howard, Kennedy, Moreno, Logan, Morrison (who also scored) played, or was it all a narcotics-induced dream?

If Sven bucks his ideas up, he might get a win against Portsmouth, someday.
 
There is a word that should always be used in connection with Sousa. That word is "bottom". Any club that is bottom after nine games is in a relegation fight.

There is a word that should always be used in connection with Sven. That word is "pre-season". Does anybody believe that we would be short of fitness if Sven had been in charge or that we would have brought in such poor quality players - one of which Vitor is sometimes in the team, one of which Moreno is often on the bench but never plays and two of which Lamey and the Slovenian never even get on the bench.

We will never know which players would have brought in if Sven had been there last pre-season. I look forward with optimism to seeing who he brings in this coming pre-season.
 
Something was clearly wrong under Sousa, whether it was a lack of fitness training during the close season, or something else, I am not in a position to judge. Sven has been in a position whereby he has had to patch up the squad with what is available and so, should be given the Summer to create his team.

It should, however, be remembered, when belittling Sousa's signings, that we had not been taken over until just before Sven came to the club and Sousa had little money to spend.
 
The blatant morale issues when Sousa was here makes me pretty certain it was always going to end badly.
 
David Gwilliam said:
There is a word that should always be used in connection with Sven. That word is "pre-season". Does anybody believe that we would be short of fitness if Sven had been in charge or that we would have brought in such poor quality players - one of which Vitor is sometimes in the team, one of which Moreno is often on the bench but never plays and two of which Lamey and the Slovenian never even get on the bench.
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I'm not going to bet the shop on the pre-season Sven's going to give us, or am I convinced of the supposed influence of Sousa's pre-season on the poor run we've had in the last couple of months - delivered mostly by players who were nowhere near LCFC then (including all the duffers (+ Waggy) you name - only Vitor and Kennedy signed before late July/early August - and DJ didn't seem unduly out of puff scoring all those Prem goals before Xmas).

One of the things LCFC 2011/12 need to improve markedly is the annoying lapse of concentration (mentally unfit?) that l associate with shipping goals early and late in each half - something that this season's (including Sven's) team does and NP's hardly ever did.
 
fitz said:
The blatant morale issues when Sousa was here makes me pretty certain it was always going to end badly.
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Exactly. The team now seem united under Sven. You don't see Sven being interviewed on TV with a black eye.
 
A huge and resounding yes.
 
Sousa was a Grade A twat. If it had been up to me he'd have been sacked at half time in our first competitive game under his command. His incompetance was that obvious. He was patently out of his depth and incapable of organising and controlling a group of pretty useful and welcoming players.

And the football under him was boring and childish.

Sven is an outstanding manager and has proved that time and time again. He corrected the obvious faults that could be sorted almost immediately. Some of the football we've played over recent months has been the best I've seen us play in 30 years.

Given a good budget and a fair wind, we'll cruise promotion under his leadership next season. In addition, when we go up we will have a very good chance of competing in the Premiership. This is totally in contrast to what was likely had Pearson got us promoted, irrespective of budget.
 
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