Nigel Pearson- "It's my City team doing so well.

[Mawsley]

I was in retail for 30 odd years and MY mortgage was paid off. Can't see why they wouldn't.

What did you do during the even ones?

 

[spionfox]

What did you do during the even ones?

Stayed in and played Monopoly.

 

[FOX Franks]

Stayed in and played Monopoly.

That'd be it then, apparently you can make £2000 every time someone lands on Mayfair!!

It's the ultimate clickbait. "Lad uses this ONE trick to make £2000 from home"

 

[Feriol]

It's the ultimate clickbait. "Lad uses this ONE trick to make £2000 from home"

The link is broken, please fix ASAP!! I Must know the trick!

 

[FOX Franks]

The link is broken, please fix ASAP!! I Must know the trick!

Merry Christmas!

 

[Mike - True Blue Tinter]

Back to the thread. While it was Nigel who was manager during the 'Great Escape' for 2 months, it was also Nigel who was manager when we spent nearly 6 months in bottom place.

Yes we put in good performances, but we kept losing by the odd goal. It was all defensive minded - try not to lose, maybe snatch a draw or a win if possible. Only in April when it was down to win the next 8 games or be relegated, did the shackles come off.

Yes the team had spirit but not a winning mentality. Now they have both. And that is down to Ranieri. He has improved them. Just look at the quality and speed of the one touch passing on the counter attack. Even in close quarter combat they all attempt one touch flicks in little triangles. We did not do that last year.

Now when we are 2 goals down, we fight back and get the equaliser in the 87th minute. Do we then park the bus and breathe a sigh of relief that we rescued a draw? No, we go tearing back up the pitch again to get a winner in the 93rd minute.

Ranieri is responsible for this. He has told the players to play for fun, to play for each other, to attack and to defend together, to not be afraid to be daring and try an outrageous pass or shot. We never did that last season.

He has exploited our speed to brilliant effect. Teams cannot push their backs up to the half way line because Vardy, Albrighton, Okazaki, Schlupp and Mahrez will fly into the spaces behind them.

I think by February we will see several more PL teams trying to play the 'Leicester' way. Of course they will have to be as fit as our guys to do it, box to box for 95 minutes. I have not seen another PL striker who will chase EVERY long ball down the channels into the corners or to the goal-line to win a throw or a corner.

Ranieri saw what we were able to do when he arrived. He saw the medical and sports science backup. He knew he had a great set-up. He just added his own Italian flair and expertise to make a great team into an amazing team. I have not seen a single substitution this season that did not give us a better chance of winning the game. I saw loads of awful substitutions last season.

If the 'big boys' keep believing the pundits that 'the wheels will come off at some point', we will just keep on winning.

Ranieri has clearly won the respect and affection of the whole squad, not just the first team, and the media as well.

Forget the well deserved position in the table, how much better is it to have everyone's favourite, the amazing Uncle Ranieri, when other fans only have the likes of Pulis, McLaren or Big Sam to brighten up their Saturday afternoons?

 

[Feriol]

Great post Mike.

I would also add that Vardy's first touch and finishing have dramatically improved. Mahrez is more consistant. Drinkwater now has the quality and intelligence to rival Cambiasso. Even Morgan looks more composed.

The Training under Ranieri has improved the abilities of the players.

And for all the talk of Ranieri not changing much, we now play 4-4-2 (well), we have changed both full backs, a new midfield partnership (Drinkwater was not involved much last season, and rarely praised when he was). Vardy played as a wide forward quite a bit last season, but Ranieri has us playing to his strengths, and has him consistently down the middle.

Ranieri has made a lot of improvements that he isn't getting the credit for, but I love how modest he is about it all.

 

[Brown Nose]

One point I'd like to make about NP.

He did very good things for our football club. He built strong foundations, recruited the recruiters, invested smartly, built a spirit, All of which cannot and should not be underestimated.

However, he must be the most tactically incompetent man ever to manage. He took pretty much this same group of players (less Fuchs and Kante but with Cambiasso) and had them rock bottom of the league last season for three quarters of it. How bad do you have to be to do that?

I always said last season that we had a good squad that were being badly managed. It is now surely undeniable that that was the case?

 

[Blaarev]

One point I'd like to make about NP.

He did very good things for our football club. He built strong foundations, recruited the recruiters, invested smartly, built a spirit, All of which cannot and should not be underestimated.

However, he must be the most tactically incompetent man ever to manage. He took pretty much this same group of players (less Fuchs and Kante but with Cambiasso) and had them rock bottom of the league last season for three quarters of it. How bad do you have to be to do that?

I always said last season that we had a good squad that were being badly managed. It is now surely undeniable that that was the case?

Still a bit harsh on NP though. There is little doubt that it took some time for many of the players to adapt to the higher level of the Premier League.

 

[Fox Fan]

One point I'd like to make about NP.

He did very good things for our football club. He built strong foundations, recruited the recruiters, invested smartly, built a spirit, All of which cannot and should not be underestimated.

However, he must be the most tactically incompetent man ever to manage. He took pretty much this same group of players (less Fuchs and Kante but with Cambiasso) and had them rock bottom of the league last season for three quarters of it. How bad do you have to be to do that?

I always said last season that we had a good squad that were being badly managed. It is now surely undeniable that that was the case?

Ridiculous. Look at the form of Marhez, Vardy, Morgan and Drinkwater. This time last season non of them were performing. Against Chelsea last season we bought on GTF in midfield. This season we had Andy King and Inler to bring on. Bit of a difference.

Having a season of top flight football too, these players have matured well.

 

[Feriol]

Pearson and the team started lasted season very well, but we were fragile in defence.

As a defender Pearson naturally wanted to tighten the defence, unfortunately the changes he made dampened the teams spirit and made us more nervous. His inexperience showed, but he may have learned from the experience.

When the team were given freedom again they began to shine.

Ranieri is allowing the team to play with freedom, they are not fearful of conceding goals. Defence has been an issue, but rather than over react, as I felt Pearson did, Ranieri is slowly tweaking things.

As you see our progress through this season you will notice that the tinker man has been tinkering more than most be realise, the man is a genius.

 

[M17TT C]

Claudio has taken us to new, higher levels but there is no way we'd be in the position we are in now if it wasn't down to Pearson.

 

[Mawsley]

BN never 'got it' last season so I'm not surprised he's still droning on about it now. It's getting really boring reading the same bollocks for the second season running.

 

[Richie_d123]

Some Leicester fans even refuse to credit Pearson with our run to safety. Claiming it was the players deciding to do it for themselves only. Also heard a rumour that it was only because Cambiasso spoke to Pearson and told him how we should play.

 

[SJN-Fox]

Some Leicester fans even refuse to credit Pearson with our run to safety. Claiming it was the players deciding to do it for themselves only. Also heard a rumour that it was only because Cambiasso spoke to Pearson and told him how we should play.

This article in The Mirror seems to add weight to that argument.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leonardo-ulloa-reveals-moment-leicester-7256191?

“It was the day that Esteban Cambiasso started counting exactly what we needed to survive and there was a talk with the coaching team.

“So we said amongst ourselves that we had nothing to lose and we started to play in a more relaxed fashion, without fear of defeat,"

 

[Lako42]

Can't say I'm surprised, he mentioned he was going to have a chat with the lads and get things sorted out.

Pearson sat in the corner refusing to get involved.

 

[Brown Nose]

Birchenall said pretty much the same thing at the end of last season. Cambiasso came into the training ground one day with a full written analysis of us and the remaining fixtures and what we needed to do to stay up. Birchenall said that it blew everyone away.

It's another indicator of how outstanding a manager I think Cambiasso will be one day.

I also put Ulloa's drop in form this season down to his mate not being here any more.

I give credit to Pearson for at least being big enough to listen to a senior player like that. I guess it had got to the 'nothing to lose' stage but it would have taken some humility.

 

[Borderfox]

Birchenall said pretty much the same thing at the end of last season. Cambiasso came into the training ground one day with a full written analysis of us and the remaining fixtures and what we needed to do to stay up. Birchenall said that it blew everyone away.

It's another indicator of how outstanding a manager I think Cambiasso will be one day.

I also put Ulloa's drop in form this season down to his mate not being here any more.

I give credit to Pearson for at least being big enough to listen to a senior player like that. I guess it had got to the 'nothing to lose' stage but it would have taken some humility.

I think your comment about Ulloa is unfair, all players have a dip in form at some stage, and Ulloa is no different. However I do agree that Cambisso's influence on the Club has been grossly under-estimated. I doubt NP could have found a way out of the situation we were in without his input. As you say he is destined to become a fantastic manager and his one season with us has probably changed this club forever, not a bad legacy for one man. I do wonder sometimes if CR's appointment had anything to do with Cambiasso, they would have certainly known each other from the Italian league, and he would have recognised what the owners are trying to do, and known about CR's history, but maybe that me being over the top.

 

[lazzer]

Well I already thought he was god so I'm not sure where this revelation puts him ? Maybe Q

 

[Ike O'Noclassed]

Birchenall said pretty much the same thing at the end of last season. Cambiasso came into the training ground one day with a full written analysis of us and the remaining fixtures and what we needed to do to stay up. Birchenall said that it blew everyone away.

It's another indicator of how outstanding a manager I think Cambiasso will be one day.

I also put Ulloa's drop in form this season down to his mate not being here any more.

I give credit to Pearson for at least being big enough to listen to a senior player like that. I guess it had got to the 'nothing to lose' stage but it would have taken some humility.

The Mirror article just picked a few selected bones out of the interview Leo did with Marca, the Spanish sports website. It's at:

http://www.marca.com/futbol/premier-league/2016/01/27/56a8a88846163fd7268b4640.html

Hopefully it'll appear in English translation - still I was interested to hear about Leo's experiences with Almeria, who did a bit of "a Leicester" a few years back in la Liga; that his nickname is El Ciclon (The Cyclone); and that he turned down Chile, which along with Argentina and Spain he is qualified to play for.