Like the Shakey effect at Lesster. New voice in the dressing room. 'Just be yourselves'. Piece of piss this manager lark. Silver, like Phelan, is hamstrung by the lack of a goalscorer. Possession stats and plaudits from the pundits have decoyed people's attention from this, but the outcome will be similar to a Phelan- managed team : not many wins.
If his comments are true, interesting how the way Claudio was treated puts off potential repalcements: http://www.football-italia.net/99855/prandelli-i-said-no-leicester
It happened here and it can happen at all clubs. Players putting themselves before the team and coach. We lost at Bournemouth before the team stepped on the pitch. Huddlestone said that the players are buying into Marcos way of doing things, well they should perhaps have bought into Phelan ways too.
I spoke to the brother of a Leicester scout last week. He says the players turned on Ranieri a month into the season. Openly taking the piss out of him & not trying to hide it. He went on to say it was Shakespeare who did his best to pull both sides together. This was a surprise to me, I thought it was Shakespeare turning the knife the player's had stabbed into Ranieri's back. Still think Shakespear's a snake. Would you want to work with the ****s who'd turned on the previous boss? Unless he'd maybe manipulated the situation.
The performances under Phelan after we went to 352 improved and the problem we had was not taking our chances. I think it is wrong to infer that the players weren't buying into Phelans ideas. What was wrong was bring Keane in as our solution to the striking problem, and buying Marshall instead of trying to resolve the goal scoring problems. Silva had brought in Naisse, which at least gives us a glimmer of hope, as he seems to know where the goal is.
I would still maintain that there was something wrong in the dressing room before the Bournemouth game. Hernandez does not enjoy the lone striker role. But even so it looked like a squad that did not have confidence in the system. Several players have commented on the changes introduced by Silva. If a player says that the squad are now buying in to the system, what does that say about the training and tactics before? Until someone comes out and says what happened (if anything), it looks like we will never know and I do not have any foundation for my opinion
I'm pretty sure the players said the same about Phelan after he took over. Its simply players throwing platitudes.
It's just what every player says about a new manager Hardly going to say ' oh phelans training methods are like something i saw on a football documentary from the 1950s, i really think we will struggle to get any points'
There is no doubt Mel that Phelan and Hernandez were not getting on, and to a degree I think Phelan was unlucky as he didn't really get a chance to play Mbokani and Hernandez together, which I felt did have a chance to work. I feel the change to 352 did seem to improve moral, and there is no doubt the performances improves, but we just didn't get the wins needed.