Kolo Toure | Page 25 | Vital Football

Kolo Toure

Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers has spoken about losing first team coach Kolo Toure over the international break.

Toure is the new manager of Championship side Wigan Athletic, a move that was confirmed earlier this week. It came as something as a surprise to supporters of both clubs, with Rodgers admitting it came about quickly.

The City boss was quick to praise Toure in an interview with LCFC TV, predicting he will go on to have great success as a manager and giving his own thoughts on the move.

"Kolo's a great man," Rodgers said. "I signed Kolo as a player at Liverpool and at Celtic. After his period at Celtic I took him into my coaching team. I've also learned a lot from Kolo.

"It's the beauty of the job I'm in as a manager. I love to see people progress in their life, in their professional life. This for him is a nice progression forward into becoming a manager.

"I've actually got a call with him a little bit later on, so it'll be nice to speak to him. He's a great guy. Everyone has to make their first steps.

"It came around quickly but he's gone into the Championship and he will do really, really well as a manager, I'm sure."
 
runcornfan1978 said:
At the end of the day, the most important goal this season is to finish 4th from bottom. It might take a few games in order for KT to get his message & style of play across (as I think someone has said previously.) But if we see a more high tempo, passing style of football, as we have seen on the very few occasions we have actually played football, we will be alright.
Click to expand...
Don't mind the passing but hope it's not passing for passings sake or just keeping possession passing sideways and backwards. That is dull as dishwater. We witnessed that last night with England and have in the past with Roberto. Sometimes you have to change has England did last night when they went more direct and Bobby did in 2012 and during the cup run in 2013.
 
I suspect Kolo (that should really say, hope), in possession will want the team to play high tempo through the thirds. Can they receive and look to play forward. That requires lots of movement off the ball to create support runners and clearing passing lines. Out of possession it’s going to be a high press. Plenty of controlled aggression. However, it’s going to take a little while for the process to bed in, even then I’m not sure we have the players to consistently make it work. Out of possession could be picked apart if support players dont react to the triggers of the initial press or we leave acres of space in behind for players with pace to exploit. Totally fascinating to see how it pans out. I think it’s going to be entertaining, but results may be a roller coaster.
 
Will we get to see the likes of Shinnie, Broadhead, Fletcher, Scully featuring a lot more & becoming regular starters in the team I wonder? Especially as Kolo wishes to play high tempo.
 
Le Prev said:
I suspect Kolo (that should really say, hope), in possession will want the team to play high tempo through the thirds. Can they receive and look to play forward. That requires lots of movement off the ball to create support runners and clearing passing lines. Out of possession it’s going to be a high press. Plenty of controlled aggression. However, it’s going to take a little while for the process to bed in, even then I’m not sure we have the players to consistently make it work. Out of possession could be picked apart if support players dont react to the triggers of the initial press or we leave acres of space in behind for players with pace to exploit. Totally fascinating to see how it pans out. I think it’s going to be entertaining, but results may be a roller coaster.
Click to expand...

I remember when we appointed Joyce he talked about how he wanted to play a high press and in the first game against Reading we came out with a really aggressive press and your instant impression was this looks positive. But Reading within the first 5 mins broke the press and scored and you could feel the confidence shatter, we immediately doubled down on the high press to try and immediately respond and Reading broke it again and scored a second and it felt like Joyce lost any bravery he had. In the rest of his time he reacted by largely just sitting deep as he was afraid to do the high press again.

If we would've had a bit of luck and not conceded 2 goals like we do so quickly it could've completely changed how it all panned out - that start seemed to kill Joyce's reign before it even got a chance to get going, it felt like the players lost faith in him and it killed any bravery he may have had in attacking teams.

Whatever Toure wants to do if it gets off to a good or bad start could psychologically be huge for the players buy in and his bravery as a manager in his tactical approach. We could really use a bit of luck to set a good initial tone and get some feel good factor to build from.
 
"To bring something new to the club, a new philosophy, and to provide modern football...

Something was missing, in this league youL need to play modern football and hopefully Kolo will help us to find it. I'm sure Kolo will change the mentality and the style."

It's pretty clear that Talal recognised how out dated and ineffective our hoof and hope was and keen to move away from it.
 
Definitely seems to have more charisma than Leam, although it is very early days on that front. Let's see what he's like after a month of hardcore Championship football. Having said that, whilst motivation and encouragement shouldn't be a problem, I vocally questioned whether Leam had it in him to dish out a proper bollocking to this group of players in the dressing room when it's needed. I have those exact same concerns about Toure having watched his press conference.
 
From listening to and reading the various interviews done yesterday, you can tell Kolo's been around a winning environment his entire playing and coaching career. Very matter-of-fact and knows what he wants to, and feels he is going to achieve with this group of players.

Certainly no umming and ahing or making excuses about how difficult a task staying up with the squad he's inheriting is going to be. Whether that remains the case after the upcoming Christmas slog remains to be seen.

Interesting to hear this from Mike Minay on Radio Manchester last night: "The long-ball, 'hoof-it-up-to-Magennis' didn't gain Leam Richardson many fans at board level."

Confirming what a lot of us suspected, that the way in which we played contributed to Leam's demise as much as the results themselves. Maybe the mysterious Bahrain trip was to try and convince Leam to try a different approach but the Watford, Stoke and Coventry defeats were evidence enough to the board that it clearly wasn't going to happen.

I wouldn't normally want the board to overrule coaching professionals on style of play, or any aspect of the playing team beyond recruitment but it had become so desperate that I couldn't blame them for having words and, if those words weren't heeded, going in a different direction with the business they're paying a lot of money into.
 
Last edited:
Was the correct decision at the time to release LR. Kolo seems to be enthusiastic and has a presence, just hope the football matches this. Tough start on paper though
 
Frank Bullitt said:
"Mal proud of diverse new look management team-but it was not a factor in the selection process."

https://www.wigantoday.net/sport/fo...-selection-process-wigan-athletic-ceo-3945946

Why would MB say that? He seems to be defending the appointments.

Did Toure actually apply for the post or was he approached by the club?
Click to expand...
He said it because he was asked the question, stop trying to make things into what they aren't. Does it realy matter if he applied or not?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.