saintant

Play five at the back and I'm convinced we'll lose and barely lay a glove on them. It leaves us exposed and stifles our creativity. Having said that Ralph will likely revert to what hasn't worked before.

Good player - think he's going to Roma.

If we get him then I reckon he'd start plenty of games. Let's remember Lavia is very inexperienced despite his two fine performances to date and there is talk of Oriel leaving.

More of his gobbledegook.

Agree with lots of this but the problem is that Ralph doesn't.

He talks round and round in circles never making any sense. Makes it up as he goes along. Whatever fits the narrative at the time.

It's a fair point :-). Let's amend to 28 August.

Leicester fans seem in the same boat as many of us - they hate the 3 at the back that Rogers has adopted and think it leaves them vulnerable at the back while stifling their attacking play. Could be interesting when the team sheets come out and we all puzzle over respective formations. Reckon if they do go 3 at the back and we revert to 4222 we have a good chance of turning them over. Still think it's more likely Ralph will start with 3 at the back.

I doubt there will be a great deal of major transfers anywhere now until around 29 September when the dominoes will start to fall.

I'm not fully convinced Hudson-Odoi is all that to be honest. Was great as a youngster and a lot was expected of him but has he really kicked on? He's never managed to hold down a regular place at Chelsea and Tuchel was pretty scathing of him after one particular game. He's only scored 4 goals in around 72 appearances in the Premier League. Some top clubs have been linked with him but none of them seem to want to commit to him. He had a fairly bad achilles injury so I wonder if he's hampered by that. Just not sure he's what we need for the wages he'd want.

Looks to have a bit of everything. Probably just more clickbait.

Watch his skills video - he is fantastic.

Would love to get James Garner. Worth watching his skills videos. Fantastic player with a tremendous all round game. Lavia is very young and with Oriel slowing down I think this guy would be perfect for us. Wouldn't mind betting he'd become one of the first names on the team sheet.

Perraud is a decent enough full back and we generally look better when he plays. He also has a shot like a sledgehammer so hopefully we'll see more attempts from him this season.

He'll almost certainly start with 3 at the back then change when we are chasing the game.

Maybe Bella Kotchop would be a good partner for Salisu - he looks good in the air so could be the dominant partner in terms of aerial battles. A bit like when Killer and Claus formed a decent pairing - Killer was always the one who'd go through brick walls to get his head on balls crossed into the box.

He looks strong, quick, skillful and decent in the air. Didn't show many of his goals though so that may be an issue.

But he may have gifted them one point and cost us two.

We don't have to shoehorn them into these lone striker roles, Ralph chooses to do that despite the fact that it doesn't work and just makes them look bad players.

Who has claimed they don't?

Ralph will have had a quiet word in his ear to put him right 🙂

Yeah, proof that the sarcastic comment from Semmens at the fans forum when he claimed if the fans don't show up the players don't show up was a piece of petty arrogance from someone who should know better.

So if it's about cohesion, being ready as a team and is going to take time surely it's better to use that time playing the system that suits us which is blatantly not 3 at the back. As said it's an excuse and we should be playing 4222 and integrating players gradually into that if they are not ready but, judging by the last 20 minutes yesterday, they are more than ready.

He's contradicting himself because previously he's claimed the new players would take time to adopt to this formation and cited that as a reason to play 3 at the back. Seems he's confusing himself as well as the players.

The frustrating thing is that the formation and style of play in the last 20 minutes is what many of us have been calling for. It made a world of difference so let's hope Ralph has learned a hard lesson. Hopefully Selles will be on his case because he seemed to be the one behind the formation change. How long before he takes over from Ralph?