S-Clarke

Crap news to end the weekend. He should have had years left in him. Met him once many years ago in the George Burley years, friendliest guy ever. RIP.

Not the greatest of sources. The descriptions of him being our 'brick wall' and 'star' are funny though, couldn't be further from the truth.

Villa fans are a bit confused by this as well, mainly because they don't play with 'wide players'. They think it's a waste of their budget and scattergun, and it's hard to disagree. Coutinho was a bit of a pointless statement signing for them, he's way past his best and doesn't seem to be able to hack this league (or any league) anymore.

Yeah, there is the off the ball stuff which is very important, I think he's good at that and like you said probably one of the reasons he's picked. But I think an attacker should be able to influence on the ball as well, he just doesn't seem to be able to. It feels like we're at a disadvantage on the ball when he's playing.

I would say so, feels like it's following in the Thomas Frank model. (He was brought in as Dean Smith's assistant at Brentford).

How do people get onto their Telegram group? I've not had an invite, not sure how to get one. I did ask for an invite when I resigned back up but that was ignored.

Yeah that's correct re: Leicester. They're a bit stuck in two area's, FFP (they need to move on some high earners first) and also a lack of investment from the ownership due to a slow down in their operations after COVID. King Power took a massive hit, which is no surprise really given the nature of their business.

Yeah it's a shame, flawless for many years. Obviously a bit of a crack down on them, given that they got rid of their website and such. Surprised it lasted as long as it did, it's had a bigger longevity than most I can remember.

Their forum is a barrel of laughs at the moment. I do think they should be grateful of what they've achieved though. To win the league was incredible, to be in and around the Champions league places for 2 or 3 years was incredible for a club the size of Leicester. It was obvious they couldn't sustain it as it wasn't their true level, it's the same for us under the Koeman years - it's very difficult for clubs like us to sustain that without mega Saudi backers, so we often fall back to our true levels. Their true level is bottom half of the PL, maybe flirting between the Championship every now and then. Their 'freak' success has given them idea's above their station, where they are now is pretty much par the course for Leicester.

Yeah, Arsenal look decent. I'd like to see them against a Man City/Liverpool though before deciding how good they really are. Their most impressive result this year has been the 0-2 at Palace. Hard to read too much into the Bournemouth game as I honestly think they're fodder. No where near good enough.

He's good coming from the left and cutting in, probably where he was most threatening for us. I don't think he's a striker as we tended to play him as.

It depends on what he wants to go I guess. If he wants to play every week it would be harsh to keep him around to 'fill the bench for experience'. I think he's been good enough for us to deserve the opportunity to move on and play if it comes up.

Quick bump on this - is anyone else noticing this is pretty much unusable on game-days this season? I use it in the week for all sorts of TV and it's fine, but today after about 30 mins I lost every single sports feed for all games. Normal channels were fine, just all the sports channels and game feeds were down. Apparently this happened last week as well. I can't see what's going on either as I have no access to their telegram. I renewed my sub and asked for an invite, but all they did was renew my sub.

Absolutley class in my opinion. He adds physicality and pace to the spine of the team. Straight away Salisu looks more comfortable as well, you don't notice him doing as many crazy things and having to cover for the awol and caught up field Bednarek. He has the attributes we have kind of avoided signing for a few years. Power, strength, pace, combined with being comfortable on the ball. We went down the road previously by just focusing on players who were good with the ball - Hoedt, Vestergaard, Stephens to an extent, but at the end of the day the PL is all about physicality and this always makes the difference.

One game isn't going to change anything, just the same as a defeat wouldn't have forced us down the road of buying 11 new players. We know what we're doing, we have our targets that are right for us, not knee jerked panic additions.

It does make a difference having people to bounce idea's off of. I don't care how good you are, you still need people who can validate your thoughts and throw some counter arguments your way. That goes the same in any job. Klopp speaks to his coaching staff throughout the game, so does Pep. It doesn't make the manager any less of a person, he's just human and has people on equal footing to float idea's with. Kelvin was a great servant for us, and so was Watson to a degree, but I have no idea what either brought to the party and how they'd ever be in a position to counter anything Ralph was doing. They just didn't have the coaching skills or experience.

I've got a hunch he's off to Spain, it'll be sad to be honest. I'd still be keen to keep players like him around, but if he wants to play every week you've got to be fair to him and let him go to somewhere he can.

I don't think Leicester tested him much, as they didn't really play wide as such - but he did what was asked of him, kept tight, tracked his runners, didn't get too excited and venture miles up the pitch. I like his attitude, he's dug in and done a job today I have to say.

That was a great away showing. I didn't think the first half was too bad, a bit flat from both sides really. One thing that impressed me in the first half was our off the ball work, Leicester found it very hard to find space in open play. Whilst they had a lot of the ball, they didn't really threaten. I think that was our initial tactic, keep compact, nothing too crazy and give ourselves the chance to put our foot down a little later. The goal was obviously not planned, but again it wasn't the fault of open play or being carved open as such. Bazunu should getting a hand to that though, one to be very disappointed with. That goal forced us onto the front foot though. Maybe we benefited slightly from Leicester retreating and trying to keep what they had as quickly as they did, but we did certainly turn it up a bit in the last 30 mins. We were much better on the ball, it was sticking up top and this made a huge difference. Adams provided a presence straight away, first goal was a bit scrappy but you can't take away the second - it was a quality instinctive finish. The standout good points are our character, a team so often known for throwing away positive positions has managed to do the opposite two weeks in a row. That doesn't scream of a bunch of players not playing for the manager. The options on the bench are now making an impact, as we have more quality throughout the squad. We also showed the flexibility in game to switch back to the 5, and that is another clear string to our bow. I can't fault Moussa's attitude or positivity, he doesn't moan or create a fuss he just gets on with it. You can tell he isn't a natural full back in any way, but he stuck to his job and he deserves credit for that. Bad points were Elyounoussi. I hope we're still not considering a new contract for him. He is really not good enough. After a positive cameo last week, Armstrong was back to his ineffective and very weak self. He just couldn't impose himself and we struggled so much up front because of that. We were much better without him on the pitch. You can still see the glaring hole in the side for a striker who is able to hold the ball up, bring others into play, offer some presence etc. Che can do that as we saw, but consistency is always a question mark over him - so having another powerful option is important in my opinion. We are also still lacking quality in those 10's. Aribo is class, you can tell that straight away, but we need to be moving the likes of Elyounoussi away from the squad imo - need better than him. The attacking third is high priority for me in the remaining 2 weeks of the window.

I wonder if the club thought he'd be ready for that role sooner? Obviously they weren't scared to through Broja or Tino in, but there was hesitancy around Small. In the few appearances he's made for us (FA Cup and pre-season) he's looked so far off it sadly. Season at Port Vale may do him good, but he's not starting for them in L1. I think the club needs to be looking for a LB to bridge the gap between Small being ready, as he looks miles away atm.

I don't disagree regarding Perraud, I do like him though in that he's quite tenacious and doesn't get beaten all too often. The issue I see with Perraud is his limited technical ability and lack of explosive pace. That sort of holds him back in the formations we play which rely on marauding full backs, like KWP. We do look more balanced with KWP right, Parraud left, but we'd look even better with a KWP profile player on the left imo. I wonder if the club thought Small could be that player, but as yet it hasn't quite worked out (maybe in a few years).

Yeah exactly, it just leaves a bad taste. Loyalty is few and far between in football.

Apparently Tielemans isn't in the squad either, for 'unspecified reasons'. It does leave a bad taste in terms of how Fofana is acting though. They helped him rehab for 12 months through a nasty ACL injury, and now he refuses to play for them (whilst still picking up a wage I guess)

Maybe a little premature on this one! No idea how they've managed to pull this one out of the bag.