S-Clarke

What is their strategy? They signed the guy from Bayern (Omar Richards) for £10m, he's a quality LB. They also signed Toffolo from Huddersfield. Their approach is starting to scream wtf.

Yeah, Wolves were also linked - not sure if that was just lazy journalism though given he's Portuguese. Jackson is more of a wide player though I think, whereas Ramos is a CF. We need both types imo.

Looks like Wolves have found a load of money down the back of the sofa. Potentially a bit of a domino here with regards to Ramos.

But how much longer can they continue shuffling through managers before tackling the crux of the problem? So many horrible characters as players in that club (and terrible players too), terrible ownership, equally bad football management/DoF stuff. Until those things are fixed, they'll just keep cycling through manager after manager with no strategy. First thing they need to do is work out what they are, what style they want to play, let the manager build that and go from there.

Like Tajjuk has said, you can't judge anyone yet. There are so many changes yet to happen with regards to transfers in and out which could make or shape teams. For one it's impossible to predcit how Forest will do, these new signings could make them a super team, or they could blow up. Impossible to judge yet. 10-12 games will give you a fairer idea of what's what in my opinion, but even then stuff can still change. How teams react to the World Cup in the middle of this season is also unpredictable. Teams could flourish from the gap (similar to how we did in lockdown), or teams could come back with players fatigued/injured and it could bomb the rest of the season. Lots of weeks to go until we can say what's what with any side.

I'd say that Bednarek makes Salisu's game worse, as Salisu is pulled all over the place trying to cover. He's not a truly hideous CB like Hoedt, but you cannot get away from the cold hard facts - we have had one of the worst defences in the league, consistently, when he's been a part of it. He ball watches, he gets caught on the ball, has no physicality and is out muscled way too easily. No pace either. Not a great advert for a PL CB.

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.