S-Clarke

Jeez...

Never heard of Jackson, reading some articles it suggests this is his breakthrough season in the first team over there (he's made 1 app and already scored). He seems to be a wide right attacking mid sort of player, as opposed to an out and out striker though. Which a supposed £28m release clause....

It could be quite an unsettling week for Leicester off the pitch. The pictures released y/day after the match showed Fofana waving and standing on his own looking at their fans, something brewing there. Tiliemans is expected to leave as well, rumours are that Arsenal will push next week for that one. Impossible to say who they'll have in their 11 come Saturday. We just need to go the way we finished the Leeds game, support the forwards with more attacking players close to them. Who knows, we may even have a new one by the time this game comes around.

That's exactly it, but the prob is they look hopeless when they've got no runners to lay off to (hence the first half struggles). I think Stu Armstrong was the only one trying to break the line in the first half. I'm not sure what Elyounoussi thought he was trying to do. We do need a proper focal centre forward, that will stop us having to shoehorn Adams and Armstrong into these loan striker roles.

They don't get away with it from their own fans! Sancho being labelled as their worst ever signing, and they all want shot of Rashford. Both of them are so far away from the england squad right now.

It was a good cameo from him, he used his pace and the space behind their sleepy full backs to great effect. I don't think he'll ever be a capable centre forward in this league, basically due to his physicality, but in a 3 playing wider of a main man could be an option to have around the squad.

I think they were often a 4 under Smith. They had Konsa, Mepham, Henry and their right back was decent from memory, Moses someone. Not sure what happened to him. They played a 4 quite a lot in their promotion season under Frank too. Dalsguard - Pontus - Pinnock - Henry.

Villa's new defender, Diego Carlos, has suffered possible ankle ligament and Achilles damage. Bit of a blow that one. Wonder if we can offer them Bednarek for a cut price fee?

A guy from Atalanta is imminent, as well as cheick doucoure on a free and they're the ones in for Maupay, who will cost them £15m Still hold strong interest in Gibbs-White too.

And to add to that, he was originally brought to Man City by Shields.

It would be a decent tactic if he was any good though. But he's crap and when he's on the pitch he doesn't offer anything. It was up to him and Armstrong in the first half to link the play, find the space, cross into the box. And they failed miserably. Elyounoussi more so, one of his attempted crosses into the box was so bad I wondered if a fan was on the pitch.

That's because he had support from Aribo. Likewise, Moussa had support from Armstrong (who was making runs in front of him). I don't think there is much future in it after today, I'd be surprised to see it as a starting formation. I think there is a potential place for it in terms of an in-game change, but starting with it never seems to work with us and the players we have.

Because it was 0-0 and no damage had been done. It was fairly even. I felt we'd see Aribo in the second half and that injection could help us as they tired, and it did - but we gave up two goals before that annoyingly. I think it's fairly clear the starting formation doesn't sit well with the players we have, not just CB's but the attacking options as well. What I found frustrating in the first half was the lack of width provided by Elyounoussi or Armstrong, it was all very central and we were soly relying on KWP and Moussa to provide that width, thus leaving us exposed down the flanks. If we had better attackers (and a better left back) it could potentially work, but I don't think we have the players to play this way at the mo.

I don't understand why Ten Hag and Man Utd thought it was a good idea to sign a 5ft 8 Centre Back for a Premier League team. He might be a good footballer, but stick him at CB or DM in this league with that physicality and he will be eaten alive and spat out again. £59m on a profile of player so far away from what they need. Bizarre club.

He's more of a presence than I thought he'd be, had a bit of strength about him to hold off and turn to play that magnificent pass. 19 years old isn't he? Certainly has something about him. Not afraid to have a pop and a sprinkling of quality and good decision making.

There was a little bit of unrest at HT and I wasn't sure why, I didn't think it was as bad as people were suggesting. It was fairly even, with maybe Leeds shading it a touch. We did lack attacking threat for sure, but generally in the first half it wasn't as bad as some were keen to make out. The start of the second half was a different can of worms though. The first goal we conceded summed Southampton up from the last 5 years. Panicked clearances, no composure and defenders switching off and losing their player. The panic that comes over some players when there is a tiny bit of pressure is quite frightening. The second goal was crap and it was a situation we'd been struggling with for most of the game, and equally at Spurs. Crosses into the box, and in the case of this - a corner. Adams missed his header, it found it's way to Rodrigo and that was that. I can't remember a more toxic atmosphere at that point, not for a long long time. It wasn't looking good and given previous experiences, I expected us to wilt further. But we didn't. We rallied. The subs we made after that goal (which we wanted to make before that) added some extra attacking impetuous. Aribo almost immediately showing his quality. The biggest change was when Mara came on though, not just through his input but what it did to the team shape. Automatically we looked more comfortable, ABK in particular looked a little more at ease. Those big gaps through the centre were no more, and it enabled us to get ourselves on the front foot and be much more active in our press in the attacking third. There was also an element of Leeds tiring, but we made the most of this and attacked them and made them panic. It was great to see for a change. The best players on the pitch for me were all the new lads. Aribo, Mara when they came on were excellent. Aribo's touch is on a different planet. ABK and Bazunu very accomplished for young players. But a special mention to who I think is going to be a very special player – Lavia. He shows so much composure in the middle, his timing in the tackle is outstanding and his use of the ball (forward) is very impressive. He’s 18, it’s insane. This guy is going to be a superstar.

Brighton's bank account is ready to burst. That'll be over £100m just sitting there to reinvest in the next couple of weeks, worryingly they'll now target a striker with more resources than we have, and we're going to be shopping in the same market.

We have wasted some crazy money, certainly in recent years. That VVD sale should have helped us evolve the team in a time when we were in the post-koeman dip, but they gave 20 fucking million of it to MP to sign Carrillo and then sacked him a few weeks later ffs. One of the worst transfer windows I can ever remember. The summer under Hughes wasn't much more of a success either. Wasted the rest of the VVD fortune on Vestergaard, Gunn, Elyounoussi. Shocking really, targeted the wrong sorts of player.

I wouldn't touch Willian with a barge pole. Absolute has been, needs to retire. Fulham are going to regret this one.

Interestingly the Leeds manager has said they won't change how they play, they will still press aggressively for the match. Jesse Marsch knows how to deal with playing in this heat from his time in America apparently....hope they fall flat on their arses at 60 mins in that case.

I think Martin talks sense a lot of the time but it's the negativity and the 'we're lucky to be here' stuff that must filter around the club. I don't know if this is a pre-contrived narrative that they're peddling to make us act/behave like underdogs in the hope it'll create success? It just seems a bit counter intuitive to me. I want to hear my club tell me that we're going to give it a crack, we're going to try and upset the pack. I know that probably won't happen and oppo may laugh at those statements from our owners, but I don't care - I just want to feel as if the club I support have those dreams, otherwise what's the point? Ralph adopts the same tone. The beating Liverpool 1-0 and then acting like we'd just performed the greatest act of giant killing known to man, or the admission before games that we can't compete with these teams. Fair enough think that internally, but surely you want to create more of a bullish look from the outside. We then had the ''stop the count' bollocks when we went top of the league for a couple of days? All of this feels like this is a club mantra that we're trying to put out there, plucky underdogs with 'little money' are upsetting the apple cart etc. It's not working so far.

I always go back to what Markus said when he took us over, he wanted to create a sustainable club and get us back in the 'Top 10' of the PL where we belong. I think that's where we need to be if i'm honest. the 90's weren't like that as we battled every year, but I like to think we have the potential to be a decent Top 10 team. Being in that group allows you the opportunity to break through one season, maybe, although it's getting harder. I get what Martin and co were saying in that it's tougher every year, but it brings back the old question we had on here a while back ''Is the PL too rich for us?''. If we're not prepared to join the riches or speculate to accumulate then ultimately we will slip down the leagues and face financial hardship. I think that was a risk under Gao, but we have new owners now who seem to be prepared to go for it a bit - but the end of the window will tell us the true picture I think. Martin said the above in that the drive is to be a top 10 team, but I was also irritated by the ''we should be pleased to be here'' narrative that was put out there too, it kind of makes us sound like a noddy club punching above it's weight. I don't think we should be.

Agreed, pretty dreadful debut. Hopefully just needs game time.

Tella on the bench for Burnley tonight.

Yeah that's true, but even Ward is a bit of a step down from the days of Kasper! The next few weeks are going to be interesting for a few teams I think, Leicester fans are getting quite restless.