Lallana's Left Peg

Would love to be proven wrong but that team just feels awful - no compensation for players in the wrong positions and two wildcards in the number 10 roles. Could be a real hiding once the first goes in.

Contributing factor considering the lack of facilities available at Staplewood to recover and energy we need to expend to a result in any game. But also entirely predictable and known going into the season, so also avoidable had we worked to get a squad of appropriate size.

Who? This is the current state of the club: 1. No investment from the owner as he isn't allowed to 2. No prospect of new ownership as owner is determined to make his money back in a COVID market 3. No money for new players (what was it, down to the 7th right-back on our list to borrow on Transfer Deadline day before we jacked it in?) 4. Best player looking to move to sit on the bench of a CL club 5. Playing in a league where if you aren't spending £30-40m+ net a season you are probably going backwards because most other clubs have the means to do this one way or another. It is a thankless task to manage this football club and enhance your reputation. Not to mention its hard to succeed at anything by any metric other than 'we survived'.

Ralph isn't perfect but I'm terrified at the thought of who would even be attracted to this job if someone made a bad decision and sacked him. It's the same reason I'm terrified of selling anyone. Until the club is sold and receives some leadership and investment we're treading water. I'd rather tread water with Ralph than any other viable alternative right now.

They would have doubled down (that's how they work), and it probably detracts from the real issues which is the grand scheme of thing is not the officiating its the hangover of quite frankly terrible transfer decisions from the moment we sold VVD combined with an owner who cannot put money into the club if he wanted because of law changes in China after he purchased the club. Then if you wanted to assume he would sell, unless someone comes along and offers what he thinks it is worth he's going to hang onto his asset. Who in their right mind in this economic climate is going to buy us for more than Gao did and why would he sell for a loss? Not having a go at you by the way, just think its not as simple as claiming the owner is the problem, or saying the refs are the problem. We've made mistakes in the past and are paying for them now, I'm just thankful we've got a manager who knows what he is doing and can help us navigate through this period of the clubs existence.

For the free kick (that should have been a penalty I think) just before half-time Stephens was in the wall repeatedly telling Mike Dean something and pointing - he must have done it half a dozen times and eventually Mike Dean gave him a yellow card and Stephens didn't even acknowledge him. Then after one of the late goals Mike Dean was telling Armstrong he needed to move the ball an inch into the centre spot to kick off and Armstrong just ignored him for 15 seconds before getting a yellow and then he just smirked and shook his head at Mike Dean.

Not posted in years but nowhere near as bothered or worried about this result as I was Leicester. Look at the circumstances behind tonights result: 1. Significant injuries 2. Very poor backups playing (what, our fifth choice right back and same in CM?) 3. Unfortunate marginal decisions going against us Yes the performance was poor but the situation is not terrible - it's three lost points. In the context of the season we're in a position that reflects our squad. In the bigger picture we are where we are because of mistakes made in the past, and whilst it would be nice to have an owner who invested whatever turnaround we achieve is over a number of seasons. Last thing - was highly amused at the petulance of Stephens and Armstrong towards Mike Dean 😂

U23's shipping an enormous amount of goals at the moment, averaging nearly 4 goals a game since the start of the season

Thomas O'Connor didn't play for the U23's last night. He's usually Captain and a staple of the team in DM or CB in a three. Unless he's injured I suppose there is a chance he could be in the matchday squad for tonight.

We also lost away to Burnley that season. That has nothing to do with our current defensive issues of course, but it does go to show that even one of our best teams lost away up there. I think its awful that our central defenders are so bad that we have to play three of them to have a modicum of defensive capability, and even then mistakes undermine it all.

Unless something remarkable happens tomorrow, I hope Hasenhuttl doesn't get too frustrated with this summers activity. I know we've delivered his two high priority signings, but all signs pointed to bit of a revolution this summer, certainly with outgoings, and it just hasn't happened. There is a very real possibility that we could have players on £50k+ a week at the club but not even being registered which is a shocking situation for a club of our size to be in.

If people are a fan of his work he's still working the same angles on twitter

So Wolves want Lemina for a year whilst the player they really want remains in France for a year after they sign him. Absolutely no chance they play Lemina enough to actually be forced to sign him when they've got a £35m player coming in next summer.

Not necessarily. But shouldn't we be finding out that the Assistant Manager has left from the club before the local newspaper? That would feel like a transparent thing to do.

Well freezing players out which clearly makes them appear surplus to requirements was never going to create a bidding war for them and that was nothing to do with Les Reed. Signing lots of crap players was everything to do with Les Reed. Loans help with trimming the wage bill and reducing the squad size to something where Hasenhuttl gets the harmony he's looking for but it doesn't nothing to allow for signing new players (unless they are also loans). Letting players go cheaply sets a bad precedent for the future as well. All in all we're basically stuck.

I don't think its his application though. I think its just his nature. I don't think its a conscious decision - he's been blighted by consistency issues his entire career. I don't think he chooses to be this way, I think that's just how he is. So I don't think he is a flawed personality and all the negative connotations that go with it. If he hadn't asked to leave most of us would have been quite excited to see what he may have done under Hasenhuttl given the alignment of his abilities to the aggressiveness of our tactics.

I think that's a little too harsh. Ever since he's stated he wants to leave lots of supporters have gone very negative on his abilities as a footballer. Not saying you have as I'm not on here enough to know, but until he asked to leave he was very much 'in the building' and was a part of Hasenhuttl's squad. He would not want him around if he was not good enough, and if he didn't believe he had the right quality. It's true that Lemina has little consistency and his performances vary wildly, but he has a lot of very good traits for his position and he can affect a game both with and without a ball and for a central midfielder that is rare in the Premier League. It looks like many clubs like him, although he is not their first choice. That's about right for a player who clearly has ability but has struggled with consistency. We're a lesser squad without him, a lesser team without him when he plays well, and we'll miss him if we don't replace him. Quite clearly Hasenhuttl only wants players here who want to be here, but lets not make it out that his poor attitude has cost him his place in the squad - its his lack of desire to be here.

Second half was awful. Know its only pre-season and different combinations are being tried out but every time I see the 4-2-2-2 it looks like we have neither the personnel or maturity to play it and most teams would find it too easy to walk through the middle of us and exploit a defence which struggles unless it has three at the back in the middle. Nice to see us win games though.

Utrecht to get 10% of the fee. Utrecht want Clasie. One to keep an eye on...

Yeah both wingers letting us down in this system. Doing nothing with the ball, very ineffective without it as well.

Club had made noises about expecting Austin and Lemina to leave this week, unless something surprising happens tomorrow then we would have failed in that hope / expectation. Only concern is that the longer it takes to shift players the harder it comes to delay signings in the pipeline and convince them or their owning club to wait.

I think it depends how you want to play. If you want to press, it means a high defensive line, which exposes you to long balls and any defender without pace. Certainly against West Ham away last season they simply dinked balls over the top and it tore Stephens and Bednarek apart, the latter was pretty much our best defender last season (as he did most of his defending with the ball in front of him).

Bonkers price here, there has to be more to it than meets the eye. When on form hes our best midfielder, and while he can be inconsistent I'm surprised he won't be given a chance under Hasenhuttl. I can only assume we rate our chances so grim of giving rid of some of the other nonsense in the squad that we're selling wanted assets to fund improving other parts of the team.

I think its telling we're having to move on sellable assets we'd prefer to keep ahead of all all the deadwood we've signed over the last 2-3 years. How much cash must that lot be on if some of them aren't even being linked with moves in the media despite clearly being surplus to requirements?

Doesn't mean nothing is happening in the background of course, but absolutely nothing in the media (according to my lazy Google searches) around Cedric or Hoedt leaving even though they are clearly surplus to requirements.