Thracian

Right from the off I thought Maguire would make a massive difference for us from attacking set pieces bu we're already in danger of seeing so much good in the bloke we ignore the faults that need rapidly ironing out and make him vulnerable as well as classy. a) He often takes too much time on the ball moving out of defence and once or twice every game he gets ambushed and leaves us in danger of conceding a goal because, once caught, there's no way he'll recover to catch anyone with a bit of pace. He has the class to play the ball quicker and I wish he would because it would eliminate the weakness and give receiving players that little bit more time. b) Connected with that is his adventure leaving us vulnerable because on the counter because we've so little cover in a two-man midfield and James is not quick in any case. Brighton didn't ask many questions at all and looked remarkably green but Arsenal scored four times and had an abundance of shots and it will doubtless be the same at Old Trafford unless we're very clever indeed. Either way there's no way we can leave ourselves exposed to either the pace of United's players or passing with a shortage of numbers. Morgan and Maguire will need to be fully focused and strategically connected and we'll need all the pace, energy and numbers we can muster in central midfield along with the resolve to be ruthless on the counter or from set plays. It's not impossible. We've given some great displays against top teams in both The Prtemiership and Champions League. But we can't afford indiscipline of any kind, or much getting caught in possession. Maguire is a wonderful prospect, no question, but he's more to learn before he's a master craftsman in the job and I'm sure he'll know that whatever the praise he gets.

If James' name was King he'd be getting criticised. They are so similar in just doing the simple things quietly.

It was clear from the manner of our first goal that Mahrez would shine on Saturday. Brighton's left-back looked more like a doorman at The Ritz the way he stepped aside to let Mahrez pass in that first crucial minute. And from that point, Mahrez knew he was in a theatre of fun for the day and took centre-stage with relish. But all credit to him. Given licence, he enjoyed himself and did much to see we won the match. I doubt he'll find life so comfortable against Manchester United and am quite sure he'll get clattered from time to time. Yet it's opponents like United that'll essentially shape his future because they're the sort of teams any prospective suitor will expect him to provide an edge against - a moment of magic to make the difference. Brighton didn't stir enough to provide a test for oxygen in the air.

Nor do I and fail to understand why he's so highly rated. He reminds me of a shunter on the railways. He chugs up and down arranging things this way and that but hardly ever goes anywhere exciting or beyond the confines of the yard. Creative? In artistic terms there's the odd flash of colour but he basically abstract. A King Power blue brick in a turquoise background. Sits in the frame well enough but doesn't stir the soul.

It's a bit ironic given all the praise he got but had Morgan made the kind of mistakes Maguire made on occasions today he'd have been slated for them. Our new centre-back might have scored a goal on his Premiership home debut and thrilled us with a few clever runs, passes and touches but he very nearly gave an unnecessary goal away with a lack of concentration. Morgan did a lot of our defending today while Maguire enjoyed the kind of freedom he'll certainly not get every week and the clear sheet speaks volumes for the entire defensive department who limited what was a seriously ordinary Brighton side to little more than crumbs. Mahrez was our virtuouso man of the match by some distance for all that he was effectively "waved through" to make Shinji's opening goal after 52 seconds as if he'd told the full-back he'd left his boots in the goalmouth and needed to get them quick before Shakespeare noticed, prompting their full-back to just step aside. Shinji looked to have evolved a new style for 20 minutes or so, performing like a Far Eastern-featured Gerd Muller in trying to sniff out chances within two or three yards of the goalline. And he might have had a hat-trick. I had no problem with Shakespeare being reluctant to make much in the way of substitutions. The team was doing its job - as seemed to be at Arsenal the previous week - and there was no need to even think of mending what wasn't broke and risking another calamity. Gray will doubtless get his chance, or his next chance I should say, when the opportunity arises. It was a solid if unexpansive performance today and as Shakespeare said himself, it was good and right to put some points on the board. .

Wonderful smell and helped the boots stay so flexible they shaped themselves to your feet. I don't know if it's sold now, but I still use an ancient tin of it for reviving leather items like Gladstone or doctor's bags and even horse saddles although I'd still sooner be buffing up my boots for another game, if only my ageing limbs would co-operate a bit more readily.

Make sure you keep your boots dubbined!

They didn't make so much fuss about it.

Encouraging win against quality opposition at that level. Heartening to know Mendy had some action. Hope there's no adverse reaction and he starts building his career again.

According to CS he got injured against BMG.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/leicesters-kelechi-iheanacho-sees-specialist-over-toe-injury-36045757.html Seems strange this one. The bloke's given a bit part at Arsenal but deemed fit enough to make his debut for eight minutes. He hardly touches the ball and then we hear he's got injury problems again. Why do I get bad vibes about the lad and why has something always seemed amiss about the fact of his coming here? Just imagination I suppose...but some people just seem to carry problems around with them and all the bother over his image rights - and his resulting lack of preparation time - hardly helped. On the one hand we've got a striker who's regularly given his all with his broken wrist in plaster. On the other, well, I don't know what we've got apart from what seems like the start of an ongoing headache.

Such a character - really refreshing. No wonder he's so popular to have around.

http://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/16-robert-huths-best-tweets-stoke-leicester-favourites-birthday/

All the state of the art facilities in the world won't produce good footballers. That's down to the talent of the players - latent or otherwise - and having coaches who are perceptive enough to get the best from them, for all their collective faults.

Seems we have increased status to attract reputedly top quality youngsters these past few years yet have shown no signs that we can make the best of either them or many of those we've had beforehand. When you consider the level of "throughput success" it's pretty damning and it's interesting to see where Ric consistently lays the blame. But I'm not sure Rudkin or "the dinasaurs" are the only factor. There's the question of getting past the threshold of the first team and that's down to successive managers. From the outside they don't seem to have had a lot to reject which is a massive concern in itself. But then, when a few people do break through I don't see the level of improvement I'd expect in them and have to ask why given that it surely can't all be down to a bad attitude and, indeed, I can't imagine "bad attitude" being much of a factor at all given that all the characters would be well known from time already served. Has Gray improved since he arrived from Birmingham? Not in my view. Chilwell strikes me as having an exemplary attitude and willingness to learn and knuckle down but have we really shown the necessary faith in him to build his confidence? I'm not convinced but more of that later. Schlupp came through, was relatively successful, but seemed to get both distracted and disillusioned. Whatever the truth of it he stopped improving. . No-one has really come through and either flourished or improved and even Kingy - massively successful though he's been - has evolved from being a good passer who posed a danger when he had a shooting chance, to a box-to-box utility man charged with keeping a game safe. I've lost all but passing interest in our youth set-up since the halcyon attacking days of Gradel, Kingy, Porter and co but I did watch a fairly lengthy video of Lawrence the other day which was posted on a Derby website. I know it's easy to be misguided by videos but the variety of goals and positive contributions conjured by the lad was a revelation. He looked so positive and so able to present danger from seemingly innocuous situations. I'd have loved to have him in any team of mine. He'd have represented 15-18 goals a season guaranteed, by way of shots and assists. Not to mention the attention he took which clearly left space around him. His strength was his sense of optimistic adventure and ability to see the unexpected passing angle which is a rarish gift. He didn't strike me as being blessed ith great pace but he did show a short but deceptive turn of pace which gave him the unlikely yard he needed to cause his damage. The guy looked a godsend and far more consistently dangerous than I've ever seen Gray look. As I say, maybe the squeezing of so many magic moments into such a short time painted a flattering picture but Gray couldn't have filled the same video space in all his time since arriving here so I wondered - are our fringe youngsters really so far off the standard and, if not, why the hell don't we see the best of them through to fulfillment? Chilwell's the big case in point. It's not so long ago he had nine-tenths of an excellent game against what is a truly excellent Tottenham team but marred the moment with one costly mistake. And so it's generally been the story with him...lots of good but always one or two things letting him down each match. And yet, on reflection, Chilwell'sonce of the most involved players we've got and his errors didn't really add up to as many as most others in the various games he played. They were just focused on more readily. Mahrez makes more errors in every half-hour than Chilwell but so often saves his day with a moment of magic for all that he may have been at fault at the other end for the simple fact that he didn't get involved when he should have done. I remember Albrighton conceding a penalty in the Champions League and then marvelling at the fact that he'd covered so much space at full pace to try to thwart the danger presented - only to be the victim of a bad decision. Albrighton made his mistake because he took responsibility. But Mahrez will help to concede a goal because he sees the runner and leaves him to someone else as you can all see if you look. Bottom line is that Chilwell only needs to additional experience and the feeling of belonging to our team for him to be judged on what he offers overall which is often a lot both in attack and defence. Furthermore he's one of the few players we have who's as comfortable on the ball as Kingy and, really, we need a whole team like that because if the whole team can keep the ball there's a lot less chance of losing it.