Jobyfox

The Hull tiger actually looks like it’s just seen our starting line up

For me it’s akin to alcoholism. I know it’s really not good for me anymore, but I still do it. Then I feel sh1t afterwards and say I’m not going to do it again before doing exactly the same thing It just feels like an unhealthy addiction right now

Who are you putting in? I ask as that was more or less the starting eleven I’d have gone for. Maybe Daka for Carranza, but they look equally shite to be honest. I’m at a loss. I just can’t understand the 2nd half performances against Wrexham and now Portsmouth. I can’t think what system or personnel prevents us going from looking perfectly good to absolutely abysmal in the same match. It would be easier to understand if we looked sh1t for 90 minutes.

Mavididi has been cr@p as well, but probably needs to start when he’s fit. Monga looked at his best with his late cameos and less pressure to influence the game

I’ve been relatively optimistic until now. I thought once we got the right players starting and a settled side we might do ok. There were green shoots 1st half against Wrexham. That continued in the second half against Swansea and the 1st half here. But what the hell was that second half???!!!!??? A lack of quality all over the pitch. A dreadful and really worrying performance. I don’t know where to start analysing that. My conclusion right now is that we have a distinct lack of quality all over the pitch and I’d probably overrated our players and our chances. Back to square one after that!

Shocking performance second half. Absolutely abysmal

We are very very poor! What happened at half time??

FFS wake up

He’s willing and does a lot of running. First touch has let him down at times and the service to him hasn’t been the best. Doing ok, but no better than that

It’s not “getting on” him. You have to call it as you see it. That 45mins was the worst we’ve seen from him so far. That doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a ridiculous talent for a 16 year old and it’s amazing that he’s forced his way into the side at that age. It might expose the fact that we shouldn’t be reliant on him every game and we really need Mav to step up when he’s fit again. Let see how it goes 2nd half

Hmmm…Half time… Positives. Some good moments going forward. The Portsmouth team back off when we attack leaving a lot of space for our midfielders. There looks like more goals in it for us. Fatawu & Ramsey have looked good for us Negatives. Lack of control is giving too many options for Portsmouth and you fear a mistake will let them in at some point. Corners have been dreadful Monga not been on it at all and also a lack of quality from Thomas at times

Bit harsh. It’s easy to be wise in retrospect. He might have been worth a gamble at circa £5m, but £9m always seemed a bit steep. Although not so horrendous when you consider we paid £8m for Jordan Ayew

That's partly true. But it was also apparent that BR stuck with players like Ward and Amartey long after it became self evident that they weren't fit for purpose. Even when other players in the squad were available

In terms of LCFC right backs is he the GOAT? In my years watching the team (since 1986) I think he is

A few have mentioned it, but I thought that Wes Morgan was a completely unnecessary signing at the time. I do, however, recall an online argument a year or two later with a Forest fan who was very insistent that Jack Hobbs was a far superior player. I also recall being very concerned when Ben Marshall was sold. I suppose the Nigel Pearson and MON eras were similar in the fact that there were numerous signings that didn’t look anything on paper, but turned out to be gems. MON had the likes of Cottee, Marshall, Guppy, Izzett etc. who far exceeded expectations

Yes, that is the team. I suspect we need to see Nelson somewhere in the squad though for the fan base to be fully appeased. I’ve not seen so much love for him since Captain Thomas Hardy was around. And…. alas I feel it’s too late now for the Patson Daka redemption arc to begin. (Unless it’s already started, but the gradient is 0.0001%)

In reality I’m in agreement with most of what you’re saying. I think in 23/24 our squad was overrated because it was so expensively put together and cost us so much in wages. The reality is that expensive players doesn’t necessarily equate to quality, which is something LCFC have found out to our cost. If that season had gone on another month we probably wouldn’t have got promoted as our form collapsed a bit towards the end. My optimism this season is less informed by 23/24, but more by the fact that I don’t think that the Championship has the quality of 24/25 or event 23/24. We simply need to be better than the rest. On this latter test I think our defence is good enough, our midfield is better than most, but up front we are behind many of our competitors. The key to this season is someone stepping up or creating a balance within the team to mitigate this lack of quality. I highly doubt whether we play Ben Nelson and Caleb Okoli or Wout Faes and Jannik Vestergaard is going to be the pivotal factor

I really don’t think that Vestergaard at 33 is that much worse than Vestergaard at 31. It’s not like he’s reliant on his pace. The reason this defence is ok at this level is that the team dominates possession. It plays into the hands of the likes of JV and Faes who are both quite good on the ball, but can be defensively suspect. We conceded the fewest goals of anyone in 23/24 and we have started ok in that respect this time around. I stated earlier in this thread that (in my opinion) if we struggle this season it won’t be because of the defence, but our lack of creativity and the outlet provided by a decent striker

That would be unfor(tuna)te!

It’s a good job we’ve got players with Premier League experience like your Bobby De Cordova Reids

Yeah, but could he do it on a wet, windy, night in Stoke?

He’s hoping to become a Leicester great in the same way that Conrad Logan was

I had to look and it appeared to be a 4-3-3. Also, for context, Central African Republic are 140th on the FIFA World Rankings. In European terms that’s four places below the Faroe Islands

It’s too early to make any definitive judgements about Carranza, but my expectations remain low. There are people saying that we should have signed different strikers, but the reality is that we spent the precise sum of £0.00 in the transfer market. There were clearly limited options available until we’d made some significant sales and this transfer was probably the best we could do on the basis of a deadline day loan signing A deadline day loan signing from Feyenoord doesn’t scream out as a likely game changer. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he turns out great, but really don’t expect that will be the case. It’s not Carranza’s fault. It’s not even a failing of the recruitment team in the last window. It’s more the fault of the people who have presided over getting us into this desperate PSR situation and who thought that spendings millions on Skipp, Ayew and BDCR was a good way to buy ourselves out of it

It’s a shame the International break is this week as it might have been a good opportunity to get some momentum now we’re getting an idea what our best team is. I’d go the same again, although Ramsey for BDCR is a good discussion point. I wouldn’t be averse to seeing that change