nnfox

We are a fickle bunch, but always right

This club has gone on a huge and very quick journey from League 1 to Premier League champions in less than a decade. The foundations were put in place by Pearson and he got us playing a particular brand of football that was based on largely on pace and work rate of our players and quick passing and quick thinking. Over the years the squad was developed with that ethos and transfers were brought in to compliment that particular style. When Pearson left, Ranieri came in and inherited a squad that had, after several years in its making, reached its peak. The addition of Kante and Fuchs that summer were the missing pieces. Time moves on though. Morgan isn't quite what he was, same with Fuchs. Drinkwater and Kante have left and whilst still absolutely vital, Mahrez is wanting to leave and Vardy isn't getting any younger. The point being that, the squad built by Pearson, nurtured by Ranieri has been and is still being broken up. Shakespeare tried to carry on the predictable counter attacking style but the personnel just weren't there. Now we have Puel and I place my trust in him. I also realise that we need to continue with the evolution of the squad and it is up to Puel to steer the team in a direction and style of his choosing. At the moment we have a hybrid squad, some players excel at fast counter attacks, others are better suited for possession based football. We aren't one or the other at the moment. Dare I say we lack a bit of identity? The team is built around Vardy. And Vardy represents one of those "good to have" problems. His strength is in using his pace to run in behind the opposition defence. It works well when he is a lone striker, supported by pacey, attacking midfielders. He doesn't have so much success when the play is slower with more time in the final third. I wouldn't want to ever line up with one striker at home against a team lower than us but Vardy can't be dropped because his finishing is world class and he could get us a goal at any time. Eventually Vardy will slow and he will have a spell of not scoring which may be the key to properly changing the style. I see a future built around Nacho upfront with a Shinji style second striker supported by Gray or Diabate as a sort of front 3. Behind them, the likes of Ndidi, Iborra and Silva would be a strong midfield in my opinion. I think the back line could be a 3 or a 4. This summer should be interesting. I would expect the defence to be overhauled and that would give a good indication as to whether we'll set up as 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 next season. What we shouldn't be doing is sacking a manager half a season after taking on a squad that is in transition. Back in the days of League 1 and the Championship, we had time to build the squad to prepare us for life in the Premier League. We now need to finish rebuilding this next generation squad that will see the next 3-5+ years, but given our recent relative success and the expectations of the supporters, Puel won't be given the time some of his predecessors were afforded by some fans. Our owners want long term sustainable success. Setting that up isn't a five minute job. It takes years. Calling for the manager's head everytime we don't win a game we think we should win is counter productive. People need to look at the long game. There will be ups and downs along the way. More than likely there will be more downs than ups in the short term, but in the end it'll be fine. I am confident of that.

Got to agree with this bit. Short corners have their place. It changes the angle of the cross which can be of benefit, especially against a zonal marking system. As with anything in football though, use it as an option to change things up, not as the only option.

I wouldn't read too much into their Barcelona game on the preceding Wednesday. There is an international break the week after the quarter final and a high chance that Chelsea will have been knocked out of the Champions League by the time they come to us, making the FA Cup the only trophy they could win. The FA Cup game will likely be moved to the Sunday, if not Monday night, giving Chelsea up to 5 days to recover which is ample time. They then have nearly two weeks before their next game. Actually think it will be a cracking good tie and I'm so glad we are at home for it. It's going to be tough, but possible. One to look forward to for sure.

Can't believe the big four have been kept apart again! That said, I would think that Chelsea fans will think they have the toughest draw out of the big four clubs. Could be an epic!

Strong.

Set up as 3-5-2, with flexibility to go 4-5-1. Mahrez and Nacho to come off the bench and bag.

These two posts sum my feelings up perfectly!

How the fans treat him is now up to Mahrez himself. He needs to sort his head out and make a public statement. If he says "The owners and the club have let me down. I have given everything to this club, they stabbed me in the back, i don't want to play anymore." Then I don't think there will be a way back from the fans. If he says "I'm very disappointed that I didn't get the transfer and have been angry with the owners and the club. I have sat down with the owners, manager, players and staff, i understand the reasons why the transfer didn't happen and realise my behaviour has fallen short of the high standards expected of an elite footballer. I have apologised to everyone at the club and now extend that apology to the brilliant Leicester fans. I want to reassure them that I am 100% focused on helping Leicester City achieve as strong a finish to this season as possible." Then the fans will forgive him, i'm sure. If he does return without issuing a statement then I think he'll get a hard time for a while, but if he plays at his best, he'll be forgiven by the fans in a few weeks.

I sympathise with him to a degree and I have no problem with him having ambitions of playing for a giant club. I do have issue with him handing a transfer request in right at the end of the window and then sulking when we don't accept an offer that is tens of millions below our evaluation. He is paid 100k per week and he should always act as a professional. Kante left because there was a release clause. Drinkwater left because Chelsea met our valuation. The owners will not stand in his way to leave, but the price is the price. I'd like to own a Ferrari, but if I walked into a dealership and offered 50k when the price is 100k then I'd be leaving without one.

Having slept on it, given that he is desperate to leave, I'd take 75m and loaned back to us for the rest of the season.

If the third bid is 55m, he's going nowhere

If your job can be explained in a flow chart then a computer/robot could do it.

Using a petrol or diesel car will be frowned upon. Society will generally become more unfriendly. People get all the interaction with others they need through their social network. Speaking to someone who you don't know will be something treated with increasing suspicion. Far right groups, marginalising certain groups in communities will become more common, as the suspicion around strangers grows through worsening communication skills. The next generation of new parents will be far more switched on to the dangers of social media and the exploitation of teens (and younger) will hopefully decline. Agree with the comments around meat eating, I can see that happening. There will also be a need for international law governing use of the internet. Housing will continue to be a problem. Police, nurses and social workers will get huge pay rises to combat a recruitment crisis.

I was going to raise this too! And nobody says anything about that. At the end of the day, sex sells. It's tried and tested over history and it always will. Whether it is guys in white vests in the diet coke ads, top male and female models selling perfume, marketing girls walking on the F1 grid, or at the darts, it is a valid career choice for a huge number of people. Where does this all stop? Perhaps actors and actresses will all have to be mingers in the future. Jesus wept! If there is a problem with a minority of workers being exploited, then deal with the problem, don't just ban the whole industry to appease some snowflake somewhere.

Yes if the prize is a rep point, I'm definitely in this. I'll go for Arsenal away.

Diabate, Barnes, Benny! Interesting line up, great opportunity for Nacho. Nice to see Huth on the bench.

I'm actually looking forward to this. Less friendlies and more competitive games can only be a good thing. Great for the minnows too. Not sure how serious some of the bigger nations will take it to begin with but the whole promotion/relegation thing has surely got to be a better way of ranking teams?

So I dabbled a bit with this on coinbase. Invested (or gambled) about £400 with mainly Litecoin and Ethereum. Ran it up to about £1k over a couple of months. Interestingly, a lot of crypto spiked over Thanksgiving weekend and it was put down to lots of US investors talking over the dinner table so I figured a similar thing might happen over xmas and new year. I decided that I would sell in the first week of Jan. It peaked before then and was on the slide a little but I cashed out £600 and left £200 in, so whatever happens I am up now. Gonna leave it for the long game now and see what happens. FWIW crypto and blockchain technology is here to stay and will be big in 10-15 years from now. It's a little unknown as to which will be the winner. BTC is big at the moment but it has been out performed by both Ethereum and Litecoin and there are loads of others springing up all over the place. The future winners may not have even been created yet. Very interesting times though.

My point is that there are two leagues within the premier league, the top six and then everyone else. When I look at the table I believe whole heartedly that if we turn up, all the teams below us will have to play amazingly well to beat us. There is no team in the league from 8th down that I think we have very little chance against. I firmly believe that we are rightfully at the top of that "other" league and our stats are good against those other teams which is no fluke. Other fans can think what they like about their teams but us and Burnley are 6 points clear of the chasing pack and that is not down to ifs, buts and maybes. It is fact. The next step for us is to start challenging the top 6 and with a little bit more quality and consistency, I see no reason why we can't. Sean Dyche talks a lot about fine margins in the premier league and he is right. If (i know it's an "if") we scored one extra goal in all 9 of our games against top 6 opposition this season then our record wouldn't be 1/2/6 for 5 points, it'd be 3/3/3 for 12 points. Fine margins indeed, try applying that to Stoke! To put it another way, if Everton, West Ham and Watford added a little bit more quality and consistency to their game, I still think they would be some way short of the top 6, but could challenge us for the 7th place trophy.

You are both right in a way. This season, 7th is as good as it is going to get, but actually we aren't far off being genuine top 6 challengers next season*. Consider this - if we had beaten Palace at home and Watford away and picked up 3 points at Huddersfield instead of settling for 1, then we would be level on points with Arsenal. We need to have a little more concentration against the teams below us but I believe we have the strength and talent to beat any of the teams below us home or away. Obviously it is unlikely that we (or anyone) would win all of those 26 fixtures, but it isn't inconceivable that our form against those teams could be comparable with the top 6. Our big problem is the games against the top 6 sides. This season we have 5 points from 9 games against them. If we had a little bit more quality, belief and perhaps a little luck, we could start really testing them. A better return against those teams would see us right in the mix. * subject to Mahrez and Vardy staying and maintaining form.

Just looked it up, he signed a four year deal after the title win, keeping him here until June 2020. So this is the second year of a four year deal.

I don't think that 100m is out of the question at all. If that's what the club values him at then that's that. We hold the cards in any negotiations because he is our asset and we don't have to sell. The only problem being that if nobody puts up the cash, he can let his contract run down and leave for nothing. What would people like? Sell in the next 12 months for 100m or keep him for two years and let him go for free?

He would do well at Chelsea.

Put it this way, if Liverpool beat Swansea on Monday, then even if we won our last 14 games in a row, Liverpool could still lose half of their games and still finish above us. Can't see us better than 7th but if Arsenal have a wobble AND we beat them when we play them, then we could be close to 6th.