Hirsty The Blue 94

And this fella has been fast tracked up the ladder to the Prem because he is the best coming through, says a lot about the shite that is the remainder if so. Bottled making any big decisions, even the grappling at the corners in the end of the game there was no chance he has the courage to do anything about it. Problem is all our games are being moved to prime time kick offs and on the tele now, so we're going to get the crap down from the prem for the rest of the season.

Looking at the bottom half of the Premier League but above the drop zone, which is where we would be aiming first season back. Are any of the below considerably quicker than Vestergaard for it to be a factor? (and none are as good on the ball) Felipe Mee Ajer Dawson Tarkowski Andersen Ream I'm not worried about whether he will get torn to shreds by Haaland, every centre half in the world bar the very elite are week in week out. Its whether he can deal with the likes Calvert Lewin, Awoniyi, Solanke, Jiminez, Mateta etc which will be the difference between him being good enough or not. To get an upgrade that will be significantly better than him you're talking a 20 million plus player, of which we have other positions that need filling with that money other than centre half. You also casually forget that before joining us he played for Southampton almost every week where they finished 16th, 11th and 15th all of which would be acceptable finishing positions for us next year, as well as being successful relative to club size for 3 clubs in the Bundesliga, and having near on 40 caps for Denmark including a Euros Semi Final to his name. I think the fella who responded to you summed it up perfectly, you have already formed an opinion despite the evidence pointing to contrary for the majority of the season, but you don't want to admit your opinion is proving a bit dicey so are doubling down. Its the classic Brexit argument, ignore what's in front of your eyes and stick to your opinion of nearly a decade ago.

Not good enough for the Prem though eh chaps . Not seen a centre half performance so dominant in quite some time. Collosal.

Unreal for 85 minutes, no idea what he is thinking just flicking his leg at the ball for their equaliser, just put it out for a corner if you're unsure. Then after that the whole team did a big turd in their own pants as they have in the big moments all season and he was equally at fault with the shit pass into midfield for the 3nd and giving away a daft foul on the edge of their box for the 3rd. However, personally think with him banned the next 2 games you will see a massive drop off in our control of possession, quality of passes played into the midfield and forwards etc if Coady or Nelson come in.

Bringing Kasey on to be more solid defensively made sense in theory, but Kasey came on looking as if he had been heavily sedated, no energy, no fight when we needed it most. In situations where you're trying to see out a game, surely experience is a key factor. He brought on Kasey and Cannon who have what 50 games between them when you could have had Albrighton and Iheancho (I know he wasn't on the bench but probably should have been with Vardy missing) who have about 700. Massive concern in that in all our big games, we have bottled it. Leeds home and away, Cov away, Ipswich home and away. Should have been game won in all of those games but naive play has cost us. We should be about 20 points clear but not in a proper scrap with the next 4 games being tricky notwithstanding the distraction on the FA Cup on Tuesday. Enzo has changed the style but still think the mentality is so fragile amongst this group, where are the leaders, your Morgans and Huths who throw themselves at everything to stop the other team scoring?

Pawson is the worst ref in the Prem by a mile, so dropping him down for a title decider was always going to end badly. The yellow on Ricardo was a farce, usually bailed out by his mate in VAR for the disallowed goal so doesn't make a decision. He was in a much better position than the lino to clearly see their player chested it down to Daka, but was too scared to make a decision at Elland Road with an atmosphere. He is the sort of refs that blokes on a Sunday morning punch in the face because of the arrogance and incompetence of his ability to do his job. The game away at Anfield where he gave them 2 pens in the great escape season should have been enough for him to never referee a Leicester game again.

Don't get all the talk of not being good enough for the Prem. He played for Southampton in the Prem for 3 seasons and they finished mid to bottom half every year, as soon as they sold him they got relegated! He also played for 7 years in the Bundesliga and has near on 40 caps for Denmark, a team who always do well in big tournaments. You adjust the guys around him in terms of adding pace and dynamism into the back line. He is critical to the way Enzo wants to play and will likely continue to want to play. We have seen in the games he has played Coady who was originally signed for this exact job is levels behind big Vesty on the ball, and this is from a bloke who has played for 8 seasons as captain in a Wolves side who were top half or better pretty much every year. The step up to the Prem is big as the likes of Burnley are finding out, but player for player our squad already is much stronger than theirs without even signing anyone. To think that half the team needs replacing is both unnecessary and unrealistic with budget constraints. If he wants to walk on a free and sign for a side playing in Europe then fair play, but I would look to tie him down for another year or 2.

Tonight was the straw that broke the camels back for me. From the start, the atmosphere was completely dead, we scored in the 3rd minute and it didn't improve a jot, other than the usual knuckle daggers shouting 'get it forward' and 'move it faster' every 30 seconds when we had possession. I mean do people really not understand that the game has more skill, tactic and nuance than a Sunday League game? Then nipped down for a pee at half time and managed to grab a quick pint whilst I was down there, had to listen to 2 middle age blokes in the queue moaning about it being quote 'the same old shit' and contemplating leaving at half time when we were 1-0 up and 10 clear at the top of the table. Then came back up for the 2nd half and somehow the atmosphere was worse, we scored 2 in quick succession and no raise in volume, no additional chants or anything. And bang on the dot 85 minutes the exodus began and by the time FT hit the stadium was at best half full. Walking back the amount of moaning about how boring the football is, how crap it is to watch, how player X, Y and Z are useless and will never be good enough for the Premier League was bemusing. I know I had a few pints but I could have swore we won 3-1 in the most comfortable fashion imaginable, not got stuffed. I genuinely don't know the solution to it though, my only thought is make the entire Kop a singing safe standing section during the redesign which are 50% season ticket and 50% general sale and have them at a reduced rate to try and encourage people who actually want to be there, support the team and create something of an atmosphere. Then let the moaners, prawn sandwichers and coffin dodgers relocate to the East and West stand where they can all sit quietly and groan at every time Vestergaard plays it to Faes. The good home ends I have experienced in the last year or so are Leeds, Cov and Villa and the demographic of those are young lads who get behind the team. I sit/stand towards the back of SK2 and look around and I don't see a single face under 30 years old. Sure this post will bring a response of 'I've followed city before you were born son' types but the reality is most (but not all granted) add nothing to the match day experience and atmosphere. I have left 1 game early this season, Rotherham at home I left at 80 minutes as had to get to Glenfield for and CT scan for 5.30, what I couldn't believe was the number of people walking down the street with me, there were hundreds and this was 10 minutes before the game finished, not just 1 or 2 minutes of additional time left. I mean they could have all had urgent medical procedures to go to, safe to say I didn't see any of them in the waiting room at the hospital. So much so that I enjoy going to the game to watch the game, but since 2017 Champs League run the match day experience has become more and more unenjoyable both home and away. As much as I wouldn't swap promotion/great escape/league win/Champs League run for anything as they were incredible days, as a fan base we have been so spoilt that nothing will live it up to it now so the ambivalence is now ingrained amongst us, we need a proper reset which I thought this season might be, but alas no.

Fans need to be bang up for it tonight. I know our style of play doesn't really translate to creating a frenetic atmosphere, but that being said it's easily the biggest game of the season. Beat these and Southampton at home and the season takes care of itself in the other 15 games in my opinion. Get behind the lads for 90 (+8) as we might need the extra man given all of our players that are unavailable. These are bringing 3,300 and will make a racket, every game I have watched of theirs on the tele they sound good.

Thought he was just generally awful on all elements of the game, no consistency in terms of cards, control of the game etc. On the penalty it was about 10 yards in front of me and didn't think it was a pen in a million years, but if he has seen the studs to the knee he has to send the bloke off. Then with the Fatawu red you can tell the quality of ref by the time they give themselves to think about their decision, he literally ran over and couldn't get the red out quickly enough. Daft tackle but certainly not as dangerous as their fella for the pen. Then in the 2nd half Palmer must have committed 3 fouls in the space of 10 minutes already on a booking, one of which stopped a decent counter attack and he bottled sending him, but was happy enough to book Winks for the same foul. Just dreadful, give me the fella who played football at a decent level and understands the game every week rather than these school prefect looking nobs who can't handle a big occasion and buckle.

Any decent drinking spots within a 20 minute radius of the ground that will serve away fans and be open about half 10/11? Going to park up just off the M69.

The in game management versus Ipswich was really poor, didn't necessarily disagree with the Nacho sub as the ball was bouncing off Daka in 2nd half and coming straight back so saw the logic in bringing him on. What materialised was Nacho being even worse in terms of his hold up play bar that one counter attack which nearly set KDH away. But bringing the 2 grafting midfielders off for 2 attacking midfielders who have no defensive instincts and are weak against a team who are going to chuck everything at you for the last half hour was moronic. If you're shutting up shop for a 1-0 stick Hamza in alongside Winks. If it was the case that they were both tired after playing the majority of the game against Rotherham, then one of both of them should have been rested for that game in preparation for Ipswich, same with Justin if he can only do 1 in 2 pick the big game. With the greatest respect to Rotherham they were never going to cause us problems no matter what side we put out. From the whispers on the grape vine there is very little if any money to do much in January unless people are moved on, but we're absolute desperate for cover in that midfield position, particularly with Wilf potentially missing a month of it through AFCON. The drop off when him or KDH either don't start or come off is frightening. I'd suggest Enzo has enough credit in the bank currently for us not to worry too much about it, but hopefully those 2 points dropped aren't costly at the business end.

Yeah the daft crossfield ball to Coady was about the only foot he put wrong today, which if you watch it back he immediately put his hand up and apologised and took responsibility (makes a change from all the finger pointing and blaming others the entire side did last season) but even then think Coady could do better than get bullied by the wing back in the air. Distribution was as always very good picked the right times to play a pass between the lines and to keep it when it wasn't on, defended well, in particular the one in the first half where he was 1 on 1 with the centre forward and forced him off balance to put it unthreateningly wide. Also enjoying the fact he is now a threat almost every game at the other end from set pieces which should be a given for a man of his stature but hasn't been in the past. Was being grapled on almost every corner and still caused trouble and popped up with a valuable goal. Said it back in September in this thread (think it was after Rotherham away) that this guy is too good for this league and Coady will never get his place back and think I was fairly routinely mocked. He played for years in the Prem for Southampton who routinely finished in the position we would be hoping to finish next year, so see no reason to not give him a year or 2 extension to see what he can do under Enzo in the Prem. Whenever he looked truly exposed under Rodegrs was when we played an obscenely high line, this style of football plays more to his strengths and exposes his weaknesses less, albeit a lack of pace in the backline could be a concern later down the line. And if he doesn't want to hang around after this year, then fine we move on but the redemption both from his personal pride and the love he now gets from (most) of the fans is a nice turnaround for a guy who looked done at the club.

Just adding to the general vibe that the volume remaining at the final whistle today was absolutely shameful. We had just hammered a team 4-0 and atleast 10k empty seats by the time the whistle had sounded. The manager and players deserve much better from us as a fan base than that. And I'm not having it was just a game won, job done, let's go home/down the pub etc, as it wasn't that much different against Watford in the previous home game and that was 1-0 to the 96th minute and the team needed the fans to lift them over the line. Now I could sort of get last season when we were 4-0 down against Newcastle on Boxing Day, and the absolute shower on the pitch couldn't be bothered to run about or make an effort for people to speak with their feet and walk out early as a display of anger. Also, the amount of absolute dullards that attend is astounding, I nipped down for a pee and a pie and a pint at half time, and was surrounding by people moaning about how boring the football is, and that they are fed up with us just knocking pointlessly around the back. To quote one bloke he said he enjoys when we play on the telly he can hoover up, mop the floor and make a sandwich and know he isn't missing anything as it will be just be us passing it between Faes, Vestergaard and Hermansen. The amount of groans when a ball is played backwards genuinely hurts my brain, if you want to go and watch kick and rush stuff go down to Victoria Park on a Sunday morning there will be plenty of that. The whole tactic which Maresca outlined in his video earlier in the week is about drawing teams out of their shape. It's no great shock that we score loads of goals late in games, teams tire mentally and physically from constantly chasing the ball and remaining in in their defensive shape. People need to accept its not the weird footballing anomaly that was 2016 where nobody could figure out how to deal with a team who played purely on the counter attack, our style has moved on, football has moved on, and if you're genuinely not enjoying us having nearly 50 points with over half the season still to go maybe as a fan you need to move on as well. In terms of atmosphere I think we have this superiority complex where we think we will just turn up and win, so fans feel like they don't really need to give it their all and get behind the lads as they expect us just to win every week. No coincidence that the best atmospheres both home and away came towards the end of the great escape season, where we were the underdogs but battling our arses off which was reflected on the terraces. West Brom away of that season is the best end I have ever seen from us I think.

About 100 restricted view tickets left, think we've done well to shift about 2750 on the 520+ band, I get we don't have many London games anymore but good effort all the same particularly for those who may have slogged to Southampton on a Friday night, Norwich on a grim Wednesday, Liverpool midweek and Blackburn at Sunday lunch in the last month. Let's just hope the baron doesn't call a train strike else most of us will be fooked!

Think the only 2 fit full backs have to be rested as they are irreplaceable now and need to be fit for the league, particularly with their injury history if Doyles injury is long ish term. Winks is the heartbeat of the team and we couldn't play Enzo's way without him, so wouldn't play him either. Then of the rest would like to see Ndidi, KDH, Mavididi, Vesty, Vardy and Hermansen have a night off as well as they are all locked in as part of our strongest 11.

Not for the first time this season best defender on the pitch (been saying it before it was 'cool') Plenty of humble pie to be tucked into tonight for a few on the forum. If he had made the mistake Doyle made for the goal people would demand his head on a spike.

If he wasn't on loan from Man City I think people would be seeing his performances through different lenses. Every chance they created came down his side, and Delap had him on toast, was exposed last week as well at Rotherham. Don't see what he gives you that Justin doesn't personally playing in that position.

His first job once it sees the ball being delivered from wide is to get tight to the centre forward, which he does. Even if during the flight he dropped back and jumped it is questionable whether he would have got there, which if he had done and missed would have caused even more confusion. Doyle has a clear view of the flight of the ball, his body shape is all wrong, if he opens up his shoulders he can see both the runner and the ball coming in and deal with it effectively, which considering he is a centre half himself he really should be doing. For reference for all his attacking limitations how often did you see Danny Simpson get beat at the back post, hardly ever because his positioning tucked inside close to his centre halves was very good.

Yet another solid performance from our most consistent centre half of the season. Anyone blaming him for the goal have literally never played centre half/football before. He forces his man who is the main danger under the ball so he can't score, it's Doyle who was completely flat footed and switched off to allow his man to get on the inside of him and then beat him in the air despite having a decent height advantage. Again he was tidy on the ball, won more headers than usual today even clearing a few set plays which we had looked vulnerable in with these sort of sides. People who still are moaning about his level of performance are people who watched how bloody useless he was 2 years ago and are unable to change their mind, despite what's in front of their eyes. Against most centre forwards at this level he will be more than good enough, and not sure it's a given that Coady walks in personally.

His flaws are fairly obvious in that he lacks pace and for a big fooker doesn't win as much as he should. However I think the way Enzo wants the team to play he is pretty instrumental to it, only player across the back line that is able to play a ball between the lines, few times he found Nacho who bounced it off and all of a sudden we're onto their back line. As always with football fans, people have made a judgement on a player already and it would take something miraculous for their opinion to change, but of the back 3 he has been the most consistent performer of the 3. Yes we could have conceded more goals this season but so far we have conceded 2 in 3 games (4 if you count Burton), 1 set piece which nobody is really at fault for, was nicely worked and a 40 yard thunder bastard. Seems likely he is just a stop gap until Coady is up and running but they have very similar attributes, so don't expect anything revolutionary when he slots into that position. All in all pleasantly surprised with his level considering 12 months ago I would have happily never seen him in a blue shirt again and actively would have driving him to his new club of choice.

The category bracketing for this game seems daft to me and I hope that's not going to be the same for the entirety of the season. Surely there are loads that sit between the 560-600 and 520-560. Would make more sense to be 600+, 580+, 560+, 540+, 520+, 500+ then all ST holders. People stuck between bands are never going to get into the next band. Think I'm about 544, so got to get to 16 of the 23 aways not including the cup to get into the next band, which with the amount of midweekers seems unlikely, and with small allocations at some places won't get down to get one anyway.

Will give him a fair crack of the whip as I would have done to any appointment that wasn't in the Lampard/Gerrard category of shite. However think it's quite a big gamble by the club if this is the route we go down. I would say we have 1, maybe 2 at best seasons to get back up before we are financially ruined and be stuck down there for another decade or more, so Enzo has to get us promoted, no ifs or buts from the toughest league in the world as probably 12 clubs in the league are thinking the same. As others have mentioned will be interesting what he does with coaching staff as can't imagine Pep will let him take anyone with him so could be left with alot of the old shite from bygone eras, although Claudio didn't bring many with him so not a huge negative. Hopefully we have first dibs on Man City youngsters like Palmer etc to bring in on loan with that relationship. It will either be brilliant or another Paulo Sousa where after 15 games we're nearer bottom than top and he will get the bullet. What slightly concerns me is Celtic interviewed him and seemingly chose Rodgers over him, even after all the drama of him leaving first time round. Atleast it seems now we have our man, just meed to ship off half the squad and bring 10 through the door now between now and August, hopefully the head of recruitment has made a big head start on that and names start to filter in and out over the next couple of weeks.

Parker now 2/5 with the 2 bookies offering prices, and Rodgers 2/5 to be Celtic manager, leaving Maresca nowhere. He must either be really bad at interviews or very picky about the job he thinks he deserves.

Brilliant for him to achieve that, genuinely one of the few very nice men that you could only wish good things for. And for it to be almost where it all began for him as a manager as well would be a fitting way to end his magnificent career. But yeah people will tell you to never go back and stop harbouring for the past and football has moved on 👀. Sometimes the past is the best way to shape the future.