Hirsty The Blue 94

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.