An Away Move

In the Great Escape season we were always in games. No thrashings. There was character and then it clicked. Can’t see it this season.

They’ll see out their careers with us. The wingers are also keeping out our academy lads, which really irritates me from the point of view of a strategic vision re: the future.

Exactly this. We need our fastest players up front and that means doing the unthinkable and dropping Vardy. We need to defend like our lives depend on it and need to deploy fast counter attackers. That means more minutes and a proper run of games for Daka where we don’t ask him to play with his back to goal but rather off the shoulder of the last defender. We have never played to his strengths.

The paradox that we find ourselves in is that Vardy is our best striker. He is also 38 with no real pace in his game. We play to accommodate this and have no real teeth up front. Daka has pace and can finish in the correct system. We saw it in the West Ham game. I’d play him and set the team up to be hard to score against and have pacey players on the counter. We can’t do this effectively with Vardy.

When those players come to the end of their contracts some of our younger players who couldn’t get a look in will also be up for renewal. I am convinced some will choose to leave on Bosman’s. This is why the club is so badly run. Not enough integration now, nor strategic foresight.

Yes. It wasn’t even handball!

Okoli good tonight. El Khannouss excellent. **** VAR?

Why trust the club? Alves was sent out to lift The Championship trophy, put on the bus parade and told he was a first team player around the time that 4 year contract was put in front of him, “There’s your path to the first team mate, you’re important, just sign here”. As soon as he did four players brought in in his position and not a sniff since. Actions speak louder than words and window dressing.

Why not the same with Alves?

I suspect he’d rather do a Bosman than receive assurances from the club about how valued he is when it becomes time to think about a new contract.

It doesn’t make you wrong though.

Rodgers, on balance, did way more harm than good. Peter Taylor levels of damage that outweigh an FA Cup win.

Mate, he wasn’t being chased. He was just driving like a bellend. At least double the speed limit on that road parallel with the canal. Loads of pedestrians with their backs to him walking away from the ground.

One of the reasons I think he’s a tosser is because I saw him drive his car WAY too fast out of the stadium through loads of fans who’d left the stadium before the final whistle. You think early leavers are bad - what about a player doing it!

Maybe time for Ruud making us defensive first and leave pace up front for counter attacks? Bilal, Buonatte, Stephy and Daka over Vardy. I know the latter is heresy, but we can’t play counterattacking football with Vardy anymore. He’s too slow for anything other than fast sprints. He’s our best striker but our attack as a whole could be speedier without him. Defend. Gerrit forward. Has to be better than a philosophy that ships goals 🤷🏻‍♂️

A lot going out on loan. Seems to be a concerted effort to reduce wages? Or purely for players’ development?

I think he has other things on so delegates so much of the running of the club to Rudkin, who he seems extremely friendly with. That is a problem because it doesn’t appear to be a Director of Football job with any performance based metrics or jeopardy. The fact that the academy and first team are so disjointed and that we can go from implementing a massive stylistic change from appointing Maresca to moving to Cooper shows there is literally no footballing strategy. Rudkin needs to move onto just looking after the horses and our club needs a new DoF who has a vision with an eye on succession planning because managers come and go.

It’s not just the club that’s gone through a cycle of change. So have we as a fanbase. Some of us have become pretty entitled and toxic.

Rudkin out. He's just too pally with Top. It means standards can't be adhered to.

Could be the same narrative for Will. You can only know by giving the lad an actual chance.

Agree. I reckon Alves would shine in that team and would probably be badly exposed in ours currently.

Just left The Emirates as I was given a ticket to the Arsenal v Man City game today. Arsenal played two academy lads, 17 & 18, who have yet to leave school. Both scored. Meanwhile our best prospect in years apparently can’t be risked, by our Director of Football and in the opinion of many on this forum, because they lack experience and need to develop away from our first team. I just find it absolutely baffling. We’re as much a joke off the pitch as on it right now. Anyway, let’s hope he gets a chance to start moving towards achieving his full potential at Cardiff.

Going to Everton.

The system exposes him.