Finnegan

He doesn't really have great wide options for this game at all does he. Can't play Facundo, Fatawu is injured, Mavididi is in awful form. Our options weren't great to begin with but he's lost his best two off the bat for the right. That's on top of being in the first week of a job with a squad that's not really been coached for months against one of the best coached sides in the league. Always a massive ask. Just gotta accept it's a journey and give him time.

We're not on proper TV right? This is dodgy streams or pay lcfc a tenner?

Yep. Massively. What we need is an in form Mavididi. But even as one of his bigger fans, I was hugely disappointed with his showing off the bench last time out. Not sure if it was a lack of fitness or attitude but in either instance it was inexcusable given how few games he's started recently. I probably would start Ayew if I was Ruud.

Any of you know anything about the source? I've T4'd it for now.

One of my favourite, if not my favourite, in the league. He used to be my dream "realistic" appointment, not just for his qualities as a coach but the experience and knowledge he'd bring from working at Brentford would potentially set us up for a "revolution" a bit like when Pearson, Shakespeare and Walsh modernised the club. He's well out of our reach these days now.

Thomas Frank, Unai Emery or stick this out for a bit and try Dean Smith later. Hmm. Options, options.

Wild to me that there were people on here that used to turn their nose up at the idea of Thomas Frank.

They absolutely will not relegate / promote 4 teams. If Man City go it'll be in 20th place. Let's be honest, it's a big if anyway and if they finally get Man City, we should probably start worrying about the punishments we've escaped.

Not sure why you think that's that outrageous. You've probably got the fourth best team. We've been here a million times before, Man City will blatantly go on a surge. Chelsea will keep getting better. You're not catching Liverpool.

Don't do it to yourself mun. Fourth has got your name written all over it.

I don't want Brendan Rodgers to ever get to manage in the Prem again, especially not for a perceived bigger club. Even if it would be memes if he was terrible. Doesn't matter. He avoided the stink of an actual relegation in a lot of neutrals eyes, he can't just do a year or two in Scotland and then just waltz back like a top manager.

Russell Martin is going be haunted by Enzo in his dreams.

Holy shit how are Wolves so bad. Their team isn't even THAT awful is it?

No contest especially with Ruud not looking to play 8s the same way and Fatawu injured. I like Mavididi but Barnes is twice the end product.

Without having seen the fixtures or paid attention to any of today's games I knew from this they were playing Southampton

The ever obliging Notts Forest?

I know this won't be a popular opinion but you probably need to give Balague some tolerance. You need to remember he's genuinely actually friends with Lopetegui and Maresca. He doesn't give a shit about the clubs they're at, he's just writing articles about his mates that are obviously very biased towards them. That doesn't mean you have to like them but you can see why he does it. I do think it makes him out of touch with what football fans are truly like and football fans ultimately pay his wages but by and large most people will read his articles as a neutral and won't care if his takes wind up Leicester, Wolves or West Ham fans. Personally doesn't wind me up. He's got his bias, I've got mine. Not gonna call the man a **** for wanting to hype his pals.

He definitely came across that way. The unknown factor will be how well he can explain all of this to the players and instruct them. Plus, what he's like with them as a human being when things get hard. He definitely, immediately, seems more tactically astute than Cooper (haha) and I'm feeling quietly optimistic that we can turn a corner. But there's a LOT we don't see that's vital and only time will tell us if he has it.

Dude is usually so cheerful and happy to score, first thing he does is his back flip and the ridiculous face mask thing. Today he just put his finger to his ear running in front of the home fans. On the one hand, ****ing good on him. On the other, hate to see that. Hate to see a player at the club, and frankly a criminally under rated one at that, know full well his own fans are on his back. He's never given anything other than 100%, always puts a shift in and every manager has always been full of praise for how he applies himself in training, even when he's not getting a look in.

I love that he acknowledged it wasn't perfect but that the first step is just getting spirit and confidence and that's enough for now.

Andy Townsend on Prime gave motm to Wilf

Not sure about some of the praise. Especially funny as well in tandem with Ndidi getting motm. He had some good moments and was OK when he got on the ball, put in a couple of alright tackles. But they were absolutely walking through us time and time again. There was just oceans of room in the middle of the park as neither of them really held shape and both were frequently just jogging around lost. Absolutely fully acknowledge that it was a big improvement for him personally and would also say it was a collective, team issue and we had similar when Enzo first came in and tried to establish the defensive shape. So I'm not for one second calling him out for that performance. But some of these reactions, you'd think he put the shift in BEK did.