Finnegan

Eh. I can understand this point superficially, on an emotional level. But you need to take a step back a moment and just think. I know we want transparency but I'm not sure we really need it. We can all pretty much put two and two together and work out things aren't great. What we want is for our club to be as successful as it can be and ultimately the best way they can achieve that is to do what they've always done and keep their cards fairly close. They can't come out in public and admit how bad the financial situation is, it'll make it even harder to recruit. You think guys like Winks, Mads and Fatawu would have signed if they knew that even if we got promoted we probably wouldn't be trying to stay in the league? Like it or not, the club being elusive is the best way we can salvage whatever is possible in building a squad and that's ultimately what's the best thing for us as fans. Whilst, sure, I'd obviously love to know the truth of it all - it won't actually change anything. Where as the club shutting the **** up and trying to do the best they can with the window will.

In fairness, it's not like we've missed out to any other Premier League club fighting over him. Evidently nobody was impressed enough.

Because **** all is happening

Rumours like this are why I'm very meh about DiMarzio as a source. When he actually speaks up like somethings concrete he isn't far off Fab's level of reliable. But he pads out his likes, shares and follows by just constantly tying the same clubs to transfer rumours. The classic Everton, Leicester, West Ham. Yeah, yeah, of course we're all interested. Can't see much in this one.

That's exactly how she looked for the first ten or fifteen meters. It looked like she was wading through water trying to get out of the blocks and build some momentum. Absolutely odd. Bolt was always going to be a slower starter than some of the field because he was just so massive, Gay, Blake and Co just had that natural edge over him out of the blocks. But he never looked slow, he just had a very different gait. Richardson reacts slowly and then sort of struggles up to speed. ****ing fast when she gets there though. Bolt had obviously reasons, Richardson it just seems like technique.

If someone taught her how to start she'd be immense. She recovered extremely well but consistently one of the slowest starters and it's the most important part of the race. You just can't give that much time up. Still, easy to forget how young she is. Probably got two more olympics.

Ngl I'm jealous of Summerville

Richardson literally last after the first five meters. Christ.

Great run from Alfred. Really, really poor start from Richardson though. Can't believe how poor she was off the blocks.

Tier 6.

Like Brendan ****ing Rodgers. It's the players desire that's the problem not my stupid ****ing shape.

This is exactly it. Good analogy.

I'm genuinely baffled by the idea he heard Maresca out last season on what he wanted for the "LB" role and decided it wasn't for him. He has almost all the attributes you'd want from someone in "The Doyle Role", not quite as good a passing range but otherwise yeah I can see it. Probably more than JJ. The idea he left because he wants to be a "conventional" modern full back, an attacking full back, blows my mind. He doesn't have the skillset at all. I'm not saying he's quite Danny Simpson but he's definitely not Ricardo Pereira.

@Daggers is that Emiliano Zapata!?

I don't really think they do, to be honest. I agree that that might be the intention but everything is wrong. The starting positions they're coming from, the instincts of the players themselves, the space that exists around them, it just isn't really happening. In particular it doesn't work at all on the left because a left back that can't dribble is never going to tie up their defence sufficiently to make the space for the underlap. More often than not, Mavididi was strolling around looking confused with three or four defenders all near him. It's just a mess. Even before Enzo had all the players he wanted last season, you watched the first few friendlies and it was immediately apparent how we were meant to be building and how it was going to work. This season I just see disorganised rubbish with some terrible decision making from the manager. Last year you had something like this: You've got Ndidi and KDH coming from deeper, central positions making vertical runs in to enormous amounts of space because Fatawu and Mavididi are both extremely threatening players, signed for their 1-v-1 take ons and they're out there holding significant width. By the end of the season they were even taking up usually two defenders each because of their level of threat. Winks gets marked to all hell because they think that's how we want to build, Vestergaard responds by picking excellent vertical balls between the lines in to either one of KDH or Ndidi or the striker if he drops and when he does, again, space in behind for those runs from midfield. What you had today was something more like, idk, this? Where, immediately, because Kristiansen isn't taken seriously as a threat they largely left him go for large portions of the game. It was exactly like watching Chilwell during that part of the hideous Puel era where Chilwell was our main width and Madders was the "left winger" expected to come inside in this asymmetrical shape. And both VK and Mavididi suffer for it and thus so does the whole team. VK looked way out of his depth as an attacking force, he can't dribble and beat his man, he doesn't have Chilwell's raw pace to even run around someone and worse yet he isn't any kind of exemplary crosser of the ball to compensate (although there were scant targets even when he had the chance.) I like him, he's a hard working, battling, combative kid and exactly the kind of attitude we'll want to survive in the Prem but he shouldn't be our main attacking width on the left. He isn't Jordi Alba. Then Mavididi just looked lost, confused and - worst yet - completely marked out. He was constantly stood in traffic with half their team around him. Augsburg playing what was ultimately a narrow diamond with their midfield/attacking six all just swamped down the centre of the park obviously didn't help us but christ did they see us coming. Daka wasn't dropping in a lot, in fact he was largely just milling around and BDCR wasn't coming FROM deep, his starting positions were largely right next to Daka occupying one of the centre backs alongside him and leaving Fatawu alone and isolated for large periods of the game. Ndidi almost seemed to go rogue for a spell in the second half and start doing last year's underlapping runs inside Fatawu and I almost cheered. Probably the most exciting thing that happened in the game. And the starting positions are so far up from BDCR and Mavididi that they don't contribute in the build up the way that Ndidi and KDH did last year either with the third-man manoeuvre out from the back. So they're stuck in this limbo where they don't have the space to move in to when the ball gets that far and they're not helping the ball get that far. It was just shit. And it wasn't just today, that's been the story of our pre-season. Cooper is trying to keep consistency in the ideas but with his own shape and it isn't going to work. He either plays completely his own football and divorces himself entirely from Enzo's ideas or he just needs to stop being a stubborn **** and just play Enzo's shape. Enzo left him the perfect blue-print to play this way and he's just tossed it out for no obvious reason. I ****ing hate it, man. I know this is a bit of an over-reaction but I'm on the beer early and I don't care. I think the saving grace for this season will be the same as Forest under Cooper. They had a bunch of fast guys who could counter and so do we. Swap out Brennan Johnson and Taiwo Awoniyi for Vardy, Mavididi and Fatawu and that's how we'll survive if we do. Because we sure as shit aren't going to be breaking down any stubborn defences with his spatial tactical awareness that's for sure.

Probably agree a pre contact deal with some Portuguese or German top flight club just in time for us to sack Cooper and get a new manager that loves him too late. Two years time he'll be sold to a big six club for 40m.

Fulkrug is an alright player in the Bundesliga but I'm not gonna lie if we spent 27m on a 31 year old of his ability I'd be pretty annoyed. Glad they're doing that deal not us.

Choudhury coming on before Alves is tragic

Even if you absolutely must play like this, why on earth is it Kristiansen as the attacking full back and the right back just say back making a makeshift 3 given that we've got JJ and Ricardo in the squad who are two excellent attacking full backs?

**** that. I'm off to Enzo's new house to stand outside crying until he agrees to come back.

This King Power advert is ****ing amazing best thing I've seen all preseason so far. "Of course I'm going, Leicester City, foxes never quit!"

"BDCR has started to pull the strings for the foxes" That's the biggest stretch I've ever heard.

I'm pretty relaxed about the score in a friendly or some of the individual performances. Don't care too much. Shouldn't read too much in to them. But I do think it's fair to be alarmed about what clearly is Cooper's idea for the shape given it's largely how we've played in most of these games and it's naff.

I miss the days of being confused why Wilfred Ndidi kept making the most advanced attacking runs in our preseason friendlies.

He's played as a central attacking midfielder where Cooper is trying to get him to go in possession in less than 10% of his career games.