Finnegan

This is a pretty terrible idea that keeps coming back all the time and it's just not the answer. For a start, none of the existing Six Nations (who all have veto power, including Italy, who own a stake in the tournament and rightly so) will ever agree to promotion and relegation. But beyond that, Unions need time. As much as this will hurt Italy, they've made massive progress in the 6N era, their age groups are now frequently beating all the other NH unions, the Italian public are taking to rugby, the number of participants and spectators in Italy has massively increased, there's a lot to admire. But people need to be patient and accept that these things don't just take one or two years, they don't even take a decade, they take generations. Rugby is intensely firmly rooted in the Home & Commonwealth nations, it didn't just spring up here over night. Georgia aren't in any position to compete long term and nor are Portugal just because they had a good tournament (or Spain, who lets not forget would have qualified instead if they didn't drop trou over some registration rules.) What they need is investment at their own level. Stop waving the prospect of getting dicked on 100-0 by England every other year as a money maker to them and actually help them build infrastructure at grass roots in their country. Start backing and helping develop Europe's second tier competitions so that people give a shit about it and it actually gets airtime globally. Pump money in to promoting the sport nationally in Romania, Netherlands, Germany, et all where they've shown potential for growth. Lobbing these nations in against "Tier One" so they can get fistfvcked isn't the answer, it's never been the answer and T1 fans need to get over the idea of wishing for it every other year if Italy don't win a game.

This world cup has been a massive step back for Italian rugby. They're supposed to be closing the gap. They got dealt a horrid group but still expecting closer losses. France and a transitional New Zealand have made them look very tier two at a time when Fiji and Japan are really getting their shit together.

It is and I paused after writing but then I thought about it and even at the highest level there aren't floods of centre backs picking out the kind of passes consistently that Vestergaard does. I imagine the likes of Stones could it just isn't in the game plan as such but he's a rare talent. Don't get me wrong, a CB still has to defend and I have anxieties about Vestergaard being found out next year when we go back up. We could do with finding a good young ball playing CB who can pick up that mantle for a few years, ideally with a turn of pace too. But you can't really fault his passing.

I dont think it's offensive to Coady to suggest he isn't as good as Vestergaard at picking out that vertical pass in to midfield. Few centre backs in world football are and I mean that completely seriously. Whatever flaws Vestergaard has to his game, he's got great feet and a fantastic pass. I can see why we bought him even though I think how Rodgers chose to deploy him (in a flat four with slow protection in front of him and a not exactly rapid partner beside him) was beyond naive.

You've pretty much answered your own question. Physically, it's going to depend how they play. Preston for example sit back quite passively in a lower block that's not going to be overwhelmingly exhausting. But if you go man for man and try to press us intensely on the front foot and chase the ball that's obviously going to be a lot successive sprints. They're professional footballers, they could probably all jog about at a leisurely pace for ninety minutes but having to make much more intense runs frequently chasing the ball / man is going to take it out of sides. But equally, yeah, it's also going to fatigue a side having to concentrate solidly for 90 odd minutes too. Preston was all about this. You keep probing away and eventually there's a mistake. It's intensely difficult being perfect for the whole game.

The blue piping round the shoulders disproportionately irritates me

I doubt Winks was even on 90k at Tottenham and he's 99.9r% taken a pay cut to come here.

@Mark

These are the exact wage figures that a bunch of guesstimate websites had published for Leicester while we were in the Premier League. It's been stated that the vast majority of the squad got significant wage reductions on relegation. I can't believe that all of those figures are true to be honest. I'm not disputing we'll almost certainly have the highest wage bill and the gap between us financially and everyone else isn't fair sure. But some of those just have zero chance of being correct.

This is purely anecdotal, I've not really studied a passing map of both us and Man City. But one thing that does strike me by purely the "eye test" is that we play more vertically through the centre than a typical Guardiola style. We actually reminds me a bit of Ajax under Ten Hag almost more than a Pep side. Pep uses his width a lot more to build. A very typical way for Man City to start their moves is to play it to the feet of their wide players and you'll find that quite often their first touch will just be a pass straight back to Stones or whoever, they'll keep playing these wall passes stretching from side to side to expand the opponent and make spaces. We do want our wide players to hold width but they do so much higher up the pitch, we aren't really looking for them to come down and get involved as much in the build up play. We love them to be on the shoulder, Mavididi in particular is often our most advanced player. We progress the ball then centrally, playing incisive and firmly struck passes between defenders cannoned in to a first receiver who will lay it off for the third man to beat the press and spring forward. This is far more similar to how Ajax used to play with De Licht, De Jong and VDB making those combinations right through the middle of the park and Neres getting super high down that left hand side to look to be in behind. It's not a clone of Ajax either, there's obvious differences, the shape is completely different, it's definitely very much its own thing. I like it, it feels like Enzo has his own clear identity and I'm a fan of that.

That's ridiculously kind to Andy King They're nothing alike tbh. KDH is all bundles of aggression, work rate, athleticism, carries the ball through the middle of the park well and does alright in the final third. Andy King was the League One Lampard. Bit on dimensional in his passing game round the park but a very composed finisher who could time a very good run in to the box to find space. His all round contributions to play were largely poor once he had to sit deeper and actually cover the middle of the park. He had all the pace of Vestergaard, all the aggression in the tackle of Maddison and all the vision on the ball of Danny Simpson. He's a legend here for the things that made him an exemplary character, his loyalty, honesty, decency, effort, leadership, he's an all round great human being. But that always lead to people wildly exaggerating how effective he was on the pitch outside League One and that's only gotten more so as the years go by. He was nowhere near either the attribute profile or the caliber of KDH who is a victim of his own early success really. He's home grown and had a bright start so everyone expected him to be perfect and now he gets more criticism than he deserves because people feel disappointed by his flaws. It's a bit harsh tbh. He's been decent so far this year, just have to accept there's things he needs to work on. If he applies himself no doubt he'll improve no end under Maresca but he's already comfortably premier league class and anyone trying to deny that is being a plank.

They're slightly different positions tbf. Faes mobility is important in that right hand channel with the inverted full back next to him. He's an auxiliary right back a lot, Vestergaard would be very exposed having to do that. Equally, I think Faes would be caught a bit short in the passing and first touch department if he had to do the Vestergaard role in the middle as a sort of quarterback full time. Coady is somewhere in between the two, can probably do both things well enough at this level but not being as good as either at it separately. I honestly see him as third choice as surprising as that is to me now. He can cover either but first choice is IMO is still Vestergaard and Faes. Not sure how Coady would fair in the Doyle position. He's not exactly rapid but I'm not sure that's essential? I'd definitely keep JJ there for now.

People are just over reacting to Burnley. We aren't them. For a start, our owners didn't suddenly stop being billionaires looking to compete for European spots. Our spending power will be much greater than theirs despite a season in the second tier. If we go up, I wouldn't be surprised if our starting lineup next year has five, six, even seven new faces in it. The current squad don't all need to be able to cut it a step above. But frankly, though it's early days, I have a quiet feeling Maresca might also be a significantly better coach than Kompany. Definitely think he'll be our first coach in a while (since O'Neill or am I crazy? Gary Megson maybe? Wow that's depressing) to be poached not sacked.

@Dahnsouff @Chelmofox Get on your knees before Kelechi

Can we hire Wasyl to come back and stand on the touchline staring at anyone that gets within 5ft of Ricardo to tackle him.

@Dahnsouff @Dahnsouff @Dahnsouff @Dahnsouff @Dahnsouff

Seven point gap to 3rd in the first week of October

Amazed nobody was offside. Great goal.

PSG are extremely poor and they're also exactly the sort of side Newcastle were always gonna trouble. Newcastle work hard, PSG are the laziest side ever. They're exactly the sort of team we could have done with facing in 16/17 instead of Atleti who were basically a better version of us. The media will go overboard but I don't see that result surprising.

Our passing in the final third has been diabolical tonight

No idea why anyone would think that it's literally why we signed him.

Mavididi comfortably having his worst game. He's getting a lot of space to start in too. To be honest, Fatawu hasn't been a lot better they both need to find another gear if we're gonna break teams like this down. They are exactly where we need to attack, getting them round the back.

Oh Wilf. You just had to kick it forward

I'm glad we're not reliant on having centre mids scoring from outside the box anymore. But could definitely use one capable of doing so now.

He said its one we might have to win in the last twenty minutes. Don't think he'll be too phased although we haven't made them work hard enough.