lnkstern

I think we can safely say that Enzo's subs were very good today. Plus I am sure a good halftime talk.

Love the work from Marc Kevin. He is ever-willing to run at the defense, forcing them to make quick (and sometimes incorrect) decisions. Like Harvey Barnes did/does, as well as Stephy M. and Abdul Fatawu do. Run at the defense, put a bit of fear into them. Oh, also Ricardo (occasionally). The tippy tappy passing can be useful, but it won't put the ball in the net without some actual attacking.

Match week 28 is complete. Bit of a bump in the road, with a loss and a draw in the last two. Status: 66 of 93 points required for automatic promotion. Current points rate is 2.36/match. 1.50 points/match required for the rest of the season (27 points from 18 matches). We have a 8-point gap over third place (Southampton). We have 70.9% of the required points for automatic promotion after 60.9% of the season.

Must be a day ending in 'y'.

They are really trying to gift us a goal.

Some really good passing ideas thus far, that have failed in execution.

A number of changes to the squad by Enzo, as expected. Good to see some of the lesser-used players get some match-time. Millwall came out with attacking intent and were on top for large parts of the first half. Stolarczyk made some key saves. We got two good goals on quick counterattacks. You could tell that the Leicester players, especially the defense, were still trying to figure out how to work together. Millwall pulled a goal back early in the second half, and the tension ratcheted back up. Then a superb long ball from Doyle put Cannon behind the defense; he slotted it home for the Foxes third goal. Late goal by Millwall put us right back in squeaky-bum mode, but in the end Leicester saw the match out. Ricardo, Casadei, Stolarczyk, Choudhury, and Cannon all played well, I thought. The defense wasn't as cohesive as you might want (unsurprising), but mostly kept the ball out of the net. Also very good to see the debut of Maswanhise!

And of course, I could just be full of bollocks :).

So many talk about the speed of the English football, but I think there is some validity to that. It seems the Italian football is often played at a slower pace -- only picking up the speed when needed. In England, it seems there is lots more speed used, more often. Not surprised to see Casadei need a bit of time to get used to the speed of the game, even in the Championship.

KDH for a 20-minute game-solidifying cameo.

ESPN+ in the US provides comprehensive FA Cup coverage. They will be streaming this match, according to their website.

Referee assignment (from thefa.com): Mr. Langford has a brief wikipedia entry. He has been a ref since 2009; typically works Championship matches. He has reffed at least one EPL match -- 18 Aug 2019, Chelsea v Leicester. He was supposed to be the fourth official, but the assigned ref was late due to traffic.

After match week 26: Status: 65 of 93 points required for automatic promotion. Current points rate is 2.50/match. 1.40 points/match required for the rest of the season (28 points from 20 matches). We have a 13-point gap over third place (Southampton). We have 69.9% of the required points for automatic promotion after 56.5% of the season.

Hello to 2024! Overall a very good performance, minus the defense switching off for a few minutes after going up 3-0. And it still took an unlucky bounce to produce the Huddersfield goal. Cannon with a brace -- he looks very promising. Other good performances from Faes (great assist), Mavididi (set-piece goal), Justin (another great assist), and Pereira (headed goal!). And I rarely mention Hermansen, though I should -- he was solid today as he has been all season. Also, Harry Winks just keeps doing the unglamorous midfield work, moving the ball to where it needs to be. I leave it to others to assess the performance of Casadei. I hope he can be coached into becoming a useful squad player. 65 points from 26 matches -- stellar!

Each team has now gotten one lucky-bounce goal, so that has evened out.

This Sorba Thomas, left wing for Huddersfield, looks like the most unhappy player on the pitch. Never cracks a smile, always frowning. Oh! Cannon with another! Great passing to set it up!

Beautiful pass into the box by Faes. Yunus just couldn't get his feet right to get the shot on target.

As always, a lucky bounce off Huddersfield's defense presented Tom with a prime scoring chance, and he took it. Very good goal, but it wasn't a result of some clever, incisive attack. We just crossed the ball into the box, hoping to find someone or something positive, and it worked.

Thank you for writing those sentences. I was thinking the same thing, but hadn't yet found the words to properly express it yet. Many of these players need both game time, and game time with each other.

OBTW, we've got Sam Allison reffing the match today. Former lower-league player, seems to make sensible decisions most of the time.

Love seeing Mavididi's industry in the defensive end. He has won the ball back quite handily at least a couple of times.

Good work by both Yunus and Stephy in that attack. Just too many defenders to get through for the attack to succeed.

At least no parked bus from Huddersfield. Both teams showing attacking intent. A few stray and/or too heavy passes from Leicester on some promising moves forward.

After match week 25: Status: 62 of 93 points acquired toward automatic promotion. Current points rate is 2.48/match. 1.48 points/match required for the rest of the season (31 points from 21 matches). We have an 11-point gap over third place (Southampton). We have 67% of the required points for automatic promotion after 54% of the season. And as others have stated, Leeds have tailed off recently while Southampton are coming on strong.

Both have had similar injury histories (had to go look it up). Both suffered an ACL tear, then an Achilles tendon rupture after coming back from the ACL tear. I'm no doctor, but I have heard stories from many professional athletes about suffering a second serious injury after coming back from a major knee injury. Their (the athletes) speculation was that their body was overcompensating for the previously damaged knee, and that put too much strain on other parts (e.g. Achilles), causing a second injury.