Big_Nige

Vastly experienced at picking the ball out his net

Nick De Marco tifo needed

What’s he gonna offer there?

He’s comfortable on the ball if he’s got time, anything the needs quick feet or one touch I don’t think he’s there technically, yet. For the first goal it was his woeful touch/pass that meant Skipp had to make the tackle, and that wasn’t an isolated incident. He’s not press resistant put it that way. His defending for the second was naive, but also good movement and header from Duran But there are a lot of attributes to his game that look top level, pace, power and he’s an aggressive front foot defender which I like, for his fee he’s actually a decent pick up, but to reach anything like his potential he needs an experienced head coaching him through games

He’s steady, nothing more, nothing less. I can accept a steady left back, but we’re asking him to be our only creative threat on the left wing too. He’s not got that in his game, might put a decent fizzed in ball every now and again but ask yourself “how many combined goals or assists will he get this season” and you’re looking at 4 max. The whole left side asymmetrical fullback tactic is just pissing me off. It doesn’t work. You’ve taken 50 goal contribution out the team (KDH and Mavididi) and replaced them with VK and either Bobby Reid or Ayew. It’s no wonder we look as crap going forward

Disagree. It you have no service you are not going to impact the game. Doesn’t matter if you’re 27 or 37. I actually thought he came alive in the last 25 minutes once we were actively trying to play him in. Very few strikers in world football can be effective as isolated as he was for the first 65 minutes. Thats on the tactics not Vardy. If we do continue to set up in a safety first manner, then Vardy, Edouard, Daka or Ayew might as well just not bother

Just a shame Alves didn’t get a loan, I hope we know what we’re doing with that lad. It’s either a massive vote of confidence and he’ll work his way into match day squads, or another wasted 5 months with only minutes in the league cup. Holding out for a Leuven loan, another week till they close

I think the thing for me that I’m struggling with, and this included yesterday’s game against Tranmere, especially in the first half, is the lopsided wingback / winger tucking inside formation. I don’t think it works at all with the personnel we currently have at the club. if he’s intent on playing that way we should have gone all out for a new left or right sided specialist wingback. Someone with attacking output. VK is a steady left back and a willing runner, but not one who will offer great quality in the final third, and JJ and Ricky (as much as I love him) are not the same in terms of bombing up the right since their respective injuries. So we’ve got 3 fullbacks at the club who can’t play that role effectively, and 2 wingers in Mavidid and Fatawu who aren’t technical enough to step inside where it’s congested. The way I see it is we’re effectively trying to set up exactly the same as last season when attacking. But instead of Mavididi we’re using VK and instead of KDH we’re using Bobby Reid. That’s about 50 goal contributions taken out the team, and replaced by players that between them we’ll be lucky to see 6 or 7. So we’ve hamstrung ourselves, nullified our left side completely, when in reality Cooper inherited a squad, that with a few tweaks would be far more threatening going forward. This is obviously complete guesswork, but I can’t imagine any of our squad had ever played with an inverted fullback before last season, yet Enzo drilled into every player where they should be, how to beat the press in that shape and how to move the ball up the pitch by the time pre-season was over. Whatever way you feel about Enzo’s football he is clearly an elite coach. As a manager the jury is probably still out, but that debate has been done to death. I just can’t see any work done under Cooper on the training pitch translate at all at the moment. The players have no structure when trying to play through a press, half the time resorting to going long or drifting out the the fullback to win a 50/50 header. The coaching just is not on the same level, especially if we’re playing in a lopsided way that again most of the players won’t find second nature. I really hope he does well, and I really hope he makes me eat my words, but I just don’t think it’ll get any better. We’ll compete in most games, but come up short time and time again

So in others words welcome Kaminski

Hamer hasn’t got enough Prem experience. Unless you’ve played 250 games and been below average then Coops and the dream team don’t want to know

I used read loads of random football books, but it home recently how out of the habit I am. On your list I’ve only read the Eamon Dunphy one, which was great Two of personal favourites

Hideous fee. Our transfer strategy is just scattergun. Having our pants pulled down trying to get “premier league experience” Genuinely gobsmacked

Really sad when I heard the news earlier. Crossed paths many time in local football. Thoughts with his family, a thoroughly lovely man

One Stephen Dawson. There’s only one Stephen Dawson! Cracking away day that, Vards ripped them to shreds

Or Barnsley then WBA. Go the Barnes route

Yeah he’d be cup tied, but it’s only the league cup. Realistically Barnsley will probably go out to Shef U on Tuesday so it won’t matter. I think the sensible thing is to let him go to league 1 for 6 months, championship in January and then he can replace Bounanotte next season when he inevitably breaks our hearts. It’s a crucial year for Will, getting a hand full of minutes for us will not do him any good

It was boring because of the league we were in though surely. Teams gave us too much respect, and it leads to less of a spectacle. Cruising to a 2-0 v Stoke with very little jeopardy is very different to a battling draw against Spurs when we’re the underdogs The debate about Enzo has been done to death. I get why people found his football boring, I actually enjoyed it. Or maybe appreciated it is a better way to describe it. We’ll never know if it’d have worked this season, I did notice he didn’t invert his fullback on Sunday against Man City so perhaps he’s flexible after all…… Having said all that, that 25 minutes on Monday just hit different, from Vardys goal to the injury stoppage, that’s football from the heart. Primal stuff. That’s why you fall in love with the bloody game in the first place. Give me that any day of the week. The energy on the pitch and in the stands, players and fans feeding off each other. Beautiful stuff The first half however can get in the bin. That was dog shit

You know what, as much as I want to see Alves staring in a Leicester shirt, I think a loan till Jan will be best for all parties. Alves gets a start on Tuesday and then goes and gets some serious minutes under his belt. Bounanotte is only 6 months older, but you could tell he’s played nearly 100 games of senior football. Alves needs that game time, and I just don't think Cooper will risk him until he’s a sure thing. Same to be said for Nelson, Braybrooke and Richards. Get them game time. For a club in the mire with PSR we need these kids to either be stars, or sellable assets. Wasting their time in no man’s land where they are deemed good enough for the senior squad, but not trusted enough to play benefits nobody

In recent history top 3 for me are Vardy v WBA Albrighton v Sevilla Ulloa V Norwich Special mention to E. Hazard v Spurs

Mods. Can the words Millwall and Plymouth please be banned from this forum for my sanity?

I didn’t really care, but when people with anger issues start frothing at the mouth, probably picturing him with a see through man bag, and boo, then I gave him a clap. And I think that was part of why he kept getting clapped, to drown out the nonsensical booing He was a good player in his time for us, yes he missed an important peno but that’s no reason to give him pelters. Shit happens

Too late, I’ve just had a tattoo of his face on my chest

Parts were worryingly bad, the first half was genuinely concerning. We gave too many chances away, especially at the bread and butter stuff like crosses and corners. But the second half (55 onwards) there were massive green shoots. If we’d completely shithoused a draw that’s one thing, but second half we competed. Defensively much better and we carried a threat. I've been critical of Cooper and what we’ve seen in Pre-season, but anyone who comes away from that game as negative as they were before the game is just looking for reasons to be critical

I agree, but there’s a balance to be had. Too many long punts from Mads that just gave possession straight back. Encouraging signs though, we’ll score some scintillating break away goals this season. The Vardy chance was liquid football. We do need to look after the ball more though, felt like a hot potato at times and we’ve better players than that