foxinsox

I would have stayed if I had known about the Lap. I was in my seat from about 1450, didn't hear a thing. I thought all the police and stewards were to stop a pitch invasion, after the earlier one. Feel bad for Huth and the Thais, but communication needed to happen.

I agree, but best of a poor bunch. Fuchs OK too. Drago good when he came on. Diabate best of a pisspoor midfield. Vardy feeding off scraps. So Benny best of a bad lot of starters.

Some have been injured on field, so are kosher. Perhaps something wrong in training and preparation, but not phoning in a sickie.

Benny was Motm today.

Puel is attempting suicide by cop, surely the only explanation.

The other thing was that even in the long poor run during The Great Escape Season, we were playing well and with heart. We were losing by one goal, not getting hammered. The improvement was slight, but critical, to win by one goal. Pearson will always be a legend to me, but I am not convinced 3rd time round is wise.

That was when I knew Shakey wasn't up to it, same goes for Puel now. Appleton for the rest of the season, then a major sorting out over the summer.

Hopefully Appleton will be in charge by next Saturday.

Total meltdown. Ndidi injured, Abrighton off. Doomed.

Appleton in!

Me too. Gone in the summer please. New manager in early.

The problem is the slow build up. We had good pacey attacking players on the pitch, but they took the ball forward so slowly that once again it was battering against a completely organised defence. Sometimes an opportunistic good pass, while the defence is upfield beats a meticulously executed perfect pass a couple of minutes later. All to often we are doing neither.

Burnley are not a bad side. Wish I could say the same about us. Play the youngsters not the has-beens for the rest of the season, we might as well see who is worth keeping.

if we sharpen up!

Part of the problem is that Vardy is hard to play alongside, with Shinji about the only one who can. Ianacho, Slimani, Ulloa have all struggled with his style of play, as indeed does the England team. 451 doesn't seem to work as Vardy is either isolated or misses out on crosses, as this is not his technique. Aprt from Shinji, Puel seems to have had the best from Vardy by playing 4231 with three wingers behind Vardy, when Mahrez or Gray are in the central position, but not Albrighton. It would be interesting to see Diabete there too.

Chilwell made mistakes but was also marking Willian generally very well. I thought Wes had his best game of 2018. He looked back to his old self. Ndidi and Iborra are a confidence inspiring midfield pair, but Nacho looks lost. I would like to see more of Nacho, Silva, and Gray over the remaining games. We need to see if they are worth keeping. Diabete is raw but has great potential. Puels scouts seem to have spotted a good un.

How is Charlie Adams doing? Any updates?

And the other one a South Coast derby... I reckon Stoke, Saints and Baggies go down, making Wolves the only Midlands derby next season.

With Puel's taste for pacy wingers, I am surprised that we didn't see him get a game. I think his mother dying of cancer while in Leicester affected his performances here. Most of the time he was terrible, but there were flashes of erratic brilliance.

Kante is as good as ever, and Willian is their creative spark. The rest have been nothing special. We can roll them over.

You're going home in a Salisbury Ambulance....

Maybe Diabate starting next week?

Remind me where Saints are now...

What encourages me is that when Mahrez scored, he ran straight over to celebrate with Puel, as did his team mates. Puel seems popular with the squad. This was always going to be a year of transition, with the Champions team getting older and slower. Experimenting with players and formations is not so daft.

Though seeing his shove again on MOTD, that shove was a definite penalty. He got away with it.