TheMightySystem

To be fair I think Ghezzal will be better at number 10 than on the wing. He doesn't have the pace to beat his fullback but in the centre he can pick out passes and doesn't need to be as quick if his positioning is good.

I wonder if Puel wasn't so worried about the defense as he was hoping Johnson or Knight would be able to make the step up to first team football (Any news on loans for any U23s in January btw). When you consider our best U23 players are defenders it makes sense to buy one CB and give the other spots to the youngsters instead of going overkill on buying 3, one of which couldn't get in a relegated team and is 30 so wont improve anymore (Yes Evans was a cheap transfer but how much are we spending on wages,could be another Benalouane situation). Still, Benkovic is getting good reviews at Celtic and Soyuncu has age on his side, if Morgan leaves next year and Maguire goes to a top team then these two could be our starters with Evans first choice backup and Johnson getting cup game apperances if we don't send him out on loan. Looking at it in regards to next summer and it makes sense, still think we need a quick winger for the right side as Ghezzal has some decent dribbling ability but i'm not sure he will be quick enough to get away from premier league defenders to maximise his skills.

No Choudhury, I have said this so many times but hopefully on the bench tomorrow.

Its weird, Puel obviously rates him as he is involved in first team training, taken with the first team to away games like Newcastle and was given a new contract. Yet he isn't to be seen on the bench in the league and doesn't get played in the cups for some reason. I think in January we need to sell one of Iborra or Silva (Probably Silva) and give Choudhury more game time off then bench if we rate him that highly. This means we have Ndidi and Mendy starting, Iborra and Choudhury to fight for the bench spot and James as 5th choice backup (Although Puel might prefer him over Iborra and could push Choudhury even further down the pecking order in which case loan him out.)

No Pereria on the wing amartey RB most likely, Morgan straight back into the team,why did we bother to sign Soyuncu and Evans.

Soyuncu on the bench is becoming an unfunny joke, we know what Morgan can do for god sake he isn't the future, same with Iborra, why not let Choudhury start the match. While I don't like those two changes its still a strong team so credit to Puel for going for the cups.

No Choudhury, could be playing tomorrow? Guess Elders new contract is so we can sell him for some money next year, would have thought this season would be perfect to give him game time in the cups if he has a future here, shame as I thought he played well in preseason.

Second great assist for Barnes

Great 40 yard run by Barnes and passes to Gayle who scores.

Wonder if this story would have come out if we won 4-0 instead.

Mentioned it in the Hudderfield pre match thread in more detail but Choudhury would be perfect for that role. Its disapointing that Puel seems to have forgotten about him, if he can't even make the bench after how he performed last season when called upon does he have a future here? Puel would rather have 3 defenders on the bench for god sake. I thought Puel would be eager to bring him through so he has another young player he has developed. I thought when he joined he would be giving the U23s chances and while he has brought through youth he has only done it with low risk players, Chilwell and Gray, who most people expect to make it and have previously shown ability. For me to judge Puel as a manager that develops young tallent he needs to start bringing through U23 players where possible, why doesn't he try bringing through some of the U23 Cbs like Knight, Johnson or Hughes (I know he is injured at the moment) instead of bringing in 2 foreign young players. I'm glad we got them but would have been even happier if a manager spent the time trying to develop what we already have. Say we brought through Johnson and Knight instead of buying Benkovic and Soyuncu, then we can use that £30 million (not sure if thats how much we paid for both) to buy another winger or striker which we really need. To be fair to Puel Ghezzal did have a great defensive work rate in his previous games. The fact is if we want to play the football Puel wants we will have to overload the opposition box and that means having both wingers and fullbacks high up the pitch, the issue was that Pereria failed to get back in time to help out, the Cbs don't have a pace to get across to cover, the midfield went awol when they should have been sitting just infront of the defence and Bournemouth had a really quick attack. For all the critisism Chilwell gets (unfairly imo) he makes sure to get back in position if he is caught up the pitch and they counter, how many goals have we conceeded this year from a Chilwell mistake? I can't think of one clear error (Although there have been a few errors that could have led to goals not as many as Pereria though). Compare that to when we have Pereria at Rb and he is constantly losing his man or over committing and getting beaten with some skill. I think he will come good though, he just needs to adapt to the league and how much quicker in thought and skill the attackers are.

Unpopular suggestion but if we aren't going to go 3 at the back then I think Choudhury would be a good option to play instead of Ndidi. Ndidi has been off the boil a bit recently so him sitting on the bench for a game might give him a bit more focus instead of being an automatic pick. My reasoning for Choudhury instead of Silva or Iborra is that he is the closest to the midfield type that Puel wants. He is defensively minded, has an engine so can cover large areas of the pitch and has a high workrate. One thing I noticed last season from watching him and in U23 games this year is that he tends to sit just infront of the back 2 and alot of the time makes a back 3, playing in a similar role to Dier at Tottenham, when their fullbacks push on he drops into defense in case of a counter. He has a good range of passing as well, in his first few games playing it simple but ended up trying riskier passes in later games and pulling them off, see his assist for Mahrez in the Arsenal game towards the end of the season. In comparison I think Silva is too attack minded for what Puel wants from his DM's, and Iborra isn't quick enough to cover enough ground. Add to the fact that their passing is very hit and miss and I don't see why Choudhury has been demoted to the U23 (although if people want to explain to me why I will gladly listen as I might be too bias towards the young players as I like to see as many local prospects come into the first team as possible). Knowing my history of complaining about player selection though Ndidi, Mendy, Silva and Iborra are going to play in a 4-4-2 diamond and each score a hatrick to shut me up now that I have criticised them.

Ndidi and Mendy's role is to sit back and cover the defense yet for both goals they have been no where to be seen.

Bit confused as to what has happened with Choudhury. Played one preseason game and hasn't been in the squad since. While Ndidi and Mendy are first choice surely the next player that has a similar style (break up play and cover the wings when the fullbacks push on) is Choudhury, yet Puel seems to prefer Iborra who isn't getting any younger. I wouldn't mind choudhury not being a part of the first team if he went out on loan to get experience, yet both himself and Johnson have been kept at the club to seemingly play U23 football which is below them and don't even make the bench for cup games. Just confused as he did well stepping in last season when called upon and he needs to continue getting first team football or he will end up stagnating.

Annoying as he did well last year. Deserved a loan to a prem club, hope he can get one at championship level as he won’t develop at all playing hoof ball for the U23s

Laughable that after pre-season they still can't get the livestreams working for kickoff. Up now

Going to be a bit annoyed if Choudhury goes out on loan, been better then Iborra in pre-season and did well when coming in at the back end of last year. A loan to a prem club would have been decent for him and would have agreed with it if he would get first team football, but surely now only Championship clubs would be in for him which I think he is too good for? Could end up stifling his development.

https://www.lcfc.com/galleries/799090/first-team-training-manchester-united Anyone know who the players are to the right of Maguire wearing the bibs on picture 6?

Towards the end of the game some tool in towards the back on the left hand side was giving a couple in front of me to the left some abuse (and probably giving abuse to fans in general) for not standing up and singing in a friendly. After about 5 minutes of this pretty much all the fans to my right where giving him shit and he deserved it, no need to throw abuse at fans (calling the woman and her husband c****), especially in a friendly where there is sod all on the line. What made it worse is the people I assume he was with didn't do anything to shut him up until after the game when the husband had had enough and got in his face to shut him up. Not nice to sit near and ruined the end of the game as my attention was drawn to the moron and making sure that if anything kicked off myself and my dad would be able to move out of the way quickly. Hope he woke up the next day regretting how he acted, he was obviously drunk but that doesn't give you permission to act like a willy puller.

Choudhury man of the half. Only one putting in 100% effort.

3 at the back?

Brilliant penalty

Don't know what they are complaining about, we offered what we viewed to be fair and they rejected asking for more, fair enough. Think he then asked for a raise as a prem club where interested in him (Not entierly sure so forgive me if wrong, I just know at some point he asked for a raise which was rejected). Then from what I can gather on their forum they barely played him last season in his last year of contract so he has no reason to stay. The only bit that could be seen as petty was moving to Leuven on a free so they get no money, but in the end Sheffield Wednesday could have had money for him last year and chose to risk just getting compensation and held him back a year by not playing him or letting him leave. Just read on their forum that apparently the manager excluded him from not just the first team but also the U23 and U18 teams as well so they really can't moan about him screwing the club out of a couple of million when they screwed him out of a year of important development. Edit: This quote here. "You're possibly right, I myself had issues with the decision to exclude GH from the u23 and u18 teams, but by screwing over the club like this (Pearson and Hirst Snr.) to avoid compo. being paid, they're not just getting at Chansiri, it's going to effect us, the ordinary fans, (in terms of monies available to the club for new players etc.) and for that I will never forgive either of those 2 for this. They can f*** right off."

We were apparently in for him last summer so this is interesting, let him develop for a season at Leuven and then if he develops enough let Leicester buy him, if not he can stay and help Leuven push for promotion?

Not sure if this has been put on here but apparently Man City are looking at moving on soon if we don't budge on our valuation. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/man-city-transfer-riyad-mahrez-14804415 Not sure how reliable the website is though so could be bull.