Ric Flair

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Thanks for your generosity pal, I know how appreciated it will be by Liam and LAMP. Legend.

Scored the winner at home vs Sheffield Utd I recall. Scored in the quarter finals vs Chelsea to take it to extra time under Puel but for a player of his record over the years here he's never been that dominant in cups, I agree. I think it's possible because the league was always the priority and he was always first choice and seldom rested until such games. He's a streaky player though and at this stage of his career we have to exert every ounce from him when he is in such form as it's quite possible this break for internationals could stunt his rhythm.

Needs to teach our team the dark arts to match such whinging and aggression. So far his team hasn't mirrored what we've come to expect from a cynical Italian schemer and terrier. Its all quite passive.

The rules changed in Europe when we hadn't qualified for Europe and they cannot seriously have expected us to do so again after a summer of saying we couldn't buy anyone until we sold fringe or soon to be out of contract players for unreasonable prices. I'm not having that as a mitigating circumstances for the board of our football club. Stefan Borson raised a very valid point last night on our podcast that the black hole from the drop in revenue from failing to qualify for Europe pushed us to the brink, the lack of flexibility for this scenario is a huge red flag in the running of our club and rips away most of the sympathy.

Have a listen to our feel good episode last night 😂😂😂😂

1) Completely ignoring Yunus (until Ricardo's injury) after he'd finally started impacting on games with back to back goals vs Brum and Swansea, despite our midfielders and wingers faltering 2) Tom Cannon as a left winger at 2 nil down vs Middlesborough. He only became effective when we made a daft of other changes and he dropped in (his best position) behind Vardy. 3) Taking liberties with Ricardo's fitness, the only first team player to have been given barely any rest in recent months and played every FA Cup game. Even admitted his injury was likely due to playing too much. 4) Talking nonsense before the Leeds game claiming it wasn't a big game for us, fine to play mind games if it pays off but he's an inexperienced manager with a squad who's got a suspect record in big games and once again we threw it away in chaotic fashion. 5) Complete disregard of using our squad like he did earlier in the season. We've gone from scoring frequently to only scoring more than one once in the last 6 games and conceding more than 2 goals 6 times in the last 16 games having taken 21 games to concede more than 1 goal. I wouldn't mind but our best performance and result of late was from our fringe players and their reward? Completely ignored in other games whilst the preferred XI splutter all over the place. 6) The use or non-useage of Conor Coady is bizarre. He signed him, he was brought in for leadership and that's exactly what we need right now. His last 2 games he's played he has defended excellently and we've won them both to nil. His reward? Wout Faes coming straight back in and being at fault for goals. It's either stubbornness or stupidity from him at this stage. Faes performance on Saturday was beggars belief and still refused to replace him.

I'd rather Enzo spent more time trying to get his players revved up than he spends getting angry about the officials. The blokes had a howler this last month and this is deflection tactics.

I think we'll bloody their nose, whether we get through is a tall order but we'll give then a right good go. Hermansen Cover Coady Vestergaard Hamza Ndidi Winks Yunus Albrighton Vardy Wanya Marcal Doyle deserves to play but I think he'd go Vestergaard and Coady as opposed to Coady and Nelson which would be a quicker pairing and enable us to use Doyle.

Yunus changed the game vs Swansea, we'd been pretty wasteful after KDH's early opener and then were toiling until Yunus came on and him and Daka seemingly caused some chaos and energy between them to get two quickfire goals. It is a question though that has to be considered, certainly in 2024 where really only Vardy or Yunus has come on and made a difference in the league. But I'm of the opinion it's mindset in the team and manager, we previously wanted to apply the same intensity airy for 90 minutes and the subs came on to do that and we got the rewards. Seems to me we now look to take our foot off and coast to victory with a slender lead and are unable to control possession and/or pick teams off. I hope Enzo does what he's done well already this season in the international breaks, and have a plan for the final 9 games. Mavididi, KDH, Justin, Faes and Winks have been off it for a while IMO and if he can't remedy their form then he needs to find alternatives.

Very good article from Josh. Also some good insight from Guy Branston, I've wanted to get him on our podcast for a while.

Bit I'd argue what is our strongest team right now? Plenty of players knackered/out of form. I'd go a bit stronger than vs Bournemouth but the key to getting at Chelsea is by defending exceptionally and being very energetic. I'd have the likes of KDH and Mavididi to come on rather than start and Wout Faes would be nowhere near the match day squad, bloke needs a huge wake up call.

He ignored Yunus pretty much from the moment he'd scored vs Birmingham and Swansea up to the Bournemouth game and Ricardo's injury. Again, we finally got some end product from Yunus and then he ignored him at a time when KDH was looking jaded. I grant you there's weaknesses in certain areas and I've been critical of the use of McAteer out wide, I'd always opt for Albrighton over Kasey and use him as a replacement for one of the 8's.

Excuses. He made plenty of subs in the first part of the season (had injury problems then too) and we saw games out / scored late goals as good as anyone in the division. The difference back then was he wasn't afraid to replace almost anyone in the team, regularly we'd make subs on 55/60 mins as players had ran themselves in to the ground or we'd ran the opposition in to the ground and the subs came on and applied the pressure to break down their resistance. What's abundantly clear right now is a) we've certain players badly out of form and yet he still won't rest them and b) we've other players who look jaded and he still won't rest them. Fans moan we've been found out by the opposition but I'm not so sure, more likely our squads fitness levels are not as strong as they were due to work load and our dominance is diluted without it. This is on Enzo I'm afraid, the last month he's really struggled as a manager and is showing precious little signs of adjusting things. The Bournemouth team selection and performance the outlier and equally the elephant in the room as he's got 3-4 players there he could have drawn confidence and momentum from to rotate with some of our players who are struggling but he's reluctant to. I have little sympathy.

Let's hope it's just the month we were told, if so should be back for the run of games over Easter.

Hopefully he rotates as our full strength team are mingbeast at the minute.

I think it's a fair assessment seeing as we were by far the most established PL side with still a handful of players what won the FA Cup and back to back top 5 finishes and we spent the most in the summer too. Whatever way people want to cut it, we've had a massive lead and it's now done to 4 points, it's been an iffy few months and stumbling across the line whilst crucial we get there will not be a massive achievement and will instead be a huge concern for our future but let's hope we end the season well.

Finishing 2nd having been so far ahead would feel tainted and I'm fascinated by those who proclaimed we'd piss the league whilst also trying to stick up for how crap we've been in recent weeks. I see you. However, this league is a horrible slog and although it's par for the course for us to go up it still could have or may not happen as we were an absolute bin fire when Enzo took over. If we'd done what many anticipated which was start slowly and then get better, if we finished on 97-98 points and grabbed 2nd then we'd be far more content than what appeared a procession to get the record points total and now in the balance to even get to 100 points. Context is everything in that regard and unfortunately we've historically started very well and dropped off over the years more than the other way around. Enzo's inexperience is showing currently but I'd not be surprised to see us regroup and go on to get 7 wins and win the league, equally if we did blow it the warning signs have been there since as early as January. It will be massive to have Ricardo, Ndidi and Vardy all fit and playing for the rest of the season (with the other important spine too).

Our ex-FD had nothing to do with this current financial year though that we are also being predicted to be over on.

For a team who's philosophy is control of possession, we've been ridiculously poor retaining it in the last 3 league games. This is why I'm concerned that because we don't have another way of playing, if teams can get us to make the mistakes we've been doing then they tend to have a comfortable game against us.

They will find it very difficult not to breach again, they'll need to be saved by a rule change.

I'm not having that the options on the bench don't fit his system and that's why he doesn't use them. The likes of Coady were signed by him, as was Cannon and then players like Wanya and Albrighton have contributed to wins (often to nil) in the cup competitions this season. He's being extremely stubborn and it's the first thing I'd question his man management on, which up to this point has been brilliant.

What do you class KDH as then? He's definitely not a 6.

Yeah, no doubt we'll struggle. Both 3-2 wins vs them under that crap manager weren't easy were they.

This may well be true but given our financial issues it seems pretty surprising to opt for a manager who has a very set way of playing that requires serious investment. He's not a manager who focuses on mental robustness and shithousery either like you would expect of an Italian manager which can make somewhat for a lack of ability. I feel the benefits of Enzo are going to be less and less realised and add in him learning on the job and making mistakes, it's very much up in the air right now. I'm not convinced we get promoted from here...