UPinCarolina

This is why we went out and brought in Perez. Perez / Nacho / Barnes with Gray and Albrighton as supporting options off of the bench ought to see us to the other side. Chuffed for Nacho to see regular time on his present form.

Oooohhh noooooo.

I hope that you're right. I'm inclined to say that it is not, as asserted by some pundits, that we've been "worked out" but rather that we've lost the keystone of our midfield in Ndidi and as a result teams are able to work against us with relative impunity through the middle of the pitch. Mendy is a capable deputy but he's not able to do what Ndidi has done for us.

😂

I think Silmani could absolutely do a job at Villa. His time in France has proven that there's something of a player there.

Might get some flack for this, but I prefer Mendy to Hamza for the Ndidi role. He's done it before, he's a little savvier on the ball, and we can't afford to lose possession in the middle of the pitch.

VAR giveth, VAR taketh away.

Nacho ought to have started, IMO. We just haven’t gotten anything consistent going today, but we’ve also been exposed a few times by an absolutely cooking Danny Ings - so maybe that would backfire.

VAR and the post are the real stars of this match.

The universe is clearly working against Ings this afternoon. We ought to be 2 goals down.

Yeah, first goal.

Like I just said, Vardy has gotten so much better at facilitating!

Kasper! You big beautiful wall.

Vardy has gotten so much better at facilitating others through timely passing.

Underlying advanced stats suggest that a healthy Danny Ings really is as good as or better than Harry Kane, surprisingly.

I think that we'll need Nacho on the pitch, as the interplay between him and Vardy might help us to breakdown their press. Either way, this will be a stouter test than we might have expected after the absolute drubbing we put on them earlier this season.

I love it though.

Benko?! Wild. Don’t mind the lineup though.

Hamza’s goal was impressive - he absolutely crushed that ball - but the layoff was nearly as impressive.

Newcastle have looked better of late but I would think that we have more than enough to get this one done. Vardy back, and fresh - Maddison mostly rested / fresh - Soy back in the line-up - etc. Suspect that we'll lead with Nacho next to Vardy, but I have no reason to believe that other than a feeling.

Vardy v Liverpool One of the only goals that left me utterly slack jawed.

An apt summary. Felt like our first half left something to be desired, even as we outplayed them.

We’re good at this keep-away bit, at times.

West Ham - 12 fouls Leicester - 2 fouls

That was a nice counter-attack. Dipped and weaved through the defense. Still hope we make some positive substitutions to keep the pressure on.