Dusty

It sounds obvious but I think the only way we can judge it is at the end of the season. This is window where we’ve signed players to try and stay in the league. These signings won’t help us that much in the championship and there’s not much sell on value in most of them. If we go down I’d say it’s a pretty disastrous one, with the only benefit being we’ve loaned a few young players out who would be ready to come into our starting 11 in the division below. The different approach would have been to invest heavily in young and undervalued players from across Europe, who would be happy to take a season in the championship next year to be better placed if we go up again. And I think I prefer the one step back for two steps forward approach as it seems inevitable to me that we will go down. Whilst prioritising premier league players I’m not really sure we’ve improved last years starting 11 at all, and I think it’s got worse with the loss of KDH and the exclusion of Ricky. BDCR, Ayew and Edouard are all not bad players but none of them are game changes and none of them are consistent in their output. This seasons going to be a real grind. I think Ipswich have gone with the second approach of building a team they think will be successful next year, and accumulating some sellable talent whilst having a couple of prem loans too, but I don’t think there’s enough quality there to see them stay up and I think we’ll finish above them. Southampton have gone with the first approach of signing premier league players to try and stay in the league, and they’ve invested wisely so that they’d probably make some good money on their sales if they go down to allow them to rebuild again. But Brussel will get them relegated much like Kompany last year and I think we’ll finish above them too. So that leaves us, Everton, Brentford, Forrest and Wolves imo as the most likey to go down and we are clearly the worst of those. However, I think there’s still a chance we can do it, we need a really solid home form and we need lots of players to chip in with goals as we don’t have anyone of quality to consistently score. But I am ready to be let down again - up the foxes!

Got to be the fewest goals per appearance in a starting 11 that we’ve ever put out

Are we parking the bus against Tranmere?

Thought vestergaard was actually colossal last night. Him, mads and winks are a really important trio for us and all had good games last night. They give us something to build from.

Don’t think he lost a duel in the second half, a couple of excellent balls into the box as well. More of the same please.

Not entirely relevant but it’s amazing how far we’ve fallen. Every single one of those spurs players starts for us - and I know that sounds obvious but it really does make you appreciate how tough this year is going to be. We’ve got very, very little quality to rely on. We used to have prime Vards, Ndidi and Ricky, then Madders, Youri, Fofana etc - we used to go toe to toe with these teams. It’s a real shame, might not happen again for 20 years or more.

Don’t hate that lineup tbh - it’s probably the most balanced one we could put out.

They were quite keen to show the shirt sponsor in that video 😂

Not sure I agree. I think if we still had Enzo, and the recruitment was along the same lines as last summer then we would be in a much better position. I’d at least think we were better than Ipswich and Southampton but right now we’re a long way off them. He has come in and made us significantly, significantly worse. Seeing the players argue between themselves yday whilst cooper was just talking to his staff made it feel like he’s on borrowed time already.

“Leicester are f#cked with Steve cooper”

Just seen Buonanotte sprinting back to Brighton

Tbf that’s the only time I’ve seen us complete a pass. Without that we really do have nothing.

I agree he’s been a ghost - but what on earth do you expect him to do here?

I know people complained about having possession for possessions sake last season - but at least we actually had possession! Anything/anyone that was a positive last year, is not a positive in this team/system. Winks, Mads, Vesty, Ricardo, Fats, Mavi - none of them are positives anymore. We have literally nothing.

What is the tactic? What are we trying to do? Looks like we want to play out the back but have no plan on how to do it, winks drops deep but then everyone else is 30 yards in front of him. Then we defend with bodies back but none of them do anything? Just statues.

Is cooper still being paid by forest? Just curious

It’s just depressing isn’t it. Surely this isn’t the best line up we’ve got? There’s so many question marks about so many of those players - and then to play them in that way just makes it worse.

At least he won’t be able to score against us anymore

The most bizarre transfer window

I’m surprised so many people wouldn’t start Vestergaard, I know he has some really obvious flaws but I feel like his relationship with mads and winks is the best way for us to progress the ball up the pitch. After that I’m not sure what else we have.

He is absolute garbage, Ajax are only charging that much because they paid out big for him. He’s a ghost on the pitch, never does anything and was terrible for spurs too. He’d be a bit like tete all over again.

He was good for a few games and then poor for a few games. I think it’s definitely too early to say he’s good enough for the prem.

I actually think he’s great, he’s one I thought we’d go for if Enzo was still here. I’d try and buy him straight away because worst case he’d be good in the championship. They bought him for pennies so might not even cost £10m.

Well that’s a hypothetical situation so you can’t really tell. Would they have survived if they had been docked 4 points after the season had finished? No they would have gone down on goal difference. But they might have won more points throughout the season if they knew that was coming, much like Evertons bump after they were docked points.

Well they stayed up tbf