Sooper Steve's shin

I just said the same on the Ings thread, but with the position we are in you might think we’d have a go at a “long shot” signing and offer something reasonable (let’s say, for Eriksen, we’ll pay £75k a week) and then a £10m add-on if we make the Champions League and he’s played more than, say, ten games. That’s a fraction of what we’d get for qualification, but if we do it then everyone’s a winner.

Absolutely not happening, Soton wouldn’t let it. But, if it did, I think we’d be pushing for a CL place at least - possibly more. The schedule has clearly taken its toll on Vardy this season and it’s not going to get any easier for the next few months. Ings to play all Cup games and start 50% of PL games would, I think, see us with a fresher Vardy and give us a valid alternative that we don’t currently have. Offer Southampton £15m plus £15m if we make CL this year, £25m if we win the league - massive statement of intent and £30/40m well spent if it came off. Ings should be good for four seasons, a couple of them shared with Vardy and (hopefully) playing CL football. If he went to a Liverpool, Man U, Man C or Tottenham, he’d be bench at best.

Ashley Barnes. Gotta be.

No. It became a very well-balanced team (once Claudio realised Kante was not a winger!) and picked itself for three-quarters of the season. But credit to Claudio for finding the blend that he wanted - replacing De Laet with Simpson, Ulloa with Vardy, and preferring Kante over Inler. Claudio also taught a team that had actually played very well in 14/15 despite being bottom for most of that season how to close out games. 1-0 became enough for us (we had a series of them in the middle of the season). i think we found a unique blend that worked well on the pitch, suited the manager’s style and also his personality, so the whole thing came together. As others have said, you change any of those elements and we’d have had a fair to middling year. It’s probably the same for most teams that win the league except maybe the 80s Liverpool or 90s Man Utd teams that felt so far ahead they could have won with anyone in charge. Even then, change the manager and it can go quickly wrong.

In terms of footballing quality, we’d struggle to find any better than our first-choice XI - the likes of Ricardo, Soyuncu, Ndidi, Tielemans, Maddison, Vardy would not be out of place in any side in the league. What the team lacks is a bit of on-field leadership and ability to manage the game from the thick of the action - Schmeichel has it and Vardy has it but they are at either end of the pitch. One experienced centre-half that can kick the team up the backside or an older head on midfield who can take a game by the scruff of the neck, and I think we’d be set. Evans is not vocal enough in the mould of a Walsh, Elliott or Taggart from a few years back and our midfield has some quality but fairly timid players. That sort of player would have been gold in some of the poor results we’ve seen this season and back end of last - enough to squeeze a win from the draws and at least a draw from some of the drab losses.

3,458 miles in a straight line or 4,362 miles by land transport. Lucky to gave all Premier League games televised, so I have probably missed less than 5 games since we got promoted (and saw a few while we were in the Championship).

Definitely agree here, I said this last season - we lack a bit of game knowledge in the middle that an experienced pro can provide. I thought Carvalho could have been that. Cambiasso certainly was and Pearson talked about this in his recruitment - that you need an okd head at times. We’ve had the likes of Cambiasso, Wasilewski and Huth come into good young teams to good effect. If we hang on until the transfer window and get someone of that nature in, I think we could really go places in the second half of the season.

My thoughts: 1. Truly nauseated by the w@nkfest commentary for Liverpool on the channel I was watching (BeIN) - “oozing class”, “purring along”, mentioning their desparate injury situation every three minutes. OK, I get it - no VVD but slotting Milner and Fabinho in with Roberston and Matip is hardly a crisis. Imagine your defence included a 19yo new signing, another youngster who was playing at Luton a year ago, a 34yo left back playing in the middle and another 30+ winger playing right-back. 2. We weren’t that bad in the early containment phase and even after the own goal there wasn’t an immediate collapse (although it looked rickety). Albrighton’s rush out for the second goal was schoolboy stuff - that would simply not have happened if Ricardo, Castagne or even Justin was there. That second then probably made it too difficult, we had to attack but we were very cautious about getting caught again. No real surprise they got another. 3. It could have been worse, so keeping it to 3 against the Champions away on a bad night gets that over with. Europa League is proving a reset this season, hopefully it helps us find rhythm again and onto Sheff U, Brighton and Everton before a tough Christmas. 4. We have done exceptionally well to this point with a makeshift team, we have four players to phase back in who will bring real quality and an upgrade on what we’ve been playing so far. We are top four on merit at the moment, I look down below us and I don’t see a single team that I think deserves (or threatens) to be above us based on what the season has shown so far.

Would love an old, white-haired, bearded Shinji - like a cross between Mr Miyagi and Santa.

Imagine this question being asked at any point prior to this season! As seems clear to most, they are different players and each has attributes better suited to certain roles than the other. Ndidi is the absolute man in front of a back four and he allowed the likes of Maguire and Soyuncu to play out/stride forward. Mendy looks good and better suited to the current system as one of a central pair ahead of a back three.

Three pages and no Martin O’Neill??!

The technical quality of this team (and their training) is quite evident when we start to get a head of steam with the quick, one/two touch passing moves that can really cut through teams. You can see it in some of the clips on this first post (eg. v Man City) and it was bery much in evidence during the first half v Wolves. It’s noticeable that we restrict it to bursts, though, rather than trying to play full games that way. Sensible, as it doubtless requires a lot of mental concentration as well as physical effort. I’m also enjoying seeing the different and complementary skills of our CBs. Evans can knock the short passes quite tidily, Soyuncu (like Maguire before him) has the extravagant crossfield ball in his locker. Now Fofana seems to favour the mid-range, fast low ball played directly forward - cutting out the attacking players of the other team very quickly. I also like how aggressive he is coming to meet the ball and make a tackle or interception closer to the halfway line than our penalty area. Being in a back three means there is cover if he does this, but it was a feature of his game even in a central pair.

Fully agreed - it was a big reason for our fall-off last season and I think it could bite us again. We really could have done with a Cambiasso/Huth-type signing, a bit of an old head (especially for Europe). Carvalho might have provided that, I don’t know where that deal went wrong but would have been perfect to fill in for Ndidi now. No arguments with the signings we have made but they don’t add the know-how that we needed in the middle. We might possibly get someone in on loan, but doesn’t seem to be in Rodgers’ plans at the moment.

What do footballers think of these photoshopped images? They are everywhere these days. Personally, I’d find it a bit weird if my photo was going around with my head on a different body (not that I couldn’t do with a different body!). From the legs, I thought this might be Wes Sr although the long sleeves look like Gray - is this three players?!! Can we paste the next new signing into Gary Taylor-Fletcher?

Going backwards through this thread makes you realise how fickle, reactionary and emotionally brittle football fans are. From a disastrous situation with relegation ahead to one of our best ever transfer windows (when two of the signings haven’t played and one hasn’t even formally been announced) and a possible title challenge in the space of a couple of weeks!

Do you really think Brendan is the guy to do that? We just completely changed our formation and approach after two opening wins to cater for one of the top teams in the world. By Brendan’s own admission, he did something he’d never done before to mastermind a win. And now you think he’s going to forget all of that and tell the team “winner stays on”?!

Are you talking us or them?!

Nobody else concerned that a regular top half La Liga team finds themselves in this position...?

They can probably obtain a loan like that at better rates and have the assets to put up security for it, then lend it on to the football club.

Macquarie is a very large Australian investment bank.

Last season we finished ninth, our summer ambitions were to try and challenge top six (which we finished 14pts outside). A challenge for the CL positions was way outside most reasonable expectations, yet we’ve been in contention until the last half an hour of the final game. We have finished fifth in the best league in the world behind four of the highest spending clubs in the world. It’s our second highest PL position. We made the quarter-finals of one cup and the semi-finals of the other. We are in Europe for only the fifth time in our history (and straight into the group stage). There can only be the slightest tinge of disappointment at what might have been in either cup or the league, but overall we should be very optimistic.

Plus FA Cup quarter finalists and League Cup semi-finalists.

I need to keep reading this!

Wow, that escalated quickly...

The article seems to contradict itself, saying at the start that he’s moved to the left and is more comfortable there. I’d just assumed he was left footed as he was predominantly using that when I watched him pass it out yesterday. I also think he’s played left back before. But Transfermarkt lists him as “both” in terms of feet. Oh well, interesting discussion - I’m actually glad I asked!