Bossman Blessed It

What is important to remember is the article that was posted here a few weeks back, eluding to the psychological struggles he faced, particularly in his final season with us. I think, sufficed to say, one of the most toxic elements of football tribalism is the brutal nature of the game, especially on youngsters who aren't performing well. We've been fortunate to have players like Vardy, Kasper, Wes, Fuchs etc that all seem to have hit their heights at quite unconventional ages, meaning that a transfer away from Leicester is slightly less incentivised. The aforementioned almost seem like one-club players, which I think has created a slightly unrealistic expectation amongst our fans that our youngsters will generally follow suit. Chilwell's move to Chelsea, alongside Maguire's to Man United have been pivotal in our growth as a squad, ultimately creating room for long term growth so that we can consistently reach European competitions and hopefully trophies.

Under and Barnes provide an excellent combination in terms of our width. Really, you can start to see how BR aims for our shape to prove incredibly problematic for the opposition. If, for instance, Ricky/ Castagne plays as the full back, it will inevitably offer space for the other winger as midfielders try to cover the overlap/underlapping runs. Subsequently, it leaves Maddison/Tielemans in much more room to play through to either Vardy on the move or the opposite wing. Under's fitness is clearly improving and given that he probably still isn't fully ready physically for 90 mins in the PL, his energy yesterday was so impressive. His willingness to take the shot on from outside the box is fantastic and as teams pick up on the fact that he isn't afraid of shooting, it will draw defenders out of position to block the shot - leaving more space in behind. Early days but he looks to be another real find and testament to our recruitment team.

I wonder if City fans called for Pep's head after they lost 5-2 against us...

The consistency in how well each player knows their role is something that really stands out to me. Pep got a lot of credit when City demonstrated it in the season they reached over 100 points, but it's clear that Brendan's philosophy has great buy-in, which he deserves immense credit for. He's releasing a refreshed potential for players like Albrighton, Morgan and Mendy too - they have proven to be worth their weight in gold recently. BR also seems to be using his substitutions much more wisely too - a clear identity of what they should be introduced to achieve. Our new signings look outstanding too. Under, Castagne and Fofana are serious additions to our squad and we look incredibly awkward to beat. When our full strength side returns, it gives me a lot of hope at our competitiveness in all competitions.

Annoyingly I think a lot of us expected to get a player of quite similar ilk to Jimenez at Wolves when we signed Slimani; strong, good in the air and aggressive - ironically Slimani's goalscoring record in Portugal is far superior to the aforementioned. I think the game against Burnley where he was exactly that gave reason to believe he would produce the goods on a long term basis. The changing of managers, alongside Vardy's seemingly endless progression as a striker has left Slimani at the back of the queue - something I would certainly rather side with as opposed to speculation that he's not got the right attitude/character for our team. Really, at this stage, where's the harm in trying him? If he's fit, he'll offer a different dimension that we simply haven't seen in our new system. Brendan might have his back to the wall in terms of Vardy's injuries, but the optimist in me wants to believe that Slimani will take his chance - even if it is to secure a decent move away at the end of the season.

I would play Kagawa over Perez without much hesitation.

Ideally he wouldn't have been thrown in the deep end but he's handled it excellently in my opinion. When you consider that we're asking an already inexperienced right back to fill in a left back for a team aiming for the top 4 in a league that's two divisions higher than he was playing a year or so ago - JJ has been impressive. Not least the fact that we're missing arguably the best full back in the league, only highlighting his weaknesses further. He's not great positionally yet, but it's noticeable that he's not as good on the left at this level - something he hopefully won't need to do for too much longer in PL at least.

Daft to read too much into it and all the posters suggesting the performance/players are an 'embarrassment' need to get a grip. The final ball really lacked today but it shouldn't seem surprising that given Praet and Maddison were out, we couldn't find it. It's pretty clear that Perez isn't up to that task. A good two weeks to have a fit squad will be huge for us - we also move a lot closer to Ricky P coming back as I think gaps in Justin's positional ability were exposed today.

Making £10 million profit on Slimani would be the best deal in the history of football.

Can't think of anything that will make me happier than the link-up play between Cags and Fofana in when they're both marauding down opposite wings. Beautiful stuff.

Easy to forget that he's the same age as Maddison but offers something completely different in the way he can dictate our tempo. He showed intelligence, grit, fitness, defensive discipline and the swagger in which he played a few of the passes today showed we've got an unbelievable talent on our hands. Had an air of Modric about him today. Loved it.

Hopefully see Under get some game time - obviously a different approach to today's game. Hopefully Evans and Praet are find - but obviously Maddison could step in for the latter.

Looks like he's hit the gym in his time off too - seemed to win a lot of his physical battles and the pace to catch De Bruyne at one stage was wonderful.

Absolute masterstroke in fielding a dogshit 11 against Arsenal so we're one of the few teams to have a full week off before our next game. On a serious note, the rigidity and discipline of our performance reminded me of Mourinho's Inter Milan in the CL final - joyous.

Actually think a loan to a Championship team going for promotion would be far more beneficial, especially if it means more game time. He's pretty good at closing space, but we're a team that has the ball in larger spells, which is where he's lacking quite a bit. He's not got the same ability or skill set as Wilf, so will need to forge a different type of improvement if he's to stay with us in the future.