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.

The attitude he's shown to keep working despite probably being made aware of his shortcomings at RW is brilliant, however. He tracks brilliant and although it was probably easily missed, he made some good blocks against Burnley and made sure that McNeil was doubled up on to good effect. We're obviously a team that now has the ball more often than not, so it's probably fair to say that we need attacking intent rather than defensive in his position - which Under should hopefully provide. He'll prove useful with our fixture list this season I'm sure.

He's only 24 and he's played a lot of football, which is obviously great. He's a bit more experienced than Soyuncu but his age and stature gives me the impression that he'd be a good fit to the physicality of the PL. Obviously his European and International experience are added benefits too. Would be pretty happy if this was to happen irrespective of the Fofana deal - I think Tah is a player that will realistically improve our squad straight away, without needing to spend time on loan etc.

Great business to have the option rather than the obligation. Good value for a talented player that fits our profile well.

Didn't look arsed at all about the fact that it was a new league, new club and a team that he's only trained with twice. Could have been a potential banana skin with the trickery of their wingers but he was very measured in his approach.

Like a new signing today. Got stuck in and played with intelligence, guile and an understanding that forward passing needs to be a part of Leicester's CDM. He's got a future after all and it should serve as an example to all the posts suggesting we were making a mistake by giving him an extension that he does have the ability.

Some real successes individually in there and perhaps all the anxiety/nerves we had before the season ignored the fact that when we're playing well, we're a dominant team. There were moments where we looked leagues ahead of West Brom, which was excellent. Brilliant to see Maddison back in the mix too. Of all, I thought Tielemans was absolutely outstanding and controlled the every aspect of that midfield. So happy for him.

We've shown over the years that we have the capability of transforming players. A state of the art facility will secure that for years to come and most fans would be absolutely delighted at the prospect of long-term progress with the resources we'll have at our disposal when it's complete. Spending loads doesn't guarantee success. It hasn't for us and certainly hasn't for a lot of other clubs. When you look at the business that teams like Everton and West Ham completed - all on paper decent signings, albeit with massive fees. Neither have performed at all anywhere near the levels that we do. Important to remember that logic rather than impulsiveness should dictate our actions.

With attacking full-backs being so important to the way we play this seems like sensible business. It's important to remember that Ricky will be coming back from quite a severe injury, so I don't expect him to hit his heights again until around December. Having someone who can offer a threat going forward, remain defensively solid and play on both sides will be a huge addition to our squad.

You'd have thought the pandemic would provide at least a little perspective, even from a football standpoint. King Power isn't solely reliant on tourism and to use such simplistic formulae to assume that because tourism is down then we'll have no money for players is daft. Since the last real balls-up in the transfer market (following our title win), finding value in the market has been our objective. Yes, we sold Chilwell for around £45 million. Tagliafico has been slapped with a £40 million price tag. If we sold a 23 year old England international with Premier League experience, only to replace him with a 27 year old who's played well for a couple of years in the Dutch league and only made £5 million in the process, we've not got good value at all. Baring in mind Ajax sold arguably their most talented player in Ziyech for £36 million - we aren't prepared to be cornered, which I think is absolutely a fair policy.

It was massively frustrating to see that he'd quite easily be bullied by more aggressive attackers, particularly when a ball was whipped across from the other side.