OntarioFox

There's wanting to move, as Drinkwater did, then there's sitting in airports on deadline day and throwing a sulk / refusing to play when you don't get your move. I don't begrudge Drinkwater's move, as ill-considered as we thought it was and has proven to be, because I saw no visible reduction in his performances on the pitch when interest from Chelsea became apparent, but Mahrez genuinely cost our team points when he threw our developing game plan into the air by going AWOL in February 2018. He arguably and ultimately blew a hole in the genuine momentum that Puel had built around the squad at the time - by late January 2018 we were picking up results with "Puelball" and the team seemed to understand their role. We put in some monster performances at the turn of the new year - most notably that match away from Chelsea in which we matched them for possession, dominated in the first half and somehow left with a 0-0 draw thanks to Cortouis' heroics and Chilwell seeing red. Mahrez was a key part of that, free to be creative and bringing the rest of the team into a tactical set-up not dissimilar to the aggressive, high-press possession football Rodgers is now implementing to great success. He was also amongst the goals, bagging against Huddersfield and Watford, and clearly a focal point of the new style. That all went down the sh*tter starting with that 2-1 reverse at Everton, in which his sudden withdrawal clearly blew our gameplan out of the water at short notice, and continued long after he finally sulked back into the squad, ironically against Man City. We didn't win again until the 10th of March, and Puel's early momentum was completely shot. Hands up if anyone can remember him putting anything close to a shift in for us until he scored his free kick against Bournemouth, itself a lucky break given he had been ineffective once again that game? It's all well and good to blame Puel's lack of a plan B, but the reality is that he also lost his plan A the moment the teamsheet came out against the Toffees - and, a short purple patch around Christmas 2018 aside, the hit to his credibility as manager was ultimately terminal. Mahrez is a manchild and his antics from the moment Man City expressed their interest to him finally getting his dream move soured his legacy for a lot of fans, me included. Refusing to play and then putting in minimum effort when finally agreeing to for more than a month while your side's ambitions for the season and all goodwill towards the new manager from the fanbase disappear before your eyes in the ensuing chaos is unacceptable. I'm with @FIF. I wish I could pretend that everything that happened after 2017 never happened, but it did, and unless you couldn't guess from this long-winded response, I lay a lot of the blame for Puel's ultimate failure at Mahrez' door as he was chasing a functional system and a replacement for a Riyad-shaped hole from the day the strop happened.

Hot take - the only season in which Drinkwater was actually running our midfield was the promotion season (13-14) - and even then, it's debatable given that Matty James was also in the best form of his career. Andy King was still doing the business at the back end of 12-13 when he arrived and was Mr. Consistent. As with some of the others mentioned here, it was probably his best season for us in terms of his all-round game and defensive contribution. He had Cambiasso pulling the strings in 14-15. Kante was the engine in 15-16. On the contrary, our midfield was greatly diminished in 16-17, which was why I was so surprised that his big money move went through after that season. He'd already shown regression by that point without a grafter to tidy up and was more or less "found out". With all that said, a fit Drinkwater would probably thrive with a free playmaker role in this team with an in-form Ndidi doing the donkey work. That said, if we can get him, Tielemans is a better all-round player. I stand by my belief that he was always a bit of a luxury player and, with the exception of a few memorable performances (Watford in 13-14, a couple in the Champion's League that were probably the basis for Chelsea's bid) was maybe a bit over-rated.

Loved the subtle Morgan > Mustafi dig.

Safe to say we might not have won the league without his three massive goals in the 2015-16 season too. Especially his classic to sink the spuds.

Mahrez and Drinkwater really flying the flag for our title-winning team this past day or two. This is far from the first time I've seen Riyad slated in a Man City shirt.

As others have mentioned, we never sang that. It was the Vichai song and "Champions of England, You weren't even born". Huddersfield is always a good day out with decent folk, and the whole "stand up if you're going down" chant was a good craic which both fans had a laugh about. Good that he seems to have owned up to his mistake. Someone get the lad some eardrops before the next game. Edit - likewise, i should probably read the full thread before jumping the gun. We all have flaws.

Now we're actually playing with intent and properly mixing up our game, I'm going to raise my head above the parapet and say it - we're better off with Riyad gone. We had two weapons before Mahrez left - feeding through to Vardy off the last man, or dumping it out to Riyad on the right wing and hoping he did something special, whether that was one good cross in 20 or a curler into the top corner. Both nice when they came off, but beyond the league title season we'd been worked out and the consistency of pulling off either approach had dried up. Factor in Riyad's atrocious defensive contribution and I honestly don't miss him. We struggled to adapt to losing him as a creative outlet, especially with the tentative approach of Puelball, but Rodgers has already shown in 5 games that this team is capable of a far more varied style of play that plays to individual qualities we probably undermined by placing too much focus on Mahrez. If we continue to play in the way we do, constantly switiching up how we attack and bringing the whole team into our attacking moves, the future is bright. We had become too predictable. You can't say that about us any more, and the likes of Vardy, Maddison, Ricardo and Barnes are all thriving off of it. Vardy deserves a special mention, because while Rodgers himself has alluded to the simple tactical change leading to his current purple patch being to "feed him earlier", the reality is that he is in and amongst our wider attacking style, as shown by his open play goal at the weekend - sneaking in at the back post isn't his game and never really has been, but he was there to tap in when in recent times that peach of a cross would have just sailed straight out of play. Another one to show his under-rated football intelligence and ability to play well in a team system not totally built around him. Oh, and fun fact to round up with - Maddison has already scored as many free kicks for Leicester (3) in less than a full season than Riyad did in his whole 4 year career for us. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall any more than that number in his time with us. So while I still want to thump Madders every time he fails to clear the first man at a corner, we objectively have someone better at set pieces than Riyad ever was, despite that being held up as one of his supposed strengths. So yeah, thanks for the (good) memories Riyad, but after a brief hangover it's safe to say that we no longer need you.

Fair play to Spurs - that end looks great and seemed to generate a decent atmosphere. Definitely the way forward - get 'em in L1 ASAP.

Get stuffed, Ashley Young.

It just dawned on me that we'll leapfrog Wolves if Man Utd. win by two clear goals. I feel dirty saying this, but come on you Reds.

No Huth, no Was. Next.

The mere concept of having Alderweireld and Vertonghen ahead of title season Wes and Huth is so ridiculous that there is only one thing I can possibly post in response:

FTFY, and to answer your point... ...because they're salty that it threw under the bus any preconceptions that the top 4 (as it was, now suddenly the "top 6") are a closed shop. The only "small" teams i've seen express any salt about our title win are: Forest (because it diminished their 40-year old acheivements and finally drew a line under any misguided claims they had about being the "biggest team" in the East Mids) Aston Villa (see above, albeit not as pronounced. Think the 3-2 reversal in the winning season and them sinking without a trace also had something to do with it). Burnley (because they've had a chip on their shoulder about us since Dyche's laughable comments in 2013-14 about "pound notes" and us only being top because we won a hatful of penalties while they got none... an obsession that evidently continues based on Saturday's result! ) Coventry (again, overshadows their FA Cup win and final proof that we've long since left behind the rivalry of the "M69 derby" leaving them less relevant than ever - though I do genuinely feel bad for their current situation with the Ricoh). Honestly not had any fans of any other team outside the top 6 express any sort of dislike or back-handed compliment about our achievement. PLENTY of it from Liverpool and Spurs fans though as a combination of both being "top 6 clubs" and being starved of actual success in recent years, plus a weird microscope from Man City fans on us sacking Ranieri every time we play them despite them doing the same thing to Mancini. The reality is that us winning the league rattled the preconception that nobody outside of a small cabal of teams (which it has emerged work with each other and vote as a bloc on league matters to preserve the existence of said cabal) can challenge for the title and Champions League football, let alone win either. They hate that, even with the decks stacked in their favour, we proved that it's ultimately just two groups of 11 blokes kicking a ball around and anyone can succeed with the right mentality and the right tactics. And ultimately, the only fans that resent that are either the ones in the so-called "closed shop" we proved is anything but, those who either live off past glories which have been diminished by our success, or those who had personal beef with us on our journey to success. Let 'em moan. Every other fan in the country loved what we did and gained new hope that the "top six" is a myth anyone can break with the right approach.

I almost feel like he should have given that to the Forest bloke to remind them what it actually feels like to win something.

I guess the poll is kind of old now, but the amount of love for Soar Point baffles me. I guess it's in a convenient-ish location, but it's well in need of a refurb and the price of beer in there is borderline offensive, just like the rest of the ex-Scream pubs.

This new slider thing isn't great on mobile, didn't realise I'd accidentally given Mendy a 10 until I'd clicked submit

Well on their way to bottling what they now assume to be their god-given right of a top-four finish though.