Chelmofox

He 19. No matter what his skills he needs to develop.

You get a signal at the KP? Yeah right!

Everything considered (last season shambles, last years defence, relegation, the shambolic preseason, losing our 2 main goal contributors in Madders and Barnes) measuring us on how many times we've scored 3 goals at home is some humongous goal post moving. But saying that, i am still expecting us to rip a few teams apart at some point. One of these days 3 or 4 of those good chances will find their way in and we will find ourselves 5-0 up. But i'm not upset it hasn't happened yet.

Yeah - but they are getting it 'up there'. This is another team that's become reliant on Maddison (they will also notice that he's not great when he comes back from injury). They are away to Man City next. They will quickly slip back to 6th-8th.

I'm really struggling with the negativity. I suppose it helps they I quite like the dominating football. I like to think i can see it for what it is, which is a work in progress. But it's a work in progress that has given us a huge head start in objective of getting promoted. I think because we have done well, a lot of goalposts have been moved. Now i'm largely hearing we are terrible because we haven't teared enough teams to pieces, or that we have only scored more than 3 goals in a game x times which simply isn't good enough. The latest comparisons between Enzo and Rodgers have really annoyed me too. Enzo has had to take a dysfunctional relegated shambles (left over by the turgid one), and completely reset their mentality. He's done this whilst losing the best players, and with a stupid preseason. To top it off, Enzo actually comes across as a top bloke. To think the unrequited love that Mr Media got when he was literally belittling the club and its owners, makes me genuinely sad. I don't think Enzo has the squad he wants, by some considerable margin. He also has a lot of young prospects not quite ready yet. He's not moaning about 'qualiteeee' or 'intesiteee', he's getting on with it and getting the best out of who he has. Shocks me that people are so quickly willing to call him 'poundland pep' or 'fraud'.

The 2nd half started with an immediate goal scoring chance! We turned it up pretty quickly when Vardy came on.

We've conceded 10 goals in 17 league games. I think after 17 games last season it was about 30 goals conceded. No one in any other English league comes close to this. Amazes me most of our fans don't see the positives in this following what happened last season. But, we have the 2nd highest goals scored in the Championship, so it's not as if we have achieved this parking the bus.

Not sure i agree. Pep has been a Man City for about 7 years ( i think ! ) and Enzo has been here for 17 games. Pep has had more than a little time, many transfer windows, and a few billion quid to work out how to progress them without messing up the overall formula, and his goals are very very different to Enzo's right now. For years, the noose hanging around Peps neck was the Champions League, which when you consider the riches (and the blatant disregard for FFP) at his disposal took a long time to achieve. Pep has had plenty of peril to warrant tinkering / experimenting. And even then, in the first half of seasons Man City can look over coached, slow and ponderous. They often come to life in the 2nd half of seasons. I remember last season them beating us (relegation fodder) 1-0 at the KP and it took a KDB worldie to do it. And we hit the bar towards the end. They didn't blow us away that day, and there have been many performances where they've not split through everyone's defence. Enzo's goal right now is promotion. That's on track. Its more on track than any other team in the division. When the wheels fell off with Brendan it started with the stats, but that's not the case right now. We have conceded 10 goals in the league this season after 17 games. No other team in any division comes close to that. I would like to think that with some transfer activity and unleashing some talent at our disposal, we address the current issue where we struggle to take chances. Last few seasons we have overperformance in that regard due to Barnes and Madders. We on the first phase of a rebuild journey. Wish people would enjoy it a little more.....

Early goal would be nice. For us of course.

Bear in mind that Daka isn't going to get a proper look in and has to be off in January, Cannon is a kid who has just returned from a back injury, and Vardy will be 37 years old in January. Madivadua isn't a potential number 9 replacement. Being hooked off at 55 minutes sends a HUGE message to him in my opinion. Especially as the goals came from his replacement (and that replacement skied 2 premium chances over the bar). I think right now Nacho is being used out of necessity, and no more. Enzo has probably worked out the guy can't be coached but can operate that holding style role (with significant deficiencies) when needed. He was used yesterday to play first half chess ball, and presume he expected little else from him. Think the plan yesterday was for Vardy and Fatawu to create havok. It worked. This club now needs a life beyond Nacho. Its all a got a bit silly with all the what he needs on a plate (a strike partner, a run of game, a bit of confidence) to put in an acceptable performance. Its clear he isn't the key to promotion, which many thought he would be. Its time in January to start thinking what life with Canon, and Daka's replacement might look like.

This is exactly the sort of match he should be starting. Do you expect SW to press him anywhere near as much as Leeds did? The kid has got to be able to learn somehow and won't come out the other side any better if he dropped to the point he can't even play against the worst team in the league.

We have a manager who has the luxury of giving players time and not having to over buden them. Our previous manager would overplay his key favourites. He hasn't needed just to chuck cannon on to see what will happen. He can bring him in when he thinks the time is right.

This may seem like an odd reply but please hear me out. Even after 2 defeats, Enzo still hasn't been put in a position of real peril where making a gut or off the wall decision / change has been warranted, certainly as this stage in his LCFC management. He seems very level headed, and knows that there will be defeats. Look historically at this league to see that teams have had automatic promotion where 10 defeats in the season. I think this will be another one of those seasons and still see Leeds / Southampton dropping a lot more points along the way. He knows you can't win every game. So even against Leeds, we were also in that game to the end and a whisker away from a draw. Borough ended up as a smash and grab in the 2nd half - it needed a fantastic free kick to do us. But in both games, our buffer at the top of the league was so big Enzo probably felt that sticking to the system / process was the right choice when you consider his approach to this rebuild and how he want to coach and manage this squad. I agree that variety is the spice of life. I still think we will get that at some point. I hope it largely comes with some more creative players in the next window, and a player or 2 who can actually hit a free kick / corner sufficiently. Where it would get interesting with Enzo is if all of a sudden we were in a win at all costs scenario, which he hasn't been in yet. If things stay as they are this season, that probably won't happen until some FA cup games (presuming we want to compete in that). Maybe Leeds and Southampton will catch us up and start to put us in that situation, but even if we fall off a cliff that won't happen until Jan/Feb next year.

It's harsh to make that assessment based on watching one game this season. If you look around us, you see all main rivals dropping points this weekend (post international break silly season). The first half yesterday was chess ball and i think specifically done to control the situation to put us in the right position for the 2nd half. I struggle why anyone found that 2nd half boring. It really wasn't, and imho drab is a poor, poor description of it. It was frustrating as we didn't put away our chances. Another situation where if we were clinical we win this 4-0 or something and we are having a very different conversation right now. Taking the chances is the current issue. Yesterday we created a lot. This team is still in a huge transition and we are some hangers on (Kels, Praet, Daka, Ward et al), and a few quality players short of this being anywhere near to clicking into place. The manager didn't get everything he wanted in the summer window, hence why he went through his phase of putting 2 keepers on the bench. No one is saying this is the finished article. Right now, it simply has to be good enough to get us promoted. I've been to most home games this season, and i disagree with the Rodgers ball comparisons. In his last 2 seasons, Rodgers would have the defence pass sideways at the back as a means of fending off any pressure from the opposition. We aren't doing that, and i have never seen us do the persistent sideways stuff you used to see between Amartey and Evans. We are maining possession with intent, and thats not just regurgitating Enzo fan boys. Where the system currently struggles is when the opposition operate park the bus mode, which Watford did for huge amounts of the game yesterday. This is where is gets a bit similar to Rodgers, where instead of take risks we recycle and start again. Recycling possession is not a Rodgers idiom though, it is very much a feature of modern football.

I think there have been some decent atmospheres this season. Today wasn't one of them, and it felt a bit odd from the off. I don't know if there was nervousness in the air after the defeats but most people around me were waiting for something to spur them on rather than join in. Noticeable that our loudest chant (straight back up....) didn't make an appearance until we scored. Atmosphere was much better after the goal (obvs) but that when people started leaving too. Watford were pretty quiet too. Didn't hear much from them at all.

From my seat. Loved it.

Its a pointless argument at this stage. We are trying to to get out of this league and we have 2 windows and a lot of time and development before its a consideration. If promoted, anyone who doesn't think that first season back is going to be seriously hard needs their heads checked. That season will be about survival and if we do that we can build from there. I don't get all these arguments about total football etc. We beat a terrible team today, but a terrible team that had a relatively decent run of recent results. The stats that matter (points, goal difference, goal conceded) show us top of everything. We are 2nd in the table for goals scored, even though it looked today that we had a ridiculous number of chances.

That was the worst I have ever seen him. First touch was horrific and he does no pressing nor does he put any pressure on. Best move by far was at the end with Mavadidi, but that was it. Needs some time out.

Although, we are the 2nd highest scorers in the league. Agree about the striker bit.

Thought Hamza had a really good game. There was a lot of progressive passing in there and he was a real threat when pressing - possibly more than Winks. I thought Watford were terrible so its hard to gauge if he can do this role more often, but saying he offered little was way off the mark. I thought Mavadidi had an excellent second half. Won a lot of 1 on 1 battles and was a significant threat. One of the best games ive seen him have for us.

Absolutely brilliant. Thought he did a great job and I didn’t miss winks as much as I thought I would.

Off to the game! See you ******s on the other side. Straight back up Leicester City!

No, i never ever doubted Janniks' attitude. I remember when he came on in the latter stages of one of the Europa Conference games (was it against PSV?) where he made a block and did a huge fist pump. I felt Jannik always wanted to prove himself and even in pre season you could see a huge difference between him and Preats attitude. As always, i would love to be proven wrong. Would love another retribution, but like with Jannik, thats done on the pitch and not with promises.

I'm absolutely bang up for this. Can't wait. Hate the international break. Leeds yesterday have proven that no matter what anyones reputation is, every team is going to find it tough to win in this league. I think we've all been a bit 'woe is me' lately and need to get everything back on track. Positive today everyone!! Good win incoming......

Even if he offers 70% a Harry Winks he would have done a sterling job today. I read a huge amount of guff about Hamza, and people even wanted to blame him for the defeat against Borough which is madness. I'm sure he will do a job as well!