Chelmofox

And anyone who didn't think Fatawu was suberb in the first half needs their eyes checked. And the 2 central defenders had good games too.

I've thought about this long and hard since last night. I think we should be looking to extend his contract. It's still something i can't get my head around, but this guy has transformed both his game and ours since the start of the season. Coady's injury is actually one of the best things that happened to us pre season. We were told that the Leeds front 4 are the paciest threat in the league, and the closest threat we will see to a PL front 4. IMO, Vestergaard didn't looked hugely troubled by the pace threat. I think at times he sat a little deeper but he dealt with a tough game admirably. He didn't feel like a compromise yesterday, and other than defending well still had good distribution, especially that ball to Fatawu in the first half. Go ahead - mock me. But i think we can do much worse than this.

Agree with that. Didn't have a good game and didn't look like it was a player who could progress to the PL easily. Interesting to see how Canon progresses when he is fit, which is hopefully very soon.

Vardy played better than Kel. But that isn't really saying much and both should be disappointed with how they played. I think the reality is in this sort of game neither are going to shine. interested to see how Canon develops.

That Jimmy Saville chant

I don't understand the issue. The system works. IMO we play Leeds in a best of 3 and we win one 1-0 and the other is a draw. Leeds contained us really well but we still created chances, just not enough, but we weren't on the receiving end of a battering. We also have options in Akgun, Mcateer Doyle, and Ndidi which either weren't available yesterday or weren't fully fit, and Fatawu is only going to get better. There was nothing about yesterday that screams to me we need to rip up the system. Our team lacks playmaker quality in midfield, and we should definitely be thinking about this in the Jan window. I don't think Casadei is going to be the long term solution, so we might need to be thinking about a longer term replacement bearing in mind Ndidi will be off end of the season. Being punchy, i think this side goes to Leeds away and beats them as they are now. Fine margins etc.

Sorry - nonsense. Leeds (reportedly) have the paciest and most effective front 4 in the league. Faes and Vestergaard both defended well against a good attacking team. For me anyway, Vestergaard didn't look exposed or hugely off the pace. Attackers are always going to get chances - i don't think they were bullied at all. Did you notice Fatawu's chance came from a long ball from Vestergaard?

Some people on here love a defeat Not sure many post match threads have hit 19 pages so quickly! Thought Leeds were really good the first 15-20 minutes. Pressed effectively and had bags of energy. I felt we came into our own about 1/2 through the first half and largely took control of things. Fatawu's shot that hit the bar was immense - it deserved to go in. Fair play to Leeds for edging it in the 2nd half - i think the game deserved a draw but you are going to lose games in the Championship so im not going to lose my shit with a 1-0 defeat to Leeds. This is about as tough as it's going to get all season. They are a decent side but its not like they smashed us. I thought we defended well and Winks and Ricardo in particular were brilliant. Our Strikers really struggled, with Vardy in particular playing very deep. Leeds did defend well and countered fast and i think part of us not 'giving it a go' was containing the counter attack. We very nearly equalised at the end - very fine Margins. I too thought Cassadei was poor, but this is a tough game for a kid learning his trade. This was a game for Wilf but even he would have been pressed relentlessly and I think would have lost possession alot. Actually thought Hamza looked decent in the role - but he's wiser and more experienced. In games like this (and i felt this against Hull), i feel we are missing a creative playmaker. When we can't break though, the system feel overly rigid. But again, you can't say Leeds were hammering us, so the system contained them and we still created chances. But a playmaker will add that little bit extra and provide more quality in set pieces. Its where we really miss a Maddison type player (yes - i know Maddisons don't grow on trees!). Personally think this is where we need to be investing in January. I still back Enzo to push the team on from here. The Hull defeat seemed to inspire everyone more and I expect the same here. Sometimes realising that you don't just turn up to win is a good thing.

Come on. Let’s do these! Surprised Vardy starts but suppose it’s been a while since the last game.

I'm confused to what people are referring to as AI these days. For me, there has always been a difference between 'machine learning' and 'artificial intelligence'. Generative AI is interesting because a lot of people seem to assume its AI. Its certainly part of the overall discipline but in reality Gen AI is a subset of machine learning. Everything it can do is based on whats its been trained on. The hugely impressive part is the ability to write or express very well. But its not free thinking nor can it create outside the boundaries of what its been trained on. The information on the internet is its limiting factor (for Gen AI use cases, its not a bad limiting factor!). Gen AI is a threat to jobs where the tool can take simple information and a good prompt and output lots of useful information that would take people a lots of time (we work in online ads - it's great a generate lots of campaign content etc). But it can't create things that haven't created yet (well it can, but its answers will always be based on what it knows). Innovation is very difficult for Gen AI. So for now, it won't replace all jobs. Its interesting that there are clear signals for things created by ChatGPT. Lots of the content ends up reading the same after a while. What i consider genuine AI (free thinking machines that can innovate, and make genuine decisions based on parameters it may not understand before the decision needs to be made) is most definitely a threat to mankind. What would true AI decide was the right course of action of the Israel/Palestine conflict? I'm sure Musk will tell you he is 6 months away from delivering this sort of machine. But that is very different to getting Chat GPT to write you a poem about Vardy. If i've not lost you yet, one last interesting point about Gen AI like ChatGPT. There is the concept of 'inbreading'. If its trained on content that was created from GenAI, newer models actually become dumber. For GenAI to continue to flourish, it needs human creativity and innovation to train from.

Wouldn't bank on getting much time with them tonight. Big game, and they will want to get in as quick as possible. If you are at the front then you might get lucky but if there are quite a lot of people about you might be disappointed. After games on a Saturday there are always a few of them who are willing to spend quite some time walking around. Good luck if you go for it.

Mentions 'progressive' and 'front foot' a few times. I imagine they are fed up being in the building phase of the project and think someone else can make an immediate impact. Fair play to them if it works out. Still maintain Bristol City were one of the worst sides i saw at the KP this season. Woeful.

Its grey because there is the argument that the player is also representing their employer on SM. Like it or not - a huge amount of their posts are linked to training and match days. Football clubs are very social oriented, so the link is very apparent. We are living in an era where political figures are fired for calling for cease fires in this conflict. Many are ready to jump down someones throat reading any meaning they want into someones posts. Hamza obviously (and rightly so) feels passionate about the people and im not learned enough to understand the implications of one of his posts. I presume he probably doesn't understand either. Probably best he keeps off SM for the time being and co-operates with that club who will hopefully come to the conclusion that Hamza is completely harmless in the grand scheme of what is going on.

1 - It's going to be a monumental drop in form to miss out on automatic promotion. I think we are in such a position that the club need to be planning as if we are, and i don't think its a terrible thing to hypothesise what we might need next season to not replicate the current PL bottom 3. Although, there is nothing to say that Burnley don't sort themselves out and go on a nice little run and Forest nose dive (we can hope). 2 - Thats part of the fun in working out what will happen. Will be able to resign Wilf / Nacho? If not do we target replacements this coming window. Do we start targeting PL quality now in preparation for next season or do we wait? Will we lose a prized asset (KDH?). 3 - Not an issue. Very likely the bottom 4 will feature heavily in it. Whoever is relegated, we need to perform better than them next season. 4 - Not an issue. Although Its highly likely we will be one of them. 5 - Whatever, we will be completing with them for the cost effective resources. Are the likes of Brighton and Villa now buying a different caliber of player to us? Who will be our biggest competition in the transfer market? 6 - Same as 5.

Next season is going to be a slog (assuming we go up of course!). We are very likely to lose Nacho, Ndidi and Vesty as their deals expire. From a rumour i heard I strongly doubt we will be signing Casadei, although i think there is a chance we could get Doyle. There will be huge question marks over Vardy, and we haven't yet seen Cannon in action so we could go into the summer window without an established striker if Vardy retires (and even if he doesn't - im not convinced we rely on him for the 24/25 season). Say what you want about Vesty's PL credentials, but he is currently the spine of our defence and style. For that to disappear is going to be tough. I'm not convinced about Coady, and Faes will have to rebuild his reputation in the PL. Is Hamza cut out for the PL in Enzo's style? Can we rely on Riccy P for an entire PL campaign? So we already look like we are in a weaker position before the season starts. Fatawu looks an amazing talent but he will find the quality of PL defending a huge learning curve. He will need to be given time. Mavididi is unproven at that level too. Recruitment will obviously be key, but i think it could be fundamental enough to feel like another rebuild, and we are in danger of playing in a pool of more expensive options, so will our budgets stretch to get enough quality. Get off to a slow start, and things could get panicky again. I have a horrible feeling the 'get it forward' brigade will have a field day quite early on. I think we could stay up, but next season would require a lot of patience and goodwill. Hate to say it, but this was the season to have stayed in the PL as the current bottom 4 are horrible. I can't see the standard being as bad next season. I'm just going to take the opportunity to enjoy this season for the time being

My immediate non 'in the know' thought was that we might be managing his number of appearances. But i've just made that up, so it's complete nonsense.

See my post above - the title wasn't on the line. The commentators kept emphasising it wasn't an exhibition match, but i don't really know what it was ?

So, what was the point of all that exactly? I hadn't paid much attention to it but as i was jetlagged i thought i would give it a watch. I agree that Ngannou gave a really good account of himself, but with nothing on the line the whole thing fizzled out in the second half of the fight. I agree that the result wasn't as controversial as made out, but it was a horrible performance from Fury. The last 2 rounds it felt like barely anything got thrown by either boxer. I think Fury was likely aware that unless something silly happened he was getting the decision as he never panicked and as Ngannou tired, with nothing really on the line he had nothing to go 'all in' for and going to points made sense. It's silly to promote a spectacle like this with nothing on the line - it just felt pointless. Atmosphere in these Saudi fights comes across so flat. RIdiculous build up and I suppose by the time the fight starts everyone is jaded.

You think people want to see all this guff? Up its own arse doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Did you forget to do this the morning of the Hull game?

First game for me since Stoke. I'm expecting us to drop points at some stage. Think this will end up a draw but hope its a good game.

Why is he Doooosberry-hall all of a sudden?

Why would they sign it?

As someone said previously, if you rest players in fear of a suspension, you are effectively suspending them for games. 3 points here is as important as 3 points against Leeds.

Who will you be supporting?