LCFCJohn

True. And worth noting, this Euros in a few years that will be the UK and Ireland hosting, presumably all 5 home nations will be in automatically as hosts so it’s a chance to play in a home tournament as well.

To be fair, who thought Ndidi would fit this system and be good enough on the ball and he’s a key player. Choudhury was ruled out by many as not even being worth a place in the squad due to not being good enough on the ball but is becoming an important rotational option for Enzo. The main issue with VK is that if he does rejoin us next summer, he’s a year behind in terms of adopting the way of playing. But at the same time, won’t be viewed a ls a new player by fans and afforded the same understanding a new signing might whilst getting up to speed. It feels like he has made his decision and he will be better off moving on permanently. But had he stayed, I’m sure he’d have been good enough based on what we have seen Enzo achieve with others in a short time.

It will be worrying if so. It is clearer and clearer by the week that how things are going this season is down to the manager, his back room team and playing squad. I have no idea who made the call to bring him in but given their incompetence, you can’t l seriously see it as pre-planned solid judgement. More likely a case of ‘let’s copy Man City’ and they have fallen lucky that Enzo is a class act (man and manager). It also shows Rodgers up more and more for what he was and makes any claims he would have kept us up less and less credible. Top and Rudkin still should be hanging their heads in shame and not dining off the success of others this season.

Russell Martin….me me me, look at me and how wonderful I am. Enzo Maresca …….🏆🥇

I don’t necessarily feel that because we are so much more dominant than Leeds and Southampton, that it means it would be our 11 and case closed. But that’s a shocking team with Leeds bias. I would say the left side of defence is weak for us so no issues there. But as you say, other than that, our GK, defence and middle of midfield are out in front. Our wingers/wide forwards haven’t been bad but Leeds do have some that would get into our side on talent, style and attitude depending (I say attitude as they had some real issues with that before the window shut). Out and out striker wise, Vardy, Piroe, Armstrong would all be fantastic options in this league.

No Winks No Hermansen Winks, KDH and Ndidi are all better than Ampadu. Faes and Vestergaard both better than the Leeds player they have in that position. Striker wise, fair enough, Piroe and Vardy are hard to beat but Armstrong is unlucky there.

I wonder if anyone who is into their history/religion who doesn’t have entrenched views either way can summarise the history or the geographical area now Israel. Clearly this long running conflict is a result of two groups feeling that the area is rightfully theirs. The recent history (since the creation of the modern state of Israel) is clear in the last century. Some of what you read suggests Jewish communities simply took over the area from Islam/Arabs (?) groups but my knowledge would be that the area incorporating areas such at Jerusalem and Bethlehem are historically linked to Jews back as far as the time of the bible thousands of years ago. It also seems that attempts to split the state were rejected by the Palestinian side in the last century. I come from a neutral viewpoint seeing both sides at committing atrocities. I don’t think Hamas reflect the Palestinian people or the Israeli government reflect the people of their country. I just find I’m not getting my head around the history of it all in the same way as the Russia/Ukraine/Soviet Union stuff! N.b or I just can’t be bothered reading loads of historical stuff due to currently having covid brain!

That appointment is an absolute disaster waiting to happen

I’m fairness, although I’m not too familiar with Scamacca or how Atalanta play (and how he is used in their system), if he is a player who would be suited to our system (as is mentioned in the post you have quoted), I wouldn’t be too concerned that it didn’t work for him at West Ham. As well as factoring that sometimes it just works or doesn’t for certain players at certain clubs, West Ham’s style is very far away from ours. They basically have a big man lump up front like Antonio.

I’m sure it’s probably been mentioned across the forum somewhere since relegation but I hadn’t realised we are currently tied with Man City on 7 for the most section tier titles. If we can go on and win the league, will be the outright leader in that respect.

Only partly tongue in cheek but we don’t play them until 16th December so if he is appointment imminently as expected, don’t bank on him still being in the job by then!

Really hope they crash into L1. As I did when they did that to Rowett but they circled the drain for a bit and avoided it. Annoys me even more that these decisions never get any publicity whereas when we have made changes, we get a media storm. I suppose that’s the difference between being relevant and irrelevant!

A number of years ago, they got rid of Gary Rowett when they were around the playoffs. Just looked who for and it was Gianfranco Zola who lasted 4 months and they were flirting with relegation for a while thereafter. Lets hope this backfired too and they finally get flushed to L1!

I hope Wolves actually stay up and Bournemouth go down for this reason. He did an excellent job there last season. It’s not like when we get a pat on the head and told we shouldn’t have sacked Ranieri or Rodgers as we were in free fall. What Bournemouth did was more akin to us sacking Pearson after the great escape for footballing reasons (not the issue with his son). An ideal 3 for relegation would be Forest, Everton and Bournemouth for me (of all the realistic or semi realistic options).

Sorry, wasn’t a personal dig by the way! I agree with all you say here. I do agree that the more I see, the outcome looks like it will be as you say, barring unexpected events. I (and many other posters) are naturally more cautious of the fact unexpected events can happen at any time! It is refreshing to see things going right after the past years. I just personally am looking game by game and not wanting to put expectations on certain points totals at certain times etc. As long as we are all enjoying it as we see fit anyway!

Why can’t you just enjoy the games and the wins without having to reiterate this message 100 times every day? Whether it ends up being true or not, it is arrogant. It also just comes across as being very insecure

I remember early in pre-season, well probably when Maresca was appointed given the Man City link, that I find Man City boring and unwatchable. I did caveat it with saying I only really have watched them against us. I recall being told by some of the more pompous lot on here that I don’t know football etc etc. But I think you cover what I meant at the start of your post. When it is your team playing that way as the dominant force, it is enjoyable. When you are supporting the opponent, it really isn’t!

Sensible words spoken. It is not possible to sustain (for us and Ipswich) relentless form to the extent we are doing. At some point we will go a few games without winning (draws in there of course). Im happy just enjoying each win and seeing the points total rise and rise. Let just get so many points on the board that it doesn’t matter if we have a run of games where our form drops a bit. 10 points ahead of 3rd after just 11 games is stunning, it really is. Maybe I’m just scarred from us chucking away a 14 point lead to drop out of the top 4 a few years back or the season before promotion when we were top and went on a run that saw us nearly miss the playoffs!

In fairness, the top 3 including Preston, had pulled away a bit until last week. They are now within one result of dropping down to 10th place given their goal difference. Just had the gap closed now.

Bad incident for Chris Basham in the Sheff Utd game….just seen it and it look like his foot is actually detached from his ankle/leg 🤢 (I’m sure not actually detached but awful one)

It’s an interesting one and ultimately our squad do need to see the job through to be considered though it looks good right now. I guess it depends on the measure. Reading hold the record, Wolves were rated highly but didn’t even make 100 points but did do well in the Premier League (did they finish 7th in their first two years?). Newcastle had a couple of stints with big names for the level but hardly covered themselves in glory when they were promoted both times. But then looking beyond the first year back up, I’d say our 2013/14 team is currently the best. 102 points, not quite the record but nearly. But in season 2 back up to do what we did. Yes there were additions, notably Kante, but the core of the side had come up with us. It will be interesting to see what the ceiling is for this squad anyway.

8.5/10 Results 10/10 as you can’t win every game. Performances 7/10. Still some to go, last night was very forgettable for an hour and we have huffed and puffed at home. So 8.5 as a mid point between the two.

Strange view. Many top players come from the lower leagues. It depends on the players ability and ceiling not whether they have been in the Championship or not…