shen

I have to say I agree. If sitting with crossed arms looking smug at the home crowd is 'incendiary' and results in a caution then the spectators have far worse problems and complete lack of self-awareness. KDH's goal celebration was arguably worse. Fatawu jumped over the fence with Mavididi and joined in too. Watkins was far worse, against his former team no less, did he get a booking? Vardy habitually provokes the opposition. If Mavididi only got it for climbing on the hoardings, then Fatawu should have had one too. If it was for unsportsmanlike behaviour then KDH and Watkins should have had one too. Watkins was defended by clubs and media, Mavididi got pelters by pundits, journos and his own manager. I don't really understand where the consistency is here. And where do you draw the line? Fair enough of you make obscene, demeaning/racist or political gestures etc, but Mavididi did no worse than what Thierry Henry would do.

He was never 'forced' to use him though, was he? Souttar, Doyle, Faes, Justin (even Kristiansen) were all still available in his position when Coady got injured. To me its obvious Vestergaard's profile was apparent to Enzo after a few training sessions.

I'd wait a bit before concluding this.

It's somewhat similar to Ranieri's tenure. Few regret our decision to sack him 6 months after the title win. Difference between then and Rodgers is of course Vichai... he probably had that ruthlessness to make these decisions swiftly.

We're literally making points records as we go along and apart from maybe Leeds and Coventry, I don't even feel we've deserved to lose a single game. Would you not have taken that after the way last season ended? I'd much much rather have us play this way (which is incidentally proving very efficient in restricting the opposition in scoring), than us being defensive or gungho. Of course we're vulnerable but notice how rarely the opposition can actually exploit this.

Funny how redemption arcs never fully convince the fanbase though. Half the posts since yours are about the vindication of Rodgers' choice, him not being 'good enough' for the PL (which is ironic given that the two sides he's played for in the PL have been relegated without him having any or a negligible part in that) or him exploiting the club (a bizarre take in my opinion). We're not saying Ricardo, Justin or Faes aren't PL standard despite playing a substantial amount of games during last season. I had written him off too and didn't imagine for one second that a new manager would use him or that he wanted to stay. I'm glad it's worked out different this season and it's a more valuable story (and lesson maybe?) to the people watching on to see his approach reaping rewards. Well done to Jannik and the staff for turning it around (even if it took it's sweet time, hur hur hur).

Their first goal was very good. Great cross and header. Second was messy, but I always thought that if they would score it would be from a set piece. Ultimately, we look far less vulnerable from those than last season. KDH with the assist for the first and heavily involved for the third. He can keep having 'stinkers' if he contributes like that.

He's hardly featured and is still building up fitness. Let's wait a bit before we pass judgement, no?

Or Fatawu, give either of them some rest. Clearly our two best wide players and we need them fresh for this run of games.

I see what you're doing here

Honestly, I'm just relieved and joyous at what I am seeing. As well as the redemption after his poor spell after his serious injury. He went from one of our most loved and valuable players to unreliable and unwanted. So good to see him back at a high level and I hope he stays. If not, I will wish him a great move.

We've changed our shape mate, not just the tempo - the team look deliberately wider which has allowed Winks and Pereira space in the middle.

Wow, just wow. This team and manager are something else. What a turnaround. I cannot believe what I'm seeing from Ndidi this season. The skepticism of him in the mezzala role during pre-season to now being one of, if not our main creator.

I thought our build up play was quite decent. Problem is Daka is not on it and we're relying on Fatawu to create with Ndidi and Vestergaard trying for the eye of the needle pass. Mavididi and KDH not offering much while the 'system' means Faes and Coady are not supporting our wingers. Let Ricardo sit with Jannik and commit our wide defenders further forward to stretch them further.

Absolutely. He had a solid couple of games to start with and as soon as he went into the middle with DD he was incredible for the rest of the season. I was surprised it took the media and non-supporters that long to catch on to the fact just HOW good Kanté was.

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Who says anything of the sort? We've been relegated at the first time of asking since he left though. We clearly missed his presence which would have made a telling difference given how close it was in the end. Maybe it only took dropping Ward for Iversen sooner to save us from the drop. He's left, but I think he'll be back in some capacity in the future if we can and want to offer him a role.

None have gone on record saying things about the other person, have they? So 'common knowledge' is more like 'popular rumours', no?

I don't recall it being done in the public domain much. The Athletic reported that he wanted to have a 'new challenge', which, when reading his comments, I interpret as him wanting an ambitious project that was built around him. And his take on it is literally in the posted link - he's sad about leaving and he would have wanted to stay.

It's funny how so many object to being paid or rewarded based on past achievements. So many of us start our careers on low wages, often with a sensation of being underpaid. We're being taught to prove our worth in order to earn more, so in many respects we're not rewarded until we achieve something. It's the same with all our title winning players - we're still paying Vardy and Albrighton high wages, in great part due to their contribution to our previous successes. As for his 'general attitude', that seems completely unfounded. Smells more of personal dislike, which is entirely fair, but then just say that.

The win away at Barcelona also brings back memories of our win at Man City. They could just do it y'know!

Yup, to a point. I would argue that Kasper was still a very solid goalie at the time he left us. I would also argue that his influence and importance to the squad had a wider effect on team performances than Vardy at that point. Also, the revelation that we did not bring him back in January when he was ready to come back is baffling considering our performances and league position.

The way you're wording it suggests that all footballers are only, or mainly, in it for the money. It's ironic to pick on Kasper when his career trajectory obviously showed he sacrificed more lucrative deals in order to play regularly. It's also unfair to compare his earnings to your average Joe's. You have to compare it to what other teammates and colleagues are earning. Regardless of how grotesque footballers' wages have become. It's pretty clear from his comments that he needed to feel wanted. He clearly got the message from 'the club' (a wording which to me suggests it wasn't just BR, but likely one or more of Rudkin, Whelan and Top) that it didn't see him as the future. Ultimately we can only speculate what the true reasons were, but to suggest what you do above is way to simplistic and cynical. Again, it's all very speculative as to who earns how much. We must have been paying our top players quite well and Kasper had been among our very best players for most of his 11 years with us. It's also pretty clear that he was a very important character in the dressing room, which I've long said was the bigger loss to us than his on-pitch abilities. You don't replace leaders like that as easily - top clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd are all recent examples of how even they struggle to find characters like this coupled with great ability. Hot take: I would argue that losing Vardy would have been less damaging than losing Kasper.