Lillehamring

Yeah, but i don't think leeds were that special, especially not at the back, we just struggled to take advantage. It was actually very similar to the hull game tonight - they score fortuitously, we hit the post but otherwise fail to test their keeper....

It felt to me kind of fated - leeds wanted it more and we were terrified of not breaking the record(s), especially with a great away support and a poor/nervous/complacent home support.

Can't remember the blackburn game, but both tonight and sunderland we were very sloppy in possession, i felt like a stuck record tonight screaming 'stop giving the ball away' at the screen. I think it's a team thing but it's no coincidence that we've dropped off since ndidi got injured.

Meh. Not that bothered about that, apart from some technical points of view (shooting, giving the ball away so much) - let's be honest this was a must win for Leeds, that still leaves them miles behind us. We didn't play well and the goal was a touch fortuitous, if that is leeds putting in their best performance then I'm not too concerned about them. Building up to the game I kind of expected this to be a loss - what with all the records there to be broken - i just expected us to be a bit more disciplined, and to be a bit more adventurous (which i feel we have failed to be in several games just lately), we showed last twenty minutes that Leeds weren't up to much defensively, but by then it was too late, if only we'd attacked them that way at 0-0. My faith in this team and enzo hasn't diminished but i'm beginning to sense a little complaisance creeping in.

Um, I'm just addressing a point made by another poster. I didn't think we were great, but we rested some players, scored a cracking goal and got three points so my weekend is perfectly in order, thanks. Expressing an opinion regarding what people probably hoped for compared to what actually happens isn't being on a downer it's just pondering a missed opportunity. CTFO.

I think the frustration is more that we really didn't look like we wanted to put a wounded beast to the sword - they came in with little to no confidence and with two makeshift CBs and yet we seemed content to just do the usual 'patient' routine - and they weren't even sitting that deep. I'd just have liked to see us taking a few more risks and testing their bottle, instead we kind of just killed time and allowed them into the game. Yes, we got the 3 points, but we made it much harder for ourselves than it realistically should have been.

From what i saw of leeds against stoke, i don't think we'll be facing anything we haven't already seen at this level. Besides, we're almost certainly going to raise our game - that's what seems the most intriguing thing about us under maresca - knowing exactly how hard we need to work.

Not sure if it's been mentioned elsewhere, but i'm struck hardest by the fact they had 2 makeshift CBs, and Vardy has had 11 touches of the ball. I get there's a time for patience, even negativity, but surely today was the time to press hard.

And yet they were probably our best players in that half. Albeit that's a very low bar.

Well, assuming hamza inverts, that would leave Coady in the middle. Having said that, given the opposition, it may well be the case that we effectively play 2-3-5 with both Hamza and Justin along side winks - playing as a sort of 'W' shape

No idea. A straight red? Contact with a ref, sure - but clapping a poor decision, can't see it happening.

I don't think mocking the ref is or ever has been a red card offence....

Interesting game tonight (vs sunderland). I posted this (i've refined it a little) in the post-match thread but feel it's something worth considering when we look at the way we played: It's worth noting that we've only scored 7 of our 27 goals in the first half hour, and conceded 5 of our 7 - so this was the first game where we've had to defend a lead from such an early point, against a team that actually wanted to try and score (Neither Rotherham nor Stoke actively went looking for an equaliser) - so it's fair to say that we're still getting used to this type of match situation. Personally, although we were really sloppy in possession at times, which didn't help matters, i thought we actually dealt with the situation really well - winks and KDH led the team in tackles (5 and 4) respectively,) a total of 12 players registered at least 1 tackle; 7 players registered at least 1 clearance, and our use of strategic fouling was a masterclass (apart from Faes in the penalty area...). It felt like the instruction was not necessarily to press (though, there were times when we did) but to allow them to come on to us, to force them to find a way through us. And even though they threw everything at us, we dealt with it without it ever looking like they'd break us down. My frustration is that when we play these teams that we expect will attack us, we seem to play nacho - tonight was set up for vardy or daka, as there was acres of space to counter into, which is perhaps why the route 1 option wasn't brilliantly successful.

It's worth noting that we've only scored 7 of our 27 goals in the first half hour, and conceded 5 of our 7 - so, we haven't really been in many games where we've had to defend leads from such an early point, especially against a team that actually wanted to try and score (compared to stoke for example) - so it's fair to say that we're still getting used to certain match situations. Personally, though i thought we were really sloppy in possession at times, i thought we dealt with the situation really well - winks and KDH led the team in tackles (5 and 4) respectively,) a total of 12 players registered at least 1 tackle; 7 players registered at least 1 clearance, and our use of strategic fouling was a masterclass (apart from Faes in the penalty area...) They threw everything at us and we dealt with it without it ever looking like they'd break us down. My frustration is that when we play these teams that we expect will attack us, we seem to play nacho - tonight was set up for vardy or daka, as there was acres of space to counter into, which is perhaps why the route 1 option wasn't brilliantly successful.

For us? We had 8 shots, just one was off target, and the keeper got himself a highlight reel for the four saves he made - i don't think we can criticise the finishing tonight.

First one it just sat a bit behind him, second one was a fabulous save (admittedly at just the right height).

Like, for example - "ask a silly question, get a silly answer"?

But they don't. Which is why they're a slightly above average side, and nothing more. Three of their 6 wins were against the bottom 3, they caught southampton when they were leaking goals, blackburn as they embarked on 4 straight loses and a watford team that had just lost two games. They're built to punish poor teams, but lack the quality to break down a defence like ours. We gave away a lot of sloppy possession that played into their hands and, along with a lot of buzz and energy, it made them look like a hungry, pacey team, but really they were lacking any players that knew what to do with the ball or without the technique to test our keeper..

Because they've only scored one goal, against probably the worst team we've played all season. And defensively, they are poor - we saw tonight that their keeper is too good for this league - but they can't rely on him every week

Not sure i'm fully getting the sunderland love-in. Yes they worked hard and yes they moved the ball well on the transition, but final third they had nothing - i'd say they were similar to Cov. Despite what they did create and the amount of the ball they had (and 13 shots isn't the most we've allowed this season), i felt that, at the weekend, swansea seemed much more likely to score. Tonight, i just never felt for a minute that we were going to concede.... Anyway, I thought we played decent enough tonight and but for their keeper the game might have been over long before it got scrappy and a bit frantic towards the end. Nice to see Casadei grow into the game. Biggest concern was how sloppy we were on the ball at times, especially second half - a few players dropping under 80% passing, and a shocking 59% for Mads. For me, Nacho just isn't right in this system, and worse, tonight, his work rate seemed really poor. Horrible refereeing - I was terrified, last 20 minutes, that he'd 2nd yellow vestergaard for time wasting on those goal kicks.

yes he did, and i was so pleased to hear it as i'd noticed that both of them were prone to letting the ball go under their feet, but today they were like mahrez-control.

He said in an interview that he would prefer to work on a project for three years - hopefully he'll want to see it out with us. If we go up, there aren't very many jobs that are likely to tease him into starting over rather than seeing what he can do with his 'project' at the top level.

I noticed in the 2nd half today (swansea) that he was making loads of great runs from the middle into the #8 channel - annoyingly vestergaard didn't react to any of them.

Possibly also due to the following: that Mavididi has had much more regular football than any one player on the right, that KDH is far more attacking than Ndidi and that Doyle started the season playing quite an advanced supporting role?

QPR should have beat them by 3 or 4, they had so many good chances.