Lillehamring

Our ambitions are to get promoted, and if we manage that, to stay up - just because we've finished in the top half of the prem recently doesn't mean that that is a realistic expectation for us now.

But already this season (plus a full season a watford) he has shown he is a far more composed player than he was when he last played for us. Give him a season here under maresca and alongside winks - who knows how good he might be.

I'm not randomly slating Justin, I'm specifically slating the people in that thread who believe Justin is probably our best player and a far superior footballer to Doyle.

Jesus! Don't post this in the James Justin thread - you'll be burnt for blasphemy!

But that wouldn't happen we'd probably just switch the ricardo role to the left and Faes would be the attacking CB, with Ricardo dropping into LB when we are defending - ie, exactly what we'll probably do if JJ comes in - the only question is would you prefer a back three of JJ/Vestergaard/Faes or Vestergaard/Coady/ Faes?

I think it's naive to assume that things can just be changed on an instant and that the club don't have a strategy. After the calamity of last season, the priority has to be the first team - there's no point overstretching the club by trying to change everything all at once. We've seen in the hiring of Maresca and most of the back room team that the club are beginning on a new path, it seems highly likely that Maresca would have made it a condition that the whole playing hierarchy needs to be rebuilt. But it's so early, it's hardly likely we'll see sweeping changes from top to bottom after just three months.

I think he says somewhere 'thanks to XXX for the ticket" - appears to be wearing a chelsea shirt and starts the video in wembley, i'd guess he's not a Leicester fan.

But we aren't Burnley. You've missed my point entirely.

I assume it was significant compared with the xG rank?

I noticed that and, not surprisingly, it was after Justin ignored the ocean of space in front of him - the lad still really doesn't have any confidence - I think this is what we'll miss most about Doyle - Doyle would have attacked that space.

I really enjoyed this vlog of the bristol game:

But based on that logic we 'clicked' vs southampton. If anything, by the standards of that game, this one was more a case of reverting back to the previous issues in the final third - so a 'big win' proves nothing. I think when the system becomes more natural, players will play more naturally and under those circumstances, decisions and execution will improve and we might see some regular 2s and 3s - but that doesn't mean we'll surpass the 4 goals we've scored against southampton. Even though i certainly hope we do.

Sure, but my point is that i don't believe they'll expect or even try to do that in one season. I think we'll see a few departing players replaced - say they all leave - it's fair to say that smithies won't be replaced, praet won't be replaced and albrighton won't be replaced - so that leaves nacho and vardy, who we'll need to replace, hamza and nelson, who should be fairly cheap to resign, and vestergaard - who is a bit of an enigma right now. So, that's, say, three players - we'd probably need to strengthen at the back - so, i'd say 4 or 5 players at most - at least for this year.

Not really - scoring three goals over 6000 minutes barely registers as a statistic. To use his goalscoring as an example of why he might be considered a better player than doyle, based on a goal every 2000 minutes is not much of a claim, and isn't really worth mentioning.

I know this is the James Justin love-in thread - but this simply isn't true. He's played 6172 minutes of football for us and scored 3 goals.

Yeah, I don't get the criticism of Doyle, he has the 4th highes xA in the team. He also leads the team in tackles per game (3.1, next highest is ricardo 2.3), has the second most interceptions pg in the team and the third most clearances pg. I think he's easily enzo's first choice at LCB.

I think some people are just clinging to the idea because, whilst happy we are winning, don't particularly like the way were playing and hope that one day we're suddenly scoring for fun and humiliating teams. Others, as i say, are probably just thinking about getting to a level where the system becomes natural and they start playing with freedom and a capacity to express themselves. Which I think will happen, but it won't be an 'hallelujah' moment, it'll be gradual - one player at a time - winks is there, mcateer, perhaps, ricci, more or less - for everyone else it still is a bit forced and unnatural.

I think by next season, if we lose all the players out of contract, we should have plenty of wiggle room with FFP again - i'm guessing the % of our total wages just on vardy, vesty, nacho and ndidi is quite significant. Also, if you look at brighton's spending since they came up in 2017, it's less than 12 other teams, and not much more than leeds and forest. So it's not a given that teams have to spend big - I know there remains some scepticism about our board, but they've shown they are decent at building teams on a budget (it's the depth spending they've struggled with).

Isn't he an #8? He might have looked at our squad and seen we were well stocked there?

I don't see that at all, I think we already have - on paper - a better squad than the three teams that went up. I also believe that psychologically, we aren't going to be like luton or sheffield where the PL is unchartered waters. And also, if we go up playing the way we are, or hope to be by the end of the season, it'll be a massive advantage over perennial strugglers like wolves and bournemouth. I think maybe 3-5 players at 15-25M so about 100M max; considering we spent 45M this year and made a 61M profit, that's a relatively reasonable ask. I don't see us going up to the 218M we spent in 2018, or even the 167 we spent the year after. The club has always understood a measured approach, last time we went up we spent 72M - we know how it works, and we'll strengthen as and where it is necessary.

Not really, our average league position over the five years or so before last year was around 5th or 6th, so to have the 8th highest wage bill was perfectly natural. The problem wasn't our wage bill, our problem was failing to make it into europe which drove down our income, causing our ffp issues to become serious and preventing us from spending on the required refresh.

The vestergaard signing should never be used in a discussion over the quality of our transfer dealings - we simply had to sign a player in a position we hadn't been looking to fill. As such we had to pay him what he wanted or we'd have been massively understaffed at CB for the season - we just had no other options. Also, if he'd been used and played the way he's paying this season, no one would be questioning his salary.

Fair point - that is true from an individual perspective, though it seems most of the clicking talk seems to be focused on some kind of sudden footballing epiphany where we change from the way we're playing now into a turbo version where we are winning 4-0 each week.

On the broadcast, bristol were singing through most of the second half, the home crowd, sadly, not so much....

Although what you observe is correct, it really has nothing to do with the concept of 'things clicking' - that's just poor individual performance you're describing.