ClaphamFox

Absolutely livid about being denied that penalty. Fuming. Week ruined

Let the stadium exodus begin…

It’s their away record that concerns us tonight, and they’ve only lost three out of ten games away (W3, D4, L3, GD: +2). It might be one of those games where we have to grind it out in the last 15mins…

I think your memory is serving you poorly. There were plenty of people who realised that Kante was something special from very early on with his time with us. The perception was that having him in the team was the equivalent to having two midfielders, such was his energy and stamina - hence the phrase 'the Kante twins'. Along with Mahrez and Vardy, he was regarded as one of the three players were absolutely essential to our title win. Drinkwater played his part but was nowhere near at Kante's level, and I think most fans could see that at the time.

It would seem an odd move to buy a centre half who we don't need and who would immediately be surplus to requirements in the event of promotion. If it was a loan as back-up for the second half of the season, it would be slightly more credible.

If we sign him, hopefully he'll turn out to be a wonDIRKid.

I'm sure I've also heard Owyn Palmer-Atkin (or somebody else on RL) state with some certainty that Daka would be off in January. It does seem like that's the line being fed by the club to local journalists.

Judging from their forums, the fans of some of our rival clubs clearly believe that we'll implode in January because of AFCON. They've really got their hopes pinned on it. I have a feeling they might be disappointed.

They had 18 points from 11 games and were sixth when they sacked Eustace. They’ve since got five points from nine games. Genius move from the owners.

Praet's physical fragility is one of the reasons I think we'll likely try to buy another attacking midfielder next month. It's great that Maresca rates him highly, but if he gets injured again in the first week of February we're back to square one.

Maresca is on record as describing Praet as the most technically gifted attacking midfielder at the club and has also hinted that Praet and KDH are his first choices for the attacking 8 positions.

Which, if true, would raise the question of why Cannon cannot get any minutes at all given that he looked a very good finisher while on loan at Preston. It's even odder when you consider that Iheanacho will be off to Africa next month and Cannon will be rotating with Vardy - how is he supposed to get match fit and sharp if he can't get on the pitch?

I was about midway up in the upper tier and was hit in the head by a pound coin. Quite impressive, really.

Wilf and KDH are having great seasons, but both are more high-energy, box-to-box players rather than creative midfielders in the true sense. Even when both of them are playing, we can sometimes struggle to turn our domination of the ball into clear chances - especially recently as other teams have figured out how to play against us. There are times when we need an injection of creativity and unpredictability, and we don't have many options in that regard apart from possibly Fatawu. Yunus is a tidy player and we know Maresca loves Praet, but his fitness can hardly be relied upon. Alves and Braybrooke are as yet untested. We were trying to sign McAtee on deadline day and prior to that we were apparently interested in Gustavo Hamer. In the end, both went to Sheffield United (who have scored the fewest goals in the PL, so neither player seems to be having a major impact). This tells me that the club realises we are short of a genuinely creative midfielder and is trying to rectify it. It will only happen if the right player becomes available - I don't think we'll sign a player for the sake of it who we then have to get rid of in the summer. But I think we'll be in the market for one.

🤔

We probably don't have enough of sufficient quality, though. It's plain to see how much weaker we are when Ndidi and/or KDH are missing. Praet's return is welcome, but do we really want to gamble on him staying fit for the rest of the season? I'll personally be amazed if we don't try to sign a creative midfielder in January.

I'd really like to see the "What have we done?" clip that somebody mentions in the comments below...

Literally no chance we'll sell Ndidi and Maresca loves Praet, so it's unlikely he'll go either. Daka will likely go and Nacho might too if we find a striker to replace him.

We’re a much, much better team when he’s on the pitch

This isn’t the 1970s.

We drew a game.

It says ‘Premier League boss’. It could be referring to a chairman or CEO, but if that was the case you‘d think they’d make it clear it’s not a serving manager. The story references a second assault on a young woman during a job interview in the late 90s, which would imply that he was in a coaching/managerial capacity at that point (unless it was a player interviewing for a personal assistant or something, which seems less likely). Edited to say: apparently it is an owner, not a manager.

I also think we'll win tomorrow. Then we have two very winnable home games while Ipswich and Leeds have consecutive tricky away games...

I think it was the 'shutting up the weirdos' part of the prediction that he found implausible...

We're 5/4 and West Brom are 11/5.