kingfox

Sorry Finners

RB/RCB - Someone who’s better with the ball than JJ CB - Probably someone on loan RW/LW - A 1 vs 1 pace merchant Then we’re good to go imo.

Of course it was far from perfect, but how much slicker do we look going forward, some of the patterns of play in the second half were beautiful.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS REID > AYEW

And that’s probably that, poor defending

Two things clearly missing from this team. A controller in midfield, he has to try Skipp in the second half. Pace and ball carriers on the wings, regardless of Mavididi’s form he needs to come on asap. We need Winks back, while we need a carbon copy of Fatawu in January.

That first half was a Jordan Ayew disasterclass. Gives away two free kicks in dangerous areas Lets Lamptey cut inside for the goal Lets the ball go over his head almost leading to a second Passes the ball out for a throw in If he comes out second half he’ll probably score now I’ve said all that, but ideally he needs hooking for Mavididi.

Could do with better pace on the wings, but clearly Mavididi hasn’t been impressing Ruud in some way. Apart from that, I’m happy.

A Leicester winner in Leicester Get in Tom Ford

These fvckers have kept him hostage from his dream move to Leicester so he’s downed tools

Of J1 League centre backs… 91% pass accuracy(Ranks 5th) 82% forward pass accuracy(Ranks 5th) 79% final third pass accuracy(Ranks 3rd) 73% progressive pass accuracy

Good thing about Van den Berg is he can play RCB or slot into Justin’s current role as a RB/RCB(Where ideally a new signing is needed). Ruud says he wants us to be better and more comfortable in possession, Van den Berg is one of the better defenders for playing out from the back in the Championship. Would probably cost the most of any January signing we’d make, but his ceiling is high, plus he snapped up numerous Player of the Season awards at Boro last season. Gerrimin Ric, GERRIMIN!

Wanted him in the summer, but even more so now Ruud is in charge, a signing that would make a lot of sense in a number of ways. Crystal Palace have been linked with him, but he should be one of our top priorities…

The look of a man who didn’t get his dream move to Leicester City

First of many Eredivisie players that I expect to be linked

There was a considerable difference of the Ndidi & Soumare combo from first half to second, personally I thought both struggled in the first half, overran as you say and looked a bit lost at which players to track, 51% of West Ham’s attacks came through the middle of the pitch last night. Second half they looked two totally different players, far more compact defensively, won duels and Ndidi especially did the dirty work superbly. Is this partnership sustainable going forward? With how Van Nistelrooy wants to play I’d have to say no. But nevertheless, we saw elements of peak Wilf last night, while Soumare was much improved in the second half.

Think we were all a bit surprised when Ndidi was given MOTM last night, but I’ve taken these tables from the Wyscout match report, the considerable difference we had as a team in duels compared with 1st half and 2nd half is staggering, but I wanted to particularly highlight Wilf who was a considerable difference maker in terms of his defensive work compared to the rest of the team, dare I say it, elements of his performance were peak Wilf… From a 41% duel win rate first half, to a 50% duel win rate second half, with a noticeable difference between 46-60 minutes. A perfect indicator in how things improved for Ndidi in the second half, he and Soumare looked so much stronger as a pairing. He won 76% of his defensive duels, of the starting 11 he was the best in this metric. Also made the 2nd most recoveries. While he won 79% of his ground duels, the best of our starting 11. Maybe just maybe, Van Nistelrooy can get Ndidi back to what he does best, last night proved a great starting point.

Feel Kristiansen’s place in the side will be one of the biggest conundrums heading into January. Of course new defenders are needed, but when it comes to Kristiansen I’m very much 50/50. Defensively last night, West Ham were getting far too much joy down his side, especially in the first half. In and around the 18 yard box when defenders are running at him, he seems to panic far too often. His best pieces of defending last night came when he was intercepting the ball higher up the pitch, he produced numerous moments like this which led to him playing some superb passes in behind West Ham’s defence. Going forward his flaws are obvious, he is nowhere near dynamic enough to take players on consistently, if Ruud wants to play with a high attacking left-back, Kristiansen does have limitations that probably wouldn’t suit him in this role. But if asked to be more conservative, play to his strengths which we saw especially in the second half, there’s elements of Kristiansen’s game that I really like, out of possession you can’t fault his work-rate too. It’s going to be intriguing to see how he gets on throughout December.

He laid out his plans clear as day in his first press conference and even more so last night. We as fans will be going into games now with an exact idea of how we’re going to play, the main thing about Cooper is we became confused to what he exactly wanted from the team, everything felt a bit muddled. Last night was clear from the very first minute, and as Strider has demonstrated above, the 3-2-4-1 shape in possession with Kristiansen pushing high especially in the first half, with a 4-4-2 shape when out of possession, it’s exactly what Van Nistelrooy said he was going to do, while as I said above, it makes it far easier for us fans to understand what we are trying to do as a team. He laid out what needs work, but he laid out things we can exploit, as you mentioned with attacking with directness, he’s already identified the ability we have to counter. Our attacks kept breaking down in the first half, but getting the pace of Mavididi and Daka into the team, especially against tired defences in second halves of games, it could really become something Ruud mainly focuses on going forward. Of course we need to be more compact defensively, something which he outlined as well after the match. But last night we saw a manager who articulately has a clear game plan, refreshing to see

As @Bordersfox and @StriderHiryu both said, listening to him last night was night and day compared to Cooper. Was quite refreshing to hear a manager speak so articulate of what his plans are, he laid out last night’s positives and negative’s perfectly and I thoroughly agreed with the majority of it. Loved how he especially concentrated on work rate, energy and wanting the players to work their socks off. Simple things like that is what I’ve been craving to see from Leicester City this season, the work rate off the ball last night was excellent in certain areas, El Khannouss and McAteer especially were magnificent, while credit to Daka, apart from one dodgy first touch, I loved what I saw from him last night. As for the negatives he focused on our setup when in possession and ability on the ball, that’s probably the number one thing he’ll work on over the coming weeks, fingers crossed we see improvement throughout December. Such a refreshing energy from him, and being a lover of Dutch football myself, I love him already

Just decided to watch the game back, everyone’s new favourite term 3-box-3 was clearly evident throughout the game, with 4-4-2 being the setup when out of possession. First half if it wasn’t for Hermansen we could have been 2-3 goals down. West Ham had so much joy through our midfield and down our flanks. I thought the duo of Vestergaard and Coady looked pretty assured, but the four of Justin, Kristiansen, Ndidi and Soumare were getting pulled apart left, right and centre. Their ability to track runners was so poor in the first half. Going forward the effort was there, but we just couldn’t get out and sustain attacks, apart from a couple of El Khannouss and Vardy link up combos, attacks were just breaking down far too easily, mainly through a lack of quality from Buonanotte and McAteer. Second half the little tactical tweaks especially putting El Khannouss central worked a treat. I also thought defensively through the middle of the pitch, Soumare and Ndidi looked far more compact and won a fair few duels. It felt like most of West Ham’s attacks were focused down the right side, Kristiansen defensively was getting beaten far too easily throughout most of the game. Kristiansen going forward though despite his limitations actually produced some excellent passes, his passing range in behind defences could be a real asset for the likes of Vardy, Daka and Mavididi. The two standouts for me tonight though were El Khannouss and Coady. El Khannouss both from a creative perspective and a work rate perspective was excellent, exactly the type of performance I’ve been hoping from him. As for Conor Coady, that was quite simply his best performance in a Leicester shirt imo. Still plenty to work on, especially defensively, but from a work rate perspective I can’t fault the players tonight, they grafted superbly.

Ladies and gentlemen, he has arrived

If you don’t jump on your next stream wearing a full orange suit while waving a Moroccan flag then I’m unsubscribing @StriderHiryu