Dan

Garbage

Add in the same on Souttar who has played what, 10 games for us? £8mil or so on Coady. Can be easy to exaggerate how bad it is at times but I think you would do well to find such consistently dire recruitment in one position as ours at centre half since we signed Fofana.

Explain to me how they've rigged the 3rd round to get European clubs avoiding each other but managed a scenario where if the conference league side makes the last 8 they have a clash what a joke.

To me it's just another set of data to inform an opinion on but I find plenty misinterpret. You are correct in that X player will be better at finishing than Y player but that's practically what it measures. Southampton are an interesting case this season. They've been bad but they've underperformed their attacking numbers by an extraordinary amount - I'm unsure it can continue. I really don't know how I'd be reacting if we were having their season because everything about them tells you they'll pick wins up soon, but they're in such a losing mindset as a club it's unreal. I wonder if this has lowered the level of finishers in general because the emphasis is far more on players getting chances rather than finishing them. This does seem to have created some extreme examples like Darwin Nunez.

He will get in somewhere that are on the up. Though do wonder if clubs are smart enough to see through it now.

I assumed people were joking and don't think they are. His performance in 2022/23 was as bad as anything I've seen relative to what he had. Van Nistelrooy maybe pushed it close although had a crap squad. To take that squad down was barely believable.

You've no idea how much I hate Southampton for this.

Especially if your name is 'Valerien Ismael'

To me though that's where it is kind of useful - taking the average I would just simply use these numbers to conclude that X player is above or below average a finisher. Haaland will always score exceptionally on this as he's the best finisher on the planet.

Really does speak volumes about our recruitment.

Think he'll drop Thomas, a change so obvious but it will still qualify as 'progress', despite a reintroduction of Soumare and Faes. Reckon Daka wins the striker lucky dip. 0-1 defeat.

This isn't a given mind.

I'm the same, a classic one that often seems to happen with England is X player can play a nice diagonal so must be a midfielder (Rooney, Trent) but Faes is so poor defensively and actually quite a capable footballer (sometimes). There's a world where I read this in a few months and piss myself laughing though.

The Leicester Cheltenham alliance is back in the way nobody was hoping for.

Wout Faes is not a defender. What started as a slightly light hearted thing has become something I'm astounded no coach realises. The bloke is not a centre half and quite clearly a midfielder who for some reason plays in defence. His defensive stats are frankly concerning even for a midfielder!

It's why I'm not particularly fussed about Winks to be honest. He's alright, clearly quite good at the specific thing he does which is ball recycling, but I don't really think it's all that effective. Not a dissimilar player to Papy Mendy - not actually strong defensively and never really going to be a goal threat or creative either. Soumare is a poorer version of this. Skipp is an abomination and completely lost his way as a footballer. Winks has only truly flourished when in the following circumstances: ultra possession manager, comfortably the best squad in the division. Hopeless in the Premier League and average this season. Overrated.

Quite strange how consistently we seem to do this. The whole thing feels cursed. It feels very 2021/22 - where we were utter shit but bailed out by Schmeichel, Maddison, Tielemans, Barnes on a pretty frequrnt basis. Then we replaced Schmeichel with a League Two level goalkeeper and the rest is history. It's like a silent killer that often creeps up on us. Be rubbish but do just enough to make it look like you aren't rubbish, then it hits you before anyone at the club realises it. The early wins might bail us out this season but think I'll have good money on us to drop next year. Nobody at the club will have the foresight to see this as they've already proven.

Honestly think we could've won all 12 games and I wouldn't be feeling any real FOMO. We won this league two years ago. I think a harsh truth to face for our fans is supporting LCFC has peaked already and deep down we all know this. That doesn't mean this is even close to being acceptable mind.

People shouldn't feel guilty at all. They're horrid. They don't deserve a penny off anyone.

I think what's quite alarming is how little ridicule it's getting I expected the idea to be shot down. Maybe we really are just accustomed to it. Aiyawatt takes us to League One again before the Premier League - 90% sure of that.

We are a poor team even at this level. I was saying it when 4th it was totally unsustainable and a fluke. So it proved.

We really drew at home to this slop. **** sake.

I still wonder if Barry-Murphy might've been the answer. He at least had the benefit of knowing which players needed binning off and he's actually committed to playing some of their younger players - currently top of League One.

Hilarious isn't it. 100% should've signed him.

Probably agree, there is precedent for it though, they've beaten Southampton, basically beat Ipswich but had it stolen from them, like with Hull I don't think they're really going to fear us - particularly having won their last two trips here. They're not 'good' but they're a bit below where they probably ought to be on performances. They're a miserable club themselves, but feel like they'll suit being away more than at home.