brookfox

Took my daughter to her first game yesterday and asked her to describe our style of play; pass it sideways a lot, wide players run forwards, play high up the pitch, pass back to the keeper a lot. Pretty astute for a teenager who tbh doesn’t know much about football. The upside is it’s very successful at getting points. Can feel slow at times but we slowly grind out the results.

Wonder what his instructions were today, quite often he came so deep he was taking the ball from the defence. Was an overall poor performance but he may have been executing a tactical plan that made him look even worse!

Last one I went to the Birch told one woman that if she was his daughter he’d still be bathing her. Guess he skipped the diversity and inclusion training!

Think the question then becomes, where do we want the possession. I imagine Leeds will be quite happy to sit back a bit, let Vesty and co come forward with the ball and try and his us on the break with their pace. For us, I guess we'd prefer Leeds to come at us and to try and play through the press. Feels like best tactics win tonight!

Probably not a surprise that Coady comes across so well in the article. He's clearly a leader and something we massively missed recently. The more you hear people talk about Maresca, it's starting to become clear that we may have a very special manager on our hands. Early days into his own career and will no doubt face challenges but feels like we've gambled on him and it's paying off big time.

I tried something similar in 5-a-side last night. Player I was passing to was absolutely nowhere near it, the defender casually walked off with the ball and my teammates all sighed in disappointment!

Tbh I want all our players loaned out to do well purely so the clubs take up the options on them. If Thomas, Soumare and VK all go we should be able to make Fatawu, Yunus and Doyle permanent which would work for me.

No idea if he’s fit enough but I’d take any academy player over a second keeper on the bench. Just for the experience it’d surely be worthwhile.

Same. I’m fully expecting Trevor Sinclair and Les Ferdinand to tear us a new one.

Looking great this season, helped massively by being played to his strengths. He’s never going to look good where he needs to use his pace or be dominant in the air. One thing Enzo has done very well is play square pegs in square holes.

Used to wear trousers like that on the first day of school. "But Muuuummmmmm, they look massive". "Stop your moaning, you'll grow into them"!

King Power gripe Not getting an elastic band to go with the clapper that they now make you fold yourself. They'll have us in a sweat shop next making the kits!

He's benefitting from a few things this season; confidence from the manager, pitch time, a role that plays to his strengths, weaker opposition. Impossible to decipher which of these has most contributed to his transformation but he's looked like a standout player in the league this year bar a couple of dodgy bits early on. Will be sign a new contract? Can he cut it in the Prem? WIll Coady take his place? Tbh, I don't really care, he's playing and bossing it so fair play to him!

Thought he was a 6.5/10 yesterday. Didn’t really do anything outstanding but on the other hand made far fewer errors than in previous games. He’s definitely got something about him so expecting him to go on and have a good career (maybe in Serie A where it’s a bit slower) but at this stage of his career he’s not looking like the goal scoring beast we probably hoped for. Bizarrely that role has gone to Ndidi!

Thought it was important he got a goal in open play so fair play he delivered. That was a textbook good Nacho performance. Interestingly spent a lot of the game in almost a 10 position coming deep and leaving the wingers and 8s ahead of him. It’s probably the role he’s most suited to as he doesn’t have the pace to play off the last man. Very good game he now needs to replicate again and again.

Showed a good turn of pace in the second half. You could see the slight limitations of having a right footer in that position but it’s not his fault. Thought overall he gave a good account of himself in what must be the first time he’s ever played that position. Was sceptical at first when Enzo warmed to him but he’s not let us down yet and is playing well.

Think they’ll guickly revert from that tactic with our CBs 🦒🦒!

We’re taller than you. We’re taller than yooouuuuuu. Our defenders, are taller than you!

We definitely have. For a lot of games if you made the best XI from both squads we’d be contributing 9-11 of the team. Also looking at our bench I’d say a fair few of them would start for the opposition in most matches. Thats partly due to my ignorance of other teams granted, but overall our squad is very strong for the league, and even more so now Enzo has got players back on form.

I felt like us going long was as much a response to Blackburn putting pressure on Winks and Ricardo in the centre and going narrow. Particularly for periods in the second half they seemed to up the pressing of our defenders while closing off the pass into midfield. Even if it did make it's way through they were good at getting a leg in and nicking it off us. As a result we went long a lot more. Haven't seen the stats (and could well be wrong!) but felt like Winks was less of a dominating force as a result.

The fans of 23 other clubs in the division!

11 clear of both Leeds and Southampton after 9 matches is a huge testament to the job Enzo has done. Long way to go, but so far he’s not put a foot wrong 👏🏻 And massive credit to whoever at the club had the vision and bravery to bring him in!

Given how it’s panning out feels like Daka would be useful.

Expecting him to come out for the second half with a cigar!

Never mind the team, that bench for the Championship is frankly ridiculous!