deep blue

Shows how f**ked is this country when 22.9% of the voting population are still prepared to vote Tory.

You didn't bother watching Ed Davey's speech at the LibDem conference yesterday, then, or follow any of their policy decisions, or consider the Greens? If you limit yourself to considering only Labour or Tories then you've been taken in by the unfair voting system and have failed to see that there are some very decent alternatives out there.

Agreed. For me Hamza is the man with the engine and the aggression required but Hamza, being Hamza, would be a risk.

Never a pen. Given by the home crowd and a weak ref

The fact that we made 9 changes and won at Bournemouth illustrates that we have very good depth. The problem is not that our bench is poor ... but rather that it's poorly utilised. We need to see subs used earlier, and selected more astutely. As Winteriscoming said, "proactively not reactively".

I don't see how you can say that. Enzo has shown far more willingness to promote our young prospects than our previous manager. It's not hard to see why our youngsters are tempted by offers from other clubs when they've been watching players in the age group above going stale with lack of opportunity to progress. Liverpool craftily came in for Nyoni at our lowest point - relegated, financially-challemged, low in morale, in some disarray, on the back of this lack of opportunity, and also just before Nyoni could be put under contract (I guess). Who knows where he might be now if he'd stayed with us in the summer.

Not forgetting Savage

You're right that our squad is unbalanced, but at this level our subs are of adequate ability. On Friday night Albrighton would have been perfect for the moment because of his tenacity, crossing ability (to help keep us looking forward), and, particularly important in the situation, his experience. Cannon was also a good choice. Then there's Praet, who you may not regard but is plenty good enough at this level. One of the worst aspects of his subbing, as several on here have pointed out, is his timing and his strategy in using them. They should be proactive, so that he is setting the agenda, rather than reacting to the opposition, so that he is posing them problems rather than the other way round. And they should be made much sooner, generally between 60 & 70 mins, to give them the time to take effect.

Ludicrous comment. How do you have any idea of what he thinks of himself. Ontariofox is spot on. The lad performed well at first and had a very good understanding with Barnes. Then our manager's influence began to take effect on them both. If you think that our elite manager knew how to assess and develop a player just look how well Bassey and Castagne performed today (in the Prem) as compared to their progress here when you-know-who was in charge.

The logical choice to replace Mavdidi would have been Albrighton - still offering a threat (especially with Cannon in the middle) and much needed experience, as well as determination and workrate.. But Maresca should be sending on both at 60 mins, please. Reactive subs at 80 mins, or even later, stink of timidity instead of setting his own challenge to the opposing manager.. To be fair, Maresca is very inexperienced compared with Leeds & Middlesbrough managers, so hope he can learn fast, especially if we make it up to the Prem (could manager inexperience be part of the explanation why Burnley have performed so disappointingly?).

Deflected goals often come when a defender turns his back rather than facing up to, and making a real attempt to block, a shot from an attacker. In those cases it's not bad luck but very poor technique and football nous on the part of the defender (and I am amazed to see this happen so often with defenders even of supposed Prem quality, and managers not spotting this and picking the defender up on it).

Doesn't anyone here think that the bringing on of 2 subs immediately followed by letting in 2 goals might be more than a coincidence, and it not being simply down to the mentality problem? Just maybe on this occasion the manager made a massive mistake with his substitutions. Just as a suggestion, when Daka began to look unlikely to convert any further simple chances created for him, wasn't 60 mins about the right time to replace him with Vardy? Just one of our chances taken at that time, giving us a 2 goal cushion, would surely have knocked the stuffing out of Leeds.

Poor on the ball? I guess you missed the inch perfect instant pass from Justin for Vardy's goal at Stoke, then.

Would need to replay the match to remember. Could it be that our players stopped delivering to him, or that Leeds cut off the supply, or maybe (for some reason) he was under management instruction not to push on? Intriguing.

Doyle more solid than JJ?

Was it at the KP?

"Why would you spend...when you are buying for the Prem" Simple answer ... Mahrez. If, and a big if, you can unearth an unpolished gem at Xmas with half a season to get him up to speed for the next season then that's the optimum time to bring him in. Sensi isn't unpolished but does need bringing up to speed, and he certainly fitted the "bargain basement" requirement. Just hope this doesn't upset Enzo too much.

We have the opportunity to pay back Bournemouth soon

Mahrez comes into that category too. As someone has already said, Yunus still has 3 months more of football in which to grow into the English game so he might bring himself up to the level to cope in the Prem by then.

Sheffield U fared no better in the cup without Thomas, and their left side of defence was ripped open time after time, a shambles. I think it was a poor decision to send Luke to such a mess of a team. Will be interesting to see if he fits in better at Middlesbrough. I suspect his confidence took a huge knock during his last 2 seasons with us.

Did he forget to mention that we stuffed Man U en route to that final win?

Hit the nail on the head there. What a waste of what should have been his best footballing years.

I think the recurring theme is the coincidence of players regressing when they come under the influence of an "elite" coach.

Following this on the live text, weird that we still have more possession but they are having all the pressure. Their lad Stansfield appears to be being given the freedom of the park. If he's their danger man, why aren't we taking some measures to reduce his impact?

Snowdrift, I think you misread this forum when you talk about arrogance.. Many on here have shown great respect for what you have achieved and would like to see you promoted. You must forgive those on here whose knowledge extends back only 20 or 30 years - during that period we have been usually the superior team - but rest assured that oldies like me still remember the top title winning Ipswich side of the late 50s (?). If I remember rightly your 2 stonking forwards were Ted Phillips & Ray Crawford. What a team that was!