deep blue

Do you remember the summer after Vardy joined, when he was in such a bad way that he considered giving it all up? He said he was given huge support from within the club which convinced him to work at turning it round and sticking with us. I think it's no coincidence that Vardy and Nige are the two that have come out with such glowing tributes to Susan. I suspect that she was the one from high in the club that gave approval and support to the attempts to keep Vardy on board, especially given the references to her empathy and kindness that come through from the two statements. If so, I certainly think that tips the balance when assessing her overall contribution to our club.

Thanks for that input. Very encouraging. All the best for the season.

I've been frustrated watching the same. So often we eschew the direct ball out to the wing, achieving it eventually by several short passes by which time the oppo defence is well set and has covered the move.

It pains me to think that, we could have got in Ollie Watkins or Jarrod Bowen had we been prepared to take a punt on up-and-coming Championship strikers. Either would have been a fair Vardy replacement.

Looking at the clip, Faes committed himself to the slide a bit early. Had the ball bounced a bit unpredictably - a bit higher or lower, or a spin to the side - then he would have hit the oppo player rather than the ball, so it was definitely a bit risky diving in the way he did. Having said that, it definitely ended up being a fair, legal challenge so the penalty was incorrect (as confirmed by the attacker appealing for a corner).

We're all aware of Daka's limitations, but the team can do better as an attacking unit with him because he disrupts the oppo defence with his runs & pressing, which opens up gaps which the others can exploit. (Ayew doesn't have that capability and is a big factor in the slowness of us getting forward). We need to use him even more effectively though, by showing more attacking intent - pushing balls up more quickly from defence, supporting him better from our midfield, and our wingers in particular anticipating the ball breaking into spaces and being ready to seize on the opportunities.

A week ago someone on here pointed out that our youth teams have developed the habit of letting in goals towards the end of games, and it's happened again last night. I wonder why that is.

I've always held the belief that if you keep back a youngster at a certain level for too long then he's bound to lose motivation and stagnate. That reverberates with the comment on here that some of the team performances at youth levels seem so flat. I agree that with so many youngsters coming through it looks like we get our timing wrong in bringing them up to the next level. It's so important for next season, particularly if we end up promoted, that we've done the best we can to progress the youngsters who we judge to have a high ceiling and who, with the right encouragement, might be able to cope with a place in the squad in the Prem.

Interesting. The irony is ... if, with Ayew in the team, we tap it around but end up by punting it up in the end anyway then we'd be better off having Daka in there to chase the punts, so he might as well start in preference to Ayez.

With regard to our youngsters, noone is suggesting we bring them through too quickly, but I think the key consideration is where we will be at the start of next season if we manage to achieve promotion. The last thing we'll want is, like last season, to start with a squad which relies on experienced players who are past their prime, not of the required standard, or who have no fight or commitment to the club. Therein lies certain relegation. So we do need to give sufficient exposure, over the course of this season, to our youngsters who look to have a high ceiling - Monga, Page, Aluko, Nelson at the least - in the hope that they can step up to Prem level next season (not necessarily as starters, but as squad players). I guess we're early into the season now, and Cifuentes is still assessing everything, so no need to panic yet that we're not seeing a lot of these young talents.

This is well thought out. I also think it's worth giving Daka a little run because, even if he f*ks up on the ball, the amount of disruption his speed could cause on the oppo defence could cause them to be spilling the ball which would enable our more gifted players (Monga, Fatawu etc) to seize on the ball in more open and dangerous areas. It would enable us to attack more directly. We are so ponderous at the moment and that seems to play into the hands of the oppo defences.

Looking at MOTD tonight I noticed that BHA, Brentford and CP in particular (teams that are now where we aspire to be) were all benefitting from playing fast, direct football on the break. And Micah Richards pointed out that speed of transition appeared to be the successful way for such clubs to succeed. We surely should be looking to develop that style, both in order to get promoted and then to give us the best chance of staying up in the Prem. With current players like Monga and Fatawu we surely have the ability to develop that st yle within the current squad.

Stop right there. That's a statement that can't be justified by any reasoning. The only gains from space research, looking for extraterrestrial life, are technological advances that would be found through routine research programs in the various spheres, which are far less costly. As someone else has said, these are vanity projects, and if you doubt that just look at the characters who have recently emerged to play leading roles in promoting it.

You missed Hamza's part in the last goal we scored, then?

From the comments on here and what I've seen on the pitch, my feeling is that he hasn't enough discipline or awareness to be a defensive midfielder, and that the role he's most suited to is a number 8, possibly the role he's never been tasked to play here (to be given that luxury riole you need supporting midfielders who do the donkey work, rather like Tielemans needed). Perhaps he would shine if he were able to be given the limited remit of looking to progress the ball forward at every opportunity, either by passing quickly and moving up in support, or by bursting through himself. I dunno. If a way can't be found to get more productive use of him, would we be better off in the long run dispensing with him and progressing Page instead?

Thomas gets a lot of stick for not getting forward. I agree he doesn't these days. But when we had Barnes on the wing the interplay between them was very effective and Thomas offered good attacking support. I'm at a loss to understand why he stays much deeper these days.

Disagree. Those are good stats for a winger.

Considering the pressure that Cov put us under from the start I thought our defence was strong, well organised and resolute.

It's hard to see what's the right approach, but I'm inclined to agree with this. If we can couple that approach with having a few from the academy with the ability to step up and give it a go in the Prem then it might make the difference, The timing in that respect might be right next season, if we could manage to go up this season and, at the same time, progress a few of our most promising youngsters.

Yes, except my memory is that it was at Cov. Then again, my memory ...

We can only guess at the figures but it seems an opportunity missed to not sell Daka and replace him with Ivanovic. If, say, we had to cough up 10mill for him but got 5mill for Daka then bringing in Ivanovic for effectively 5mill seems like a worthwhile gamble. If Ivanovic really could have made a significant difference, and given he has room for improvement, then that seems a good forward-looking move with promotion and next season in the Prem as our ambition. A lot of ifs, admittedly.

To be fair, he joined what he thought was a solid Prem club at the worst possible time, thinking about our manager, our football-related admin, the state of mind of the squad and the negative momentum.

Arguably worth it to get rid and pay what's required for Ivanovic. Fee for Daka would only go some way towards that, but the difference we'd have to fork out might well be no more than we were prepared to pay for Ivanovic In the first place. In coming to that conclusion I'm making a few assumptions from what's been suggested in this thread - that we're in for Ivanovic, that he wants to come here, that Millwall have rejected our offer as being not enough.

Vardy playing 2nd fiddle to Vazquez?

I also liked that when he started to go for the deflection he instantly realised that Abdul was intending to follow the ball through inside and he held back so as not to interfere with Abdul's run. We've had a few instances recently of forwards getting in each other's way and chances going begging as a result.