Useful Idiot

-----------------------McCarthy----------------------- JWP-----Stephens----Yoshida----Bednarek-----Bertrand Davis----------Hojbjerg---------Romeu----------Boufal -------------------------Long------------------------ I imagine we might play something like that, although I can see MP pushing Romeu deeper and possibly moving Boufal into a LWB role as he did perviously to make sure Bertrand can tuck in nice and tight and form a solid back six. MP's tactics will probably be to sit and hold for the 0-0 and hope to being them back to ours so we can repeat the tactic and hope for pens.

15 goals in 85 games over two and a half seasons. Sounds perfect.

Sorry, I meant first year in the Prem

Yeah, Redmond has average sprint speed but is quick over 5 yards. He has to stop a defender then burst past them, similarly to Boufal, who is better at it. Long cannot play wide. He's awful out there, doesn't have the movement to play like JRod did for us, and his touch is rubbish. On Gabbiadini, I just don't know how we can coach better vision into our midfield. Not one of them looks like being able to find him. Overall, it's a mess. I seriously think our promotion year squad was at least as strong as our current team, and certainly had a better first XI. --------------Boruc-------------- Clyne---Fonte-----Yoshida---Shaw ------Cork-------Schneiderlin----- Puncheon-----Lallana---------JRod -------------Lambert------------- is miles better than what we have now.

Just because individually a set of players have useful attributes, it does not follow that they will make a good team. We are hopelessly short of goal threat, with the exception of Austin and possibly Gabbiadini. We don't seem to have the players who can spot the latter's runs, so his main attacking threat is nullified. We have really average centre backs, average goalkeepers, no real way to effectively hold the ball up top to build play and no pace to exploit the counter. Individually we have some very good players, but our squad balance is shockingly bad.

Ballotelli is a weird one. On his day he's amazing and can change a game from out of nowhere. He's impulsive and sometimes does silly things but he doesn't struggle with the same sort of mental issues that Osvaldo did (clinical manic depression). He will not suit a pressing game or really offer much of anything when out of possession. I could also see him getting frustrated with poor supply and flaring up due to this.. However, he is technically brilliant, physically powerful, a great finisher, and quite mobile. He only seems to perform well with encouragement, but when he's confident and feels wanted he can be brilliant. He's a massive gamble, but if we build a team around him and played to his strengths then he could easily get 20+ goals a season.

I think Walcott would supply part of what the squad is missing. After a run of games he scores fairly regularly cutting in from out wide and has the pace that we miss. Sturridge has another muscle injury, probably won't be fit while there's cold weather but might be able to make a contribution after March I suppose. Annoying dancer but great finisher. Unfortunately he's so regularly crippled by injuries I can't see anyone getting more than a dozen games out of him in half a season. Giroud would be great but apparently he's completely disinterested in a move. We need a powerful player who can hold the ball up and link play, and a commanding centre back who can organise the defense as neither Hoedt or Yoshida seem capable. We're massively short of assertive personalities in the squad. We need someone who can lead and generate self belief in the team. Not sure who, as it would pretty much have to be an English speaker with good leadership qualities and mental strength.

We were really poor yesterday. Pretty much awful. However, I find it interesting that it was mentioned on commentary that we have never, ever won a game with Lee Probert in charge of a game. Not one. Watching the match, I don't think there was one big thing he got wrong, but it was interesting that he gave virtually all of the 50/50 decisions in Hudderfeild's favour. Other things that annoyed me included the time that Targett got after he'd played the ball forward to Redmond who was pretty much in the clear and then pulled the play back for a free kick. When Boufal was fouled a couple of times when trying to dribble through the middle of the park he played about a second of advantage (maybe less) then blew up for Boufal committing a really soft foul and gave them a free kick. He's blatantly running things to the same game plan every time he's in charge of one of our games. The guy is an absolute joke.

Lee Probert. What a completely turd ref.

Great. Looking forward to watching another masterclass of sideways or backwards passing combined with non-tackling by the most underrated player in football history, Steve Davis.

I don't think so. Their forward line is up there with City's, but their midfield lacks defensive solidity and although good creatively they're not a patch on de Bruyne and Silva. If you take away Clyne their fullbacks aren't that good and their keeper sucks. They have a massively unbalanced squad with too many quality forwards to keep happy and a lack of options everywhere else on the pitch. Signing VVD would probably have got them another five or six points but they'd still be miles behind City.

I think we need someone with pace who can play wide and finish. Basically like either the JRod from a few years ago, or like Mane. Someone who moves inside from the wing into a striker position when we have the ball. Redmond isn't fast, he has a good change of pace but his sprint speed is nothing special. His natural movements are to either sit wide or to cut inside and shoot from outside the area, not to drive into the area and commit defenders. I think we have two players who can play as the 10, Tadic and Boufal. I think Gabbiadini is fine for cover for Austin, we just need to be able to occasionally attempt a pass to him when he makes one of his runs instead of endlessly recycling possession through Steve Davis. I think we're OK in CM and at the back. Forster seems to be getting back to some kind of form. Our lack of attacking pace from out wide is what's killing us. It means we can sit deep and contain the bigger teams, but we can't hurt them when we get the ball back. If we'd had that sort of player against City, Arse or Chelsea I bet we'd have nicked a goal or two.

Roger East. What an absolute bag of tools.

We look like a poor league 2 side.

He has a good touch and excellent delivery from wide. He's not a flair player and isn't going to get past many players with skill or pace. He's not quite physical enough and lacks a bit of aggression, and isn't likely to carry the ball forward from midfield. When Puel played him as a RM with liscence to drift centrally when the 10 went wide he looked good and even scored. He doesn't look like a real 10 though. At times he's lookes OK as an 8, but doesn't really have the pace to recover from advanced areas quickly if the ball turns over. His movement off the ball is quite clever to get himself into positions to receive the ball. He has the ability to play clever passes forward, but rarely seems to early enough. I don't know if this is lack of confidence in himself or his team mates. Needs to work on the range of his first time passes a bit, and move the ball forward faster. He can do it, and did it regularly for England U21, but doesn't seem to in the Premier League. I think he would be brilliant in Spain or Italy as a deep lying playmaker. tl/dr he has some excellent attributes, but his best position is probably one we don't have the personnel to play him in.

Exactly this. We're fine when we hold the initiative, but terrible when we lose it. We're so lacking in confidence that any setback seems to completely deflate us. The home atmosphere doesn't help, but a lot of the blame has to be put on our recruitment, which seems to have looked for 'nice' characters rather than driven personalities, Van Dijk aside. He's still our best defender but he's not as focused as he was before the summer and so his impact on team morale seems far lower than it was last year. The whole squad is mentally fragile and I can't see how we're going to fix it, the only solution might be to get in some back room staff who can inspire the players and instill some self belief, Black seems an expert in grinding it down.

He works hard and covers a lot of ground. He also rarely makes a forward pass, a tackle, or an interception but he's the most underrated player in Premier League history despite all of that because he links play* well. *passes sideways

Think Romeu and Davis are a horrible combination for a midfield axis. Both would work with Hojbjerg or Lemina, as either of those two look to get the ball forward. As a pair Romeu is slow and Davis crab passes us to death, killing all momentum. We're getting done in midfield and at right back; Pied is pretty poor at this level as he lacks pace and refuses to play the ball forward. Ward-Prowse has actually made some decent runs in between Ake and Smith, but Pied just drops it off square. Austin is only useful if we can dominate possession in their half which we are failing to, a mixture of no pace on the flanks, crab passing from Davis and Pied and no width from Bertrand. Manager needs to earn his money at half time and sort this rubbish out.

You mean Davis. If you're going to blame someone, at least get the right person.

Even against Bournemouth that midfield would get torn apart. Too many creative players and not enough ball winners. Also, Cedric is confirmed out and Long is doubtful. I doubt MP will want to play 2 up top if there's no striker cover on the bench (except maybe Redmond if you can count him as one). Think the only way we'd go 2 up top is in a 4-4-2 diamond with Romeu, Lemina, Davis/Hoj and Tadic/Boufal as the no. 10, or a 3-5-2 with Lemina and Romeu being two of the CMs.

I'd go for: --------------Forster-------------- Cedric*---Yoshida---VVD---Bertrand --------------Romeu--------------- ------Højbjerg-------Lemina-------- ----Boufal-----------------Tadić---- --------------Austin--------------- *or Pied if Cedric's not fit. He'll be a big loss if he can't play. Bench: McCarthy, Stephens, Hoedt, Davis, JWP, Redmond, Gabbi Romeu seems at his best as an anchor man, Højbjerg and Lemina can shuttle forward and back. Those three should be able to dominate midfield with their strength and technical ability. Tadić and Boufal can drift in from wide to link play or try to create overloads out wide so the fullbacks can swing in crosses. Try to get at least one of Højbjerg and Lemina into the box to support Austin. If it's not working, maybe bring on JWP for one of the midfielders and switch to him on the right in a 4-2-3-1 with Tadić going central. Swap Austin for Gabbi after 60-70mins.

We always seem to get robbed by the officials at city. Remember this heap of **** decision in the match JRod got injured? Apparently it was completely onside.

This.

I think that on balance Leicester have a better, pacier forward line than us, more effective attacking midfield options (Mahrez>Boufal, Albrighton=Tadic, and Gray>Redmond) and a far, far batter keeper. We're stronger in midfield (That giant Spanish midfielder they have looks handy, but I think I prefer Romeu, Hoj and Lamina to anything they have in that area.) and defense (particularly at fullback, Fuchs and Simpson don't look that great this year. Saying that, they might swap Fuchs out for whassiname, that young English left back they have, he seems pretty good from what I've seen.) As far as Puel's tactics go, they seem to be alternating between direct passing and keep ball through midfield. They still predominantly try to pass forward quickly but they miss Drinkwater and Kante. None of their CMs cover as much ground as those two did so they're more vulnerable to just outside their own area and don't get as many bodies forward to support quickly as they did when winning the title, mostly due to their not having the legs to. Think it should be a fairly even game unless Mahrez gets used to playing as a 10 again, his passing has been extremely hit and miss the times I've watched them on Sky, tending to over hit through balls. If he finds his range again I think they're likely to score more than us. I normally don't wish injury on anyone, but I sincerely hope someone crocks that dirty turd Vardy before he does another one of our defenders. I think, for us, the best option to beat them is to try to overload their fullback areas (I think Austin's movement has what it takes to get the better of Morgan in particular) while watching for their obvious strength on the counter, think Lemina might have to pick his times to get forward as his pace in covering might be essential.

I'd give Austin a well deserved rest but try to do a Chelsea vs Liverpool and restrict space around the edge of the box and try to force them to play wide or over the top. Something like: ------------------Forster---------------- -------Yoshida-----VVD-----Hoodt------- Cedric-----------Romeu----------Bertrand -------PEH--------------Lamina---------- ----------------------------------------- -----------Long--------Redmond--------- Get Long & Redmond to press their defenders when out of possession and try to keep it tight. If we're still in it after 70 mins, bring on Boufal for one of the midfielders (probably Romeu otherwise PEH if he doesn't have the legs after playing on Sunday), Austin for Long and Tadic or Gabbi for Redmond then shift to a 3-4-3 and try to get crosses in where they're at their weakest (relatively speaking).