striker

Leicester looks absolutely horrible.

When was the last time JWP took a penalty?

Ralph was surprisingly open like this on a number of players. He said Hoedt can go, he said Gabbi doesn't fit his style so he can go, he said Austin is an impact sub because he can't/doesn't high press all match but can finish, said basically he's going with Gunn and MCarthy (so Foster can go), likes Stephans, and others (I forget them all now).

QPR would love to have CA back there. They are making a push for the Championship playoffs and definitely need the scoring help. Plus they love the guy for historical reasons.

Puel is an interesting study. The guy finishes top 10 in the PL every year, but fans hate him

Fulham loses 2-1, ha ha.

I don't get the Gabbi love on here. He really has never done much, and frankly has not been selected by a number of managers now. So its not just one manager who he got on the wrong side of for some reason. Where there is smoke there is fire. When I see Ralph, Hughes, and mP not select him then I assume its not the but him. We lose absolutely nothing when he goes. If you want pace put in Long, if you want a "box" scoring threat put in Austin. Gabbi seems to be ok at all of it, but not the best at any of them

MoEly wth a wide open net. Austin puts it right on his head, and all he does is nudge it to the goalkeeper

Why bring on Austin for 3 minutes?

Long - that was a rugby punt

Long for Ings is a very strange move, unless Ings is nicked

Well I think we hustled our butts off. Could have easily been tied. Lousy defending at the end of the half.

He's thinking he made a mistake by not rotating for the WHU match, the time was spent. With two more matches coming up this week, he decided that this was the game to rest the knackered players (Ings, Redmond, Armstrong, etc.). Its probably the right call.

This is going to be bloody.We needed to bury every chance we got, and the Austin flub didn't help. MC looks good for 5 goals today

Based on a few recent interviews, it sure doesn't seem like Ralph is in any hurry to play Cedric, or any of the veterans for that matter. Seems committed to the youngsters who have pace.

Ralph seems committed to playing youngsters over some veterans. He said as much in an interview. His basic stance is we sucked with the veterans so why not. Guys like Cedric are in trouble. He also greatly prefers Oba to Long/Austin. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a number of players leave in Jan, and also at th end of the season. Guys like Cedric, JWP, Gabbi (for sure), Long, Austin, Davis (another certainty), and Hoedt. Not sure where Bertrand falls, but he may be on the way out too.

This is the one I don't get. I rate Cedric and thinks he's definitely an upgrade to Targett/Valery. I also think he fits Ralph's style of play. I expected him to be in as soon as he was fit. I would say exactly the same about Bertrand.

IMO the big difference was the pace we played at. We looked tired, and rather than quickly attacking like in the previous matches we started with the old "passing back" stuff again. Ralph said as much in his presser. He said we were giving the WHU time to organize by slowing it down. My only issue with Ralph today was he should have rotated the squad. Guys like Stephens, Long, Austin, Davis, Cedric, and JWP could all have contributed and been fresh. As an aside I still am not sold on our wings. Targett and Valery are ok, but I just think they make a lot of mistakes. I'd much prefer Cedric and Bertrand out there, plus they would give us more pace.

I thought we looked tired, and ran out of gas. We should have rotated more players, WHU played 5 or 6 new players. What sucks is now we will be tired again for City or we'll have to rotate some players for that one. You always want your strongest squad for City.

I think we look tired

BBC completely wrong on Oba

I suspected there would be a rotation today. The way we have been high pressing, no way some players could put in 3 string matches in 8 days. I expect that Austin and Long will get in too, and I think they were rested vs Hudd just for this reason.

I guess Leicester had "good possibilities" today

Newcastle is capitulating now (to keep it in the stock market crashing theme).

Puel is a magician!