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Reply | We sign a striker!
at 19:32 16 Jan 2025
Given our new policy on youth players I expect him to start on Saturday.  |
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Reply | Clive meeting with Nourry
at 13:26 16 Jan 2025
He's talking about ticket pricing, because some other clubs have removed stuff like discounts for pensioners, or massively dropped the age cutoff for kids tickets etc. |
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Reply | Alfie Lloyd new deal
at 12:32 16 Jan 2025
He was early on, as was Kolli, but they both got exposed defensively. Chair is our best player and Smyth our quickest, but they're also both defensively hard-working and that's why they're first choice, and why Saito backs up both of them. I don't think Lloyd or Kolli lacks commitment, but both of them struggled in that role. In our system the lone striker still has to press from the front (and Frey made a big difference when he came back because he works very hard at that), but it isn't as immediately fatal if they get it wrong because they're better-supported, particularly now that we have Morgan's legs in there too. It's a better role for Lloyd's pace and energy at the minute, because it doesn't ask as much of him in that sense, plus central defenders who've just spent an hour getting bashed about by Michy Frey aren't thrilled to then have to handle a player like Lloyd who has both speed and strength. |
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Reply | Clive meeting with Nourry
at 12:15 16 Jan 2025
Think he comes off well here and indeed in the NYD statement too. Obviously don't agree with him on some things but I do feel like the club is moving in overall the right direction.
Very strongly suspect that if he hadn't burned so much credit so early with the very tight comms (or lack thereof) strategy all of this would hit very differently - now he, and the club, are trying to make up lost ground and addressing people (us) who are wary of them, whereas they could easily have been a little bit more open in the early running and built up that trust. Hopefully a lesson learned. |
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Reply | Alfie Lloyd new deal
at 22:49 15 Jan 2025
Thought he showed a bit more of a developed game against Luton than he has in the past - hopefully signs of some growing experience and coaching paying off. He's nowhere near ready to be a first choice lone striker in this league, but he might yet become one if he keeps improving. |
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Reply | A mist opportunity as Foxes hit QPR for six – Report
at 14:10 13 Jan 2025
I feel like early on he looked exciting going forwards but was defensively suspect - I have a clear memory of seeing him defending the box and being just miles out of position. His ability to press and cope with the physicality of the Championship has gone up considerably since then (though he's not as good as either of Chair or Smyth and I do think some of the stick Paal has been getting comes from having Koki instead of llly playing in front of him for most of it) but his end product has been a bit suspect. Like you, I think the ability and commitment is there, so hopefully he pulls it all together.
Earlier in the thread someone said asked about goals and assists - he has three assists, almost the first thing he did was lay the ball on for Dykes to get the equaliser against Sheffield Utd, and he also set up Field's second against Oxford by pressing high up on the edge of the box and then laying it back nicely. I'd forgotten the Wednesday game until I went and looked this up, but he popped up with one in that too very late on after only coming on in the 72nd minute. He's on par with Smyth, Chair, and Dembele who are all joint top on 3 (in the league), though of course Chair and Dembele have played far less football this season. Goals-wise Dembele and Smyth have scored 1 each, Saito and Chair have none.
It's not an amazing return, but not markedly worse than any of our other wingers, and I think before Smyth's recent uptick in form you'd have backed Saito to get a goal ahead of him (and the only one he has scored so far this season is that bizarre one against City). |
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Reply | Leicester City v Q.P.R Match Type Thread.
at 16:01 11 Jan 2025
At the very least Madsen and Ashby should have been gone. At 3-2 it was very possible to pull back and Dunne and Morgan or Colback would have given us a chance. |
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Reply | Leicester City v Q.P.R Match Type Thread.
at 15:42 11 Jan 2025
Ironic turnaround that we look better going forwards now but are defensively wobbly.
Madsen still out there apparently, perhaps Marti's forgotten about him - though more likely the logic at this point is to leave him on instead of risking a player who might actually matter this season. |
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Reply | Leicester City v Q.P.R Match Type Thread.
at 15:14 11 Jan 2025
Ashby has basically lost us this by himself. Was hoping Madsen might seize a chance here too after being forced out of the side by a kid who'd never played competitive football before but he's been totally invisible. The sooner they both come off the better |
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Reply | Madsen Mins
at 10:04 10 Jan 2025
Yes, I tend to think of it as Colback/Field/Varane (pick two), but there's no reason Colback doesn't slot in to Morgan's position as I believe he did on Monday. Perhaps Madsen can get a game in the week Jack is inevitably suspended! |
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Reply | Madsen Mins
at 09:50 10 Jan 2025
There was. He also played a big role in Kolli's second goal against Norwich a few weeks ago, pressing their defender into the error that Kolli seizes on.
The passing ability is there, and he was growing into the role a bit in his last few appearances and getting more involved in pressing and tackling. He hasn't got the same engine as Morgan does and that counts against him in this team at the moment, but Morgan surely can't play all our remaining games this season so it seems like we're going to see Madsen more at some point. Hopefully being kept out of the team by an 18 year old spurs him on a bit. |
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Reply | Frey
at 11:43 9 Jan 2025
6 in 16 league and cup, so a little better than 1 in 3, plus an assist. Not a bad ratio, especially when you think what a state the team was in overall earlier in the season. |
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Reply | Frey
at 10:50 9 Jan 2025
Great analysis Westway.
I think Frey is underserved by how weird he looks running - he's a big unit and he looks slow, but the first goal on Monday he starts the move from inside our half and finishes it standing practically on the touchline, he can hustle when he needs to. He's not exactly Paul Smyth but I don't think he's markedly slow for a Championship striker, and he helps himself out by having good instincts for positioning. He has good vision and passing to go with the strength too, he's a surprisingly complete player. |
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Reply | New goalie for development squad
at 10:20 9 Jan 2025
Exactly, it's a development squad, you sign players to develop. We have a clutch of them at the minute, but some of them won't work out, and you won't keep hold of all the ones that are good - keepers don't get rotated the same way outfielders do, so if the first choice is fit and playing well you aren't getting a look in. Shepperd types are happy to just be in the squad and show up to training and occasionally make the bench, but you'd hope most of these lads want to play regularly, and some of them will decide that if Nardi and Walsh are ahead of them they're going to go elsewhere and do that rather than waiting around. |
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Reply | Development squad
at 10:12 9 Jan 2025
I think it's very telling that when it was clearly not working with Madsen or Andersen, Marti took a chance on 18 year old Kieran Morgan (signed for the dev squad, zero competitive minutes in his life) and not EDB. He can't even get off the bench in most games.
Think it's worth repeating with Bennie that he was a dev squad signing who is only showing up at all because we have space on the bench and he's willing to come on as a sub wherever he's needed. He's being used exactly as you'd expect for his experience, getting a handful of minutes here and there to let senior players have a rest when we're closing out games - in a world where Chair and Dembele had both been fit we'd probably have never seen him at all. |
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Reply | Development squad
at 09:52 9 Jan 2025
EDB was a one-year extension wasn't it, not a whole new contract? I think the feeling last season was that he was only being kept out because we were so dependent on having two of Field/Hayden/Colback in the middle and Andersen was first choice playing ahead of them, but he's a player who in theory suits Marti's preferred style so we wanted to keep him for this season. As it turned out we signed Madsen, Varane, and Morgan (to very different levels of success...) and the attempt to shift styles didn't work, so we're still dependent on the two in front of the defence (which all of Field/Varane/Colback are better than EDB at), which only leaves room for one in the 10 role where Morgan is playing well enough to keep out two much more experienced players in Madsen and Andersen, never mind EDB. The couple of times he has played he hasn't looked great, either. Bit of a weird player - he has some of the good attributes of all the players around him but not enough of any of them that you'd pick him over them.
It's a bit of a cliche to say a player could use a loan but EDB is 24 and has only played in a handful of competitive games; he could desperately use some time in a team where he was getting picked every week just to find out what his real best position is and whether he can cut it in men's football because he's never going to get anywhere playing in one-off cup games and making occasional 60 second cameos. |
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Reply | Cifuentes and Dunne Nominated For Monthly Awards
at 09:30 9 Jan 2025
Yeah, I was very surprised. If you're being very picky I guess you can say either that the ball comes off the defender or there's the question mark over Frey handling it first but it's not like it's gone cannoning off somewhere from a deflection, Morgan places the ball exactly where Frey is and the Luton player never has control of it at any point. As you say, it's a straightforward assist. |
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Reply | Cifuentes and Dunne Nominated For Monthly Awards
at 09:23 9 Jan 2025
Morgan doesn't seem to have been credited with an assist for the Frey goal anywhere, which probably drops his score quite a bit. Is that because it glances off the defender first? There wasn't much contact. |
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