EPL Matchday 33

[Fryer Tuck]

Fair play NUFC Tiger , the better team won.

Burnley also pulled a critical victory there. Darn those Clarnets!

Burnley deserve every bit of credit that they should be getting this season.

 

[Shoei]

Burnley and Man City would have to be the teams of the season.

Man City because although everyone expected them to do well i don't think anyone expected such a league season. They've really been brilliant.

Burnley, after just barely surviving last season they've had an amazing season and currently look like getting in to Europe over Leicester and Everton.

 

[NUFC Tiger]

Rafa’s a marvel. What he’s done with such small budget.
Lascelles will be targeted I’d imagine.

Yep, can see quite a few of the bigger clubs sniffing around Lascelles. Having a fine season and still quite young. Could be the best CB we've had since Woodgate (bar 1 season from Colo when we finished 5th haha).

Fair play NUFC Tiger , the better team won.

Burnley also pulled a critical victory there. Darn those Clarnets!

Burnley deserve every bit of credit that they should be getting this season.

Cheers FT - could have been a very different game had the penalty been given/red card issued. Was quite some deja vu seeing another Schmeichel getting chipped by a Toon player. Must be a family thing.

Apologies for blunting your push towards Europe - especially with Burnley profiting. Given they are our closest (geographical) rival in the division, I certainly don't wish to see them progressing. Much rather your lads pip them in that particular race!

Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on Puel? Reading a lot of post game comments and seems sections of the Foxes fanbase aren't happy with him (think it's mostly his tactics and style?). Think Soton had the same issue last year despite finishing 8th.

Kudos to the club for supplying free beer too - think it was someone's birthday? Nice gesture. Cashley would just give fans a 5% off any alreay discounted item in the Sports Direct discount bin.

 

[Fryer Tuck]

Yep, can see quite a few of the bigger clubs sniffing around Lascelles. Having a fine season and still quite young. Could be the best CB we've had since Woodgate (bar 1 season from Colo when we finished 5th haha).



Cheers FT - could have been a very different game had the penalty been given/red card issued. Was quite some deja vu seeing another Schmeichel getting chipped by a Toon player. Must be a family thing.

Apologies for blunting your push towards Europe - especially with Burnley profiting. Given they are our closest (geographical) rival in the division, I certainly don't wish to see them progressing. Much rather your lads pip them in that particular race!

Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on Puel? Reading a lot of post game comments and seems sections of the Foxes fanbase aren't happy with him (think it's mostly his tactics and style?). Think Soton had the same issue last year despite finishing 8th.

Kudos to the club for supplying free beer too - think it was someone's birthday? Nice gesture. Cashley would just give fans a 5% off any alreay discounted item in the Sports Direct discount bin.

To be honest, Mahrez went down way too easily (I think he was on the way down before contact was even made). If he played it more naturally, could've been different, but the right decision was made. Oh man, I don't need any more of that, lol.

We have beef with them, many Leicester fans will. It's a recent rivalry between our two clubs, so we want to make sure we get the better of them no matter what. I would like to keep up the fight as well, but we need to get our act together, especially at home.

Puel's ideas are certainly interesting enough. He's trying to make us more possession based, but it kinda feels like it's trying to become our only plan, and not plan B. It also doesn't help that he does have a few cattle that doesn't work well with what he wants to do (I'm still baffled as to why he got rid of Drago and Amartey, who are both better ballers than Morgan and Simpson.) I will give him the summer window to work his magic. Diabate is very encouraging, so if he can keep that up, then all should hopefully go well. Fans also complain that he's more reactive than proactive when it comes to subs, but that seems to be a common theme amongst our recent managers. I can see what he's trying to do, and will give him the summer, but our home form really needs to improve.

I know for a fact that the players aren't happy due to a lack of communication, hopefully he'll get a chance to mend things over.

There is one important thing that I think gets forgotten a lot... 7th place, or even 8th, would be our 2nd best (or tied 2nd) ever finish in the PL era, yet there won't be many impressed with that. I would say that for most fans, they want to at least finish above Burnley, and be "best of the rest," especially when we have been chasing that for half a season now.

That's right, it's the Chairman's birthday! (Too bad the players aside from Hazma and maybe Silva turned up). Always a tradition down at the King Power. There was also one more big announcement, and that is the expansion of the stadium. I am hearing that it will be expanded to its expansion cap (about 40,000), so there is exciting times ahead. Quite a jump from 32,000, but I do believe that if circumstances in the Midlands stay the same (Well, Forest and Derby down, and if the West Midlands can just follow suit), we will slowly grow into the capacity. It should also mean a cheaper membership scheme.

 

[NUFC Tiger]

To be honest, Mahrez went down way too easily (I think he was on the way down before contact was even made). If he played it more naturally, could've been different, but the right decision was made. Oh man, I don't need any more of that, lol.

We have beef with them, many Leicester fans will. It's a recent rivalry between our two clubs, so we want to make sure we get the better of them no matter what. I would like to keep up the fight as well, but we need to get our act together, especially at home.

Puel's ideas are certainly interesting enough. He's trying to make us more possession based, but it kinda feels like it's trying to become our only plan, and not plan B. It also doesn't help that he does have a few cattle that doesn't work well with what he wants to do (I'm still baffled as to why he got rid of Drago and Amartey, who are both better ballers than Morgan and Simpson.) I will give him the summer window to work his magic. Diabate is very encouraging, so if he can keep that up, then all should hopefully go well. Fans also complain that he's more reactive than proactive when it comes to subs, but that seems to be a common theme amongst our recent managers. I can see what he's trying to do, and will give him the summer, but our home form really needs to improve.

I know for a fact that the players aren't happy due to a lack of communication, hopefully he'll get a chance to mend things over.

There is one important thing that I think gets forgotten a lot... 7th place, or even 8th, would be our 2nd best (or tied 2nd) ever finish in the PL era, yet there won't be many impressed with that. I would say that for most fans, they want to at least finish above Burnley, and be "best of the rest," especially when we have been chasing that for half a season now.

That's right, it's the Chairman's birthday! (Too bad the players aside from Hazma and maybe Silva turned up). Always a tradition down at the King Power. There was also one more big announcement, and that is the expansion of the stadium. I am hearing that it will be expanded to its expansion cap (about 40,000), so there is exciting times ahead. Quite a jump from 32,000, but I do believe that if circumstances in the Midlands stay the same (Well, Forest and Derby down, and if the West Midlands can just follow suit), we will slowly grow into the capacity. It should also mean a cheaper membership scheme.

It was definitely a big call and I expected it to be given if I'm honest (we seem to have an uncanny ability to come off second best with the refs haha).

I wish you guys the best of luck against the Burnley menace - they are just a poor man's West Ham afterall. Now they are trying to lay claim to being the best team in the NE...oh please, Carlisle are better than this mob!

Those were the gist of the comments I read and heard about criticisms of Puel (that he favours a patient, slow build up possession style even when a goal down and that his subs seem to have minimal impact on games). Finishing 7th or 8th would be a great achievement too. No shame in being pretty much the 'best of the rest'. Unless you have the resources of the big 6, I don't think many will have legitimate hopes of breaking that stranglehold.

I wonder if the free beer extended to the travelling Toon fans - or if they had to supply their own Newy Brown Ale? Pretty cool announcement about the stadium too. Is the stadium landlocked by it's surroundings? I know that will be a challenge for us if we ever expand St James' - most surrounded by residential properties which will make it hard to expand the stadium.

 

[Fryer Tuck]

It was definitely a big call and I expected it to be given if I'm honest (we seem to have an uncanny ability to come off second best with the refs haha).

I wish you guys the best of luck against the Burnley menace - they are just a poor man's West Ham afterall. Now they are trying to lay claim to being the best team in the NE...oh please, Carlisle are better than this mob!

Those were the gist of the comments I read and heard about criticisms of Puel (that he favours a patient, slow build up possession style even when a goal down and that his subs seem to have minimal impact on games). Finishing 7th or 8th would be a great achievement too. No shame in being pretty much the 'best of the rest'. Unless you have the resources of the big 6, I don't think many will have legitimate hopes of breaking that stranglehold.

I wonder if the free beer extended to the travelling Toon fans - or if they had to supply their own Newy Brown Ale? Pretty cool announcement about the stadium too. Is the stadium landlocked by it's surroundings? I know that will be a challenge for us if we ever expand St James' - most surrounded by residential properties which will make it hard to expand the stadium.

Well, you got yourselves the right call, and were able to hold on despite our usual final 10 antics.

You mean NW, unless this is the War of the Roses all over again! Lol. Oh come on, that's a little harsh, isn't it? Yes, they look like West Ham, but are much poorer, but I don't recall West Ham winning the title, let alone twice! If not for our loss to you, the ball would've been in our court to get over Burnley, but we need to hope they stumble once more after we hopefully beat them away.

Pretty much, and in this competition, if you're standing still, you're going backwards. You have to keep evolving and building to get those results. It's as you said, unless we pull off some very consist ant top 4 results (Pfffft!) we're always going to be "the rest," and our choices of player a lot more limited. The best you can do is find the right fits while keeping what you have. You've got to be fresh and ambitious, otherwise you will eventually crumble away.

That said, while we can't compete on a resources front, we do have to remember that old adage of "One game at a time". In order to place well, you need to do very well against your peers, and to get as many points as you can from them. Take your chances, and you might nick something unexpected. Burnley's only 5 points off Arsenal, and they had a long winless streak in the middle of the season. Winning against Arsenal or Tottenham means nothing if you lose to Swansea or Brighton, those are points you would've expected to get, only you missed out on the opportunity to add to your total.

It is both amusing and concerning to see our fans up in arms over Puel, but at the same time, we can do much better at home games.

Good question. I don't think you get that luxury, I'm afraid. The ground is a little landlocked, but then again, I don't think we'll need to worry about that for a while. We can get to 42,000 just fine, and knowing the Thais, they will make it grand. They don't things by halves. I mean, they've decided to move our training ground, which is considered a good training ground for Premier League Standards, and turn it into State of the Art stuff, Collingwood style. There have been calls to bring back the "double decker" and make the ground feel more like home rather than just the generic bowl the stadium is. There has been so many complaints about us being King Power FC... All I can say is if they've actually looked at SportsDirect Park, but apparently I heard that they don't want to celebrate things prior to them taking over. There were pictures of old Leicester players that had been replaced by KP stuff... a bit off, if true, but maybe they can claw some points back by getting a museum and proper fan park at the place, along with a banner that says "Leicester City Football Club" on the Double Decker.

But yeah, 40,000+ is the first goal. Let's grow into that first of all, and get the next generation involved (I am also reminded that our forum is actually made up of 40+ agers! The main admin guy is 70! Yikes!) They claim that most of the members are of the old school, and because of the expensive tickets, are keeping out the new blood that will give the club a future.

As for St James, do you have extra capacity to grow, or is what you have its full cap?