Connor wickham

I’ve seen the Conor Wickham rumours elsewhere and he is a player I rated a season or two back. I’m not sure, however, what affect adding another striker would have on our squad. Waghorn, Futacs and Schlupp would suddenly become 4th, 5th and 6th choice strikers, which I would imagine would not be particularly good for morale. I’m not sure why we recruited Futacs if he is to be nowhere near the first team.

Vardy’s performance on Saturday worried me a bit. I’ve been impressed with his performances up to now as, even though he was missing a few chances, he was getting in the right places to score and having a go. On Saturday he seemed very reluctant to shoot and overplayed the ball quite a lot, which looks like a player low on confidence. Up to now he was doing everything right apart from the realisation that you don’t get that extra half a second at this level, but losing confidence will only see him regress.

Nev will say that Beckford is out of the side for financial reasons and he’s partially correct (imo). NP must have rated Beckford at the beginning of the season enough to put him in the side ahead of Nugent so that’s a huge clue that it’s not just a performance issue. I think it’s about value for money. We know what we’ll get out of Nugent for the money we’re paying him whereas Beckford is a bit more of a gamble – especially as we need to pay another lump of money to Everton if he plays one more game.

I’ve seen the Conor Wickham rumours elsewhere and he is a player I rated a season or two back. I’m not sure, however, what affect adding another striker would have on our squad. Waghorn, Futacs and Schlupp would suddenly become 4th, 5th and 6th choice strikers, which I would imagine would not be particularly good for morale. I’m not sure why we recruited Futacs if he is to be nowhere near the first team.

Vardy’s performance on Saturday worried me a bit. I’ve been impressed with his performances up to now as, even though he was missing a few chances, he was getting in the right places to score and having a go. On Saturday he seemed very reluctant to shoot and overplayed the ball quite a lot, which looks like a player low on confidence. Up to now he was doing everything right apart from the realisation that you don’t get that extra half a second at this level, but losing confidence will only see him regress.

Nev will say that Beckford is out of the side for financial reasons and he’s partially correct (imo). NP must have rated Beckford at the beginning of the season enough to put him in the side ahead of Nugent so that’s a huge clue that it’s not just a performance issue. I think it’s about value for money. We know what we’ll get out of Nugent for the money we’re paying him whereas Beckford is a bit more of a gamble – especially as we need to pay another lump of money to Everton if he plays one more game.

I think we potentially have a real problem up-front, particularly if Nugent gets injured.

I felt all along that Vardy would struggle at this level and as has been pointed out before, his decision making is not great. That is not to say that he might be a great asset in the future but to load all this expectation on his shoulders at this early stage is both unrealistic and unfair on the player.

The morale of Futacs, Waghorn and Schlupp is one thing but all three are really third choice strikers. For me, at least two of them should go out on loan to get some first team football.

I would take Wickham ahead of these three but I imagine his wages could be an issue - certainly if our second striker is out on loan for what would appear to be financial reasons.

Don't be too hasty to drop Vardy down the pecking order just yet. I've been impressed with how he has acclimatised to this division. And if he continues to score at the same ratio of goals to games for the remainder of the season he will end up with the best part of 20 goals.
We haven't had many 20 goal a season men in recent years. If he manages that his £1m price tag will seem very good value.
I am worried if he or Nugent get injured or suspended though. Waghorn looks the best of the back-up but a front-two of Waggy and Schlupp would be very light weight.

I thought Vardy had an average game on Saturday but not one which warranted being dropped. He didnt look confident at shooting for whatever reason - not good as a 'Striker', however he cancelled this out with a very good work rate and a lot of chasing and putting pressure on the Bristol defence. This is the work which tends to get forgotten about from a fans point of view, but I lost count of how many throw ins he won us deep in their half.

There's a lad up at Huddersfield who looked really usefull on Saturday. Great first touch, a finisher's instinct and he put in a shift, chasing all over the park.

He's got a point to prove Nev.
Be interesting to see if he's that interested near the end of his loan spell.