LIVE: Leicester vs Stoke

comment by 99 Problems (but Rodgers ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 6 minutes ago
Oh I think 100% Enzo plays Vestergaard in the PL. I’ve absolutely no doubt about that for me. He’s keeping Coady out of the team, who is a better defender
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I'm not sure, but I've got a horrible suspicion you may be right. It's something that's bothering me immensely, because if Enzo reckons he can play this style of football in the EPL with Vestergaard in at CB, he's going to be in for a rude awakening. And we'll be in for an awful season next year if we get promoted.

I just hope I'm wrong and he's using Vestergaard to get us up this season, but why would you do that if Coady would be a better bet in the higher division - it doesn't make sense?

comment by 99 Problems (but Rodgers ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
I think people are making the Maguire mistake with Vestergaard. He’s great on the ball but his main job is to defend and at this level, he’s absolutely getting away with it. He got a needless yellow today for the laziest challenge I’ve seen for a while, made distribution for Hermansen difficult with his positioning and when the play is in front of him - he looks great.

If this were the PL he would be getting absolutely torn apart
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Oh I’m not making any mistake in thinking Vesty will be out lynchpin in the Prem if we were to get promoted.

But did you believe that our promotion push this year would be spearheaded by Vestergaard as our most unstoppable player (after Winks). I didn’t.

Lol.

comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by 99 Problems (but Rodgers ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
I think people are making the Maguire mistake with Vestergaard. He’s great on the ball but his main job is to defend and at this level, he’s absolutely getting away with it. He got a needless yellow today for the laziest challenge I’ve seen for a while, made distribution for Hermansen difficult with his positioning and when the play is in front of him - he looks great.

If this were the PL he would be getting absolutely torn apart
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Oh I’m not making any mistake in thinking Vesty will be out lynchpin in the Prem if we were to get promoted.

But did you believe that our promotion push this year would be spearheaded by Vestergaard as our most unstoppable player (after Winks). I didn’t.

Lol.
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Not sure id have him as our best player this season - I think Faes has been the better defender and Winks the better player. McAteer has been the real highlight for me. Vestergard has just passed the ball very well an awful lot

comment by 99 Problems (but Rodgers ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by 99 Problems (but Rodgers ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
I think people are making the Maguire mistake with Vestergaard. He’s great on the ball but his main job is to defend and at this level, he’s absolutely getting away with it. He got a needless yellow today for the laziest challenge I’ve seen for a while, made distribution for Hermansen difficult with his positioning and when the play is in front of him - he looks great.

If this were the PL he would be getting absolutely torn apart
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh I’m not making any mistake in thinking Vesty will be out lynchpin in the Prem if we were to get promoted.

But did you believe that our promotion push this year would be spearheaded by Vestergaard as our most unstoppable player (after Winks). I didn’t.

Lol.
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Not sure id have him as our best player this season - I think Faes has been the better defender and Winks the better player. McAteer has been the real highlight for me. Vestergard has just passed the ball very well an awful lot
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I more mean in terms of importance. I agree with your analysis of our best players, but other than Winks I think Vestergaard has played the most minutes. What I’m saying is that nobody could have predicted that before the season began!

comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 21 minutes ago
comment by 99 Problems (but Rodgers ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 32 minutes ago
comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by 99 Problems (but Rodgers ain’t one) (U12353)
posted 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
I think people are making the Maguire mistake with Vestergaard. He’s great on the ball but his main job is to defend and at this level, he’s absolutely getting away with it. He got a needless yellow today for the laziest challenge I’ve seen for a while, made distribution for Hermansen difficult with his positioning and when the play is in front of him - he looks great.

If this were the PL he would be getting absolutely torn apart
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh I’m not making any mistake in thinking Vesty will be out lynchpin in the Prem if we were to get promoted.

But did you believe that our promotion push this year would be spearheaded by Vestergaard as our most unstoppable player (after Winks). I didn’t.

Lol.
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Not sure id have him as our best player this season - I think Faes has been the better defender and Winks the better player. McAteer has been the real highlight for me. Vestergard has just passed the ball very well an awful lot
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I more mean in terms of importance. I agree with your analysis of our best players, but other than Winks I think Vestergaard has played the most minutes. What I’m saying is that nobody could have predicted that before the season began!
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Totally!!

comment by Don'tUpsetTheAppletonCart (U13248)
posted 14 hours, 39 minutes ago
But to be fair 99, I think it’s safe to have faith in Enzo that he wouldn’t play Vestergard in the PL.
So it’s horses for courses, and at the moment last seasons PL donkey is becoming this seasons Championship Shire Horse ( does the job required, can look cumbersome but is reliable but you wouldn’t put it into the Derby)

UTF
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I tend to agree with Appleton. To be fair, he’s done the job that’s being asked if him. Wins most of his aerial duels, decent on the ball, gets booked nearly every game. But we’ve only conceded six goals in eleven championship matches, the best in the division by a good way. Also fair to say that it’s only now that he’s started to get a run of games and I think we all agree about the importance of that.

As regards the game itself, it was surprising that Stoke didn’t alter their game plan when they conceded; probably just damage limitation from the start given they were an injury hit outfit. Choudhury acquitted himself well in the Doyle/Justin role and Casedei looked much sharper than previously.

Teams must hate playing against us; they are hardly going to see the ball and when they get it they know they’re not having it for long! I suspect we’re going to get increasingly better and that Maresca considers we’re only half way towards where he wants us to be. Some lovely slick one touch stuff yesterday though. That’s definitely coming on leaps and bounds.

comment by old warwick fox (U11640)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
comment by Don'tUpsetTheAppletonCart (U13248)
posted 14 hours, 39 minutes ago
But to be fair 99, I think it’s safe to have faith in Enzo that he wouldn’t play Vestergard in the PL.
So it’s horses for courses, and at the moment last seasons PL donkey is becoming this seasons Championship Shire Horse ( does the job required, can look cumbersome but is reliable but you wouldn’t put it into the Derby)

UTF
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I tend to agree with Appleton. To be fair, he’s done the job that’s being asked if him. Wins most of his aerial duels, decent on the ball, gets booked nearly every game. But we’ve only conceded six goals in eleven championship matches, the best in the division by a good way. Also fair to say that it’s only now that he’s started to get a run of games and I think we all agree about the importance of that.

As regards the game itself, it was surprising that Stoke didn’t alter their game plan when they conceded; probably just damage limitation from the start given they were an injury hit outfit. Choudhury acquitted himself well in the Doyle/Justin role and Casedei looked much sharper than previously.

Teams must hate playing against us; they are hardly going to see the ball and when they get it they know they’re not having it for long! I suspect we’re going to get increasingly better and that Maresca considers we’re only half way towards where he wants us to be. Some lovely slick one touch stuff yesterday though. That’s definitely coming on leaps and bounds.
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Hopefully you, Appleton and Enzo aren't being deluded by Vestergaard's adequacy in our start to the season. He's been able to do this because of the chasm in ability between EPL and Championship sides. I'm convinced that if we were playing with this team at the higher level, we would routinely be beaten - he just isn't up to defending against top players.

Why does this bother me? I know that we are where we are and we need to focus on getting out of this division, but surely there ought to be an moderate eye to the future at least? What use is it going to be romping this league if next year we end up being slaughtered every week? The one glimmer of hope I've got is that maybe Enzo is really trying hard to ease Coady in to the team following his injury, and we will in due course see him take over at the back in time to forge an effective partnership with Wout for the much greater challenges to come next season; always on the big assumption we get promoted of course!

Nuneaton

I believe that you have hit the nail on the head, that Enzo is easing Coady back in while he has the ability to do so. If we were in the PL then I think that Coady would have been rushed back and that would not have helped his injury at all. So the Championship gives us that added bonus of having a squad where we can do that ( and yes a lot of other Championship sides cannot do that so we are very lucky).
I have always said that Vestergard is not a long term ( and by that I mean for the next 2-3 seasons) solution, but he is doing the job and surely we cannot fault any of the measly defence this season. Yes the finishing is woeful compared to the PL, but you would expect that.
Again IF and not when we get promoted then I would expect Enzo to reinforce the defence and that would see Vestergard moved on back into the Championship ( which is his level)..... But we do have to give credit where it is due just as we ripped him to pieces whenever he has pulled on a shirt before this season.

UTF

The finishing has been the most notable step down in quality between the two divisions hasn’t it DUTAC? We would have been punished a lot more had other teams got more quality in the final 3rd, especially earlier in the season when the tactics were bedding in.

But other teams look so poor. Not just the finishing bug the final ball. Then you look at KDH, Nacho and Vardy and they’re taking their chances against teams sitting in. That’s the difference because then when teams have to come out more our counter is working really well.

I’m not convinced Enzo is easing Coady back though. I think he prefers Vestergaard currently and he’ll be working with a Coady in training to get him used to his ideas. I hope he can get up to speed because he’s a much better defender than Vesty.

He’s not long terms, we all agree with that.

* long term