It wasn’t that long ago we’d cringe if his name appeared in the starting XI
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I wish no bacon for the last 18 days and another 11 before I will see any little porker bits to eat.
I have to agree about those two. I’ve said it before but I don’t believe they are up to scratch. This photo summed the afternoon up for me from a defensive point of view. Look where our two centre backs are!
Hughes needs to find a settled back three or four and soon. Vestergaard and who? Yoshida had a solid World Cup so perhaps he will nail down the other spot.
The form of Romeu and Lemina is also a little concerning at the moment. Both are good players when they are on song so it’s probably worth persevering with that partnership for now.
Positives - Ings looks lively and it’s great that he’s off the mark already.
Vardy was sent off and will miss our game next week! 
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So poor were we at winning defensive headers in the first 30 mins that I do wonder if we’d worked on 3 at the back all week and the Vestergaard illness messed our marking up. Woeful.
But when we played with 3 at the back against Burnley no-one knew what to do - Hughes even said so himself. So these players cant play with 2 at the back or 3 at the back? Then theyre shit.
I watched Goals on Sunday earlier and Kammy (of all people) actually dissected the defending for their second goal. It started by Redmond and Lemina failing to properly pick up the ‘correct’ men and ultimately left Bertrand exposed and overloaded. Then when the ball came in Hoedt and Stephens were out of position and got caught under the ball. If they’d reverted to a more zonal positioning during that transition then one of them could have contested the ball rather than Cedric, who was up against a 6’+
forward. Essentially 3 or 4 small individual errors in judgement/positioning led to that goal.
It does give the impression that they don’t really know what they’re doing at the moment.
At least Huddersfield are getting a pasting.
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Didn’t see that but I’m glad you gave Bertrand an excuse for being so far away from Walcott for the cross.
I couldn’t tell watching it live why he was so far away but suspected he must have been given too much to do.
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Yeah. Basically Redmond was being drawn inside towards Guey who was running with the ball. Lemina stood off but it should have been him going towards the ball. Redmond should have focused on Coleman, leaving Bertrand to pick up Walcott. Then because Redmond didn’t pick up Coleman, Bertrand got pulled out to him leaving Lemina picking up Walcott. However, Lemina then let’s Walcott go leaving two against Bertrand.
So in fairness to Bertrand he was getting pulled around all over the place because of the other two not picking up and following runners.
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Hughes on Vestergaard and Ings.
Vestergaard was a great loss he said. We’d have defended their long balls if he’d played, according to Hughes.
True, but what does that say about his faith in our other CBs.
Also Vestergaard volunteered to play through his virus. Legend. I’m sure we’ll grow to resent him, but right now he’s a legend.
Hughes is right about the importance of Ings scoring early. When I think about that I feel much more confident than I otherwise would.
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He’s not stupid - he has the same faith as the rest of us
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I think it shows how much we actually miss Fonte. Or at least what he brought to us at the time. People will point towards the number of penalties that he gave away during his last games with us as a sign of his declining talents, but Hoedt and Stephens could only wish to be close enough to the opposition forwards in order to foul them.
He was the constant alongside Lovren, Alderweireld and then VVD. We had to replace each of the others but never the constant which offered the stability for the others to adapt and flourish. I guess the club hoped that Yoshida would fill that void, as one of our longest serving players.
During our 8th, 7th and 6th placed finishes, we were pretty solid at the back and had one of the lowest goals against in the league. We were able to build upon that foundation to achieve what we did.
Hughes needs to settle on a partnership and stick with it. At the moment it looks like our best bet is Vestergaard and Yoshida. Which is ironic on the basis that they have not yet played together! Process of elimination though.
Otherwise we will be in for Ryan Shawcross et al in January and you could hardly fault the idea.
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