Fox1884

Just fyi, it was Steve Walsh who found Mahrez for us, Mackenzie was part of the analytics team that highlighted him on our targets list when we were looking for certain players with a certain criteria (in his case it was wide players with 1 year left on their contract who made progressive runs and a few other things)

After this season I personally do rate him as a squad player for us, I think Rodgers has found the way to get the best out of him, 4 goals and 5 assists in 960 minutes is a great return for us and I will be honest and admit in some of the games where he has been subbed off it was a massive mistake on the part of Rodgers as he was usually one of our best players on the pitch at the time (4-1 defeat to Bournemouth is a great example of this) There are rumours that we are looking at strikers this window (Edouard, Muriqi, Jovic) but I think it depends how Rodgers will want to set us up next season, if he wants us to play with 2 up top I can see Iheanacho staying and fighting it out with the new signing to be Vardys partner, if its 1 up top I can see him being sold to make way for another striker who is more capable of playing the lone striker role Price wise I could see us looking to get between £20m and £25m for him as he is still only 23 and definitely does have the talent to succeed in the right team

Personally I think Gray is pretty poor, 10 goals and 11 assists in 132 games, yes a fair few were as a sub but still he has never got more than 5 goal contributions in the league for us since we signed him in 2016, Barnes in a season and a bit has nearly already matched Grays entire goal contribution He really hasn't developed much as a player, if at all since we bought him, he has skill and pace but honestly he has no football brain at all, a lot of times he would take players on and just shoot from outside the box (when from memory I think he has only scored outside the box for us once) This summer he will either be sold or get a new contract as his current one ends next summer and they are unlikely to want to let him leave on a free, wouldn't surprise me if he went for between £10m and £15m, apparently Spurs have some interest in him

You would prefer Gray over Iheanacho...? No comment...

On his day he can be a really good striker, but he can be incredibly frustrating as well. One minute he will have a sublime touch/score a really good goal, the next minute he is tripping over his own feet, and his right foot is pretty underwhelming He doesn't really have the pace or mobility to flourish as a solo striker, he definitely needs to play in a two to get the best out of him This season in the league he has managed 5 goals and 4 assists in 960 minutes, so he has definitely stepped up compared to previous seasons

There was rumours about our interest today and apparently it is more likely to be in the region of £30m, which would also explain why there is also rumours about your interest in Iheanacho

Sorry lads but Bournemouth will be getting 3 points against us

Yeah I was really looking forward to seeing him play for us when we signed him, but in 16/17 he only played in the odd cup game, 17/18 he got loaned out to Freibury but never really played and when he did he didn't do much 18/19 he was with our sister club in Belgium 2nd division for the first half of the season and was doing okay but then he got a cruciate ligament injury in March 2019 and didn't come back from it until January 2020 and has now only played the odd game for our youth side But it seems like Rodgers has started using him in with 1st team training so he might get his chance during the rest of this season, possibly off the bench, I certainly hope so! Only has 1 year left on his contract so if he doesn't get much game time the rest of this season I can see him being sold this summer

Seems to have come out this morning that our line ups were: Villa Park: Schmeichel Justin, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell Maddison, Mendy, Tielemans Albrighton, Iheanacho, Gray King Power: Ward, Choudhury, Morgan, Fuchs, Thomas (this defence is horrifying) James, Ndidi, Praet Kapustka, Vardy, Barnes I have seen a good picture of Matty James and Danny Drinkwater battling for the ball from the King Power game which is quite nostalgic to see

Drinkwater started the game at the King Power A few pictures here you could look at, not much good at noticing who Villa players are unfortunately! I think I spotted McGinn playing in the Villa Park game? https://www.lcfc.com/galleries/1680100/joint-training-exercises-take-place-at-villa-park--king-power-stadium

Seems like our stronger team with most of our main 11 played at Villa Park whilst our King Power team had 3 first 11 players (Vardy, Ndidi, Barnes) and the rest squad players/youth (from social media pictures of the matches) Wouldn't take much from these anyway, from the footage of these friendlies it looks like a lot of players aren't putting in a lot serious effort, just using them to build up fitness

From what I have seen on twitter seems like Villa won 3-0 at King Power, Leicester won 1-0 at Villa Park No idea on line ups though

Most of the news about Callejon coming out of Napoli and Italy is that he will be heading back to Spain, clubs like Sevilla, Betis, etc. are interested in him Will be a shame to see him finally leave Napoli but he just isn’t as effective as he used to be

Soyuncu is a classic case of struggling to settle, he needed a year on the bench and just in and around the squad before he settled in properly, he really struggled to pick up the language There was even rumours he was going to go out on loan back to Turkey or Germany because he hadn't settled Looked like an absolute bombscare with the ball the few times he played for us last season Thankfully we stuck with him and it has paid off

Our options next season look like: Starting 2 - Evans and Soyuncu Back up 2 - Morgan and Benkovic We are very unlikely to make Bennetts loan move permanent Last summer and in January we were actively looking for a new centre back, mainly Demiral from Juventus until he got injured, so it seems like we will definitely be in the market for a centre back in the next transfer window, with Morgan likely to take on a 5th choice/coaching role next season and the new signing and Benkovic pushing Evans for his position

This summer all you need is a video of the son of your manager involved in a racist orgy in your owners homeland during a goodwill tour to be leaked, getting the manager sacked, and some unsuccessful past it manager to be hired in his place, then you are well on track! What a rollercoaster that was

Fair play to you, very clinical and took your chances, just seemed to want it more than we did Nyland and the back 3 (especially Nyland) were like a brick wall over both legs, we struggled to get the one goal and I thought it would be penalties because we would struggle to get another Do it for all the non Big 6 teams in England and beat Man City in the final! Would be good to see another Midlands team in Europe next season! As for Mike Dean and VAR they can do one!

Vardy will be included in the squad for tomorrow night, no confirmation as to whether starting or on the bench Expecting him to be on the bench with Iheanacho starting, and coming on around 60-70 mins if needed

Rodgers has confirmed Vardy injury not as bad as first feared Will definitely miss our FA Cup game tomorrow but is hopeful for Tuesday

Rodgers said after the game it was only a twinged arse muscle and nothing serious, should hopefully be alright for the 2nd leg

Vardy seems to have only twinged his arse muscle, not too serious, should hopefully be back for the 2nd leg

Ever since we beat you at the start of December we have been absolute guff apart from 2 games around New Year Fully expecting West Ham to get at least a draw from us on Wednesday

He was brilliant for us in the title winning season and he was good during the champions league campaign the following season (pretty average in the league until we sacked Claudio) Had a really good range of passing that Vardy thrived off, could also hit the ball quite well (scored a few bangers for us) However I do think he needs to be playing with a “destroyer” type player alongside him in midfield (Kante and then Ndidi) to be able to do what he does best as he can sometimes dally on the ball a bit He has pretty much missed his prime years as a player, so I am definitely interested in seeing how he does for you Just a shame he can’t play tomorrow!

Decent win I guess...

Maddison did play in a midfield 3 last season, and we played most of our best football when he played there with Ndidi and Tielemans, in fact it is the one criticism I have of Rodgers so far this season that he doesn’t play him there usually until the 2nd half when he subs on a winger. He is more than capable playing that position and would regularly come deep to collect the ball to dictate the tempo and get us moving forward