shen

Fair points that I don't disagree with. I would say that he followed Haaland, the most hyped player at the time, and had similar or better strike rates. It's an understandable trap. But I find it completely fair to criticise the recruitment/management staff for not identifying the flaws (or if they did and still pursued with the transfer).

He's not good enough, nobody needs reminding of it or disagrees with this. This doesn't equate to Hutchinson or whoever "not being worse". We've plenty of very current examples of how our academy players aren't the saviour. We cannot buy any players outside the window, so we're stuck with what he have. It's pretty simple, it's not "crazy". He's the lesser of two evils between him and Ayew. Absolutely NOBODY is defending or excusing him, including myself. But you'd think that on an online Leicester City fan forum thread about PATSON DAKA, that one can discuss finer nuances of his time here rather than just have X repeating posts that he's "crap".

It probably didn't happen often, I admit. When those plays happened (and they did ) they probably stood out. Not trying to do any revisionism, just adding some perspective and context.

I'd counter with Perez being weak in possession and physically average at best. If you compare him to Maddison, the difference is stark, yet we paid £13m more for Perez? His strike rate for a forward was poor and while he did play the majority of games on the right, he had ample opportunities centrally behind the striker or even as the front man. Then you also have to consider the minutes/starts that he got in that side. Did Daka ever had a run of five or more starts when Vardy and Iheanacho were at the club? My mind may be playing tricks and doing Daka favours here, but I thought his link up play around the box was usually solid - he would often be the bouncer in quick one-two's. In today's team, he hardly gets any touches or gets involved in any link up play, so his passing and dribbling skills are kind of moot points anyway. You look at the profile when we got him and he was distinctly a running poacher type of player, who would probably have been better suited to the style we had when we were primarily a counter-attacking side pre Rodgers. He was wrong type of striker to get for a Rodgers team.

I said all along that Daka has been poor for us. Perez was underwhelming whether he played on the right (which really was as a channel forward if anything) or as a second striker. And he cost £10m more with similar or worse output. Yet he doesn't get near as much of a bad rap - probably because he's not here anymore for us to focus our anger on. There's more to both players than what they've shown with us, which is the nuance and complexity I'm trying to get at, instead of just dumbing it down to one word.

Wales' bench looks quite poor. Basically just Broadhead, Koumas and Norrington-Davies who play regularly.

Terrible comparison. He performed over two seasons there, hardly a one-off. Although you could argue he never did much in their European games, so maybe there was an indication already back then that he couldn't replicate his form at a higher level. In hindsight, I can understand why we went for him. Had he not cost as much and had there not been such hype around him (remember he was Haaland's successor - and with great effect), then I don't think the judgement of him would be so harsh. I think it's fair to compare him to Okazaki when it comes to numbers and graft. Shinji was obviously limited technically and physically and he was never ever prolific. But he cost around a third of Daka and was of course part of that side. Likewise, compare him to Perez who was even more expensive and arguably a worse pound for pound investment, yet expectations were low as he never seemed more than a decent player at a team below us. His numbers, lack of physicality and lack of cutting edge were, I would argue, just as disappointing. But the fact he's had a decent career since leaving and somehow made the Spain NT suddenly makes people remember him more fondly.

Very impressive!

Is that list truly that long though? Can't really think of that many besides Kramaric, Perez and youth rejects like Bassey. I don't necessarily disagree the culture here today is bad, but others have thrived or performed consistently at the club in that same period (Fofana, Maddison, Tielemans, Vardy, KDH, Hermansen, James). I would imagine he hasn't been coached well or maybe just has never really fit in with the squad, playing style or English football in general. We don't have a lot of options really and throwing a completely unproven youth player into the senior team that performs as badly as this would likely only set back said kid. Monga has regressed, Page is out of the picture, Aluko warms the bench at best, Evans is forgotten. Unless the talent is exceptional and the mentality is strong, I'd strongly advise against promoting anyone now. If we do go down, then we may be forced to fast track more youngsters anyway.

Shouldn't that be Cambodian?

I'm starting to go off them. Two categories that were US-centric - again. The blue one made no sense to me.

Yeah, that does make some sense. It could well be a problem with the head rather than raw ability.

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I think he'll be gone before long. That is a rank statistic to have with Brøndby. I truly think his saving grace is that they were never likely to finish higher than third - and that FC Copenhagen have had an absolute nightmare Spurs-like season.

Who in here is excusing Daka or letting him off the hook? He's been very poor for us on the whole, but as usual, some always have to paint a much worse picture than what reality suggests. I could just as well ask why you, like a few others in here, insist he has "no instinct". The guy has built his career on being a fast and instinctive striker, rather than smart, strong or technical. He's wildly inconsistent and has been poor far more often than he hasn't, but it's ridiculous to suggest hasn't shown ability or isn't a goal threat. I personally think his goal against Ipswich was a well-taken strike. He then follows that up with missing gilt-edged opportunities against Watford just when one had gained a little hope. I would suggest we have a bigger problem of not creating enough chances (which we haven't done for a long time now, i.e. 3-4 years). Is this down to Daka? In part probably, but we already started showed worrying signs of lack of service to Vardy in our first relegation season. Remember then how people were questioning our greatest ever striker as well saying he was finished? TLDR; I think Daka has been very poor for us, but I also think the reasons why he has failed are a bit more nuanced than "he's a terrible footballer".

Can't help you there

Yeah, my opinion from a foreign country has a lot to do with why the club is where it is ridiculous and needless stab. I'll say it again, you can absolutely understand why we went and got him from RB Salzburg. He had great numbers, similar profile to Vardy and was in great form and was affordable. It didn't work out, we overpaid (like every other player since 2016) and were lumbered with him ever since. You could level the same kind of criticism at Adrien Silva (who was far more proven at a higher level), Slimani, Kramaric, Iborra, Inler etc, but they all left pretty quickly again. We held on to Daka for way too long and now we can't shift him for anything.

But that's not true though, he absolutely has instinct. In recent games he's fashioned opportunities out of nothing really (i.e. anticipating defenders missing interceptions, closing down goalkeepers etc). He's just not sharp enough to take these chances, but he absolutely has instinct. Most of his career goals are instinctive finishes.

I can only judge what I see on the pitch - he's never shy of working hard. He still has a strong instinct (he often gets half chances from opportunistic play) but his execution is not anywhere near as good or consistent as it seemed to be in Austria. He's never seemed "in sync" with our squad with regards to movement. This, to me, speaks to a lack of tactical/footballing intelligence, which Vardy had heaps of, and not a lack of effort.

Many things can be levelled at Daka, but he's always worked hard - but often in vain. He's never complained about his lack of playing time and he's never thrown hissy fits. But maybe that's his flaw - he has never shown much of an attitude and gets subdued too easily. Add to this that the step up from Austrian football and African internationals to PL/Championship football has proven too great, then maybe we get a picture of why he has failed. On the surface he looked like a great replacement for Vardy. Fast, instinctive, clinical. As you say, his numbers were good and rewatching videos of his Salzburg days, you can understand why we went for him.

It's hard to see another way in our current situation. Then again, when we got Maresca in and he instantly got performances out of a relegated team, changing our playing style completely, maybe it wouldn't require such a hefty clear out, but just a clear plan and strategy. Not sure there are as many as 90% bad eggs, but we just have a lot of staff including players who are overpaid in relation to our current position and we obviously can't sustain that.

Not exactly clamouring. But there are extremely few candidates (i.e. players that we wanted gone and would have back now) to even consider.

Exactly, context matters. JJ is the outlier and Mukasa's early promise seems like it has already evaporated. It's telling though that none of the unwanted first-team players over the past decade have done much since they left (Ayoze excepted). Probably means the club were right to let them go. You have to wonder what will clear the 'smog' though. Is it a bit like at Man Utd the past decade and Spurs now that the culture that permeates the clubs has been eroded and will take years to rebuild?

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Would Hirst or Maswanhise be worse than our options up front? Probably not. But I can't actually see any players still active that we were happy to let go that would improve this side (possible exceptions would be youth prospects like Iversen or Bassey). Perez was a decent grafter, but he was soft and had one good game in ten - and that was in a good team. I don't think he would have been noticeably better in a poor team like this one.