De Laet, the new "Wellens"

[The Year Of The Fox]

Why not just say Okazaki?

Cos it's much easier to say 'jap'

[psychonaut]

He's crap. end of. But until we get another RB or switch to 3 at the back what can we do.

[EverybodyDannsNow]

To me he just looks lethargic. Sometimes he looks as though he simply can't be arsed, the goal we conceded at Bournemouth is a prime example of this. It was actually bizarre the way he was strolling around.

He needs a kick up the back side, and I'm hoping that scoring that goal will give him the boost that he needs.

[nettle]

A defender that can't defend that's De laet summed up in one sentance.

[kingfox]

Blaming him for their second goal is pure stupidity. Never been his biggest fan but as the game went on yesterday he steadily improved, got beat far too many times in the first half, come second half he played better due to Mahrez changing position.

Last season he had to step in a few times when we played three at the back, thought he did well in a 3-5-2 formation so it might be worth going back to that.

[kingcarr21]

By stats he is our best defending player on WhoScored. Most tackles can't be too bad.

Surely this tells you that the opposition is targeting that area. He may have the most tackles but also how many tackles are being missed?

[Daz93]

First half he was god awful. The amount of times he just let Grealish stroll past him was infuriating. Second half it seemed like he switched his brain on and he was much better. Although he kept trying to put it through someone's legs or run around them and that was equally infuriating.

[Captain...]

Where was he for the second goal?

 

Pushing forward and trying to create a chance for us at the other end.

 

You can't have it both ways, if we attack with our full backs and they get forward then there will be space behind them, in that incident Richie carried the ball forward, passed to Mahrez, carried on going forwards, Mahrez lost it we were out of position and got caught on the break. Risk vs reward. We sit back and prod and probe at 1-0 down or we attack at pace in numbers, that means RDL and Schlupp going forwards.

 

We have options next game, Dyer in front of RDL, Albrighton in front of Schlupp, Vardy up front on his own with Mahrez behind him... but I don't like that. Vardy may end up isolated. The other option is Kante as RCM with a remit to cover RDL, whoever he partners in Midfield doesn't have the same responsibility as Albrighton and Schlupp work well together.

 

The other option is switch Albrighton to the right, where he is more natural and gives RDL more cover,  but we risk exposing Schlupp. So many options but who knows which one is the best, I would only drop him to switch to a 532, we need to be able to attack with pace and in numbers and that means Schlupp and RDL bombing forward from full back.

[Vindaloo FOX]

i am not RDL's biggest fan but yesterday he played well mostly after his goal .  

[Great Boos Up]

Anyone have one of those grid thingys that show what areas of the pitch he covered?

I'm sure I saw him running back from forward left wing all the way diagonally back to RB when an attack broke down?

[Babylon]

i am not RDL's biggest fan but yesterday he played well mostly after his goal .  

You mean the portion of his game where Villa didn't get into our half. I should hope he looked better!

[Simi]

It's a tough call for ranieri though as mahrez looks like a world better from the right yet looks like he struggles through the middle in a free role (well he did yesterday) 

 

 

Despite the complete opposite being true yesterday afternoon? 1 match winning assist and a mazy run and key pass from through the middle.

[C-man]

It's a tough call for ranieri though as mahrez looks like a world better from the right yet looks like he struggles through the middle in a free role (well he did yesterday) I just don't no how we could set up to get the best of both worlds giving rdl cover whilst also giving mahrez the freedom to attack and do his thing from the right

I must have been watching a different last half hour as it looked to me like Mahrez tore them a new one from his free role.

[Kitchandro]

Apart from his goal yesterday I thought he was shocking again. He's not good enough to play for us.

 

People are scapegoating him because he's the one player who is consistently out of his depth. If other players were consistently bad they'd also get criticism all the time.

 

Schlupp is probably just as poor a defender. The difference is, Schlupp isn't playing in his best position. De Laet is and he's still rubbish.

 

I'm not sure why people always feel the need to defend players when they're getting warranted stick. It's like the Hammond thing. He gets stick because he's crap and shouldn't be here.

[dylanlegend]

More like the new Konchesky. Rightly so though, he is clearly our weakest player (he is a defender who makes too many mistakes). We should play 3-5-2 to utilise the best players we have at our disposal.

[lgfualol]

Just watched MOTD2 and he seemed to never be in the right spot in the first 69 minutes. Grealish first shot not there, that near Sinclair tap-in De Laet jogging back,etc.

[Harry - LCFC]

The fact is he's not playing well. He gets exposed on a regular a basis in a way that other members of the team just don't. Call it 'abuse' if you want, some of it may well be, but in general I think it's better described as 'criticism' - justified criticism. You're putting the blindfold over your eyes if you don't believe there's a small problem at right back.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

"Bloody De Laet" doesn't have the same ring to it as "Bloody Wellens", can we find some one else to blame? 

[Out Foxed]

There's a reason the opposition constantly attacks that area, it's not because he's a great defender.

[filbertstreet]

"Bloody De Laet" doesn't have the same ring to it as "Bloody Wellens", can we find some one else to blame? 

Bloody Richie works though

[The Horse's Mouth]

Oh **** off, he's picked out usually because he's the weakest part of the defence. He does on occasion have great games, like United last season; but he's far too inconsistent and there's a reason why that right hand side is where we're exploited the most.

[lestalee]

Right hand side is definitely our week point,Bournemouth targeted RDL and got plenty of joy as did Villa,l dare say so will Stoke sayin that I do feel a bit for Ritchie though when yer not gettin no help from Riyad...

[walkerleeds]

At the moment the only way De Laet is going to look anything like a capable PL player is if he plays wing back in a 5-3-2 / 3-5-2.

 

Harsh but true.

[Clever Fox]

He isn't terrible but just not good as a defender. But here is the dilemma, If we leave him out we lose those great attacking runs he makes down the right. This makes it difficult for defenders to man mark Mahrez. We could easily use WAS as right back knowing he's never going to make runs all the way up to the other corner flag. So probably the thinking is we can accept his defensive errors while reaping the benefit of his attacking ability. 

I'm sure CR will work with him to improve his defending then he'll be a really top player.

[Simi]

Also, why did we have Simpson on the bench yesterday and not Wasyl or Fuchs? Both more versatile and just general better options.