De Laet, the new "Wellens"

[The Horse's Mouth]

Sounds like Fuchs got hammered after they smashed the Swedish. No idea what the situation is with Wasyl, maybe Ranieri just doesnt rate him

[Captain...]

He is a good defender, he won more tackles than anyone yesterday:

 

RDL won 8 from 9 attempted tackles and made 1 interception

Morgan Tackles 1/2 and 4 interceptions

Huth 3/3

Schlupp 0/3  2 interceptions

 

DD 4/4

Inler 4/5

 

Kante 3/4

 

Problems come with him being caught up field, but this is all about how we play especially with Mahrez in front of him, Mahrez is playing on the right so he can cut in on his left foot, this means that if we want any width it needs to come from the full back. His role is to get forward support the attack and hit the space created by Mahrez coming inside. There was nothing he could do about the second goal, I would rather he goes forward when we are losing and try and make something. Mahrez lost the ball when he could have played the 1-2 with Richie who was overlapping. He had no chance of getting back, and the centre mids were not aware of the danger and didn't cover. Mahrez even admits in his post match interview the second was his fault.

 

If we want to play attacking football it comes with risks and it isn't always going to pay off, but I would rather concede because we are trying to score than just sit back at 0-1 and worry about conceding more.

[ARM1968]

I hold my hands up. Much better 2nd half and a crucial goal. After his first half debacle never wanted to see him play again - it was dog muck.

[wokinghamfox]

The bloke is useless .Clueless when it comes to positioning . We badly need a RB in the window .

its funny what we all see in a player. Personally i love RDL, he plays the game with his heart on his sleeve and always makes a positive contribution.

[Stadt]

It's the basic things that De Laet gets wrong that really pisses me off. Positioning is quite often dreadful and he doesn't really make up for it as an attacking fullback as his final ball is poor. He's the best RB at the club but it's not saying much.

[AKCJ]

De Laet had a poor game against Bournemouth and an atrocious first 30 minutes or so against Villa but I thought he was superb in the second half yesterday.

 

 

Him, Schlupp, Dyer, Kante and Mahrez will cause every team in the league trouble when they'r running in full flight.

[I blame Wellens]

I don't blame De Laet

[Father Ted]

I've always been a fan of De Laet but I must admit that he hasn't been at his best so far this season. I think De Laet is steady enough, he gives us another dimension to our game when attacking, he just doesn't seem to do the absolute basics at times that you would expect from a full back when defending. It's an odd one, and I would genuinely be tempted to play Albrighton as a right back and put Dyer wide. 

[Hirsty The Blue 94]

Looks exposed defensively playing in a 4-4-2, partly down to his poor defensive play but largely due to Mahrez's half arsed attempt at tracking back and a lack of holding midfielder to provide protection.

Think he is the best Right Back we have though, although persisting with a 4-4-2 exposes our weaknesses where as the 3-5-2 of the back end of last season hid them well.

[knowf***all]

Inler was to blame for their second goal ,was marking abgonlahor on the halfway line and just let him past, hence him getting hooked straight after they scored, I like de laet and it's obvious he doesn't get any defensive support from mahrez, I sit in the Kop right in line with a great viewpoint of his area and can see this problem every game....first halfs obviously

[Benji]

Interesting that people say he's positionally poor and that teams are targeting him as our weak link.  I'd like to know where people expect a right back to stand when faced with three players, one on the ball, one overlapping on the wing and one running the gap created with Huth.  I'm sure all perfect right backs on here would choose the right option every time.

 

Generally my worry with him is how often he commits to the player on the ball and then gets beaten easily by either a one-two or the player he's standing up skins him.  There's no excuse for that ; that's bad defending.  But the majority of times he was beaten against Villa was when faced with two or three players attacking down his wing and Huth wouldn't move across, Mahrez didn't track back and neither centre mid came in to help.  You're getting beaten nine times out of 10 there no matter how good you are and you look like a headless chicken.

[C-man]

I've always been a fan of De Laet but I must admit that he hasn't been at his best so far this season. I think De Laet is steady enough, he gives us another dimension to our game when attacking, he just doesn't seem to do the absolute basics at times that you would expect from a full back when defending. It's an odd one, and I would genuinely be tempted to play Albrighton as a right back and put Dyer wide.

Similar opinion to this although I would persist with RDL for a little longer yet.

[TMELcfc]

He is not the best... And makes quite a few mistakes.

Bournemouth game he got caught out, casually jogging back to hang out a lazy leg to try and stop the cross. That lead to Wilson's goal.

All the first half, the only danger they posed was down our right side. Mahrez didn't do enough to help but De Laet was constantly caught out.

On the plus, he's very quick and can recover, plus stand up to pacy wingers. Sterling barely got anything out of him last season.

Plus he does attack quite well. Got no issue with him playing at the minute though because we have no other decent option, but he does and will again make a goal-leading gaff again soon. That doesn't make him a scapegoat, it's just the truth.

[danfox76]

He is a good defender, he won more tackles than anyone yesterday:

 

RDL won 8 from 9 attempted tackles and made 1 interception

Morgan Tackles 1/2 and 4 interceptions

Huth 3/3

Schlupp 0/3  2 interceptions

 

DD 4/4

Inler 4/5

 

Kante 3/4

 

Problems come with him being caught up field, but this is all about how we play especially with Mahrez in front of him, Mahrez is playing on the right so he can cut in on his left foot, this means that if we want any width it needs to come from the full back. His role is to get forward support the attack and hit the space created by Mahrez coming inside. There was nothing he could do about the second goal, I would rather he goes forward when we are losing and try and make something. Mahrez lost the ball when he could have played the 1-2 with Richie who was overlapping. He had no chance of getting back, and the centre mids were not aware of the danger and didn't cover. Mahrez even admits in his post match interview the second was his fault.

 

If we want to play attacking football it comes with risks and it isn't always going to pay off, but I would rather concede because we are trying to score than just sit back at 0-1 and worry about conceding more.

this ^^    sounds about right to me, and anyone who can't see it, and keeps knocking RDL needs to just stfu..

[ramadaone]

this ^^    sounds about right to me, and anyone who can't see it, and keeps knocking RDL needs to just stfu..

I would think at least 80% of the comments on here suggest he is our weakest link by far but you want them all to stfu

Cretin

[suffolk fox]

I played in his position at a decent level some years ago so I often study him during game times from my position in the East stand.

His positional sense really is apalling. Many times he drifts aimlessly inside and is virtually standing next to Huth or Wes Morgan in the middle of the pitch when the opposition are attacking us. He leaves the winger for them unmarked so the opposition always have an outball when they attack. It is always interesting to note the amount of attacks that start down his side.

Opponents see him as our weak link in defence and always target his side when attacking. Yes he is ok going forward but lets get one thing clear he is a fullback and he isn't very good.

[Captain...]

As a fellow right back I will look at that, but saying it is his fault attacks come down our right is a bit harsh. Attacks start much deeper and they come from a midfielder or a defender looking for space to get the ball into, that space is usually between Mahrez and Richie. If he gets no support from Mahrez or the midfield he will have 2 or 3 attackers to contend with and it doesn't matter how good you are if you are outnumbered you are in trouble, you can't just stand someone up or show them down the line.

Rdl is by no means perfect, but he offers a lot with his fitness and pace, he is also a very good, if occasionally reckless, tackler. If that right back slot is our weak link then we need to address it as a team, we can't just drop RDL as we have not got any one as good as him that suits our style of play, whether that is a formation change or a tactical tweak, or just simply carry on as we are seeing as we are second in the table.

[Carl the Llama]

He is a good defender, he won more tackles than anyone yesterday:

 

RDL won 8 from 9 attempted tackles and made 1 interception

Morgan Tackles 1/2 and 4 interceptions

Huth 3/3

Schlupp 0/3  2 interceptions

 

DD 4/4

Inler 4/5

 

Kante 3/4

 

Problems come with him being caught up field, but this is all about how we play especially with Mahrez in front of him, Mahrez is playing on the right so he can cut in on his left foot, this means that if we want any width it needs to come from the full back. His role is to get forward support the attack and hit the space created by Mahrez coming inside. There was nothing he could do about the second goal, I would rather he goes forward when we are losing and try and make something. Mahrez lost the ball when he could have played the 1-2 with Richie who was overlapping. He had no chance of getting back, and the centre mids were not aware of the danger and didn't cover. Mahrez even admits in his post match interview the second was his fault.

 

If we want to play attacking football it comes with risks and it isn't always going to pay off, but I would rather concede because we are trying to score than just sit back at 0-1 and worry about conceding more.

I think it's a bit from both columns to be fair.  His positional awareness could be a bit better but like you say he gets put under it a lot for reasons beyond that, at least he has the pace and tackling ability to make up for it a lot of the times he does get left flat-footed.

[filbertway]

I reckon 7 or 8 of those tackles were probably from when he kept dribbling through players towards the end of the game haha. He looked like a man possessed going forwards.

 

He will do for now, but there must be plenty of better right backs out there that can contribute both defensively and offensively for us. He's clearly one of the weaker links in the team. Would make a good squad player but if we have aspirations to become a top half team, we need better.

[Kitchandro]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34249318

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34249318

 

Say whhhaaaaaaaat

[The Year Of The Fox]

Was about to post the same thing

[filbertstreet]

I like the bottom table, that's nice

[Nod.E]

De Laet in the same team as Mahrez is as much a disparity as...
 

- Starting me up top for a Championship team (I'm an eleventh tier Keeper.)

- Putting Freddy Mercury in One Direction

- Rachel being my bird

- Forest in the Prem

- Liam anywhere other than Transfer Talk or Twitter

- Leicester City out of the top 4 

 

tl;dr - I don't think he's very good.

[HighPeakFox]

Is Albrighton a viable medium term solution at right-back?

[DB11]

I played in his position at a decent level some years ago so I often study him during game times from my position in the East stand.

His positional sense really is apalling. Many times he drifts aimlessly inside and is virtually standing next to Huth or Wes Morgan in the middle of the pitch when the opposition are attacking us. He leaves the winger for them unmarked so the opposition always have an outball when they attack. It is always interesting to note the amount of attacks that start down his side.

Opponents see him as our weak link in defence and always target his side when attacking. Yes he is ok going forward but lets get one thing clear he is a fullback and he isn't very good.

 

The whole defence look narrow when the opposition are attacking. Maybe it's Ranieri's instructions or tactics