Could Shinji be the missing jigsaw piece in midfield??

[RastaDog]

I can see the thinking in that it's a position we could use someone to fill in a plan B option. Not CM BTW, an attacking/behind the strikers midfielder. Okazaki, whilst not being ideal, could do it I think because he has a eye for link play.

 

The plan A over the top ball down the channel for Vardy is being dealt with and our wingers are being nullified, we could do with mixing it up. Mahrez is not a ball winner nor sturdy enough to hold the ball so I can't see him doing it. Ulloa is a completely different player not suited to that position. Maybe this new Polish lad Kaputska (sp?) could do it. No idea about Slimani but I thought he was more of an out-and-out striker.

 

Maybe that's why we tried hard to get Silva??

[Buzzell]

[Edingleyfox]

If anyone divides opinion it is Shinji. The Swansea fans last week commented that he was a great player.This week he could not keep the ball and agree way out of his depth.I think he was lucky last season to get preference over Ulloa and obviously with Slimani coming in people are looking to see if he could be accommodated elsewhere.

 

I think Drinky and Amartey best option long term +/- King/Mendy in support for the better sides  but shame we did not invest in another class midfielder or defender we seem to have money to burn on strikers.

 

Just not convinced by Okazaki in the starting line up although he can change games off the bench.With some many strikers and wingers this is going to take some seriously good management to keep them happy whilst developing some fluency that has been damaged by the awful pre -season International champions cup etc

[Sharpe's Fox]

Imagine a key member of your title winning side being touted as being out of his depth deary me I'm off.

[cc_star]

Albrighton could be, high workrate, good at tracking players and has an eye for a pass

 

Nothing could be worse than Amartey, easily one of the few worst performances in a blue shirt

 

Vardy & Mahrez need dropping too

 

Slimani & Musa up front on Wed please

[justfoxes]

5 minutes ago, cc_star said:

Albrighton could be, high workrate, good at tracking players and has an eye for a pass

 

Nothing could be worse than Amartey, easily one of the few worst performances in a blue shirt

 

Vardy & Mahrez need dropping too

 

Slimani & Musa up front on Wed please

Albrighton's crosses from the wing are superb Amartey had a mare at pool can't see Claudio dropping Vardy and Mahrez but can see him playing a Vardy Slimani pairing upfront Wednesday!

[TheMightySystem]

Much like how people said not to get ahead of themselves after Swansea can people please not get ahead of themselves after yesterday. Yes Amartey had a poor game but so did many others. Younger players are going to be inconsistent but they need games like this to learn and develop as players. Liverpool are very very good at closing down the midfield and everytime he was given the ball he had 3 red shirts around him so he couldn't pass or react quick enough to get the ball away. Even Drinkwater struggled and was bypassed many times, plus he gave possession away with over the top balls to no-one, it was a bad day all round so we shouldn't make any scapegoats just off of that performance.

A MOTM performance against Swansea means he has ability, we shouldn't be so quick to write players off. People seem to like it when we buy young prospects but have very little patience when they make mistakes, fair enough call them out on it but don't cry for them to be replaced the next game.

[Kitchandro]

I'm going to ignore the ridiculous original question....

Okazaki plays an important role, he's just a bit shit.

If we can get Slimani to do what he does; come deep and pull their defence out with him, then great. Musa didn't do that against Hull and that's why things didn't work. If someone is playing up front with Vardy then they have to do that.

The central midfield is just fvcked, tbh. We didn't replace Kante and that was a huge error.

 

[AyewJoking]

if amartey is so bad in centre mid why did we buy him? he must have proved he can play that position at his previous club??

 

is it just a case of him needing time to settle?. he's been here a while,  though he has been used sparingly and is only in the team at the minute because mendy is out.

 

think okazaki is already playing in his best position and now slimani is here (he is here, isnt he?) he could lose his place in the first eleven

[Fox92]

We've too many attacking players now. Ok, say we drop Okazaki who do we bring in? Kapuska, Slimani, Gray, Musa... Four places maximum and that's not even considering Vardy, Mahrez, Albrighton.

 

We needed to invest in a better, younger centre back first.

[cc_star]

Balls over the top or through the channels have been sussed

 

This nullifies how we get the best out of Vardy & Musa, what's the plan B?

 

Where's our workrate gone, most teams couldn't live with the miles we put in, yesterday even Lallana pissed all over our effort & km put in

[davieG]

It's not really about individual players it's more to do with the system we're playing I think we need to develop our game and move on from the long ball over the top teams are playing deeper against us and leaving no space for Vardy to win the ball.

 

At the very least we need different options for different defences although possession is clearly not everything we do need to improve ours.

[Tiny earl]

We all know what the missing piece is and it ain't Shinji.

 

[Herraldo]

I just think that last season we played deep with 2 banks of 4 and kept the space between the back 4 and midfield tight. This season we seem to be playing 4-2-4 at times allowing sides to play through us by dragging Wes Morgan out of position. Why isn't Schlupp given a chance to play the holding role? He's quick about the park and has played as a defender.

[Thracian]

There's no easy answers to the Kante role or the balance of our side with the personnel we have available at present. And none that would be consistently good against every kind of side as Kante was. 

 

But importantly it's not just Kante's departure from midfield that's a problem in itself but all sorts of differences this season compared with last.    

a) Instead of getting progressively fitter in pre-season, and with the right balance of rest we had lots of travelling after several key players had been away at the Euros, all sorts of off-field disruption/speculation/new arrivals/adjustment problems and thus started what we knew would be a challenging season physically with the team still coming together and in much less than perfect fettle and harmony.

 

b) We've already had more serious injuries in the first weeks of this season than we had all last season - and found ourselves desperately short of adequate replacements for all the money we've spent on so-called improvements.

 

c) Worse than the simple fact of replacing our key midfieder is the effect of his absence on the back four which have been alarmingly exposed for their limited mobility and is now conceding goals too easily and too often - as we did even in pre-season. 

 

d) We've changed our style. Instead of having the quick ball over the top as an important part of an ability to counter attack with pace and variety from various directions, we're suddenly using the ploy as routinely as other teams might loft crosses over for a beanstalk centre-forward like Peter Crouch. It's just moronic. We need to start attacking and defending as a team - and with the variety and numbers that were once so difficult to contain.

 

e) Connected to the above is our constantly fielding just two potential goalscorers when, with a vulnerable defence, we're going to have to score two goals or more to win games. It's silly. Schlupp's  being missed as well as Kante and Vardy can't be left to take all the responsibility up front - there has to be other potential scorers both up front and elsewhere. Liverpool seemed to be shooting on sight whereas Leicester seemed to be relying on Vardy or one of our still poor set-pieces.

 

f) Finally there's our lack of movement and with it the lack of space for our best attackers to offer significant threat. Mahrez offered an example. When he got the ball he often had no passing options that would serve any purpose. No-one was making selflesss runs to open up space either and the space around himself was quickly and risklessly closed down because Liverpool didn't need to worry about anyone coming quickly from deep. We just weren't set up to do that. We had no penetrative threat wide on the left, no aerial support for Vardy, only the severely limited threat of Drinkwater our of central midfield and absolutely nothing from either full-back in an attacking sense. Balance? We fast fell apart.

[Thracian]

I'm inclined to say "no" and for the reasons mentioned by Koke. But I'd still be inclined to try him there  in a training match and see if known shortcomings apply when he's facing the ball, is not constantly scampering around trying to justify his existence and has a lot more passing options than he gets up front these days.

I'd also try Schlupp there and Albrighton at right-back. 

 

Bcause if it did work out we could play a fluidly adapting 4-4-2 into 3-4-3 system and perhaps, just, perhaps, fix several problems at once. 

 

Think of a basic 4-4-2 with

 

Kasper,  

 

Albrighton, Morgan, Huth, Chilwell.

 

Mahrez, Drinkwater, King, Schlupp;

  

                  Vardy, Ulloa.

 

The fluidity would relate to Albrighton moving down the flank when we have possession with Mahrez/Schlupp supporting the strikers but with Albrighton and Schlupp reverting to defensive responsibilities when possession is lost. Substitutions then could easily retain our fluid attack/defence strategy, we'd have far more potential goalscoring/creating threat and Ulloa wouldn't be wasting his career on the bench.     

 

There'd also be lots more pace, more crossing ability easy substitution options with the likes of Gray, Musa and Slimani together with a lot more passing ability and ball retention.   

 

If we wanted to tweak the system Shinji might cope in central midfield instead of Mahrez on the right, leaving Albrighton as wing back in a fluid 3-5-2. Just thoughts on the theme really because we need to regroup and rebuild some confidence. 

 

[FoxyPalace.com]

Certainly got the work rate, likes to harass, MMMMMM maybe.

[m4DD0gg]

A key requirement to playing in midfield is the ability to stay on your feet, something he seems incapable of doing so.

 

Wants Slimani is ready he will be canned anyway so jobs a goodun.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

I'm still clinging on to hope Matty James can come good!

[BenTheFox]

I find the fact that I've heard people suggesting either Schlupp or Shinji in central midfield a bit scary. We really shouldn't be in a position where this is being debated. 

[Dan]

Not got enough ability on the ball to play in midfield.

[HankMarvin]

Rather have Schlupp in midfield at least he can drive forward with the ball, Amartery is a ball watching gentle giant, seems to jockey but never commit.

 

[Dickov22]

3 hours ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Imagine a key member of your title winning side being touted as being out of his depth deary me I'm off.

He is and so is Huth. 

[Juvenile]

Mendy is the only one who can partner Drinkwater. Amartey isn't technically gifted, King isn't good enough and James still isn't fit? If he is then he clearly isn't in Ranieris plans. We have no valuable options. Dont know how Kaputska would fair as he's more of an attacking mid. We need composure through the team. We currently have none at the back and very little in the middle. Okazaki, as mentioned by many shouldn't be in our starting 11 hense the reason we bought Slimani.

[progmusfreak]

First, it was utmost stupidity from Ranieri to play the defence near the center line, and what is more, in away games. Even in matches where Leicester were behind last season, they stayed deep and scored from counter attacks (Southampton, Stoke City) .

Second, so far no one has fitted the role of Kante. If Leicester has to keep playing 4-4-2, the coach should try Okazaki as replacement. He may not be as good as Kante in tackles, but he definitely will make the opposite forwards' life difficult, as he does with their defenders.