Daniel Amartey

[Sol thewall Bamba]

I thought he was half decent. Certainly not as bad as some of our more popular players. 

[sdb]

People being very harsh in here. He doesn't look ready but you can tell he has plenty of ability. Just a bit overawed and low of confidence if say. 

[Russell sprout]

He's useless,seems to want the ball then don't know what to do when he gets it,

makes andy king look class

[Anish]

Out of his depth at the moment. Afraid to make forward passes and his positioning and tracking of runs is poor. It doesn't matter how old you are, you are told as a kid to follow the runners if you are defending and the amount of times he losses his man is unacceptable. His technique is below par, some of his long passes today were just hoofs. He doesn't add anything to our team in my opinion. Yes he wasn't the worst player but that's because he doesn't do a lot with the ball. He plays too safe, even I could turn up and play backward passes or square passes. That's not the point of a midfielder. I'm sorry to say but we need to strengthen our midfield and replace the likes of Amartey and King, because with them in the first team we're heading for trouble. 

[inckley fox]

3 minutes ago, Anish said:

Out of his depth at the moment. Afraid to make forward passes and his positioning and tracking of runs is poor. It doesn't matter how old you are, you are told as a kid to follow the runners if you are defending and the amount of times he losses his man is unacceptable. His technique is below par, some of his long passes today were just hoofs. He doesn't add anything to our team in my opinion. Yes he wasn't the worst player but that's because he doesn't do a lot with the ball. He plays too safe, even I could turn up and play backward passes or square passes. That's not the point of a midfielder. I'm sorry to say but we need to strengthen our midfield and replace the likes of Amartey and King, because with them in the first team we're heading for trouble. 

Who, exactly, is at their depth right now? Schlupp? Has it come to this that Schlupp is our one guiding light? Today Amartey was as good as any of our starting eleven. It was Drinkwater who gave the ball away (and lost his man) for the first, then didn't stop the shot for the second. How is Amartey exceptionally out of his depth in comparison?

 

Or take the West Brom game with King in midfield. Drinkwater gave away a goal and King was one of our weaker performers. Amartey wasn't to blame then, and both King and Drinkwater put in poor displays even in comparison to Amartey's efforts today. So who, against either West Brom or Watford, was setting the standard which Amartey needs to aspire to?

 

The absence of Kante is a huge problem. The presence of Amartey, in comparison to that of his colleagues, isn't. Don't go looking in the wrong places!

[inckley fox]

30 minutes ago, Russell sprout said:

He's useless,seems to want the ball then don't know what to do when he gets it,

makes andy king look class

As class as he was against West Brom?

[Claridge]

****ing useless did ,diddid,da dah

[inckley fox]

1 minute ago, Claridge said:

****ing useless did ,diddid,da dah

Oh, okay.

[Claridge]

Just now, inckley fox said:

Oh, okay.

 

Just now, inckley fox said:

Oh, okay.

Sorry, just very ,very, average

[inckley fox]

2 minutes ago, Claridge said:

 

Sorry, just very ,very, average

Agreed, very, very average. But there were plenty of sub-average performances out there today. So let's remember the days when our sole hopes for the future were Stef Oakes, or whoever Craig Levein had signed, and get behind a guy who might actually make the grade if he's instilled with enough belief.

[Mythyaar]

He isn't good enough for the first team right now. The stats don't lie: touches on ball, passes, tackles, interceptions: all too low. Ball control/ retention is questionable as is decision making. Forget about creating chances for others or attempts on goal but to be fair he wasn't bought for that reason. 

 

He may very good be in time and he's still young, but we don't have a great deal of time right now and they say if you're good enough you're old enough. 

 

Not that he is in any way to blame for the current malaise: he totally isn't.

 He tries his best without doubt. But he's being thrust into a position of responsibility that he's not ready for because of the total lack of appreciation by the club of the importance of having proven defensive midfield cover in the team. Yes Kante will never be replaced but the club went on a vanity mission trying to strengthen the attack without realising the importance of the water carrier. Similarly no real effort made to strengthen centre back role. The worry is that the penny still hasnt dropped. Mendy injury was a blow but even though he looked good in the Arsenal game he had some iffy games prior to that.

 

Hopefully the cheque book comes out January, but whether we can now attract the calibre of player we could have had pre season is questionable now.

Edited 20 November 2016 by Mythyaar

[Russell sprout]

29 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

As class as he was against West Brom?

sorry mate I must be missing something 

[inckley fox]

3 minutes ago, Mythyaar said:

He isn't good enough for the first team right now. The stats don't lie: touches on ball, passes, tackles, interceptions: all too low. Ball control/ retention is questionable as is decision making. Forget about creating chances for others or attempts on goal but to be fair he wasn't bought for that reason. 

 

He may very good be in time and he's still young, but we don't have a great deal of time right now and they say if you're good enough you're old enough. 

 

Not that he is in any way to blame for the current malaise: he totally isn't.

 He tries his best without doubt. But he's being thrust into a position of responsibility that he's not ready for because of the total lack of appreciation by the club of the importance of having proven defensive midfield cover in the team. Yes Kante will never be replaced but the club went on a vanity mission trying to strengthen the attack without realising the importance of the water carrier.  The worry is that the penny still hasnt dropped. Mendy injury was a blow but even though he looked good in the Arsenal game he had some iffy games prior to that.

 

Hopefully the cheque book comes out January, but whether we can now attract the calibre of player we could have pre season is questionable now.

Well the stats suggest he was one of our better players today. So I'm not sure what you mean by that.

 

So who do you replace him with? King? See West Brom thread for that. Or any of the million threads in which people reasonably observe that King isn't consistently good enough to command a place.

 

He quite simply isn't the reason for our current malaise. The absence of Kante and Ranieri's disinterest in replacing him is a reason, a schoolkid could have told you that a month before the transfer window ended, but compared to other players Amartey isn't standing out as sub-standard.

 

You're right in saying the cheque book needs to come out. But right now, looking upon Amartey as a major concern in comparison to the form of Fuchs, Morgan, Huth, Drinkwater, Albrighton, Vardy, Okazaki, Musa and whoever else, is a nonsense.

[inckley fox]

1 minute ago, Russell sprout said:

sorry mate I must be missing something 

Well you said 'King is class by comparison' to Amartey. King played against West Brom ahead of Amartey and was totally ineffective. Hence me saying 'as class as he was against West Brom?'

 

In other words, the debate about whether Amartey, King, Mendy or whoever else takes up the central role in a 4-4-2 alongside Drinkwater is irrelevant. We have other, bigger problems elsewhere. Amartey can't be Kante. Vardy can be Vardy, Mahrez can be Mahrez, Drinkwater can be Drinkwater, Fuchs can be Fuchs and Morgan can be Morgan.

[Mythyaar]

3 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

Well the stats suggest he was one of our better players today. So I'm not sure what you mean by that.

 

So who do you replace him with? King? See West Brom thread for that. Or any of the million threads in which people reasonably observe that King isn't consistently good enough to command a place.

 

He quite simply isn't the reason for our current malaise. The absence of Kante and Ranieri's disinterest in replacing him is a reason, a schoolkid could have told you that a month before the transfer window ended, but compared to other players Amartey isn't standing out as sub-standard.

 

You're right in saying the cheque book needs to come out. But right now, looking upon Amartey as a major concern in comparison to the form of Fuchs, Morgan, Huth, Drinkwater, Albrighton, Vardy, Okazaki, Musa and whoever else, is a nonsense.

I don't disagree that a lot of the other players you mentioned are not performing to a satisfactory level. And I also agree that it isnt fair to single out/ scapegoat Amartey  for the team's substandard performances.

 

I just don't see what value he's adding/ what positive contribution he can make to the current situation. The same same comment can obviously be levied at many others right now.

[Dan LCFC]

He isn't the answer in a 4-4-2. He's not mobile enough. He's a bit slow to react and a bit slow on the turn. He does some good things but it always seems to be a second too late. Don't think he's great defensively either. Not sold on him sadly.

[Russell sprout]

19 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

Well you said 'King is class by comparison' to Amartey. King played against West Brom ahead of Amartey and was totally ineffective. Hence me saying 'as class as he was against West Brom?'

 

In other words, the debate about whether Amartey, King, Mendy or whoever else takes up the central role in a 4-4-2 alongside Drinkwater is irrelevant. We have other, bigger problems elsewhere. Amartey can't be Kante. Vardy can be Vardy, Mahrez can be Mahrez, Drinkwater can be Drinkwater, Fuchs can be Fuchs and Morgan can be Morgan.

Its was sarcasm,and amartey has been dire,

like many others,but at least we know what others are capable of,amarteys done nothing since he's been here

[inckley fox]

6 minutes ago, Mythyaar said:

I don't disagree that a lot of the other players you mentioned are not performing to a satisfactory level. And I also agree that it isnt fair to single out/ scapegoat Amartey  for the team's substandard performances.

 

I just don't see what value he's adding/ what positive contribution he can make to the current situation. The same same comment can obviously be levied at many others right now.

I agree with all of this.

 

My only problem is when we talk about what a new, or relatively new, player is 'adding'. If you look at today's line-up compared to our eleven last year, Amartey is the only real addition. But the side's performance was dire, compared to what it's been in the past. So when we ask 'what is he adding?' well, compared to the Leicester side of six months ago, obviously he's adding nothing, because he's replaced the best defensive midfielder in our history and isn't as good as him, and because the rest of the team is nowhere near as good as they were.

 

But I'd worry more about what he's being added to, rather than what he's adding to it. I don't see why we should zoom in on Amartey, who had a steady but unspectacular game, when our centre half and captain seems to let every ball that comes near him bounce. I watched today's game and the Brom game with a friend of mine who's coached at top flight level and he said, just like everyone else said, that Morgan right now is making errors that are normally coached out of 16 year olds. And when our 100K per week EPL player-of-the-year gives the ball away more times per game than pretty much anyone I've ever seen in a City shirt, or when a heroic striker looks - physically looks - like his energies these days are devoted to cocktail parties rather than football games, it's hard to turn on Amartey.

 

You could talk go on about other players too. 28, 29 year olds (this is a worryingly old side, even relatively) who aren't able to perform even the most routine of tasks. And yet we focus on a 21 year-old who looks likely to become a very talented central midfielder. Maybe he won't ever be a Kante, or even a King, I don't know, but I'm not sure we're helping by moaning about Amartey while Vardy, Fuchs, Huth, Morgan, Drinkwater and Mahrez all look like they're running around with Nessun Dorma on constant repeat.

[inckley fox]

9 minutes ago, Russell sprout said:

Its was sarcasm,and amartey has been dire,

like many others,but at least we know what others are capable of,amarteys done nothing since he's been here

He wasn't dire, don't be hysterical.

 

Others were, on the other hand, very poor. He wasn't, he was just totally unspectacular. Regardless of what we 'know' they can produce, it's all irrelevant unless they actually do it. Amartey was better than Drinkwater today. He was better than both Drinkwater and King were in the last game. No, he's not pulled up trees, but if you think he's one of our biggest problems right now then you're never going to get close to the root of our problems.

 

Now the absence of Kante, that is a massive problem, but we can't imagine that (by far) our youngest starting player is going to single-handedly take on the mantle of one of the world's best defensive midfielders. Look at the manager who didn't replace Kante. Look at the others who have failed to turn up this season. Don't look at a young lad who's given his all, and actually out-performed a good few of them. That would be hugely unfair, and it wouldn't be very supportive.

[Anish]

Inckley - your one man mission to defend Amartey is admirable but also misguided. Can you actually tell us what Amartey is good at? Yes all the other players you've mentioned have fallen below standards, but what does Amartey contribute? As far as most of us can see, he can't pass forward, he doesn't follow his runners, he isn't creative, he doesn't win the ball much, he doesn't dictate play, he doesn't score goals or link up with attackers. As a midfielder you need to do one or more of those things to be of any value. It's all well and good saying Drinkwater was worse, Fuchs was worse, Morgan was worse etc. But they at least contribute to the team when they are playing well and don't shirk their responsibilities. Drinkwater will still look for the ball and try to pass forward even after he's made mistakes. The others all contributed to our success last season. Amartey may have potential but he's done very little to convince most of us that he deserves a place in the squad, let alone the firs team.

[inckley fox]

15 minutes ago, Anish said:

Inckley - your one man mission to defend Amartey is admirable but also misguided. Can you actually tell us what Amartey is good at? Yes all the other players you've mentioned have fallen below standards, but what does Amartey contribute? As far as most of us can see, he can't pass forward, he doesn't follow his runners, he isn't creative, he doesn't win the ball much, he doesn't dictate play, he doesn't score goals or link up with attackers. As a midfielder you need to do one or more of those things to be of any value. It's all well and good saying Drinkwater was worse, Fuchs was worse, Morgan was worse etc. But they at least contribute to the team when they are playing well and don't shirk their responsibilities. Drinkwater will still look for the ball and try to pass forward even after he's made mistakes. The others all contributed to our success last season. Amartey may have potential but he's done very little to convince most of us that he deserves a place in the squad, let alone the firs team.

Can you tell me what the other players are contributing?

 

Drinkwater gave away a goal within a minute. He was also suspect for our second. And he gave away a goal last week in a game that Amartey didn't even start in.

 

When you say 'the other players don't shirk their responsibilities' are you seriously implying that we are doing badly at the moment because Amartey, and only Amartey, does shirk his responsibilities? Even in the games when we play terribly and he doesn't play?

 

I'd be interested to know who, you think, has demonstrated that they deserve a place week in week out this season. And if you don't think Amartey even deserves a place in the match-day squad, I'd like to know who it is who deserves to fill the gap. For me it's simply bizarre that so many people are focusing on the weaknesses of our youngest regular starter, when he often out-performs people who we expect a great deal more from.

[HankMarvin]

4 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

Can you tell me what the other players are contributing?

 

Drinkwater gave away a goal within a minute. He was also suspect for our second. And he gave away a goal last week in a game that Amartey didn't even start in.

 

When you say 'the other players don't shirk their responsibilities' are you seriously implying that we are doing badly at the moment because Amartey, and only Amartey, does shirk his responsibilities? Even in the games when we play terribly and he doesn't play?

 

I'd be interested to know who, you think, has demonstrated that they deserve a place week in week out this season. And if you don't think Amartey even deserves a place in the match-day squad, I'd like to know who it is who deserves to fill the gap. For me it's simply bizarre that so many people are focusing on the weaknesses of our youngest regular starter, when he often out-performs people who we expect a great deal more from.

Tbf we have seen the majority of that team win the league, and all play well last season.

They earned a bit of slack, because we know they can produce.

 

yet to be convinced Amartery is anywhere good enough.

Not sure he regularly outperforms his teammates, he wasn't the worst today, but that's because so many of his teammates were under par.

[Col city fan]

Can anyone tell me why three separate posters in this thread, when asked the direct question regarding 'what does Amartey contribute to the team' have all come back with indirect answers along the lines of either his age, scapegoating or how the other players haven't performed either'?

Three separate people failing, when asked directly, just to answer the bloody question.

It's classic FT.

[Fox92]

1 hour ago, Col city fan said:

Can anyone tell me why three separate posters in this thread, when asked the direct question regarding 'what does Amartey contribute to the team' have all come back with indirect answers along the lines of either his age, scapegoating or how the other players haven't performed either'?

Three separate people failing, when asked directly, just to answer the bloody question.

It's classic FT.

Apparently we're not allowed to criticise anybody. What have you been missing Col!!!???

 

Amartey too slow for me. A couple of times won the ball back then lost it again. Drinkwater is doing too much, even trying to win it back and then play someone in. Doesn't drive anymore. We need a proper holding man just to keep winning the ball back and giving it Drinkwater.

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, Col city fan said:

Can anyone tell me why three separate posters in this thread, when asked the direct question regarding 'what does Amartey contribute to the team' have all come back with indirect answers along the lines of either his age, scapegoating or how the other players haven't performed either'?

Three separate people failing, when asked directly, just to answer the bloody question.

It's classic FT.