Slimani

[st albans fox]

Couple of things

 

1) give the fella a break. has hardly played for six weeks. what are you expecting ?

 

2) flick ons - ulloa also doesn't win that many either. you need to question whether the striker is actually trying to flick it on or merely to try and force the defender to head it out or to allow us to win the second ball from the defenders header. flicking it on to their keeper achieves nothing.

[Demoox]

It's weird that no one here has noticed his 1touch passing technique. Look at this pass https://youtu.be/GyVw1OkDFRM?t=9m22s, it seems nothing, but the way he pass it is so natural and crucial to open space for Mahrez... Tiki taka like.

 

Unlike Okazaki, Slimani doesn't hold up the ball when this is not necessary. His passing ability is decent, Through balls, etc. Just remember his game against Burnley or Manchester City.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-tuQ4b8ts

 

I see that you guys are complaining about not having a number 10, what i agree with, but Slimani seems capable to take this role thanks to his spontaneity and his altruism. With the "new" style of play under Shakespeare, it can be really interesting, Okazaki isn't incredible despite the team results and Slimani is just back from injury we haven't seen yet if the team can improve with him or not.

 

PS: I looks like a newcomer but i've been reading you from a long time and i follow the club since the Championship title 

[Eagle10]

27 minutes ago, boobagab said:

A fact, lol. As in an objective fact backed by statistics, backed by the table (points per match), or backed by video? Because neither are on your side here. 

 

Slimani's style much more fluid for Leicester's countering. He makes much better decisions. Smart and quick thinking footballers are much more important than technically gifted ones. 

 

The key to Leciester's success is spacing. They want to stretch the entire opposition. Vardy and Mahrez thrive off running into loads of space because they know their pace or skill can beat the opposition. This even applies to Albrighton and Fuchs. One of the biggest reasons why Kante was sorely missed was because his timely ball recoveries usually came when the opposition was disjointed with holes in their formation. 

 

Look at Shinji here on the goal scored by Albrighton. Shinji starts off the sequence by attempting a shot with two players smothering him. Mahrez was completely unmarked at the edge of the box and he was ignored for an ill-advised shot (when has Okazaki ever even scored from there?). Lucky for Oka, the ball was blocked right onto Mahrez's foot who delivered a deflected cross in the box which Albrighton converted. By the way, give a lot of credit to Albrighton here. Most LW's would've just been lazily camping way behind the far post. Albrighton drifted towards the top of the box anticipating a knocked down ball. Again, Albrighton makes good use of spacing and attacks an area that was free. Shinji didn't. 

 

Then you have Shinji making a bad mistake here again. Ndidi wins the ball and the break starts. Okazaki seems in between two thoughts. He either had the option to give it to Mahrez or just attempt a simple back pass to Drinkwater. You can see that Sevilla was very narrow here so a pass back to Drinkwater would've allowed him to use all the space on the left side for a pass to Abrighton/Fuchs to break. Okazaki just loses the ball. 

 

These aren't one off mistakes from Okazaki either and his statistical output is just a confirmation. 

 

Then look at Slimani on the two late counters:

 

On the Vardy miss, Slimani starts the counter with a quick one-two to Mahrez who's free with loads of space to run onto. Do you want to know what Okazaki does in that situation? He either holds the ball looking to dribble through two guys or he collapses looking for a foul. 

 

On Slimani's attempt where he tries to round the keeper, he starts the sequence by dropping deep to receive the ball and anticipating Mahrez's break. He then makes a diagonal run after charging 70 yards. Yes, he didn't score but the keeper Rico did a good job tightening his angle. Again, ask yourself how often you've seen Okazaki break like that and make a diagonal run. The answer is rarely. Okazaki doesn't usually do that. He prefers to either peel off Mahrez and lag behind him or he likes to run into the 6 yard box to poach. 

 

Even on the offside call Slimani got, how many times have you seriously seen Okazaki attempt something like this? Slimani stayed wide, tried to beat trap but mistimed his jump by a split second. Slimani knows how to keep backlines stretched. He consistently challenges them. This failed too, but it was the right thing to do given Leicester's tactics. 

 

 

And this is all just in the attack. I'm not factoring in that Slimani is much better at defending set pieces than Okazaki is. 

 

If you have contrary evidence feel free to show us. It seems like you were already dismissive of Slimani's better statistical output. On video, I'm just not seeing how Okazaki is much better suited for the style when the transitions have looked better under Slimani. All of Leicester's best counters when Okazaki have played have literally just been Vardy playing heroically and dictating the attack on his own. 

 

 

Couldn't have said better. And another thing is that Shinji isn't technically gifted, he falls on his feet to much, yes he sometimes shows good feet, but he isn't that technically gifted player like Mahrez is for example, so with Shinji on the pitch you lose a lot, only Slimani slaters don't see that.

[Riot Van]

There was a point in added time where a sevilla defender had the ball in his own half looking to pump it into our box and Slimani didn't close him down.  Stowell went absolutely ballistic.

 

Idk, I get he's a great poacher and that but I'd rather have someone who can play with the ball at his feet to partner Vardy.  Simply a better Okazaki really.

[SpinneyHillRanger]

7 minutes ago, Riot Van said:

There was a point in added time where a sevilla defender had the ball in his own half looking to pump it into our box and Slimani didn't close him down.  Stowell went absolutely ballistic.

 

Idk, I get he's a great poacher and that but I'd rather have someone who can play with the ball at his feet to partner Vardy.  Simply a better Okazaki really.

Yeah i saw him not closing down and was screaming down the TV.... Didn't see Stowell reaction but was definitely understandable.

 

Really makes me question Slimanis intelligence. 

[ZeGuy]

4 hours ago, boobagab said:

A fact, lol. As in an objective fact backed by statistics, backed by the table (points per match), or backed by video? Because neither are on your side here. 

 

Slimani's style much more fluid for Leicester's countering. He makes much better decisions. Smart and quick thinking footballers are much more important than technically gifted ones. 

 

The key to Leciester's success is spacing. They want to stretch the entire opposition. Vardy and Mahrez thrive off running into loads of space because they know their pace or skill can beat the opposition. This even applies to Albrighton and Fuchs. One of the biggest reasons why Kante was sorely missed was because his timely ball recoveries usually came when the opposition was disjointed with holes in their formation. 

 

Look at Shinji here on the goal scored by Albrighton. Shinji starts off the sequence by attempting a shot with two players smothering him. Mahrez was completely unmarked at the edge of the box and he was ignored for an ill-advised shot (when has Okazaki ever even scored from there?). Lucky for Oka, the ball was blocked right onto Mahrez's foot who delivered a deflected cross in the box which Albrighton converted. By the way, give a lot of credit to Albrighton here. Most LW's would've just been lazily camping way behind the far post. Albrighton drifted towards the top of the box anticipating a knocked down ball. Again, Albrighton makes good use of spacing and attacks an area that was free. Shinji didn't. 

 

Then you have Shinji making a bad mistake here again. Ndidi wins the ball and the break starts. Okazaki seems in between two thoughts. He either had the option to give it to Mahrez or just attempt a simple back pass to Drinkwater. You can see that Sevilla was very narrow here so a pass back to Drinkwater would've allowed him to use all the space on the left side for a pass to Abrighton/Fuchs to break. Okazaki just loses the ball. 

 

These aren't one off mistakes from Okazaki either and his statistical output is just a confirmation. 

 

Then look at Slimani on the two late counters:

 

On the Vardy miss, Slimani starts the counter with a quick one-two to Mahrez who's free with loads of space to run onto. Do you want to know what Okazaki does in that situation? He either holds the ball looking to dribble through two guys or he collapses looking for a foul. 

 

On Slimani's attempt where he tries to round the keeper, he starts the sequence by dropping deep to receive the ball and anticipating Mahrez's break. He then makes a diagonal run after charging 70 yards. Yes, he didn't score but the keeper Rico did a good job tightening his angle. Again, ask yourself how often you've seen Okazaki break like that and make a diagonal run. The answer is rarely. Okazaki doesn't usually do that. He prefers to either peel off Mahrez and lag behind him or he likes to run into the 6 yard box to poach. 

 

Even on the offside call Slimani got, how many times have you seriously seen Okazaki attempt something like this? Slimani stayed wide, tried to beat trap but mistimed his jump by a split second. Slimani knows how to keep backlines stretched. He consistently challenges them. This failed too, but it was the right thing to do given Leicester's tactics. 

 

 

And this is all just in the attack. I'm not factoring in that Slimani is much better at defending set pieces than Okazaki is. 

 

If you have contrary evidence feel free to show us. It seems like you were already dismissive of Slimani's better statistical output. On video, I'm just not seeing how Okazaki is much better suited for the style when the transitions have looked better under Slimani. All of Leicester's best counters when Okazaki have played have literally just been Vardy playing heroically and dictating the attack on his own. 

 

 

Great post which unsurprisingly did not even get one rep. But you're wasting your time trying to explain football tactics in this thread. Excepting a handful who actually watch a football game and try to understand it, most of the posters in this thread, mesure a player's contribution by the number of miles he ran and are so much biased toward him that they would still slag him even if he was the most efficient forward despite not playing or starting all the games or being played out of position. Oh wait...

 

Can't even imagine the shitstorm here, if it was him who missed Mahrez's pass on the last counter.

[Rigga]

I think most of us for 30m quid would like to see a player that can actually play with his feet..not really too much to ask for a footballer is it ?

 

[the fox]

On 15/03/2017 at 18:18, boobagab said:

A fact, lol. As in an objective fact backed by statistics, backed by the table (points per match), or backed by video? Because neither are on your side here. 

 

Slimani's style much more fluid for Leicester's countering. He makes much better decisions. Smart and quick thinking footballers are much more important than technically gifted ones. 

 

The key to Leciester's success is spacing. They want to stretch the entire opposition. Vardy and Mahrez thrive off running into loads of space because they know their pace or skill can beat the opposition. This even applies to Albrighton and Fuchs. One of the biggest reasons why Kante was sorely missed was because his timely ball recoveries usually came when the opposition was disjointed with holes in their formation. 

 

Look at Shinji here on the goal scored by Albrighton. Shinji starts off the sequence by attempting a shot with two players smothering him. Mahrez was completely unmarked at the edge of the box and he was ignored for an ill-advised shot (when has Okazaki ever even scored from there?). Lucky for Oka, the ball was blocked right onto Mahrez's foot who delivered a deflected cross in the box which Albrighton converted. By the way, give a lot of credit to Albrighton here. Most LW's would've just been lazily camping way behind the far post. Albrighton drifted towards the top of the box anticipating a knocked down ball. Again, Albrighton makes good use of spacing and attacks an area that was free. Shinji didn't. 

 

Then you have Shinji making a bad mistake here again. Ndidi wins the ball and the break starts. Okazaki seems in between two thoughts. He either had the option to give it to Mahrez or just attempt a simple back pass to Drinkwater. You can see that Sevilla was very narrow here so a pass back to Drinkwater would've allowed him to use all the space on the left side for a pass to Abrighton/Fuchs to break. Okazaki just loses the ball. 

 

These aren't one off mistakes from Okazaki either and his statistical output is just a confirmation. 

 

Then look at Slimani on the two late counters:

 

On the Vardy miss, Slimani starts the counter with a quick one-two to Mahrez who's free with loads of space to run onto. Do you want to know what Okazaki does in that situation? He either holds the ball looking to dribble through two guys or he collapses looking for a foul. 

 

On Slimani's attempt where he tries to round the keeper, he starts the sequence by dropping deep to receive the ball and anticipating Mahrez's break. He then makes a diagonal run after charging 70 yards. Yes, he didn't score but the keeper Rico did a good job tightening his angle. Again, ask yourself how often you've seen Okazaki break like that and make a diagonal run. The answer is rarely. Okazaki doesn't usually do that. He prefers to either peel off Mahrez and lag behind him or he likes to run into the 6 yard box to poach. 

 

Even on the offside call Slimani got, how many times have you seriously seen Okazaki attempt something like this? Slimani stayed wide, tried to beat trap but mistimed his jump by a split second. Slimani knows how to keep backlines stretched. He consistently challenges them. This failed too, but it was the right thing to do given Leicester's tactics. 

 

 

And this is all just in the attack. I'm not factoring in that Slimani is much better at defending set pieces than Okazaki is. 

 

If you have contrary evidence feel free to show us. It seems like you were already dismissive of Slimani's better statistical output. On video, I'm just not seeing how Okazaki is much better suited for the style when the transitions have looked better under Slimani. All of Leicester's best counters when Okazaki have played have literally just been Vardy playing heroically and dictating the attack on his own. 

 

 

This is going in the archives. Don't really know why people rate him.

[the fox]

21 minutes ago, Rigga said:

I think most of us for 30m quid would like to see a player that can actually play with his feet..not really too much to ask for a footballer is it ?

 

Is he a cripple?

[The whole world smiles]

On 15/03/2017 at 17:25, st albans fox said:

Couple of things

 

1) give the fella a break. has hardly played for six weeks. what are you expecting ?

 

2) flick ons - ulloa also doesn't win that many either. you need to question whether the striker is actually trying to flick it on or merely to try and force the defender to head it out or to allow us to win the second ball from the defenders header. flicking it on to their keeper achieves nothing.

Yup spot on the days of Brian Deane and the like are over.

[Rigga]

1 minute ago, the fox said:

Is he a cripple?

Wouldn't say a cripple but he is awful with the ball at his feet..

[Foxxed]

We're yet to see the best of Slim, and what we have seen is great, boobajab's videos going a long way to prove that. Shinji's pace for the high press and relationship with Vardy, however, make me place Shinji ahead of Slim. I can be persuaded Slim is technically better than Shinji in a fair few areas. But Shinji seems better for our pressing game - a manic Shinji running towards a defender or keeper, foot raised, is so iconic for our game and spirit.

 

I'd like to see more of Slim, see him working well with Vardy, see him pressing more, and hopefully see him for more than 30 minutes against West Ham. It's easy to imagine how much we'd be raving about his one-two with Mahrez if Vardy had hit the back of the net. We currently have a fantastic striker - much better than Ulloa - to bring on after Shinji's pressed the opposition to death.

 

[the fox]

18 minutes ago, Rigga said:

Wouldn't say a cripple but he is awful with the ball at his feet..

He is not the best dribbler and he can't do 50 yard passes but he is a more than OK short passer, can play a one two pass and can pick a pass (like vs man city)

[Rigga]

Barely missed a game in what Slimani has been involved in and I honestly see nothing that he is better at than Ulloa.

 

 

[Rigga]

4 minutes ago, the fox said:

He is not the best dribbler and he can't do 50 yard passes but he is a more than OK short passer, can play a one two pass and can pick a pass (like vs man city)

The guy can't trap a bag of cement! So rarely gets the chance of a short pass

[worthosoriginals]

On 15/03/2017 at 14:21, The whole world smiles said:

Even on the day after the best, most emotional single night in our clubs history some people on here are not happy unless a player is being dished out.

 

You are an embarrassment to yourselfs and the club you allegedly support in my humble opinion.

 

I would say you will be all eating humble pie in a few weeks when he shows you his quality. But you dour bastards never eat humble pie you will just move on to your newest scapegoat and it will be Simpsons or albrightons turn to get dished out by the forum warriors again.

Nailed it.

[Foxxed]

Shinji also often becomes an attacking fifth midfielder, pressing defenders, pushing midfielders out wide and winning free kicks. Slimani is your normal and excellent striker. Trying to compare them is madness. It's like trying to compare Sonic the Hedgehog and Donkey Kong: they're both excellent, and they both play their role, but a hybrid game would almost certainly be a failure. Since Sonic often falls over--especially if you play him like I did--causing an awful racket and losing his coins, it may not be a bad comparison. And we've just won the Premier League and reached the quarters of the Champions League with Sonic. I'm happy we've got both.

[shiv]

20 minutes ago, Rigga said:

Barely missed a game in what Slimani has been involved in and I honestly see nothing that he is better at than Ulloa.

 

 

Apart from scoring 6 and getting 4 assists in a team that's been utter shite until about 3 weeks ago? He's coming back from injury, give him a chance now we're actually playing well and then judge him.

 

The fickleness of fans amazes me sometimes  

[st albans fox]

6 hours ago, shiv said:

Apart from scoring 6 and getting 4 assists in a team that's been utter shite until about 3 weeks ago? He's coming back from injury, give him a chance now we're actually playing well and then judge him.

 

The fickleness of fans amazes me sometimes  

You have made over 1000 posts - were they on the gardening part of the forum? 

[Loves2spooge]

AH yes and this is one of foxestalks oldest traditions a weekly bash on their players , cut back a week later when he scores or does something against west ham and he will be acclaimed like a god 

 

for the record this happened with Mahrez , Vardy , Mussa , Okazaki etc etc 

[Thracian]

On 15/03/2017 at 17:18, boobagab said:

A fact, lol. As in an objective fact backed by statistics, backed by the table (points per match), or backed by video? Because neither are on your side here. 

 

Slimani's style much more fluid for Leicester's countering. He makes much better decisions. Smart and quick thinking footballers are much more important than technically gifted ones. 

 

The key to Leciester's success is spacing. They want to stretch the entire opposition. Vardy and Mahrez thrive off running into loads of space because they know their pace or skill can beat the opposition. This even applies to Albrighton and Fuchs. One of the biggest reasons why Kante was sorely missed was because his timely ball recoveries usually came when the opposition was disjointed with holes in their formation. 

 

Look at Shinji here on the goal scored by Albrighton. Shinji starts off the sequence by attempting a shot with two players smothering him. Mahrez was completely unmarked at the edge of the box and he was ignored for an ill-advised shot (when has Okazaki ever even scored from there?). Lucky for Oka, the ball was blocked right onto Mahrez's foot who delivered a deflected cross in the box which Albrighton converted. By the way, give a lot of credit to Albrighton here. Most LW's would've just been lazily camping way behind the far post. Albrighton drifted towards the top of the box anticipating a knocked down ball. Again, Albrighton makes good use of spacing and attacks an area that was free. Shinji didn't. 

 

Then you have Shinji making a bad mistake here again. Ndidi wins the ball and the break starts. Okazaki seems in between two thoughts. He either had the option to give it to Mahrez or just attempt a simple back pass to Drinkwater. You can see that Sevilla was very narrow here so a pass back to Drinkwater would've allowed him to use all the space on the left side for a pass to Abrighton/Fuchs to break. Okazaki just loses the ball. 

 

These aren't one off mistakes from Okazaki either and his statistical output is just a confirmation. 

 

Then look at Slimani on the two late counters:

 

On the Vardy miss, Slimani starts the counter with a quick one-two to Mahrez who's free with loads of space to run onto. Do you want to know what Okazaki does in that situation? He either holds the ball looking to dribble through two guys or he collapses looking for a foul. 

 

On Slimani's attempt where he tries to round the keeper, he starts the sequence by dropping deep to receive the ball and anticipating Mahrez's break. He then makes a diagonal run after charging 70 yards. Yes, he didn't score but the keeper Rico did a good job tightening his angle. Again, ask yourself how often you've seen Okazaki break like that and make a diagonal run. The answer is rarely. Okazaki doesn't usually do that. He prefers to either peel off Mahrez and lag behind him or he likes to run into the 6 yard box to poach. 

 

Even on the offside call Slimani got, how many times have you seriously seen Okazaki attempt something like this? Slimani stayed wide, tried to beat trap but mistimed his jump by a split second. Slimani knows how to keep backlines stretched. He consistently challenges them. This failed too, but it was the right thing to do given Leicester's tactics. 

 

 

And this is all just in the attack. I'm not factoring in that Slimani is much better at defending set pieces than Okazaki is. 

 

If you have contrary evidence feel free to show us. It seems like you were already dismissive of Slimani's better statistical output. On video, I'm just not seeing how Okazaki is much better suited for the style when the transitions have looked better under Slimani. All of Leicester's best counters when Okazaki have played have literally just been Vardy playing heroically and dictating the attack on his own. 

 

 

 

You make some good points in what was an enjoyable read. But you over-highlight Slimani strengths while seemingly ignoring Shinji's value.

Shinji reminds me of an old City warrior named Frank Large. He's such a lousy footballer it's laughable. Put Little Shinji and Large on the same pitch as Davie Gibson and you'd never believe they'd ever kicked a football compared with the little genius that was Gibbo.

 

Shinji's like a clockwork toy. You wind him up before the kick-off and he scurries round for 60 seemingly aimless minutes diving into tackles, bumping into the ball, tripping over his own feet and struggling to make up his mind what on earth to do even when presented with a tap in from two inches.

 

Videos abound featuring the many "Greatest Goals" of strikers like Matt Le Tissier and some are footballing works of art. Shinji could market "The game's Ugliest Goals" or his own personal advert for goal-line technology because he doesn't always get sufficient connection to see the ball actually goes far enough over the line to hit the net.

 

But I can understand his economy. No point wasting his strength shooting when he needs all his energy to give our team the terrier-like hustle it needs to make it successful. He and Vardy create such ferocious havoc among opposition defenders they force unlikely mistakes, put concern into every clearance and in so doing make space and opportunity for others.

 

With Shinji not knowing what he's going to do next there's no chance the opposition defenders will, and that too seems to add to the confusion that leads to goals and chances because while Shinji and Vardy are snapping at opponent's heels, others can reap the benefit. It also makes opponents wary because the combined pace of their challenging means so much of our counter-attacking is potentially dangerous.

 

Slimani is a totally different footballer...indeed he is a footballer for a start in that he manouevres and directs a football instead of wondering why it's between his feet encouraging him to fall over it.

 

But while Slim might add sublimity to our attacks - and all sorts of orthodox but effective contributions, both in the air and on the ground, he detracts from our pace and energy up front to the point where, against good defenders, he looks too easily stifled or, too often, a yard or two short to be useful.

 

That may be partly because he's never been at his sharpest at Leicester because he never plays enough because of injury, opportunity or other commitments. The reasons don't matter to me, only the impact on our performances.  

 

How long, I wonder, did his "groin strain" trouble him before AFCON. I don't suppose we'll ever know one way or the other but he certainly went our there supposedly fit enough to play, came back "injured" and dwe didn't see much of him for weeks. So AFCON didn't cost us for January - it cost us in February too and possibly in performances even back into December.     

 

You might accept that but it'd be no good to me. Shinji's been there with his energy most all the time. And a damned good time it's been too in the main and apart from the nonsense of Ranieri moving the goalposts when there was no need and no logic to it.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for evolving a team. But a player at a time and not by taking away the essence of what makes us winners. Which is the energy, bravery and commitment to compete in every phase and the pace to hurt teams when we get the chance. If a fully-fit Slimani can fit in with that week-in, week out I'll be pleased. If not we might as ell sell him on to China or wherever and think again.   

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

[foxinsocks]

On 3/15/2017 at 17:47, Eagle10 said:

Couldn't have said better. And another thing is that Shinji isn't technically gifted, he falls on his feet to much, yes he sometimes shows good feet, but he isn't that technically gifted player like Mahrez is for example, so with Shinji on the pitch you lose a lot, only Slimani slaters don't see that.

Cant you see that shinji is key to our favored method of playing?  When Shinji is on we can press high.  When shinji is on we have an out ball form midfield as he runs towards the ball (other wise we are just looking up for vardy or wide to ryhad as per the ranieri performances).  When shinji is on the balls forward are controlled and flicked wide to albrighton and  to mahrex - they get more runs when he is on. 

 

slimani is improving in his work rate and in his holding of the ball - when the game is streacthed and we want to go long he can come on.  But when we need energy shinji is the starter.  Ranieri didn't want to play the prress and didn't start shinji oftern - he is now out of a job.

[shiv]

2 hours ago, st albans fox said:

You have made over 1000 posts - were they on the gardening part of the forum? 

Not sure what that has to do with anything. I just don't spend my life on here, that okay with you pal? 

[Guest]

I think we have to take into account that Leicester play a particular way and it's obvious Slim isn't used to that and English football yet. I can see him being decent though.

[FLAN]

23 minutes ago, shiv said:

Not sure what that has to do with anything. I just don't spend my life on here, that okay with you pal? 

I think he means how can you be amazed at what goes on in this forum having been here so long. He's not having a go