Should We Have Sold Vardy / Mahrez In The Summer

[the-blue-wildabeast]

I think its too simplistic to just says they have lost form or dont care etc, i think you need to ask why they are struggling.

 

Vardy is a little one dimensional, hes all about raw pace and harrasment of defenders. Since losing Kante, its created two main issues. 1, we used to win the ball high up or even in the opposition half, and Kante would give it to Drinky or Mahrez and we countered at pace from an advanced position. We simply do not win enough balls anywhere, let alone in advanced areas. 2. Drinky would often recieve the ball on the half way line area and be able to play those great through balls, or balls over the top, but he know finds himself camped just in front of the defence and rarely gets into these advanced positions to play these killer passes. Until we address the Midfield problem in Jan i cant see it really improving, unless we try different formations which the Don clearly isnt keen to do.

 

Mahrez I love, the one genuine player we have who could walk into any other team, but teams know this and are putting 2/3 players on him which is severly limiting his impact. He wasnt great Sat, but still managed a fine run and cross to set Shinji up. We need others to threaten, so teams can no longer afford to put 2/3 players on Mahrez. Albrighton has struggled this year, we all know he can whip a good ball in but it has rarely benifitted us so far and he hasnt offered much else in terms of an attacking threat. If we played and stuck with Musa or Gray as well, teams cant afford to pay so much attention to Mahrez. We really need to help the guy out, maybe try him just behind the striker or swap wings during games, at the minute its too easy for teams to nulify our one and only real creative player

[steflcfc]

At the moment, teams are doing their homework by 2 things as others have said.

Dropping deep to stop the threat of Vardys pace and 2 men on Mahrez to try and nullify him.

 

In effect, this should help us, as with other teams defences and in turn midfield dropping deeper we should be having a field day.

 

But our recruitment was wasted on Wingers we didn't really need, and players like King and Amartey having no attacking threat we look so poor it's quite shocking.

Sideways passes and balls back to our ageing defence/ sub standard keeper just ain't good enough at this level.

 

Drinky has to do soo much I bet he is glad of a break already.

 

Unfortunatly We will be held to ransom in Jan as all clubs know what we need. It's painfully obvious.

Most of our signings just made our bench better not starting 11.

 

We have made massive costly mistakes in the summer, some plain to see, and we are seeing the effects now!

 

Missed an opportunity to kick on and challenge at the top 6 regularly, and it's like we wasn't prepared at all across the board.

 

Relish the CL for what it is, as it's a once in a lifetime achievement.

The league seems like a chore to the players and hopefully they kick on! As some of the performances are not excusable regardless of wages!

[smudgerfox]

We have too little goal threat beyond these two players..It was true last season and it's true now.(Slimani is slightly compensating for the bluntness of Vardy, this season). We score far too few goals from set pieces (other than penalties) and King, Amartey, Albrighton and Gray will be lucky to get to ten goals between them this season. Add to that Drinkwater is a minimal goal threat = terrible long range shooter (probably five a season) and Okizaki (I appreciate that we all love him), but despite his advanced position in the team he isn't good for many more than DD.So team have worked out if they can stop Mahrez and Vardy they can stop us...I would play Schlupp as part of a midfield three with Mahrez and Gray/Musa either side of Slimani. Leave Vardy to concentrate on his film, his academy and his attention seeking wife.

 

[FLAN]

16 minutes ago, the-blue-wildabeast said:

I think its too simplistic to just says they have lost form or dont care etc, i think you need to ask why they are struggling.

 

Vardy is a little one dimensional, hes all about raw pace and harrasment of defenders. Since losing Kante, its created two main issues. 1, we used to win the ball high up or even in the opposition half, and Kante would give it to Drinky or Mahrez and we countered at pace from an advanced position. We simply do not win enough balls anywhere, let alone in advanced areas. 2. Drinky would often recieve the ball on the half way line area and be able to play those great through balls, or balls over the top, but he know finds himself camped just in front of the defence and rarely gets into these advanced positions to play these killer passes. Until we address the Midfield problem in Jan i cant see it really improving, unless we try different formations which the Don clearly isnt keen to do.

 

Mahrez I love, the one genuine player we have who could walk into any other team, but teams know this and are putting 2/3 players on him which is severly limiting his impact. He wasnt great Sat, but still managed a fine run and cross to set Shinji up. We need others to threaten, so teams can no longer afford to put 2/3 players on Mahrez. Albrighton has struggled this year, we all know he can whip a good ball in but it has rarely benifitted us so far and he hasnt offered much else in terms of an attacking threat. If we played and stuck with Musa or Gray as well, teams cant afford to pay so much attention to Mahrez. We really need to help the guy out, maybe try him just behind the striker or swap wings during games, at the minute its too easy for teams to nulify our one and only real creative player

I'd play him with Fuchs who attacks more and would give their defence more to think about. I know it potentially weakens that side defensively but worth a try 

[Monsell1976]

Hindsight is a great thing, the vardy of last season, no I wouldn't sell, but he's proving to be a one season wonder, back to his 5 goals a season I think, so if I knew what I know now, I'd have took the money.

[Fox92]

I'd have sold any of them to keep Kante.

[Blanchy]

Mahrez - numerous suggestions of other clubs interest. Certainly ambitious and wants to play for a higher profile club.  After winning the league with us, it was only ever going to be a deflated season in comparison - Champions League he could have sourced elsewhere easily and for someone who could win it.  cant be a huge surprise to folk his levels are diminished from last year?

 

Vardy - 29 going on 30, pace is main asset and is only going to lose that gradually, throw in has been incredibly lucky with injuries to lower body at least.  £100k a week for 4 years...

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

 

[themightyfin]

I just hate fickle fans.

Keep the faith.

[MPH]

Weve been found out, thats for sure. But how could things of been different? I mean, if we had sold them in the summer, could we of bought players who would of performed at the same lvl as they did last year.. And if they didnt perform as well there would be a chorus of people saying we should never of sold them.

 

 

People often talk about a win win situation but this appears to be a lose lose.... should of sold them people complain but if we had and we would of been in the same position as we are now then people would complain...

[Dan]

It's the system making both look worse than they are. I don't buy into this lack of motivation, it's the standard response every time something goes wrong with too many and it's far too simplistic to say that.

 

I also don't buy it's just the other teams doing their homework. Did they all not bother in the second half last season (where it was quite obvious what we were doing) and start this year? I'm not having it.

 

It's our own doing.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Shudda Cudda Wudda

[foxy boxing]

Vardy Mahrez and Kante last season were a triumpverante so when you lose one the system invariably collapses and just like ancient Rome in the league we have come crashing down even before our empire got going so we need that third pillar in midfield that will help hold everything in place or we may go the way of ancient rome

[J.Lisemore]

6 hours ago, Col city fan said:

No. You don't sell your best players. You buy good players to compliment them. 

Could you see Barcelona selling Messi, Suarez and Neymar?

Both Vardy and Mahrez would look much better if they were playing with class midfielders. Like last season.

All this...I'd sell him and I'd sell him is MISSING THE POINT. Our recruitment in the summer was fookin dreadful.

If we had signed Silva in the summer, Vardy and Mahrez would look very very different now.

And not signing a quality, younger centre back was a sin.

Completely agree with this. Vardy hasn't become a bad player overnight  and we're lucky to have such a gem in Mahrez, we'll miss him massively when he's gone. 

[NewEnglandFox]

I thought there was too much focus and dependence on them in the summer. They played out of their skins at an unsustainable rate and competitive advantages don't last forever. It's no surprise to me that they were found out. Football is a reactionary game after all. I just worry that all the focus on the two detracted attention from the other 21 places in the squad that also needed attention. Now the 2 stars aren't firing and neither are the other 9 playing with them.

[AKCJ]

Absolutely not.

 

Selling would have been seen as cashing in and calling it quits. I know we've not gone to bigger things but last season was all about showing the so-called big clubs that we weren't afraid of them. Bending over and letting them have our best players would have meant that all of that would have gone to waste.

 

I was -and I'm still- delighted that we didn't cash in on two players that deserve statues for all they've done.

 

We're not struggling for money. The cash does nothing for the fans.

 

[Fox 4 Life]

We were right not to sell them but the colossal **** up was not building on what we had and strengthening. We severely underestimated what kante brought to the table and should have gone all out to not only replace him but bring in a better class of player elsewhere. That small window is now well and truly shut, players like Silva will not come here now and we will regret that for years to come IMO 

[Matt]

Whilst Mahrez is pissing me off, no.

 

In hindsight with Vardy, yes, lost a massive amount of respect for him about his saga over the summer, the way he fucked us about, left us hanging, he signed and I was happy, but he engineered that, to either get a big money move or bigger contract with us (Fair play) but then throw in the book, the film (Albeit i'm not sure how much he is pushing for that), the selling of his wedding to a magazine, all money making, again fair play, but when it's effecting his football, his performances, when he doesn't look like he's putting as much effort in, of course they may not even be linked with the things i've listed but for us fan they're easy things to point fingers at and ultimately he's put himself in this position, seems like he has one massive ego now, I kinda wish we'd got rid now. I'll be happy to be proved wrong, he's done it before...

[Foxxed]

It amuses me.

 

Last season there was full on panic we hadn't replaced Shinji when he turned out to have been essential to our title.

 

Start of this season full on panic that we were going to sell the man who personified our work rate and attitude, but had so far failed to show either to the same extent.

 

Mahrez though, although nullified a fair bit, showed loyalty when both we and the world expected him to high tail it, has worked hard, has become better defensively and promoted our biggest ever signing, who's hit the ground running, to join.

[Almo-Fox]

I  agree   Both  mahrez and  vardy should  have followed  different paths out of  leceister 

With the  new players gray Chilwell musa and  kaputska  ranieri will have a  new squad 

But  not  sure to good  through group stage at  CL 

 

But since they  are  still at Leicester ranieri have  mde  a great mistake by not replacing  the role of kanke  have , and  this is  why both vardy and mahrez are  not performing 

[TheStig]

9 hours ago, norfolkfox222 said:

Id actually say yes to Mahrez. At the moment i think the hype has gone to his head, he appears to be sulking almost to the extent he doesnt want to be here. I hope he proves me wrong. At least his penalties have improved.

Just a guess: Mahrez wanted to leave this summer. Was told "no way" - and as a consequence does not seem to have any motivation for City any longer - don´ t know but his (and Vardys) massive drop in form is mindbaffling.

 

[desertfox2]

Hindsight always 20/20. We had to do all we could to keep them especially with NG going. 

[WigstonWanderer]

Hold my hand up as one who thought the club should pay whatever it took to keep our 3 prize assets, but perhaps should have listened to wiser heads who cautioned against paying too much too soon for a club of our size.

 

It seems the 2 that stayed have turned out to be not such good investments whilst the real treasure got away.

[Matt]

4 minutes ago, TheStig said:

Just a guess: Mahrez wanted to leave this summer. Was told "no way" - and as a consequence does not seem to have any motivation for City any longer - don´ t know but his (and Vardys) massive drop in form is mindbaffling.

 

I've never got this situation with any player.

 

If that truly is the case, how is he ever going to get a move? Because who's gonna be interested?

 

If it is the case surely he should think to himself, hang on a minute, if I buck my ideas up, play out my skin like last season, Leicester will be in no position to turn a bid down from my dream team Barcelona (Or another big club, just using Barca as example).

 

However I do agree and understand where the suggestion that he is throwing his toys out the pram/not happy come from.

[fairbanksh]

 Easy to blame star players 

They are top proffesionals and will be struggling to adapt from a successful system to no system

Ranieri seems out of his depth in creating a replenished side albeit with mostly unessessary recruits

He does unfortunately have a history of this particularly in Italy

Recruitment has been nothing short of disastrous 

I had really hoped we'd establish a really sound base after 2015/16

Very very worried but blaming the players in these circumstances is just wrong

[Wymsey]

If Mahrez had left, it would've put tremendous pressure on Gray or Musa to perform well and be a threat consistently.

So, with Mahrez's previously seen quality in this league in mind, it would've been another daft decision made by the recruitment team.