Okazaki - the most hot and cold, genius, infuriating player to ever play for Leicester?

[Collymore]

The guy is an enigma. 

 

One minute he's doing flicks and skills better than Messi and closing down better than Kante, the next you'd sub him in an under 12's game. The thing is it's easy to see most of the time when he's having a shocker and this is normally quite obvious after a few minutes. I know it would be harsh to sub a player before 45 mins but there are times if I was manager where I would have. Luckily he's knackered after 60 mins anyway but the guy is a complete mystery to me still.

 

I'm not slating him, there's been a lot of games where he's MOTM, but sometimes he's a complete liability and I feel we should have the balls to sub on 30 mins or something ridiculous because he never seems to recover when he's playing poorly. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Edited 6 April 2017 by Collymore

[dmayne7]

7 minutes ago, Collymore said:

The guy is an enigma. 

 

One minute he's doing flicks and skills better than Messi and closing down better than Kante, the next you'd sub him in an under 12's game. The thing is it's easy to see most of the time when he's having a shocker and this is normally quite obvious after a few minutes. I know it would be harsh to sub a player before 45 mins but there are times if I was manager where I would have. Luckily he's knackered after 60 mins anyway but the guy is a complete mystery to me still.

 

I'm not slating him, there's been a lot of games where he's MOTM, but sometimes he's a complete liability and I feel we should have the balls to sub on 30 mins or something ridiculous because he never seems to recover when he's playing poorly. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Got any examples of when he's been that awful? Not trying to be difficult I just genuinely cannot remember him being a liability after 30 mins

[STUHILL]

8 minutes ago, Collymore said:

The guy is an enigma. 

 

One minute he's doing flicks and skills better than Messi and closing down better than Kante, the next you'd sub him in an under 12's game. The thing is it's easy to see most of the time when he's having a shocker and this is normally quite obvious after a few minutes. I know it would be harsh to sub a player before 45 mins but there are times if I was manager where I would have. Luckily he's knackered after 60 mins anyway but the guy is a complete mystery to me still.

 

I'm not slating him, there's been a lot of games where he's MOTM, but sometimes he's a complete liability and I feel we should have the balls to sub on 30 mins or something ridiculous because he never seems to recover when he's playing poorly. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Can you remember when Claudio would play him for 45mins then sub him for Ulloa? 

 

I'd be tempted to do the same now. Start him alongside Vardy. Get 45mins of him at 100%, closing down and running around like a mad man, giving the opposition no rest, then bringing on Slimani at half-time and getting him on full boost for 45mins. Simplistic way of looking at things I know, but there is some logic in there

[Kitchandro]

I agree in the sense that he either has a bad game or a good game. Either everything sticks to him and he puts himself about and links up brilliantly, or everything bounces off him as if he were an inanimate object.

 

However, and I don't mean this disrespectfully, but he's never really been at the 'hot' end of the scale for me. He's an effective player a lot of the time, and I like him, but I don't ever watch him and think he looks 'like Messi' or 'like Kante', he almost never does anything world class or particularly impressive.

 

I mean when does he skin players or score screamers? In fact has he ever scored a 'good' goal? Or complete a really clever, defence splitting pass? Ok occassionally he does a nice flick, or turns someone and wins a free kick. But for me he's just a very limited player who works hard and fits the team really well.

 

I'd say if 'hot and cold' described anyone in our team it would be Mahrez. As in he is truly world class when in form, but like a pub player when off his game, as we've seen for most of this season.

 

[foxes21]

how is he infuriating? he is fuching class

 

[Kitchandro]

3 minutes ago, dmayne7 said:

Got any examples of when he's been that awful? Not trying to be difficult I just genuinely cannot remember him being a liability after 30 mins

 

Was it Liverpool away this season when he could have been dragged off after 10?

 

There was a recent home game where he was a liability. I can't remember which one. He was pointless at West Ham, looked knackered by half time (though tbf he does run his arse off).

[foxes21]

2 minutes ago, Kitchandro said:

 

Was it Liverpool away this season when he could have been dragged off after 10?

 

There was a recent home game where he was a liability. I can't remember which one. He was pointless at West Ham, looked knackered by half time (though tbf he does run his arse off).

every single one of our players bar kasper were shocking for 6 months of the season. it's a write off. can't cherry pick from that catastrophic 6 month period, because we could do the same for every player.

[Countryfox]

Okazaki - Great player, very underrated.

[bovril]

Kind of reminds me of Heskey in the England team. Gets slagged off loads, but we tend to do better with him than without him.

[lgfualol]

As long as he doesnt have to pass, shoot or keep the ball for over 2 seconds he is awesome.

[Milo]

Has a bit of the Norman Wisdom about him...

[yorkie1999]

He's not bad at all, just struggles against teams that sit back with big defenders such as Sunderland, West Brom will be the same, because he can't get to the ball and ends up loosing balance, rushing and falling over. These types of games are when we need to play ulloa/slimani then bring Okazaki on with 20 minutes to go in order to force tired defenders into making a mistake. He's not that fast either, just looks it because he's got short legs that move quickly.

Edited 6 April 2017 by yorkie1999

[boobagab]

I don't think he has bad games. Just lots of neutral ones.

 

It's a lot harder to notice a good game from Okazaki since he doesn't score or create. 

 

For me, a good game for Okazaki is like the match last week vs. Stoke where he was stopping balls in the air with a class touch and getting into slick one-twos with the midfield. Then you have neutral matches like vs. Sevila where he was poor in the attack but supplied several timely tackles and clearances in defensive support. At the end of the day, his primary role is a 9.5 (half striker-half creator) as a support striker.  If Leicester is struggling to bang in goals, the whole side will suffer. This team is too reliant on Vardy's scoring at the end. So my only knock against Okazaki is that he's not capable of picking up the goalscoring slack when needed. You look at other 9.5's like Deeney and he's able to do those things. But Deeney doesn't have the legs to do what Okazaki does with his workrate. 

 

[Stadt]

It's his workrate that's useful but usually he's quite poor with the ball, in 25 league games this season he's scored twice and made no assists which is pathetic. Comparatively Sigurdsson (who I don't think is unattainable) has scored 8 goals and laid on a further 11. 

[Albert]

Obviously no one can knock his work rate etc but he rarely does anything on the ball in dangerous areas and desperately lacks a final ball.

For a striker he never seems to get into good enough positions to shoot. Would love to know his shots on target ratio for us 

[fuchsntf]

1 hour ago, Collymore said:

The guy is an enigma. 

 

One minute he's doing flicks and skills better than Messi and closing down better than Kante, the next you'd sub him in an under 12's game. The thing is it's easy to see most of the time when he's having a shocker and this is normally quite obvious after a few minutes. I know it would be harsh to sub a player before 45 mins but there are times if I was manager where I would have. Luckily he's knackered after 60 mins anyway but the guy is a complete mystery to me still.

 

I'm not slating him, there's been a lot of games where he's MOTM, but sometimes he's a complete liability and I feel we should have the balls to sub on 30 mins or something ridiculous because he never seems to recover when he's playing poorly. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Rodney Fern...Jon Samuals...Jackie Sinclair...D.Nish(at times)...Melrose, to mention a few.

But The above were hot, then frustrating....Shinji like Kitchando says, I have never seen him

Play hot...or maintain over a 2-4 game period  at a top consistent level.....

[foxes21]

22 minutes ago, Wookie said:

It's his workrate that's useful but usually he's quite poor with the ball, in 25 league games this season he's scored twice and made no assists which is pathetic. Comparatively Sigurdsson (who I don't think is unattainable) has scored 8 goals and laid on a further 11. 

okazaki made half our goals last season with the space he created for mahrez/vardy through his movement/running to drag defenders away.

i made a topic proving this but it got deleted 

[Stadt]

2 minutes ago, foxes21 said:

okazaki made half our goals last season with the space he created for mahrez/vardy through his movement/running to drag defenders away.

i made a topic proving this but it got deleted 

To some extent but you can't argue against the fact that he's not made a single assist whilst here

Edited 6 April 2017 by Wookie

[The whole world smiles]

On 06/04/2017 at 21:40, Collymore said:

The guy is an enigma. 

 

One minute he's doing flicks and skills better than Messi and closing down better than Kante, the next you'd sub him in an under 12's game. The thing is it's easy to see most of the time when he's having a shocker and this is normally quite obvious after a few minutes. I know it would be harsh to sub a player before 45 mins but there are times if I was manager where I would have. Luckily he's knackered after 60 mins anyway but the guy is a complete mystery to me still.

 

I'm not slating him, there's been a lot of games where he's MOTM, but sometimes he's a complete liability and I feel we should have the balls to sub on 30 mins or something ridiculous because he never seems to recover when he's playing poorly. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Very backhanded compliments here. I think he is brilliant an absolutey quality number 10 who is perfect for our style of play.

[foxes21]

Just now, Wookie said:

To some extent but you can argue against the fact that he's not made a single assist whilst here

it's what shinji does off the ball which is so vital to how we play - both in an attacking and defensive sense 

[Stadt]

Just now, foxes21 said:

it's what shinji does off the ball which is so vital to how we play - both in an attacking and defensive sense 

I appreciate that his workrate's almost unrivalled but with the ball he's often terrible and can be improved upon but you're obviously a big fan so I'll leave it at that

[Max Wall]

Fantastic pro, many others with more talent could take a leaf out of his book. Has been absolutely vital at times. Doesn't score enough, that's obvious, but makes up for it with sheer workrate. Never gets mardy either.

Edited 6 April 2017 by Max Wall

[Vardinio'sCat]

 

Not really one for the purists, but he does a lot of the ugly work which stitches a team together.

 

Pressing like that fits so well with our style, especially away from home, and it is interesting that CS has made him a regular starter again.

 

[MC Prussian]

Probably the only striker in the world who is able to play centre forward and attacking midfielder simultaneously.

 

But my god, can he be frustrating to watch. You take his workrate in the Sunderland game as an example and it's like you're looking at Shinji's evil twin as opposed to the player we witnessed against Stoke.

[Koke]

His work rate is unquestionable but when he gets the ball he has to do something with it, and often he waste possession. When he's good he is brilliant but when he's bad he's truly shocking. Ranieri have dragged him off at half time couple of times cos he was abysmal. His goals against Everton away last season and Brugge home this season were brilliantly taken. Not sure why he can't do more of that.

 

Also, he's had a grand total of 0 assists in a LCFC shirt which is terrible. Even Danny Simpson have more assists than Shinji and Simpson becomes brain dead when he crosses the half way line. 

Edited 6 April 2017 by Koke