Gray - considering future

[Albert]

1 hour ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

Mahrez 

? I know u were but when u said "passing to a team mate once in a while" exactly describes what Gray wasn't doing whenever he got a chance.

We were in the shit. Times were desperate. In those situations u back the current PFA player of the yr that lit the league up previously and has proven what he can do. I agree he wasn't on top form but u keep him on the pitch & hope the tide turns rather than putting an inexperienced youngster into the battle 

 

[volpeazzurro]

6 hours ago, Albert said:

The majority of teams game plan last season was to stop Mahrez & cut out any link between him and Vardy. When u are being doubled/trebled up against of course performance & stats will be affected.

 

That may well be true and I think your probably right but:

1. If you have 3 men in front of you, it means several of your team mates are unmarked. Try passing to them instead of constantly giving the ball away and running down blind allys.  This will possibly achieve two things, giving chances to your team mates and possibly convincing the opposition on occasions to not double mark you which enables you to do what you did the season before.

2. Putting 3 men on you doesn't mean you can turn in to training late, turn up to a match unfit and play a Premiership game with a bone idol attitude. For the  incredibly talented and gifted player you can be,  you let your team and supporters down by not giving of your best for which you get paid handsomely. 

[foxes21]

 

What happens if we sell Mahrez & teams put 2 men on Gray? Nullifies him just like Mahrez and then we're back to square one.

[NotTheMarketLeader]

8 hours ago, Albert said:

? I know u were but when u said "passing to a team mate once in a while" exactly describes what Gray wasn't doing whenever he got a chance.

We were in the shit. Times were desperate. In those situations u back the current PFA player of the yr that lit the league up previously and has proven what he can do. I agree he wasn't on top form but u keep him on the pitch & hope the tide turns rather than putting an inexperienced youngster into the battle 

 

Ok.

 

When we were safe, why not give Gray a chance in 3 or 4 games as a starter to see what he could do?

[NotTheMarketLeader]

8 hours ago, foxes21 said:

 

What happens if we sell Mahrez & teams put 2 men on Gray? Nullifies him just like Mahrez and then we're back to square one.

How daft is that argument?

 

On that basis you would never buy a decent player because he could be nullified by two men marking him. 

 

Do do you really believe that tactic itself can't be overcome?

 

Its called passing the ball. It's called team work. If there are two men marking Mahrez he should pass to the spare man ffs. 

 

That was his major problem last season, and when he was failing to do that, running into two or three players, game after game that's when he should have benched.  But no, he was allowed to carry for 9 months,

playing for himself and sulking;

in a team game that way of playing / behaving doesn't work for anyone.

 

Yes you could throw the same accusation at Gray, but he was 20 years old and surely the time to educate him and give him a chance to prove what he could do was when we were safe from the drop? 

 

If he played like a twat after being given a fair crack of the whip, I would have a different attitude, but young players can't get better sitting on the bench.

[1972 Fox]

12 hours ago, brucey said:

http://owngoalnigeria.com/2016/12/12/revealed-the-terms-shirt-number-weekly-wage-of-leicester-city-new-signing-wilfred-ndidi/

Sorry, 20k apparently, I remembered wrong 

I take it that you can't be serious to take as fact something that is written on owngoalnigeria.com? 

[Thracian]

1 hour ago, NotTheMarketLeader said:

Ok.

 

When we were safe, why not give Gray a chance in 3 or 4 games as a starter to see what he could do?

Because Shakespeare would already know what he could do, would have monitored his performance in training and perhaps considered that other people were more deserving of the shirt.

 

That might have been to do with Gray's footballing form, assessment of his demeanour, commitment or all sorts of other reasons.  

 

Lots of squad members get left out of a team who probably want to be playing as well. Albrighton at times, King, Amartey, Musa, Slimani, Benalouane. Chilwell. Why all this touting of Gray?

 

Has he done more in his time on the pitch than the others? Not from what I've watched.

 

In terms of situation Chilwell's the closest to Gray and, like Gray, he doubtless wants as much game time as he can get.

 

Yet he's keeping his head down, developing his game and improving people's trust in him with every opportunity he gets.

 

Both these young players have made mistakes. Gray's responded by disappearing a lot of the time. Chilwell's responded by continuing to stay involved and to give all the support for his colleagues that he can.

 

Gray should learn from that.

 

.           

[brucey]

48 minutes ago, Blue Fox 72 said:

I take it that you can't be serious to take as fact something that is written on owngoalnigeria.com? 

What? OGN is about the most reliable source you can get on Nigerian players, when they do their exclusive reports. Being completely serious.

[desertfox2]

9 hours ago, foxes21 said:

 

What happens if we sell Mahrez & teams put 2 men on Gray? Nullifies him just like Mahrez and then we're back to square one.

Iborra will be a more of a threat through the middle than Drinkwater and hopefully we wrap up Kelechi who is more of a threat than Okazaki add Vardy to the mix and double teaming Gray would be pointless.

[NotTheMarketLeader]

3 hours ago, Thracian said:

Because Shakespeare would already know what he could do, would have monitored his performance in training and perhaps considered that other people were more deserving of the shirt.

 

That might have been to do with Gray's footballing form, assessment of his demeanour, commitment or all sorts of other reasons.  

 

Lots of squad members get left out of a team who probably want to be playing as well. Albrighton at times, King, Amartey, Musa, Slimani, Benalouane. Chilwell. Why all this touting of Gray?

 

Has he done more in his time on the pitch than the others? Not from what I've watched.

 

In terms of situation Chilwell's the closest to Gray and, like Gray, he doubtless wants as much game time as he can get.

 

Yet he's keeping his head down, developing his game and improving people's trust in him with every opportunity he gets.

 

Both these young players have made mistakes. Gray's responded by disappearing a lot of the time. Chilwell's responded by continuing to stay involved and to give all the support for his colleagues that he can.

 

Gray should learn from that.

 

.           

If we put aside the 'stuff' that has come out in the press which may or may not be true, which seems to have tainted him somewhat, I feel you are being a little harsh on him.

 

Imo he has not had enough game time.

[NotTheMarketLeader]

12 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

That may well be true and I think your probably right but:

1. If you have 3 men in front of you, it means several of your team mates are unmarked. Try passing to them instead of constantly giving the ball away and running down blind allys.  This will possibly achieve two things, giving chances to your team mates and possibly convincing the opposition on occasions to not double mark you which enables you to do what you did the season before.

2. Putting 3 men on you doesn't mean you can turn in to training late, turn up to a match unfit and play a Premiership game with a bone idol attitude. For the  incredibly talented and gifted player you can be,  you let your team and supporters down by not giving of your best for which you get paid handsomely. 

Nailed it

[Guest]

15 hours ago, foxes21 said:

 

What happens if we sell Mahrez & teams put 2 men on Gray? Nullifies him just like Mahrez and then we're back to square one.

It does however we we get iheanacho or another player of that type, then 2 men on Gray will leave iheanacho without any marking and have free reign. 

[cc_star]

15 hours ago, foxes21 said:

 

What happens if we sell Mahrez & teams put 2 men on Gray? Nullifies him just like Mahrez and then we're back to square one.

You don't need to

 

He runs into dead ends all the time as it is

[Col city fan]

22 hours ago, Thracian said:

What disappoints me more than Mahrez's disappointing season was Gray's failure to make a case for more game time. Like a Catherine Wheel, he usually came in with a whoosh but very soon there was just a flickering flame and then nothing. 

 

When Albrighton made mistakes he was like a man possessed trying to remedy the situation. If he delivered a bad cross, he tried again and again. His head never dropped an inch nor his demeanour.

 

Like so many others who perfectly fit the character of our team he dared to be bad, he dared to keep trying things, he dared to run himself to a standstill and to believe that he'd get through it and and finally help us in whatever way to achieve something.It really does take guts to stay involved in a game where things are going wrong both for you and for others and the crowd are getting uppity.

 

But we have so many players who do keep trying and believing. And if Gray needs a hero to look to he could so easily turn to Ronaldo who sets a shining example for constantly improving his game and persisting with this, that and anything else he can think of to make things happen and to make defenders uncomfortable.

 

Wingers don't win every battle but they need to develop an outlook which refuses to give defenders a moment's peace whatever they say and do to make life difficult. 

 

Gray's not like that at all as yet. Let him know you're there, torment him some, get tight enough to keep his head down and he soon quietens down  But the greats lose the ball once, twice, however many times and still come at you again til they force a mistake and finally unhinge even organised defences.     

Loving the Catherine wheel analogy!

And so so true. There were a good many shouting out for giving young Gray 'a chance'. I'm afraid the reality was, when he had that chance, he flattered to deceive. He was ok. He wasn't bad. But he didn't excite to the level those who express any honesty whatsoever, would have expected him to.

[ZeGuy]

17 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

That may well be true and I think your probably right but:

1. If you have 3 men in front of you, it means several of your team mates are unmarked. Try passing to them instead of constantly giving the ball away and running down blind allys.  This will possibly achieve two things, giving chances to your team mates and possibly convincing the opposition on occasions to not double mark you which enables you to do what you did the season before.

2. Putting 3 men on you doesn't mean you can turn in to training late, turn up to a match unfit and play a Premiership game with a bone idol attitude. For the  incredibly talented and gifted player you can be,  you let your team and supporters down by not giving of your best for which you get paid handsomely. 

1. Not when the said free players hide most the time, stay at a comfortable distance from him, do not make runs and/or treat the ball like a bomb by either hoofing it or passing backwards. Not to excuse some of the  very questionable choices Mahrez did last season where he was often miles away from his best.

 

2: I agree and think that it's the least a pro can do, even more for the money they're paid to just kick a ball, but it didn't seem to bother you and many others when he was PFA of the year and having a blast on the pitch. His attitude didn't change, your perception did. As for turning up unfit, well that's news to me.

[waylander]

On 19 July 2017 at 00:02, Thracian said:

What disappoints me more than Mahrez's disappointing season was Gray's failure to make a case for more game time. Like a Catherine Wheel, he usually came in with a whoosh but very soon there was just a flickering flame and then nothing. 

 

When Albrighton made mistakes he was like a man possessed trying to remedy the situation. If he delivered a bad cross, he tried again and again. His head never dropped an inch nor his demeanour.

 

Like so many others who perfectly fit the character of our team he dared to be bad, he dared to keep trying things, he dared to run himself to a standstill and to believe that he'd get through it and and finally help us in whatever way to achieve something.It really does take guts to stay involved in a game where things are going wrong both for you and for others and the crowd are getting uppity.

 

But we have so many players who do keep trying and believing. And if Gray needs a hero to look to he could so easily turn to Ronaldo who sets a shining example for constantly improving his game and persisting with this, that and anything else he can think of to make things happen and to make defenders uncomfortable.

 

Wingers don't win every battle but they need to develop an outlook which refuses to give defenders a moment's peace whatever they say and do to make life difficult. 

 

Gray's not like that at all as yet. Let him know you're there, torment him some, get tight enough to keep his head down and he soon quietens down  But the greats lose the ball once, twice, however many times and still come at you again til they force a mistake and finally unhinge even organised defences.     

Like the banger you waited for but didn't go off. ?

[waylander]

Jury's still out 

[st albans fox]

Bournemouth continue to shorten ......

[Ric Flair]

10 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Bournemouth continue to shorten ......

The most moronic transfer in footballing history it simply won't happen.

[st albans fox]

15 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

The most moronic transfer in footballing history it simply won't happen.

If we had no intention of giving him regular first team football this season then a loan to them wouldn't be a big problem imo. Eddie Howe is a great coach. 

 

Someone must be putting a few quid on but I suspect it's really quite a small amount 

[sphericalfox]

5 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

If we had no intention of giving him regular first team football this season then a loan to them wouldn't be a big problem imo. Eddie Howe is a great coach. 

 

Someone must be putting a few quid on but I suspect it's really quite a small amount 

probably his agent.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, st albans fox said:

If we had no intention of giving him regular first team football this season then a loan to them wouldn't be a big problem imo. Eddie Howe is a great coach. 

 

Someone must be putting a few quid on but I suspect it's really quite a small amount 

Some wanna be ITK posted on their forum and twitter that they had a bid accepted and they all rushed out and put 20p on it... he's since started back tracking.

[Guest]

Can't see us letting go of Gray. Crazy talent and with Mahrez out the door he'll prove it. I expect him to make the England squad for the next finals. I understand his want to get first team football, he's good enough and this is the year.

[Nick]

3 minutes ago, FIF said:

Can't see us letting go of Gray. Crazy talent and with Mahrez out the door he'll prove it. I expect him to make the England squad for the next finals. I understand his want to get first team football, he's good enough and this is the year.

I agree with some of that FIF - he's certainly good going forward but his defensive work is lack as is his head up decision making in passing and shooting which often means he runs into trouble with the ball at his feet in midfield positions and loses it, resulting in a counter attack which he doesn't get back and defend.... He's got a little way to go for me before being a Premiership starting player.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Swan Lesta said:

I agree with some of that FIF - he's certainly good going forward but his defensive work is lack as is his head up decision making in passing and shooting which often means he runs into trouble with the ball at his feet in midfield positions and loses it, resulting in a counter attack which he doesn't get back and defend.... He's got a little way to go for me before being a Premiership starting player.

 

I think the heads up play (decision making) is overstated generally. He has the confidence of youth which means he goes for goal more than she should but that will improve quickly given experience. For me he just needs some decent time on the pitch, where he knows that he doesn't have to do the spectacular every time he touches the ball in order to play the next few games. His control is genius and his pace excellent. Defensively is another question, he's better than Mahrez but like Mahrez he's a player whose genius can turn a game so you forgive defensive lapses and as a coach and teammate make sure there is cover for him.

 

I hope that he gets a decent sure run in the team to prove me right or wrong. 

 

He excites me more than any other city attacker.