Riyad Mahrez - The great Artist

[splinterdream]

I thought he was poor, looked like he couldn't be arsed, did he really not see Vardy in acres of space on the left when it was a two on one? hmm, I'm not sure. I hope it was just a poor game from him, think he gets away with a lot more than anyone else would and if i were manager I'm not sure what I'd do tbh.

[Hammo]

The sort of frustrating, error-ridden, possession-conceding performance Mahrez produced today has sadly become almost the norm over the past few months and is evidently the reason why no big club was willing to stump up the 45-50 million we were allegedly asking for.

 

At his best he is a wonderful asset, a joy to watch, but far far too often he is a liability to the team in the way that he effectively sets up opposition attacks by turning the ball over in dangerous areas.

 

He's had a tough week, granted, but if he wants to take his career onwards and upwards, he needs to start playing well on a consistent basis. It's up to no one else but him.

[Kopfkino]

Too often he fails with the basics. As great as he can be to watch, that will always stop him from starring at a big club.

[AjcW]

Piss artist 

[DelBoy73]

2 hours ago, DennisNedry said:

He's just so frustrating... he's not been a patch on his best since the title winning season.

 

It's a problem that he is looked to for creativity so much and there isn't enough quality in the rest of the XI, but he gives it away so much and so often tries to do too much. He's brilliant on his day, but his day comes 5 times a season.

Why do you think he always finds himself starting our attacks 60 yards of the opposition's box ?

Since the title winning season our midfield has become a joke; they don't press high enough, they are always overuned, soaking pressure like a sponge; thus Mahrez and Albrighton always glued low to the side when we get the ball back.

When your creative players spend 90% of the time that deep, you know you are rekt.

[Lionheart10]

Woeful yet again today,needs to be dropped.He doesn't want to be here and it shows.Thanks for that fantastic season, no-one can ever take that away but time to go mate.

[ScouseFox]

1 hour ago, KingGTF said:

Too often he fails with the basics. As great as he can be to watch, that will always stop him from starring at a big club.

 

often think the opposite, really. if he tried to take on two players at once for barcelona and got tackled, someone world class would get the ball back and give him another go within 30 seconds. 

 

we rely on him so much that we're getting to the stage that every time he gets possession, even if it's not in a particularly exciting area, if he doesn't beat a couple of men and play an exquisite through ball we're back under pressure for another 10 minutes. 

 

id be surprised if that many of the top players at the top clubs have significantly better stats for things like take ons or through balls completed than he does, difference is we NEED him to complete the take ons or we're in trouble. if neymar tries to maradona turn 4 players at once and loses it, it doesn't matter cos PSG are going to win anyway so nobody cares. 

[DelBoy73]

4 minutes ago, ScouseFox said:

 

often think the opposite, really. if he tried to take on two players at once for barcelona and got tackled, someone world class would get the ball back and give him another go within 30 seconds. 

 

we rely on him so much that we're getting to the stage that every time he gets possession, even if it's not in a particularly exciting area, if he doesn't beat a couple of men and play an exquisite through ball we're back under pressure for another 10 minutes. 

 

id be surprised if that many of the top players at the top clubs have significantly better stats for things like take ons or through balls completed than he does, difference is we NEED him to complete the take ons or we're in trouble. if neymar tries to maradona turn 4 players at once and loses it, it doesn't matter cos PSG are going to win anyway so nobody cares. 

Stop talking sense will you ? 

[foxtillidrop]

I'm his biggest fan. However...

 

His body language wasn't the best today and it really looks as though he is struggling for motivation at the moment. Doesn't seem to have any desire.

 

Second half, he kept running back to the half way line to collect the ball from deep. I really think he could cause more problems if he made more off the ball runs in the other direction.

 

From my observations, he enjoyed his football most when playing for Ranieri. He used to be really desperate to do well (regardless of the score) but today he looked as though he had lost faith and belief.  Genuinely think he will miss playing with Drinkwater as well.

Edited 9 September 2017 by foxtillidrop

[Johnthefoxrayner]

3 minutes ago, foxtillidrop said:

I'm his biggest fan. However...

 

His body language wasn't the best today and it really looks as though he is struggling for motivation at the moment. Doesn't seem to have any desire.

 

Second half, he kept running back to the half way line to collect the ball from deep. I really think he could cause more problems if he made more off the ball runs in the other direction.

 

From my observations, he enjoyed his football most when playing for Ranieri. He used to be really desperate to do well (regardless of the score) but today he looked as though he had lost faith and belief.  Genuinely think he will miss playing with Drinkwater as well.

Some fans say grey is selfish but imo Mahrez the great player he is cam also be selfish by trying to take to many players on, if Mahrez wants to leave then he has to up his game imo

[Kopfkino]

1 hour ago, ScouseFox said:

 

often think the opposite, really. if he tried to take on two players at once for barcelona and got tackled, someone world class would get the ball back and give him another go within 30 seconds. 

 

we rely on him so much that we're getting to the stage that every time he gets possession, even if it's not in a particularly exciting area, if he doesn't beat a couple of men and play an exquisite through ball we're back under pressure for another 10 minutes. 

 

id be surprised if that many of the top players at the top clubs have significantly better stats for things like take ons or through balls completed than he does, difference is we NEED him to complete the take ons or we're in trouble. if neymar tries to maradona turn 4 players at once and loses it, it doesn't matter cos PSG are going to win anyway so nobody cares. 

 

I don't disagree, I phrased it wrong. But I don't think he can get to that level (which I believe he should) without getting the basics right. We don't help him at all by shoving him out right in a 442 and sitting so deep that he gets it way inside his own half and you need a miracle for him to do much. But that's exactly when you need to get the basics right rather than be the kid in the school playground taking on the whole team. 

 

If I was Mahrez, I'd be pissed off. We seem to be the only half decent team in the league that shoves their best player out wide and shackles him with having to defend well. Then the poor bloke gets no support from his full back. He's wasting some of his best years being woefully mismanaged but I firmly believe until he starts doing the basics in this team, nobody else will want him.

[ozleicester]

I can just watch him trap the ball. Genius

[wokinghamfox]

Said it before he is not our future and needs phasing out. We need to move on from Mahrez.

[DelBoy73]

11 hours ago, foxtillidrop said:

I'm his biggest fan. However...

 

His body language wasn't the best today and it really looks as though he is struggling for motivation at the moment. Doesn't seem to have any desire.

 

Second half, he kept running back to the half way line to collect the ball from deep. I really think he could cause more problems if he made more off the ball runs in the other direction.

 

From my observations, he enjoyed his football most when playing for Ranieri. He used to be really desperate to do well (regardless of the score) but today he looked as though he had lost faith and belief.  Genuinely think he will miss playing with Drinkwater as well.

Why do you think he has to drop that deep to get the ball ? He misses Drinkwatter & Kante passing precision.

Bar Ndiddy, just look at the way Simpson / James /King always hoof it to him while they should have closed the distance and went for a driven pass instead. 

 

 

[the fox]

So, people pointing the negative and casually forgetting about the amazing defensive shift that he put?

 

He was actually committed to tackling (not the halfhearted tackles that he usual do), he even tracked back and recovered the ball and made a 50 yard run in the 93rd minute!

 

He failed in a lot of things he tried, you can say many things about riyad yesterday, except lazy and not committed!

[Monsell1976]

22 hours ago, DennisNedry said:

He's just so frustrating... he's not been a patch on his best since the title winning season.

 

It's a problem that he is looked to for creativity so much and there isn't enough quality in the rest of the XI, but he gives it away so much and so often tries to do too much. He's brilliant on his day, but his day comes 5 times a season.

None of them have hit the heights of the title winning season, so he's not alone.

I totally agree, he is the only player in the team who can create something out of nothing, we know that, and so do the opposing teams.

He frustrates me at times, and does amazing things other times, but what frustrates me is how the crowd, and on here, get on his back when he gets caught on the ball.

A player like him is going to get caught, but you don't create something out of nothing by always playing it safe.

I struggle to see who the creative players are, other than mahrez, and that's the concern of him leaving, can we bring in someone of his ability to replace him.

For all grays moaning about lack of opportunities, he's not really taking the chances he gets, and for me not a mahrez replacement yet, and gray is also a flair player who can be frustrating.

[AylestoneRaider]

34 minutes ago, Monsell1976 said:

None of them have hit the heights of the title winning season, so he's not alone.

I totally agree, he is the only player in the team who can create something out of nothing, we know that, and so do the opposing teams.

He frustrates me at times, and does amazing things other times, but what frustrates me is how the crowd, and on here, get on his back when he gets caught on the ball.

A player like him is going to get caught, but you don't create something out of nothing by always playing it safe.

I struggle to see who the creative players are, other than mahrez, and that's the concern of him leaving, can we bring in someone of his ability to replace him.

For all grays moaning about lack of opportunities, he's not really taking the chances he gets, and for me not a mahrez replacement yet, and gray is also a flair player who can be frustrating.

This is a fantastic post. Everything spot on.

 

Gray is a talented lad, but he hasn't got the belief to try and beat players yet. 

[Ricey]

I thought he looked fired up yesterday and worked very hard. It's such an obvious stick to beat him with nowadays.

[the fox]

3 hours ago, Monsell1976 said:

None of them have hit the heights of the title winning season, so he's not alone.

I totally agree, he is the only player in the team who can create something out of nothing, we know that, and so do the opposing teams.

He frustrates me at times, and does amazing things other times, but what frustrates me is how the crowd, and on here, get on his back when he gets caught on the ball.

A player like him is going to get caught, but you don't create something out of nothing by always playing it safe.

I struggle to see who the creative players are, other than mahrez, and that's the concern of him leaving, can we bring in someone of his ability to replace him.

For all grays moaning about lack of opportunities, he's not really taking the chances he gets, and for me not a mahrez replacement yet, and gray is also a flair player who can be frustrating.

Well written post, mon

[the fox]

2 hours ago, Ricey said:

I thought he looked fired up yesterday and worked very hard. It's such an obvious stick to beat him with nowadays.

Agree 100℅, I'm already working an something to prove how he is playing good defense, should be here in 1-2 hours max.

[the fox]

23 hours ago, Lionheart10 said:

Woeful yet again today,needs to be dropped.He doesn't want to be here and it shows.Thanks for that fantastic season, no-one can ever take that away but time to go mate.

Woeful? That's a bit harsh. He wasn't "fantastic" but he wasn't woeful.

[the fox]

Having a lot of problems imbedding gifs.

 

Test

Edited 11 September 2017 by the fox

[the fox]

I'm a man of my word, I promised I will deliver GIFS and I came through

 

I'm gonna focus on what riyad did and why he usually struggles against big clubs.

Again, sorry for the Hassel, going back and forth with people that back their arguments with "that's my opinion" and "you are just biased" can get tedious, I like to prove my opinion with facts, numbers and footage and putting some effort instead of a post with 2 lines talking about nothing.

 

Let's start!

Watch this gif! 

 

Riyad came fired up for the game, he miss controlled the ball a bit after Fuchs's throw-in, he managed to secure the ball but he lost it after he got double teamed per usual (should've passed it back to fuchs but he would've hoofed it) but he didn't give up on the ball and showed some intensity (which isn't that Common when mahrez is defending )

 

 You can also see that he wasn't shying away from physical play or aerial duels

 

What I also noticed is how closely bakayoko was Shadowing/man-marking riyad, he ruffed him up and used as much physical play as the ref allowed! And that effected riyad massively!

 

 

 

Here is rudiger doing the same thing

 

 

You don't see those little things until you rewatch a game, but what infuriates me is the fact that our two midfielders are so deep and offer so little danger offensively that a CM can leave his spot just to man mark a winger

 

I remember José used Herrera almost the same way to mark hazard out of the game.

 

 

And when we intercept the ball, conte made sure that riyad is shackled because he is usual the one starting the play from deep which usual results in a hoof

 

(Not gonna lie, focusing on this made me appreciate conte as a coach even more.)

 

And conte made sure that because riyad is lightweight, there always should be a player shadowing him and the moment he gets the ball with his back to the defender, said player should throw his body at him, most of the time he will be dispossessed

 

 

The first time he got a breather and managed to lose bakayoko, he threaded a beautiful. ball for vardy (that's the first real chance for the team!)

 

Now we go to the most controversial moment in the match

 

 

If you ask me my opinion, I have to say that riyad only shares a little bit of blame (so does vardy), they weren't on the same page, mahrez was expecting vardy to come on the shoulder of azpilicueta and overlap him so he can turn inside and lay it off like he did to slimani here

 

But credit where credit is due, azpilicueta did an amazing job, that's a text box defending, I don't think a lot of defenders have that much talent, he kept looking at vardy which put riyad off.

 

Even though riyad didn't use the full potential of that counter, that lay off to slim is just mouth watering!

 

 

 

 

Those were just what I got from the first half (analyzing the full match would take a long time)

 

Points that I got from the rewatch: conte had a tactical master-class. he knew where our strongest creative punch comes from and he took a massive bite out of that hand, big teams have known how to nullify riyad a long time ago and the deference between us and the "big clubs" tactically is actually frightening when you look at the details of the game closely. I thought we gave them a run for their money but they had us all along

 

(plus, wes actually had an immense half, saved us from 3-4 chances which could've led to a goal)

 

 

Any ways, hopefully this post is a refreshing change from the usual posts

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 11 September 2017 by the fox

[volpeazzurro]

27 minutes ago, the fox said:

I'm a man of my word, I promised I will deliver GIFS and I came through

 

 

Again, sorry for the Hassel, going back and forth with people that back their arguments with "that's my opinion" and "you are just biased" can get tedious, I like to prove my opinion with facts, numbers and footage and putting some effort instead of a post with 2 lines talking about nothing.

 

Let's start!

Watch this gif!

 

Here you can see that riyad miss controlled the ball a bit after Fuchs's free throw, he managed to secure the ball but he lost it after he got double teamed per usual (should've passed it back to fuchs but he would've hoofed it) but he didn't give up on the ball and showed some intensity (which isn't that Common when mahrez is defending )

 

 You can also see that he wasn't shying away from physical play or aerial duels

 

What I also noticed is how closely bakayoko was Shadowing/man-marking riyad, he ruffed him up and used as much physical play as the ref allowed!

 

 

 

 

You don't see those little things until you rewatch a game, but what infuriates me is the fact that our two midfielders are so deep and offer so little danger offensively that a CM can leave his spot just to man mark a winger

 

I remember José used Herrera almost the same way to mark hazard out of the game.

 

 

And when we intercept the ball, conte made sure that riyad is shackled because he is usual the one starting the play from deep which usual results in a hoof

 

(Not gonna lie, focusing on this made me appreciate conte as a coach even more.)

 

And conte made sure that because riyad is lightweight, there always should be a player shadowing him and the moment he gets the ball with his back to the defender, said player should throw his body at him, most of the time he will be dispossessed

 

 

The first time he got a breather and managed to lose bakayoko, he threaded a beautiful. ball for vardy (that's the first real chance for the team!)

 

Now we go to the most controversial moment in the match

 

 

If you ask me my opinion, I have to say that riyad only shares a little bit of blame (so does vardy), they weren't on the same page, mahrez was expecting vardy to come on the shoulder of azpilicueta and overlap him so he can turn inside and lay it off like he did to slimani here

 

But credit where credit is due, azpilicueta did an amazing job, that's a text box defending, I don't think a lot of defenders have that much talent, he kept looking at vardy which put riyad off.

 

Even though riyad didn't use the full potential of that counter, that lay off to slim is just mouth watering!

 

 

 

 

Those were just what I got from the first half (analyzing the full match would take a long time)

 

Points that I got from the rewatch: conte had a tactical master class, big teams have known how to nullify riyad a long time ago and the deference between us and the "big clubs" tactically is actually frightening when you look at the details of the game closely. I thought we gave them a run for there money but they had us all along (plus, wes actually had an immense half, saved us from 3-4 chances which could've led to a goal)

 

 

Any ways, hopefully this post is a refreshing change from the usual posts

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoyed that thanks. I think that you're very right regarding how tactically neive we or should I say Shakespeare is. You always got the impression that if we had fluked a second goal, Chelsea could have changed gear or even tactics and got a third.

 

Everything fell into place with our 442 in the winning year but, just as under Sousa who tried to play champagne and oyster football with beer and chips players, Shakespeare is trying to play the same counter attacking football as before without the right ingredients. It may work against the lesser teams like Brighton and hopefully Huddersfield next week, but against better teams it's history. 

 

To get even a draw yesterday our team had to be set up differently, we can no longer afford to play the way we used to with our current crop of players and Shakespeares reluctance to change combined with his poor substitutions yesterday and against Arsenal highlight the fact that he's a coach and not a manager. Although much maligned, there's a reason why individuals like Alladyce consistently appear to get points off big teams and that is he recognises the strength and weaknesses of his own squad and plays a system that can thwart the on paper superior opposition. He gets points and  Shakespeare won't unless it's against a weaker team.

[UPinCarolina]

Really interesting analysis by @the fox - thanks for sharing.

 

I'm quite the dullard when it comes to tactical nuance, so I appreciate when others contribute something to try and sharpen up with!

Edited 11 September 2017 by UPinCarolina