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Long Eaton Fox

Return of the Matt

By Long Eaton Fox, in Leicester City Forum

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Captain...

Captain...

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, chicagofox said:

Yes he absolutely did.  He contributed a lot to the part of the season when we were largely rock bottom of the table.  He then contributed significantly less to the part of the season when we won regularly.  Again, all of this is irrelevant to whether he should/shouldn't be in the team now.  But that is what happened, whether some choose to remember it differently or not.

 

Possibly we would.  Possibly we wouldn't.  We may have beat Atletico Madrid last season had James been playing.  Or we may not.  We may still have won the Premier League with James in midfield.  Or we may not.  My point being: you can't be certain or not that we would have stayed up.

I can be pretty certain seeing is he only missed 2 games through injury the first being the Sunderland game when we guaranteed our safety, it was the Southampton game he went off in, and we were already 1-0 up and full of confidence. At no point have I said he orchestrated the great escape but he played his part he  is a perfectly capable premier league footballer. Is he Kante? No, is he as good as Drinkwater 2 seasons ago? No.

 

Is he as good as Drinkwater last season? Easily, there are plenty of worse midfielders in the league, he may even end up keeping his place ahead of Ndidi who hasn't started the season on great form. As it stands he is the best option we have in midfield, surely we want to sort his contract out and not let it drag on into the season. I really don't see why anyone has any issue with him having a new contract.

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23 minutes ago, chicagofox said:

Please enlighten me who they are?  Best of luck finding them.

There's a couple in our squad ffs. Did you not see the Brighton game that's a couple more? He was also better than Xhaka and Elneny against Arsenal, lets throw in Fer, Clucas, Shelvey, Livermore... whoever Palace and West Ham have stinking up their midfield these days, that's without even going into their squads.

 

There are plenty of midfielders in this league that are stealing a living, James isn't one of them, he is a decent midfielder will always put a shift in and is not short on quality, he isn't stamping his influence on games the way the very best midfielders do, but we are Leicester City we can't always attract players like that, what we can do is develop and nurture the talent we have to perform like that, like we did Vardy, Drinkwater, Morgan, Mahrez, Schmeichel, Simpson and like we should do with James.

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Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, chicagofox said:

Mate, please, it's too early in the morning over here for that kind of comedy :):):):) 

 

 

 

They were both awful, did you not see Xhaka's pass for Albrighton, I'm not saying James is better than them over all, but in that game Xhaka and Elneny were woeful. Watching that game with no preconceptions I would have picked James as the best midfielder out the 4, mainly as he didn't fvck it up. Elneny has since been dropped and Xhaka has been hauled off in a defeat to Stoke and spent 90 minutes being torn apart by Liverpool.

 

http://www.goal.com/en/news/xhakas-not-even-on-ndidis-level-arsenal-fans-hammer/1oox88j7lnmy211g9nt1mjtjgv

 

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chicagofox

chicagofox

Posted
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13 minutes ago, Captain... said:

They were both awful, did you not see Xhaka's pass for Albrighton, I'm not saying James is better than them over all, but in that game Xhaka and Elneny were woeful. Watching that game with no preconceptions I would have picked James as the best midfielder out the 4, mainly as he didn't fvck it up. Elneny has since been dropped and Xhaka has been hauled off in a defeat to Stoke and spent 90 minutes being torn apart by Liverpool.

 

http://www.goal.com/en/news/xhakas-not-even-on-ndidis-level-arsenal-fans-hammer/1oox88j7lnmy211g9nt1mjtjgv

 

In his completely anonymous performance where he offered nothing offensively, and provided no cover whatsoever defensively, you are right; there was not one obvious Xhaka style ****-up.  When you do nothing you do nothing wrong.

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Just now, chicagofox said:

In his completely anonymous performance where he offered nothing offensively, and provided no cover whatsoever defensively, you are right; there was not one obvious Xhaka style ****-up.  When you do nothing you do nothing wrong.

Prefer that to Xhaka costing his team 3 goals in 3 games.

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Leeds Fox

Leeds Fox

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, chicagofox said:

In his completely anonymous performance where he offered nothing offensively, and provided no cover whatsoever defensively, you are right; there was not one obvious Xhaka style ****-up.  When you do nothing you do nothing wrong.

 

You really do have a problem with him don't you. He's an honest player who is adequete cover as 3rd/4th choice. Who are you expecting us to sign to be happy to be a squad player? We signed Silva and Iborra to go ahead of him and we already have N'Didi.

 

I'd take James over someone who'd come in at a similar ability, for a fee, most likely on higher wages, who isn't as committed as James. 

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funkyrobot

funkyrobot

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, chicagofox said:

No I really don't.  I simply don't think he is good enough to be a first, second, third, fourth, or fifth choice midfielder in a current Premier League squad.

You've nailed your colours to the mast with James now. You clearly don't rate him or he's done something to upset you. I guess you'll be analysing his performances to pick out his failings which you'll no doubt give us a breakdown of after the Chelsea match and going forward. If you watched every other player with this negative mindset I'm sure you'd be able to pick out errors with them too. There are a good proportion of us though that remember James as a player that was arguably performing better than Drinkwater before his injury in the Premier League. A player with an excellent range of skills as well a admittedly some flaws like most other players (he lacks a bit of pace and like Drinky is more Miss than hit when shooting.) James missed the reputation enhancing skills of playing alongside Kante, and now he's only 3 games into a top level comeback and has been totally written off by you. I really hope he shows you are wrong and we can remind you of your folly for the rest of the season. Let's be fair, If you do end up being correct, we basically are fcuked in midfield until at least January! 

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chicagofox

chicagofox

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1 minute ago, funkyrobot said:

You've nailed your colours to the mast with James now. You clearly don't rate him or he's done something to upset you. I guess you'll be analysing his performances to pick out his failings which you'll no doubt give us a breakdown of after the Chelsea match and going forward. If you watched every other player with this negative mindset I'm sure you'd be able to pick out errors with them too. There are a good proportion of us though that remember James as a player that was arguably performing better than Drinkwater before his injury in the Premier League. A player with an excellent range of skills as well a admittedly some flaws like most other players (he lacks a bit of pace and like Drinky is more Miss than hit when shooting.) James missed the reputation enhancing skills of playing alongside Kante, and now he's only 3 games into a top level comeback and has been totally written off by you. I really hope he shows you are wrong and we can remind you of your folly for the rest of the season. Let's be fair, If you do end up being correct, we basically are fcuked in midfield until at least January! 

I never watch just one player.  I always watch the team.  And I'd love to be wrong.  If James plays well it benefits the club that I support and therefore benefits me as a fan.  And feel free to remind me of whatever you like.

 

By the way; I also remember James playing for us in the Championship and Premier League prior to his injury.  But so what?

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volpeazzurro

volpeazzurro

Posted
Posted

I think poor old Matty is becoming the new Andy King for criticism. 

My memories of him prior to injury are very positive ones but it's what's happening now that counts. 

 

This same argument came out at half time at our last home match when the chap next to me questioned whether James should be in the side. The two blokes in front,  like some on here took the exact opposite view saying that with about 4 others, for them he should be one of the first names on the sheet. Strange isn't it!  Whatever happens, try and watch him for the next 5 minutes they said and I think that next 5 minutes holds a bit of a clue to the deviciveness.

 

Ndidi was full of energy and looked impressive yet didn't really achieve anything of note. James in the meantime seemed to read things in advance and be in the right place at the right time to stop something happening before it even stsrted. He played three 'pinged' accurate passes and nipped in twice to get to the ball and break up the play. There was no pazazz or flashiness just neatness and economy of movement. I saw the same against Munchgladbach. He's very easy to miss or not even notice but he achieves a lot.

Both Ndidi and James it has to be remembered, as a midfield 2, have been very much up against it against that 3 of Yanited and the movement of Arsenal. Put Iborra behind them and might that have helped had he been available? 

 

I'm a James fan and think he'll come on even more. Much depends on the quality of the opposition, other players selected round him and tactics employed for me. Did you ever think in the real world that James and a young lad like Ndidi were going to master the midfield trio of Pogba , Mata and Matic and not get overun at times?

 

Depending on the opposition we really need to consider different options other than slavishly follow 442 come what may.

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Leeds Fox

Leeds Fox

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, chicagofox said:

No I really don't.  I simply don't think he is good enough to be a first, second, third, fourth, or fifth choice midfielder in a current Premier League squad.

 

You don't think he's good enough to be 5th choice in a Premier League squad lol So by your reckoning there are 100 centre midfielders better than him in the league? 

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chicagofox

chicagofox

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Leeds Fox said:

 

You don't think he's good enough to be 5th choice in a Premier League squad lol So by your reckoning there are 100 centre midfielders better than him in the league? 

I'm not sure if that math adds up but yes, I don't think he is good enough.

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