Is Riyad Mahrez the most skillful player in the premier league

[Captain...]

9 hours ago, BenKimbo said:

 further evidence to back up my point, this is a couple of years old, so this still isn’t Neymars best, but some of the first touches especially from 1:08 onwards eclipse what Mahrez is capable of, regardless of the player passing it to them the player still has to bring the ball down and while Mahrez may well be up there, he isn’t the best in the world.

That video has Neymar messing up his first touch quite a few times, he even loses the ball in one of the clips, he sometimes rescues it with a brilliant improvised second touch. The first clip is not an amazing first touch, it's decent, but the ball isn't under his control, there is one where his first touch cannons the ball into the ground and it spoons up in the air he is obviously a fantastic player who is quick enough to react first nod the ball over the defender and he's away, but it is no way a deliberate first touch. Based on that video Mahrez is better. I don't watch Neymar week in week out, but I have seen Mahrez play so many times and every time I'm just astonished at his first touch, it is just mind blowing. Vardy and Albrighton are also pretty good at it, but not on Mahrez's level.

[Donut]

Depends how you define "skillful"

 

Has fantastic balance, agility and dribbling, has an eye for goal and is a clean striker of the ball.

 

Vision and passing....hes probably lacking behind quite a few, notables obviously de bruyne, ozil, fabregas.

 

I think one thing he could do is mix his game up a little more, look to beat players on the outside at times and use his right foot to the far post.

 

Hes certainly a great technician

[deep blue]

28 minutes ago, Donut said:

Depends how you define "skillful"

 

Has fantastic balance, agility and dribbling, has an eye for goal and is a clean striker of the ball.

 

Vision and passing....hes probably lacking behind quite a few, notables obviously de bruyne, ozil, fabregas.

 

I think one thing he could do is mix his game up a little more, look to beat players on the outside at times and use his right foot to the far post.

 

Hes certainly a great technician

Good points. He did use to mix it up occasionally by going on the outside; and, especially when he first played in the Championship and in his early days in the Prem, he showed an incredible ability to pick out amazing angles for through balls. I feel that both of these abilities have declined in the last year or two, and I wonder why.

[walkerleeds]

48 minutes ago, Donut said:

Depends how you define "skillful"

 

Has fantastic balance, agility and dribbling, has an eye for goal and is a clean striker of the ball.

 

Vision and passing....hes probably lacking behind quite a few, notables obviously de bruyne, ozil, fabregas.

 

I think one thing he could do is mix his game up a little more, look to beat players on the outside at times and use his right foot to the far post.

 

Hes certainly a great technician

 

Cheers Brendan

[daddylonglegs]

Ultimately we dont watch every minute of every other game, but from all the football i've watched that doesnt include Leicester, I've never seen such a reliable first touch.

 

It sticks to his foot 95% of the time. Cant bear the thought of him playing for someone else in the PL!

[Demoox]

In one match, can find 6 examples of world class touches : 1:08 1:50 3:33 4:28 4:40 5:05

[foxfanazer]

Hazard is the most skilful dribbler in the league

[RODNEY FERNIO]

United forum discussing the comparison between Nani and Mahrez.

One sage stating that Mahrez is not fit to lace Nani's boots.

............ what ????

 

[ousefox]

I've been saying he has the best first touch in world football for over a year. I watch quite a lot of La Liga and he's above Messi and Neymar in that regard imo.

 

One ball he controlled at Newcastle away was utterly ridiculous.

[ARM1968]

They talking about that goat who used to play for U-shited?

[SamDZ]

 https://streamable.com/4jxma

[Lesterlad]

The major difference between Neymar and Riyad is that Riyad plays for Leicester and we have the pleasure of seeing him every week. 

 

Oh Neymar cost PSG 190 million and Riyad cost 450k 

 

Yes Neymar is a great player but Mahrez is a great leicester player 

 

 

 

[GaelicFox]

1 hour ago, RODNEY FERNIO said:

United forum discussing the comparison between Nani and Mahrez.

One sage stating that Mahrez is not fit to lace Nani's boots.

............ what ????

 

Nani not fit to lace albrigtons knickers 

[Buzzell]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him have a bad first touch....ever.

[Wymsey]

19 minutes ago, buzzer_b said:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him have a bad first touch....ever.

When taking penalties?..

[ZeGuy]

1 hour ago, buzzer_b said:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him have a bad first touch....ever.

He has some misfirings. Rarely. Still when it comes to first touch he's actually .. untouchable.

[Foxxed]

Edit: my sincere apologies but I seem unable to find the message to Claude thread or delete this. I'll leave it here in remembrance.

Edited 10 January 2018 by Foxxed

[mikey_b]

depends what you mean by skill, many great names mentioned in this thread and agree Mahrez first touch is up there easily

 

to me skill is tricks/flicks etc, surprised nobody mentioned bolasie or zaha, both very capable of making a fool of somebody

[KingsX]

9 hours ago, Demoox said:

In one match, can find 6 examples of world class touches : 1:08 1:50 3:33 4:28 4:40 5:05

Those aren't "touches". He hypnotizes the freaking ball.  I have become too used to seeing these beautiful little suspensions of the laws of pyhsics.

[brucey]

https://public.tableau.com/profile/daniel.gubala#!/vizhome/shared/KNF8G3GWZ

 

List of players with at least 20 dribbles. 

We have 5 players on the list, of which Mahrez has the lowest dribble success rate. (yes I know at least some of that is because he is more dangerous and creates far more end product than the rest)

[Bluetintedspecs]

3 hours ago, Gerbold said:

You'd have got a 'like' from me had not your analogy been a trifle unfortunate.

Are you saying his answer is pants Gerbold? ?

[Chrysalis]

On 1/8/2018 at 12:37, winteriscoming said:

As much as I like him I think kdb and hazard are better and more consistent. 

what is this consistent word I keep hearing.

 

Hazard seems to have a lot more games than mahrez where he doesnt contribute anything significant in the game.

[jim5000]

I think if Mahrez played for Man City, in the position Sterling occupies at the moment, he would seem even more skillful and probably could surpass Hazard and KDB. But he is hampered by playing with the likes of Andy King and Danny Simpson. As a result he has far few opportunties to show his skill, and teams can reliably double or triple up him making his job that much harder.

[willie-bell-in-rothley]

24 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

I think if Mahrez played for Man City, in the position Sterling occupies at the moment, he would seem even more skillful and probably could surpass Hazard and KDB. But he is hampered by playing with the likes of Andy King and Danny Simpson. As a result he has far few opportunties to show his skill, and teams can reliably double or triple up him making his job that much harder.

I posted this originally and there is a big difference between skill and technical ability 

[foxinsocks]

On 1/9/2018 at 08:40, Donut said:

Depends how you define "skillful"

 

Has fantastic balance, agility and dribbling, has an eye for goal and is a clean striker of the ball.

 

Vision and passing....hes probably lacking behind quite a few, notables obviously de bruyne, ozil, fabregas.

 

I think one thing he could do is mix his game up a little more, look to beat players on the outside at times and use his right foot to the far post.

 

Hes certainly a great technician

agree.  Part of becoming super elite is adopting the mindset and decision making of the super elite.  There are drills to develop this in sport:  he should watch videos of each instance of possession and freeze the picture - then consider his alternatives and select one... before playing the video forward and seeing how things worked out.  He should be help to try and work out the decisions he takes that lead to success and those that don't ... and to understand the attributes of the situations that make the difference for the optimum decision making.

 

NB: this drill would be ideal for gray.