A defence of Matty James

[tickler28]

Personally I think he's poor to average as a footballer....looks overweight and unfit if you ask me...Ndidi seems to be doing his job plus 80% of Fattys as well

[Tringfox]

4 hours ago, chris_lcfc_85 said:

Some of the comments on here massively disappoint me. I have to agree that I'm surprised he's starting currently but the levels of criticism are astounding, silva was utterly poor yesterday and Albrighton was truly embarrassing 

Yep there all as bad as each other at the minute but James seems to get the brunt of it!

[maynefox]

Championship player. Expect Championship results.

[foxes_rule1978]

2 minutes ago, maynefox said:

Championship player. Expect Championship results.

Indeed, and we are leaving class on the bench 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

3 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Seems he's the new Andy King in his absence.

King scores James doesn't.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

6 hours ago, RODNEY FERNIO said:

It just amazes me that we are starting dross like James after recently winning the title.

Smacks of something going on behind the scenes that we are not privvy to.

Preferred it when he was injured. 

You are a disgusting human being. What a scummy thing to say.

[jammie82uk]

For me I just don’t see what he offers the team, he just seems a bit of a passenger 

 

let’s take yesterday’s game for example 

 

He had 41 touches of the ball

out of the starting 11 excluding Amartey who was forced off early 

only two others had less touches Vardy with 40 and Morgan with 36 

 

he also made the fewest amount of passes with 25 

 

Just to put it in context both Silva and Chilwell both had more touches and made more passes 

 

Silva with 48 touches and and 37 passes

Chilwell with 47 touches and 28 passes 

[Volpe Viola]

No disrespect to but if the manager can't see that he's not affecting the game and it's going on around him that's the coaching teams fault not Matty's.

[HighPeakFox]

People calling any one of their own team 'embarrassing', 'shameful', etc either has an incredibly limited vocabulary, or little sense of perspective, or a self image issue. For goodness sakes, chaps and chapesses, can you not see it's just not quite clicking and/or enough players are off form or not quite getting it right?

 

Get to the ground, and roar them on, even if they mess up. Forget what you think you're entitled to and just support the team fully.

[Sly]

12 hours ago, fleckneymike said:

In defence of James he’s not exactly stopped doing anything he’s previously done. 

 

He’s never been a goal threat (6 goals in 120 odd appearance), he’s never been a creator of goals, he’s never been particularly mobile and he was seldom motm. He was always (and to a degree still is) neat and tidy, but currently he’s not the right person to guide N’didi through games nor is he ever going to drive the side on or make a tackle/foul to get the supporters going. 

 

This is as good/bad as he ever was. This is it. This is his best. That’s why I believe many of us are so underwhelmed by many of his appearances and performances. He’s not going to get better, we can’t tell ourselves to be patient because he’ll play like he did against x or y because I doubt any of us can easily remember anything he’s done. 

So .... not that different to Andy King?!? 

[FLAN]

3 hours ago, jammie82uk said:

For me I just don’t see what he offers the team, he just seems a bit of a passenger 

 

let’s take yesterday’s game for example 

 

He had 41 touches of the ball

out of the starting 11 excluding Amartey who was forced off early 

only two others had less touches Vardy with 40 and Morgan with 36 

 

he also made the fewest amount of passes with 25 

 

Just to put it in context both Silva and Chilwell both had more touches and made more passes 

 

Silva with 48 touches and and 37 passes

Chilwell with 47 touches and 28 passes 

Yes but Morgan’s were all in the same moment trying to control the ball 

[weller54]

2 hours ago, Sly said:

So .... not that different to Andy King?!? 

Worse than Andy King!.. 

That's how bad he is! 

[chicagofox]

2 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

People calling any one of their own team 'embarrassing', 'shameful', etc either has an incredibly limited vocabulary, or little sense of perspective, or a self image issue. For goodness sakes, chaps and chapesses, can you not see it's just not quite clicking and/or enough players are off form or not quite getting it right?

 

Get to the ground, and roar them on, even if they mess up. Forget what you think you're entitled to and just support the team fully.

Some of us are able to support the team fully and (where appropriate) criticize an individual player and/or collective team performance. 

[chicagofox]

2 hours ago, Sly said:

So .... not that different to Andy King?!? 

He offers a lot less than Andy King.

[HighPeakFox]

19 minutes ago, chicagofox said:

Some of us are able to support the team fully and (where appropriate) criticize an individual player and/or collective team performance. 

Then I'm not talking to or about you then, am I?

[dylanlegend]

It's so funny reading some of these threads.

 

A few months ago... James is a future England international better than Drinky.

 

Now... he's a championship player.

 

At the end of the day he's Matty James not Iniesta. Steady, hard working, reliable.

 

He's there to do a job, probably not been on form recently but he's a quality player once he's back to top form. Just hope he reaches it soon otherwise he won't be in the starting 11 long 

[chicagofox]

55 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Then I'm not talking to or about you then, am I?

Fair point. I feel like that goes for most people on here though. 

[HighPeakFox]

4 hours ago, chicagofox said:

Fair point. I feel like that goes for most people on here though. 

And you may well be right in that feeling too. I wouldn't dare dispute it. In which case I'm talking to the people who have  nothing constructive to say, and predominantly communicate anger. 

[fazzyfox]

What he does is link play, knit things together, give and go, keep the ball, offer himself to team mates in trouble and spot runners and track them. At the tempo we play under Puel with extra touches James work doesn't look impressive, it just keeps things ticking over - it looks like something anybody could do. During the great escape up to his injury James was doing this stuff at a much higher tempo especially when seeing out games, one touch stuff,little passing triangles in tight areas - and that was impressive, very impressive, I remember Jamie Redknapp in particular would rave about him. The annoyance in those days would be that he'd arrive in great goalscoring opportunities but just didn't have any kind of finishing technique.

 

He's doing what he can do, he's doing what he's being asked to do, he isn't picking the team and he isn't issuing a directive to have more passes between winning the ball back and feeding Vardy. Whether post injury he can still function at that higher tempo we wait to see. I don't think it's him slowing us down, it's the system slowing us and him down.

 

I would like to know though what the vision was for Silva by Walsh who must have originally suggested him. To sit deep in a two alongside a Drinky (we tried to sign him before Ndidi) or next to Kante or as a three? It seems to be a hell of a lot of money to spend on someone who we don't seem to know what to do with (like spending 30 million on a lumbering striker who can't trap a ball, 16 on a pacey striker who doesn't use his pace in the right areas and a fortune on natural finisher who now naturally misses.)

 

This angle of having an excitedly anticipated signing missing out at James expense is being used as a stick to beat him with and is adding a lot of fuel to the anti James brigades furnace. I like James a lot but I also want to see what Silva can do, if he is a £29 million midfielder he should be a level or two above James. Give him 3-4 games in one consistent position next to Ndidi and settle the debate unless Puel is waiting to fully implement a new system in the summer. Just don't criticise James for being James not Silva, he is who he is, he does what he does.

Edited 5 March 2018 by fazzyfox

[Arriba Los Zorros]

48 minutes ago, fazzyfox said:

What he does is link play, knit things together, give and go, keep the ball, offer himself to team mates in trouble and spot runners and track them. At the tempo we play under Puel with extra touches James work doesn't look impressive, it just keeps things ticking over - it looks like something anybody could do. During the great escape up to his injury James was doing this stuff at a much higher tempo especially when seeing out games, one touch stuff,little passing triangles in tight areas - and that was impressive, very impressive, I remember Jamie Redknapp in particular would rave about him. The annoyance in those days would be that he'd arrive in great goalscoring opportunities but just didn't have any kind of finishing technique.

 

He's doing what he can do, he's doing what he's being asked to do, he isn't picking the team and he isn't issuing a directive to have more passes between winning the ball back and feeding Vardy. Whether post injury he can still function at that higher tempo we wait to see. I don't think it's him slowing us down, it's the system slowing us and him down.

 

I would like to know though what the vision was for Silva by Walsh who must have originally suggested him. To sit deep in a two alongside a Drinky (we tried to sign him before Ndidi) or next to Kante or as a three? It seems to be a hell of a lot of money to spend on someone who we don't seem to know what to do with (like spending 30 million on a lumbering striker who can't trap a ball, 16 on a pacey striker who doesn't use his pace in the right areas and a fortune on natural finisher who now naturally misses.)

 

This angle of having an excitedly anticipated signing missing out at James expense is being used as a stick to beat him with and is adding a lot of fuel to the anti James brigades furnace. I like James a lot but I also want to see what Silva can do, if he is a £29 million midfielder he should be a level or two above James. Give him 3-4 games in one consistent position next to Ndidi and settle the debate unless Puel is waiting to fully implement a new system in the summer. Just don't criticise James for being James not Silva, he is who he is, he does what he does.

Brilliant post. Would rep 1000 times if it were allowed.

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, fazzyfox said:

What he does is link play, knit things together, give and go, keep the ball, offer himself to team mates in trouble and spot runners and track them. At the tempo we play under Puel with extra touches James work doesn't look impressive, it just keeps things ticking over - it looks like something anybody could do. During the great escape up to his injury James was doing this stuff at a much higher tempo especially when seeing out games, one touch stuff,little passing triangles in tight areas - and that was impressive, very impressive, I remember Jamie Redknapp in particular would rave about him. The annoyance in those days would be that he'd arrive in great goalscoring opportunities but just didn't have any kind of finishing technique.

 

He's doing what he can do, he's doing what he's being asked to do, he isn't picking the team and he isn't issuing a directive to have more passes between winning the ball back and feeding Vardy. Whether post injury he can still function at that higher tempo we wait to see. I don't think it's him slowing us down, it's the system slowing us and him down.

 

I would like to know though what the vision was for Silva by Walsh who must have originally suggested him. To sit deep in a two alongside a Drinky (we tried to sign him before Ndidi) or next to Kante or as a three? It seems to be a hell of a lot of money to spend on someone who we don't seem to know what to do with (like spending 30 million on a lumbering striker who can't trap a ball, 16 on a pacey striker who doesn't use his pace in the right areas and a fortune on natural finisher who now naturally misses.)

 

This angle of having an excitedly anticipated signing missing out at James expense is being used as a stick to beat him with and is adding a lot of fuel to the anti James brigades furnace. I like James a lot but I also want to see what Silva can do, if he is a £29 million midfielder he should be a level or two above James. Give him 3-4 games in one consistent position next to Ndidi and settle the debate unless Puel is waiting to fully implement a new system in the summer. Just don't criticise James for being James not Silva, he is who he is, he does what he does.

He's playing the role that Mendy played for Puel before he came here. He was the man who just ticked the ball over, rarely got forward, didn't have huge tackling stats, just kept it simple and moved the ball to the other more attacking players.

 

He's been disappointing the last game and a half for me, I didn't think he contributed enough. But the abuse is a joke when you consider the free pass some players seem to get.

[Babylon]

On 3/3/2018 at 18:10, Tringfox said:

I just wish he’d try and take a risk now and again, he gives nothing going forward!!

 

On 3/3/2018 at 18:48, Monsell1976 said:

It’s frustrating but it’s not his game, shouldn’t be starting, but would be an ideal squad player to bring off the bench to see the game out

This is our championship winning season and our first season in this league, his key creativity stats were higher than those of King and Drinkwater. James can be creative, he has good close control, is neat and tidy and can link up very well to create chances with quick short passes.

 

The thing is he's not being asked to, whether that's because the injury no longer allows him to or the manager no longer wants him to I don't know. As I said in the post above, he seems to be playing the role that Mendy played for Puel, which was just a lot of sitting and ticking the ball over and not much else.

[Monsell1976]

44 minutes ago, Babylon said:

 

This is our championship winning season and our first season in this league, his key creativity stats were higher than those of King and Drinkwater. James can be creative, he has good close control, is neat and tidy and can link up very well to create chances with quick short passes.

 

The thing is he's not being asked to, whether that's because the injury no longer allows him to or the manager no longer wants him to I don't know. As I said in the post above, he seems to be playing the role that Mendy played for Puel, which was just a lot of sitting and ticking the ball over and not much else.

I would personally say it’s the injuries, better players than him have struggled after the serious knee injury he had, they can never give it 100% as they fear it will go again.

 Add to that he didn’t kick a ball for over 2 years, whatever it is, he isn’t mobile now, and the way he’s playing isn’t helping, like I say still think he can do a job for us, but not as a go to man, starting every game

[fleckneymike]

14 hours ago, fazzyfox said:

What he does is link play, knit things together, give and go, keep the ball, offer himself to team mates in trouble and spot runners and track them. At the tempo we play under Puel with extra touches James work doesn't look impressive, it just keeps things ticking over - it looks like something anybody could do. During the great escape up to his injury James was doing this stuff at a much higher tempo especially when seeing out games, one touch stuff,little passing triangles in tight areas - and that was impressive, very impressive, I remember Jamie Redknapp in particular would rave about him. The annoyance in those days would be that he'd arrive in great goalscoring opportunities but just didn't have any kind of finishing technique.

The only issue I have with this assertion is that he doesn't do any of those things. In order to link play, knit things together, give and go, keep the ball you actually need to touch the ball.

 

In our last game he attempted the fewest passes of any outfield player who started the match (with the exception of the injured Amartey). In the Stoke match he performed better in terms of total passes but he still made fewer passes than any other starting midfielder, and against Swansea he once again attempted fewer passes than any other starting player (including Kasper). In fact, out of our 4 eligible central midfielders he attempts the fewest passes per 90 minutes.

 

The player you've described in your opening sentence sounds fantastic, alas that description does not match the Matty James who has played our previous 3 games.

Edited 5 March 2018 by fleckneymike

[RODNEY FERNIO]

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 13:22, Arriba Los Zorros said:

You are a disgusting human being. What a scummy thing to say.

He's crap and has conned us out of God knows how much in wages.

Sorry that you are such a sensitive soul.