volpeazzurro Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 (edited) 53 minutes ago, Ric Flair said: I'm always envious of folk who can easily believe that suddenly the likes of Gray, Albrighton, Diabate and Chilwell are going to miraculously develop end product after just a few months rest. We are massively weaker with the loss of Mahrez. We have to hope that Maddison is unbelievable because if not, we will be in trouble. Defensively we'll still be suspect and not have much creativity to bail us out at the other end. It's a massive leap of faith to think this squad has enough to stay out of trouble next season, I hope I'm wrong but I think we're in for a lot of pain. Marhez for the main was very good last year but we managed largely without him the season previous because he was mostly bone idol and shite and should have been dropped. His effort and work rate only seemed to improve when he felt he was in the shop window. This won't occur are Man City of course because Guadiola wouldn't stand for it and he wouldn't even make the bench. Edited 24 July 2018 by volpeazzurro
Ric Flair Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 42 minutes ago, mikey54 said: Nice to see that you are virtually writing off 4 younger players before a ball has been kicked. I assume you are ignoring the 3 positions in the team which needed strengthening and which have already been covered - RB, CB and CAM. I prefer to wait for 10 games before I make judgement, but in the meantime I’ll remain quietly confident (even more so with the addition of a couple more players) I'm not writing them off at all but I can't pretend to believe they'll suddenly find end product next season. We've relied so heavily on Mahrez and perhaps the case he's no longer here will allow or force others to take over, I really hope so but it's hope rather than genuine belief. I'll acknowledge the improvements in Pereira, Evans and Maddison. I've already done so in various posts but I'm still fearful it's nowhere near enough to plug the gap of Mahrez. Will the goals we lose be counteracted by an improvement in less goals conceded because if they don't we could be in a relegation battle. My prediction if we can't or won't bring in any more creativity is a season of frustration and pain. We'll try and rectify it in January but will be another season wasted if we manage to stay up that is. 2
Ric Flair Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 16 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said: Marhez for the main was very good last year but we managed largely without him the season previous because he was mostly bone idol and shite and should have been dropped. His effort and work rate only seemed to improve when he felt he was in the shop window. This won't occur are Man City of course because Guadiola wouldn't stand for it and he wouldn't even make the bench. We were genuinely fearful of relegation that season. Vardy had absolutely no service and lost all confidence, we don't want that uncomfortable situation again. I'm putting all my faith in Maddison to be unreal but it's mildly concerning.
OhYesNdidi Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 2 minutes ago, Ric Flair said: We were genuinely fearful of relegation that season. Vardy had absolutely no service and lost all confidence, we don't want that uncomfortable situation again. I'm putting all my faith in Maddison to be unreal but it's mildly concerning. In fairness, I think we are much more well balanced team with better players than the 16/17 season. Pereira > Simpson Maguire > Morgan Evans > Huth Iborra/Silva = Drinkwater Maddison > Okazaki 4
SpacedX Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 24 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said: Marhez for the main was very good last year but we managed largely without him the season previous because he was mostly bone idol and shite and should have been dropped. His effort and work rate only seemed to improve when he felt he was in the shop window. This won't occur are Man City of course because Guadiola wouldn't stand for it and he wouldn't even make the bench. His first target is to turn up to training on time. 1
ARM1968 Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 2 minutes ago, Line-X said: His first target is to turn up to training on time. Tough ask that. Have to rip himself away from planne spotting.
NotTheMarketLeader Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 20 hours ago, Ric Flair said: Where's the 25+ goals he contributed last season going to come from when we were only a few different results off being closer to the relegation scrap than we'd have liked. I think this underestimation of what our team relied upon for the last few years could cost us. I am loving Maddison coming in and hope he can do well but bar him and hopefully Pereira we've absolutely nothing to create. Albrighton is the pits and don't even get me started on Gray. If we bring in a wide player who can hold his own then i'll be a lot happier, if we don't then I'd not be surprised to see us be closer to the bottom 6 than the top 6. Don’t worry. We have Claude and his dynamic brand of possession football and not forgetting his recruiting / having ‘his own signings’. It won’t make a jot of difference if a couple more of our better players leave ; Puel I have been told for the last 6 months has all the answers. ? 1
Ric Flair Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 5 minutes ago, Gerbold said: Mahrez just had to go - I believe he's had a subtle but significantly negative effect on the team ever since the title win. It was so obvious he was playing for himself but his potential influence masked that - to an extent. If he turned up then everything was green in the garden but when he didn't the team struggled to create opportunies and generally underperformed. I believe Maddison will have a point to prove and can do so by demonstrating commitment to the team. It's not exactly a win-win situation for him but, if he supplants Mahrez' supreme technical ability with an amalgam of effort and skill, then he could be the pivotal figure around which City can revolve. There's a nucleus of actual and potential talent at City - but Puel now has to galvanise the squad into a unit fully ready for this season. I was listening to a discussion about Wolves yesterday on 5 Live - they're going to be the new boys on the block, apparently, upsetting the status quo. This is where City were four seasons ago - a problematical first season turned around - resulting in the Premier title. Wolves have had a three manager turn-around since Walter Zenga arrived in July 2016 and I think Puel probably realises the team has to produce - because it will inevitably be yet another dog-eat-dog season with a few bad results leading to an early dismissal for him. So Maddison and Puel have to shine out and United have to be sent packing when they come sniffing around for Mags. Hope it's not too tall an order. I don't disagree that Mahrez had to go, he deserved his move and we deserved better than they way he acted. He was such an influential player though in a team of organised work horses. There's simply no other creative outlet and thankfully we have Maddison who looks to be a star in the making. I'm no dismissing this, I've buzzing that we've got him and Pereira should be a god send if he can have the same impact as he has in France and Portugal. The likes of Gray simply have to now perform, this is their chance. Make an impact and they will be cemented in this team and a proven PL player which is what he's moaned about not getting. He is the key as well as Maddison. Diabate is an unknown who probably needs at least another year of finding his way and Albrighton is as honest as the day is long but also limited in changing a game when we're searching for answers. Kapustka could be the wild card, he's another in the last chance saloon brigade. He seems to look stronger and if he's mentally prepared for the scrap, he could allow his talent to do the talking. He's got a skill set that is on a par with Maddison. I find it hard to stomach that we'd be content to go the first half of the season with that mob though, it's a huge gamble and leap of faith. We aren't a newly promoted side struggling to recruit, we've known this day was coming for 18 months. 1
Milo Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 (edited) I’m a tad worried, to be honest. Happy with tbe signings so far, but still scarred from the turgid pole of doo-doo that was served up for 20 odd games last season. Evans and Pereirra are not going to give us any additional creativity, so it’s all down to Maddison, (unless the dross of last year is actually our new style of playing...??) Could do with a seasoned number 10 as well, imo. And only 15 days left Edited 24 July 2018 by Milo
OhYesNdidi Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 3 minutes ago, Milo said: I’m a tad worried, to be honest. Happy with tbe signings so far, but still scarred from the turgid pole of doo-doo that was served up for 20 odd games last season. Evans and Pereirra are not going to give us any additional creativity, so it’s all down to Maddison, (unless the dross of last year is actually our new style of playing...??) Could do with a seasoned number 10 as well, imo. Having a full back that's capable of going forward (both sides) will help as it will allow us to make the pitch as big as possible rather than only ever using really using the left hand side due to Simpson not getting forward effectively. 1
Steve Earle Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 When we get linked with someone like Jordan Ayew. Oh, hang on a minute 2 1
Spudulike Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 After reading some of this stuff i'm beginning to think the monks will really need to be on top form this season. More prayer flags needed.
Ric Flair Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 Can I raise the issue of Jon Rudkin again please? If we fail to move on the likes of Musa, Slimani and Mendy resulting in us being unable to improve the squad and replace Mahrez, should Rudkin be held accountable? Wages fall in to his remit amongst other decisions on new players and it'll be yet another huge mistake he's overseen. He's bombproof at this club and I'm sick of it. I've decided, he's to blame. Get the twat in the sea. 2 2
Detroit Blues Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 11 minutes ago, Ric Flair said: Can I raise the issue of Jon Rudkin again please? If we fail to move on the likes of Musa, Slimani and Mendy resulting in us being unable to improve the squad and replace Mahrez, should Rudkin be held accountable? Wages fall in to his remit amongst other decisions on new players and it'll be yet another huge mistake he's overseen. He's bombproof at this club and I'm sick of it. I've decided, he's to blame. Get the twat in the sea. If we move Musa and Slimani, aren't we going to be pretty light on strikers? What happens if Vardy, God forbid, blows out his knee and misses the season? We would have only Iheanacho, Ulloa and Okazaki. The catch 22 is that if Vardy is healthy and in form, we don't really need Slimani or Musa. But if Vardy is injured, we could really use either/both.
Ric Flair Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 51 minutes ago, Detroit Blues said: If we move Musa and Slimani, aren't we going to be pretty light on strikers? What happens if Vardy, God forbid, blows out his knee and misses the season? We would have only Iheanacho, Ulloa and Okazaki. The catch 22 is that if Vardy is healthy and in form, we don't really need Slimani or Musa. But if Vardy is injured, we could really use either/both. Well something's got to give. We need 3 strikers maximum as we only play 1 up top. Ideally you'd like one of them to be Slimani or Musa but both are on massive wages and are unhappy here. Ulloa is crap these days and also more dough than he ought to be but he'll have less suitors I'd have thought that will match his wages. 1
OhYesNdidi Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 54 minutes ago, Detroit Blues said: If we move Musa and Slimani, aren't we going to be pretty light on strikers? What happens if Vardy, God forbid, blows out his knee and misses the season? We would have only Iheanacho, Ulloa and Okazaki. The catch 22 is that if Vardy is healthy and in form, we don't really need Slimani or Musa. But if Vardy is injured, we could really use either/both. 1. Vardy 2. Iheanacho 3. Gray 4. Diabate i reckon they could all do a job up front IMO
Nick Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 59 minutes ago, OhYesNdidi said: 1. Vardy 2. Iheanacho 3. Gray 4. Diabate i reckon they could all do a job up front IMO In what League?
oadby.fox Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 2 hours ago, Detroit Blues said: If we move Musa and Slimani, aren't we going to be pretty light on strikers? What happens if Vardy, God forbid, blows out his knee and misses the season? We would have only Iheanacho, Ulloa and Okazaki. The catch 22 is that if Vardy is healthy and in form, we don't really need Slimani or Musa. But if Vardy is injured, we could really use either/both. I think the idea is to get rid of the players that don't want to be here/aren't contributing and replace them with players who are up for it. If it were up to me I would like to see Slimani stay and Musa shifted, perhaps we could bring in someone younger on lower wages as an understudy? Ulloa has to go though surely and it perplexes me that we offered him a new contract at the time that we did. The problem with most of these players is that they are on relatively high wages and have no real scope for further development. We currently have six strikers on our books (Vardy, Iheanacho, Okazaki, Slimani, Musa and Ulloa) and given that we only play one up top, are we really going to need all of them languishing on the bench, or at home watching the games on TV/out on loan depreciating in value? We might see Nacho and Shinji used behind Vardy again as we have in recent seasons but then where does Maddison fit in? From the looks of things, I would like him to be given as much first team action as is possible because he looks to be a real player and to offer something which we have been lacking. 1
dorsetboy Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 4 hours ago, OhYesNdidi said: In fairness, I think we are much more well balanced team with better players than the 16/17 season. Pereira > Simpson Maguire > Morgan Evans > Huth Iborra/Silva = Drinkwater Maddison > Okazaki Are we going to loan huth from Stoke for games we need him ?
PhillippaT Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 Whether or not we should be worried, IMO, all depends on what formation Puel is intending to play - and since we don't really know that yet, maybe we should be worried?
Steve Earle Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 The Immortals went half a season with just three strikers - Vards, Shinji & Leo. We have 2 or 3 too many now!
Tielemans63 Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 If we could bring in a good quality right winger I'll be pretty happy. Don't think the panic is justified. It's been a strangely subdued transfer window so far, but we have been more active than many other teams in the prem. I think our business looks decent in comparison to a lot of other clubs. Mahrez going was a blow but that was always going to happen. Now world cup is done and pre-season is underway I expect things will pick up soon in terms of departures etc.
HighPeakFox Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 Worried? About the state of some people's mental health here - absolutely yes. 2
Staffs Fox Posted 24 July 2018 Posted 24 July 2018 I honestly don’t mind our transfer business so far but no way are we done, With that said I expect a CB more than a winger because it’s obvious to me that next season were playing narrower and likely to go to 5 at the back, Maddison cannot play as part of a midfield two and I doubt we’ll only play Vardy up front with him behind. Perrrira and Chilwell and natural wing backs and we have more CM’s than most teams will ever need. I have us down like this Kasper Evans New CB Maguire Perriera Chilwell Silva Ndidi Maddison Ihenacho Vardy With Diabate, Gray, Okazaki, Albrighton etc and whoever remains from our huge squad who remains in backup 1
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