Striker light?

[AjcW]

Does the Fleetwood game count in his suspension? If so it's not the end of the world, Southampton and Liverpool are probably good teams for Nacho to play against due to them both being fairly expansive and allowing chances against them.

[weller54]

5 minutes ago, AjcW said:

Does the Fleetwood game count in his suspension? If so it's not the end of the world, Southampton and Liverpool are probably good teams for Nacho to play against due to them both being fairly expansive and allowing chances against them.

Yes the Fleetwood game counts.. Which is a Brucie Bonus! 

[StriderHiryu]

I personally like the philosophy of having a trim squad as opposed to a larger one because it means all players in the squad should get some game time. I can certainly appreciate why there is some concerns around the lack of other striking options, but it means as a team we have to sort it out and it gives players a chance to stake their claim to be a first team regular. I don't think there is any point in having Ulloa and Slimani sitting on the sidelines to be used for a maximum of 100 minutes total across the season. I get the argument of "what if we are 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go and need to lump it in" but in that scenario we could just put Maguire or Ndidi up front to do that role, similar to how Man United resort to throwing on Fellani when they are behind. And to be honest if we find ourselves in that scenario, we've probably already lost the game through other reasons than not having a big man up front. We've moved on from playing "big man up top" football.

Puel is having us play a more modern type of game and though there are going to be teething pains, I think it's for the best. Because of our years in the Championship and mid-table at best (barring the miracle) finishes, we've gotten used to more of an English physical and direct approach. It's why you see a large number of our fans not yet fully behind the new system. But the top teams these days use high presses, fullbacks that support the attack and have good technical players that can keep hold of the ball and engineer opportunities. Not having a big man actually forces us to have to get better at one-two's, quick passing and pass and move football and whilst we have a lot of improvement to do in that area, it will come if we stick to the system. I would argue that already this season we look much better at doing it than last and that having a transitional period where we integrate young players and a new style is not the end of the world. Take one step backward to take two steps forward as they say.

If you look at the top six teams in the division, most play just one top. Man City usually play either Aguero or Jesus up front. Even if both start, they both don't start up front as strikers, but one plays more of a link man / forward. Liverpool play Firminho as their 9, with Mane and Salah as forwards. Tottenham play Kane up top on his own, Man United play Lukaku, Chelsea play either Moratta or Giroud and Arsenal play Aubemayang. We aren't as good as those teams, but we only scored 6 less than Chelsea last year and that was despite being not very creative at all last season.

So in short I don't think we are Striker light even if both Nacho and Vardy were out. In that case we'd probably play Gray up top as we did in some of the preseason games. Hopefully this season we see the goals spread out more evenly though the team and so far the signs are encouraging.

Edited 21 August 2018 by StriderHiryu

[themightyfin]

Thing is if we did have a 4th choice striker who is happy to sit on the bench is he going to be any good? Personally I think we have enough.

Look what happens when we do have 3rd and 4th strikers on the bench last season Slimani/Leo ... Everyone says they are not good enough anyway and calls get rid and they are high calibre players.

If we get in someone to do the same and they are happy not to be playing 90% of the time are they going to be any good....? 

[fuchsntf]

3 hours ago, chapero82 said:

Last January transfer window we sent Slimani and Ulloa out on loan! And we kept send crosses in the box for a defender to keep heading away! 

I know,,,it's the Leicester air. Makes us do crazy things....

being a Leicester fan,then England in football and cricket...We tend to be born in the period,when short straws were in abbundance.

thankfully Leicester Tigers,gives us a positive sporting balance,over the years, though even their the last few seasons,the straws have had a few snips..

 

[weller54]

49 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

I personally like the philosophy of having a trim squad as opposed to a larger one because it means all players in the squad should get some game time. I can certainly appreciate why there is some concerns around the lack of other striking options, but it means as a team we have to sort it out and it gives players a chance to stake their claim to be a first team regular. I don't think there is any point in having Ulloa and Slimani sitting on the sidelines to be used for a maximum of 100 minutes total across the season. I get the argument of "what if we are 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go and need to lump it in" but in that scenario we could just put Maguire or Ndidi up front to do that role, similar to how Man United resort to throwing on Fellani when they are behind. And to be honest if we find ourselves in that scenario, we've probably already lost the game through other reasons than not having a big man up front. We've moved on from playing "big man up top" football.

Puel is having us play a more modern type of game and though there are going to be teething pains, I think it's for the best. Because of our years in the Championship and mid-table at best (barring the miracle) finishes, we've gotten used to more of an English physical and direct approach. It's why you see a large number of our fans not yet fully behind the new system. But the top teams these days use high presses, fullbacks that support the attack and have good technical players that can keep hold of the ball and engineer opportunities. Not having a big man actually forces us to have to get better at one-two's, quick passing and pass and move football and whilst we have a lot of improvement to do in that area, it will come if we stick to the system. I would argue that already this season we look much better at doing it than last and that having a transitional period where we integrate young players and a new style is not the end of the world. Take one step backward to take two steps forward as they say.

If you look at the top six teams in the division, most play just one top. Man City usually play either Aguero or Jesus up front. Even if both start, they both don't start up front. Liverpool play Firminho as their 9, with Mane and Salah as forwards. Tottenham play Kane up top on his own, Man United play Lukaku, Chelsea play either Moratta or Giroud and Arsenal play Aubemayang. We aren't as good as those teams, but we only scored 6 less than Chelsea last year and that was despite being not very creative at all last season.

So in short I don't think we are Striker light even if both Nacho and Vardy were out. In that case we'd probably play Gray up top as we did in some of the preseason games. Hopefully this season we see the goals spread out more evenly though the team and so far the signs are encouraging.

Encouraging!.. Really?

OG 

Maddison's deflected shot. 

Vardy 's jammy header off a cross that hit the post? 

Hardly creating a host of good chances are we? 

[Raw Dykes]

As others have said, a player good enough to be in the first team probably isn't going to be happy sitting on the bench nearly all of the time, and a player happy to never get a look-in probably isn't going to be good enough. On the rare occasions that Vardy and Nacho are both unavailable, we have got Shinji and Gray.

If there's no-one in the u-23s who could step up, we might do well to find someone in January. A young striker who's nearly at the required level, who has potential to play more of a part in the future.

[STUHILL]

24 minutes ago, Raw Dykes said:

As others have said, a player good enough to be in the first team probably isn't going to be happy sitting on the bench nearly all of the time, and a player happy to never get a look-in probably isn't going to be good enough. On the rare occasions that Vardy and Nacho are both unavailable, we have got Shinji and Gray.

If there's no-one in the u-23s who could step up, we might do well to find someone in January. A young striker who's nearly at the required level, who has potential to play more of a part in the future.

The bigger teams all manage to achieve having quality on the bench, who may well not be happy about that, but they still contribute when called upon and so give these teams great options and cover and help them maintain a consistent set of results.

Obviously these teams have more money and pull than us, and so we can't expect to have world class players on the bench like they do, but I see no reason why we can't have some top players to call upon when required.

It frustrates me that we have this mentality that we must keep every squad player happy and so we have to make do with "squad fillers", who neither compete or push the starting 11 for a place OR are able to provide like for like cover when we have injuries or suspensions or want to try and win cups! 

[StriderHiryu]

46 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Encouraging!.. Really?

OG 

Maddison's deflected shot. 

Vardy 's jammy header off a cross that hit the post? 

Hardly creating a host of good chances are we? 

The interplay between the forwards, wingers and 10 is way better than it was last season. Sure if you look at outright stats it doesn't show many chances created, but that's highly influenced by grabbing a fortunate 2-0 lead and a man sent off, meaning it didn't need to be hell for leather football. We changed our system to see out the win, which we did comfortably.

Where I see encouragement is in the one-two's and passing between the team as it's so much crisper than last year when we literally just passed the ball from side-to-side for 60 minutes. In fact I'd argue that's what Wolves did in the second half, they had plenty of the ball but did nothing with it. Even with 10 men I can think of a number of situations with Gray, Ricardo, Chilwell and Ndidi where we probably one pass away from making a clear cut opportunity. Some of those we did test the keeper or put it wide in fact.

We will see what happens during the rest of the season but personally I see a big improvement with the team and am hoping that equates to scoring more goals and winning more games. Last season we had plenty of the ball but our passing was slow, ponderous and in front of the opposition making it easy to defend. Early signs show way more passing between the lines, with Maddison, Ricardo and oddly enough Ndidi the players making this happen. Puel is coaching a young team of players well and there are notable improvements especially among the younger players.

Edited 21 August 2018 by StriderHiryu

[lfu]

edit: ignore

Edited 21 August 2018 by lfu

[AjcW]

17 minutes ago, lfu said:

 

Doesn't count as of this year, red card suspensions will only apply in the competition they were handed out in

So he can play then?

[Hanan96]

3 hours ago, STUHILL said:

I think we should have signed a big lump no.9 to come on and give us a plan B in attack. Ulloa did it very well for us 2-3 seasons ago and the amount of crosses we have fly into the box, with no one there able to consistently challenge, is frustrating. We could have picked someone up like Llorente and kept him as a 3rd choice, stuck him on with 10-15 mins to go and had Albrighton loading the box with those early crosses he loves so much. 

I think it was an opportunity missed. I rate Iheanacho though and so hopefully he can stay fit and play 90mins of each the next 3 games and get some goals. 

I wonder why people keep forget iborra who could play as no 10

[STUHILL]

43 minutes ago, Hanan96 said:

I wonder why people keep forget iborra who could play as no 10

He's a decent option as can be a threat in the box, but not sure what his hold up play would be like. 

[foxinsocks]

How did we fail to buy rondon? ?????

[That_Dude]

21 minutes ago, foxinsocks said:

How did we fail to buy rondon? ?????

Maybe because we never wanted him?

[PhillippaT]

2 hours ago, AjcW said:

So he can play then?

Nope.

Quote

 

Suspensions

This season, any cautions players receive will be specific to the competition they were playing in at the time. So, a yellow card in an FA Cup game, for instance, wouldn't count towards a suspension in the Premier League.

However, red cards will apply across all competitions - although standard bans can now be decreased or increased in exceptional cases.

Players will be banned after picking up five yellow cards (with a cut off after the first 19 games), 10 yellow cards (cut off 32 games) and 15 yellow cards by the end of the season.

 

 

[Dr The Singh]

Is light our new striker?

[Ric Flair]

4 hours ago, themightyfin said:

Thing is if we did have a 4th choice striker who is happy to sit on the bench is he going to be any good? Personally I think we have enough.

Look what happens when we do have 3rd and 4th strikers on the bench last season Slimani/Leo ... Everyone says they are not good enough anyway and calls get rid and they are high calibre players.

If we get in someone to do the same and they are happy not to be playing 90% of the time are they going to be any good....? 

George Hirst springs to mind as the sort of option that could have been useful. 

[foxinsocks]

1 hour ago, That_Dude said:

Maybe because we never wanted him?

And that is the problem.. most golfers want a range of clubs in their bags.  Rondon is a proven pl cf with fast feet.  Not vardy... but vardy isnt rondon.  

So we have nacho and vardy.... yet nacho rondon and vardy sounds more use to me... but we didnt want him?

[lfu]

1 hour ago, PhillippaT said:

Nope.

 

Ah, the article I got that information from must've been wrong. At least it means he'll only be out for two PL games

[That_Dude]

4 hours ago, foxinsocks said:

And that is the problem.. most golfers want a range of clubs in their bags.  Rondon is a proven pl cf with fast feet.  Not vardy... but vardy isnt rondon.  

So we have nacho and vardy.... yet nacho rondon and vardy sounds more use to me... but we didnt want him?

Because he's crap?

[Hanan96]

9 hours ago, STUHILL said:

He's a decent option as can be a threat in the box, but not sure what his hold up play would be like. 

Neither ulloa nor slimani hold the ball so well either. Slimani often lost the ball soon after it dropped to his feet. Ulloa used to be good but only God know what happened to him that just few months after good display againts madrid and arsenal, he struggle to hold the ball againts the likes of Shedfield