10 Games In - The Verdict So Far

[Sir Shep]

should be doing better, not expecting top 6, not expecting to be so frustrating and dull. 

[jonthefox]

10 minutes ago, F1_AN said:

Cardiff are the sort of team he won’t be able to set us up to beat 

Lose that, and he's gone. 

[Fightforever]

We lose or draw to cardiff he's gone.

Simple as.

[yks]

The team I want to see from now :

                          Schmeichel
     Ricardo - Soyuncu - Maguire - Chilwell
                        Mendy - Iborra

Albrighton - Maddison/Iheanacho - Gray/Maddison
                               Vardy

I'm sick of all the lost balls by Ndidi and think Mendy is as good as him defensively.
I hope Albrighton workrate and tracking back could help Ricardo.
I'm neither fully convinced by Gray nor Iheanacho but somebody has to play.
 

Edited 27 October 2018 by yks

[Ian Nacho]

We're aiming to be best of the rest. We're actually worst of the rest. 

[StriderHiryu]

My summary of the season as a grade would be a C Minus. Scraping a passing grade, but generally under-performing.

 

The Good
 

- Comfortably clear of the relegation zone and have seen off teams involved down there quite easily.

- We have the youngest team in the division and some of our new young players look good, Maddison in particular.

- Some of our possession football is good on the eye.

- We've scored in every league game we've played so far.

- In patches against the big teams we've dominated them for spells.

- Still in the league cup.

- We've gained the most points from losing positions of any team in the league this year.

- Some players brought back into the fold have done well. Mendy and Amartey (who will sadly likely miss the rest of the season now) have been quite good IMO.

 

The Bad
 

- We are behind Bournemouth, Brighton, Wolves and Watford. Bournemouth really gave us a good hiding.

- Despite good performances against the teams involved in European competition, we got nothing out of any of the games.

- Some of our new signings have made a very indifferent impact. Ghezall and Evans primarily.

- Our defence is still very poor. We concede first so many times and Morgan / Maguire are still the usual starting two at the back.

- It doesn't feel like we've made any real progress from the the end of last season. We still concede first most of the time, have the ball a lot but don't make too many chances. We've given Puel a chance and invested into players for him, but it still feels a lot like trying to solve a puzzle for which we don't know the answer.

The Ugly

 

- Poor Dan Amartey. I like his character and thought he was decent this year, but that was a nasty injury.

- The Vardy being dropped newspaper headline and 3 at the back tactics leaked in recent games... something is wrong behind the scenes.

- Two of the most expensive players we've ever signed, Slimani and Silva aren't involved at all with the first team.

 

 

As for our players, rating them out of 10:

 

Kasper Schmeichel - 7.5 / 10. Been good when needed. I can't think of a mistake he's made this season, but at the same time hasn't pulled out any worldies to earn us a point. Very solid as per usual though.

Danny Ward - 7/10. Great performance against Wolves in the cup where he literally was the reason we got through. Hard to judge after just 2 games. Seems decent if pricey at 12.5m.

Ben Chilwell - 8.5/10. Our player of the season for me so far. Consistently very good. Final ball could be improved but his improvement in the last 12 months has been impressive.

Wes Morgan - 5/10. Two sending offs in the first 10 games tells it's own story. In most games he's been quite solid though.

Harry Maguire - 6/10. In my opinion very disappointing this season. I think he needed a longer rest after the World Cup as he also looked shaky for England.

Jonny Evans - 5/10. Made serious mistakes against Wolves, Huddersfield, Everton and Arsenal for me. I thought he would be a great signing, but not so sure now.
Daniel Amartey - 7/10. Very solid for me. A huge mistake in the first game of the season stops him ranking higher. Shame it's probably the last we see of him this season though.

Nampalys Mendy - 7.5/10. Our best central midfielder this season. I've been impressed with him and that 16m we spent now looks quite good value.

Wilfred Ndidi - 6.5/10. Not playing to his best ability. Surprisingly inconsistent this season compared to his career with us so far.

Adrien Silva - 4/10. I thought he was OK against Manchester United but average against Fleetwood and poor against Wolves. He can't even get into the matchday squad right now.

Vicente Iborra - 5/10. Ok in the cups, but looked off the pace in the league.

Rachid Ghezzal - 5/10. Faded fast after impressing in his first two games. A poor man's Mahrez.

Ricardo - 6.5/10. Started very well in terms of an offensive contribution but defensively weak. Not replaced Danny Simpson as we thought he had been signed to do. In terms of technique I think he's a very good player, but his lack of physicality has been exposed so far.

Marc Albrighton - 6/10. Will forever be a legend, but been average at best in his starts and off the bench appearances.

Demari Gray - 6.5/10. Before his injury he looked quite good. Expect more goals and assists from him, but maybe he would have got them had he not got injured.

James Maddison - 7.5/10. Hard to believe he's only played 10 games in the Premier League because he's settled very well indeed. 7.5 might seem harsh but I'd say that's more indicative of the team's position currently. As the 10 he is THE player we look to for inspiration, especially given Mahrez has gone.

Jamie Vardy - 6/10. Started well but the sending off and performance against Arsenal suggest he's misfiring slightly.

Kelechi Ihenacho - 5/10. Good against Huddersfield, but that's been about it. Given the money we spent for him and the ability we know we have, been disappointing. I thought at the end of last season he had finally clicked, but I guess not.

Shinji Okazaki - 5/10. Limited to mostly sub appearances so hard to judge.

Christian Fuchs - 7/10. Only played in the cups but been very good when he's played.

Caglar Soyuncu - N/A. Can't judge a player after one game.

 

 

And the manager. 5/10. I think we are underperforming as a team. There hasn't been a game where we've really battered the other team, though to be fair other than Bournemouth there hasn't been a game where we've looked dreadful. Even in that game we started quite well. But it's just very average overall. I think bringing Mendy back in was a good managerial call, and bringing in Amartey over Ricardo to tighten up the Right Back position, but other than that there haven't been too many inspired subs or tactical changes. Had we beaten Arsenal then the switch to 3 at the back would have got a lot more credit, but he changed it back after we were winning!

Based on all this, I think we will finish between 10th and 14th this season. Now given that we are trying to bring through a lot of young players that isn't necessarily the worst thing that can happen, but if you look at the players we have, it's hard to not be underwhelmed overall. My gut feeling is that the owners will replace him either in December or at the end of the season. Not because we are in a relegation fight, but because the progress won't be considered good enough.

Edited 27 October 2018 by StriderHiryu

[Suzie the Fox]

5 minutes ago, yks said:

The team I want to see from now :

                          Schmeichel
     Ricardo - Soyuncu - Maguire - Chilwell
                        Mendy - Iborra

Albrighton - Maddison/Iheanacho - Gray/Maddison
                               Vardy

I'm sick of all the lost balls by Ndidi and think Mendy is as good as him defensively.
I hope Albrighton workrate and tracking back could help Ricardo.
I'm neither fully convinced by Gray nor Iheanacho but somebody has to play.
 

I thought Gray did ok when he came on today. I dont know what to make of Nacho though, he has offered very little so far. 

[StriderHiryu]

29 minutes ago, Suzie the Fox said:

ps Not sure you will get many positive replies to this topic on the back of that game - tempers/stress levels are too high right now. 

Well that's OK, I'm not after positive replies, but hopefully balanced and informed posts.

I've posted my own thoughts now, and I think there are good and bad things about our season so far. But I think overall we are under performing and under achieving.

[East Langton Fox]

Striderhiryu

what about Ndidi?

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

The Ugly

 

 

- Two of the most expensive players we've ever signed, Slimani and Silva aren't involved at all with the first team.

 

 

 

 

Wait? is slimani still here? last I saw of him he was modeling sunglasses in turkish police station.

 

Similarly, is that bald guy still at leicester? not the cambiasso one, the other one.  The one everyone keeps thinking is gone, but then shows up in a training ground pic. Is that one still here?

[StriderHiryu]

Just now, winchesterton said:

Wait? is slimani still here? last I saw of him he was modeling sunglasses in turkish police station.

 

Similarly, is that bald guy still at leicester? not the cambiasso one, the other one.  The one everyone keeps thinking is gone, but then shows up in a training ground pic. Is that one still here?

I know he's on loan, but my point is that it's 30M down the drain. I believe we got a 2M loan fee for him and he's off the books, but that's still 28M we can't reinvest into the team. Sadly some of our expensive signings in Slim, Silva, Nacho, Musa have so far flattered to deceive.

[ealingfox]

I think we need to be playing 3 CMs really. The back four needs protecting and someone needs to be sitting. What that means for the rest of the team I don't know, but we're hardly glittering going forward so a change of tack, well I can't see it making things worse.

[KingsX]

All I really demand is gradual improvement, but I am not seeing it.  We remain the same inconsistent side, with the same strengths and weaknesses, as started off at Man U.

 

I don’t share many of the complaints about the attack.  The midfield needs to play more quickly and more through the middle.  But if Vardy rediscovers his finishing, we will again be the top scoring side outside the top six.

 

Defensively we are so much worse than the quality (and quantity) of players deployed.  That’s a black mark against the staff.

 

Still against sacking Puel unless and until an excellent candidate is identified who (a) is more than a stopgap, and (b) will have the balls to continue the youth movement.

Edited 27 October 2018 by KingsX

[yks]

24 minutes ago, Suzie the Fox said:

I thought Gray did ok when he came on today. I dont know what to make of Nacho though, he has offered very little so far. 

Today, yes but overall, it's a lot of weird choices and missed dribbles or passes.
I still prefer him over Iheanacho to be fair, and he's still young. Let's hope he'll have a Chilwell-like epiphany.

[HighPeakFox]

Right now, I just don't care.

[KingsX]

40 minutes ago, jonthefox said:

Lose that, and he's gone. 

 

39 minutes ago, Fightforever said:

We lose or draw to cardiff he's gone.

Simple as.

 

Why do people make such absurd statements -- then present them as accomplished fact?  There's nobody on this forum with inner knowledge of workings of the board, which is the level that would make that decision. 

[StriderHiryu]

16 minutes ago, East Langton Fox said:

Striderhiryu

what about Ndidi?

I added him now.

 

I think that I forgot about him to begin with says it all

[Fightforever]

Just now, KingsX said:

 

 

Why do people make such absurd statements -- then present them as accomplished fact?  There's nobody on this forum with inner knowledge of workings of the board, which is the level that would make that decision. 

i've been put into perspective by the helicopter crash I don't care now and TBF this is the wrong time to be picking fights

[StriderHiryu]

1 minute ago, HighPeakFox said:

Right now, I just don't care.

Yeah me too. There are things much more important than football.

 

[KingsX]

1 minute ago, Fightforever said:

i've been put into perspective by the helicopter crash I don't care now and TBF this is the wrong time to be picking fights

OMG.  I was not aware.  You are so right about perspective. 

[RODNEY FERNIO]

CLOSE THE THREAD

[Bablemikey]

Only 10 games in, undergoing a huge transformation, and having lost a massive player in Mahrez I don’t find it at all surprising that we look a long way off being the finished article. 

Thought the addition of Iborra in midfield today was overall a positive one & his availability & passing really helped us move forwards. Söyüncü too was a positive for me & I hope that a strong partnership with Maguire can grow and help solidify our defence.

Maddison didn’t have his best game today but over the 10 games looks promising. I don’t think we’re getting the best out of him yet though.

Chilwell continues to look very strong for us down the left and I’m looking forward to seeing him develop his game further.

Ndidi I thought was at fault for their goal today and should’ve kept on his man but he is still making some fantastic tackles & trying to support the attack too. Like Chilwell he seems to have inexhaustible energy, it’s really quite incredible the work those two get through.

Iheanacho, Albrighton & Ghezzal are all currently not at the standard I want although in Marcs case he is doing everything asked of him but think that crossing into the mix like he does just favours the defenders.

Amartey has been growing in the right back spot & looking a decent fit & our best option there. I haven’t seen the injury as it happened on the other side of the pitch to me, but the reactions of teammates & physios suggests it’s a bad one. Whoever steps in will weaken us.

In the context of today’s game the WHU defence looked really disciplined in keeping a line. I thought it was a really dangerous game & that we’d catch them out eventually but it just didn’t happen. We still had enough good chances to win despite this though.

[RODNEY FERNIO]

Just now, Bablemikey said:

Only 10 games in, undergoing a huge transformation, and having lost a massive player in Mahrez I don’t find it at all surprising that we look a long way off being the finished article. 

Thought the addition of Iborra in midfield today was overall a positive one & his availability & passing really helped us move forwards. Söyüncü too was a positive for me & I hope that a strong partnership with Maguire can grow and help solidify our defence.

Maddison didn’t have his best game today but over the 10 games looks promising. I don’t think we’re getting the best out of him yet though.

Chilwell continues to look very strong for us down the left and I’m looking forward to seeing him develop his game further.

Ndidi I thought was at fault for their goal today and should’ve kept on his man but he is still making some fantastic tackles & trying to support the attack too. Like Chilwell he seems to have inexhaustible energy, it’s really quite incredible the work those two get through.

Iheanacho, Albrighton & Ghezzal are all currently not at the standard I want although in Marcs case he is doing everything asked of him but think that crossing into the mix like he does just favours the defenders.

Amartey has been growing in the right back spot & looking a decent fit & our best option there. I haven’t seen the injury as it happened on the other side of the pitch to me, but the reactions of teammates & physios suggests it’s a bad one. Whoever steps in will weaken us.

In the context of today’s game the WHU defence looked really disciplined in keeping a line. I thought it was a really dangerous game & that we’d catch them out eventually but it just didn’t happen. We still had enough good chances to win despite this though.

What ???

[Monk]

Based on other events this seems insignificant right now. 

[Bablemikey]

Any news about the folks onboard or in the vicinity? Pictures are horrifying.