Brais Mendez

[AllGoneTitsSchlupp]

7 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

A man asking the right questions!
 

 

Gerrimin. 

[UniFox21]

8 hours ago, Stevosevic said:

Young which is the new strategy. 

 

It's the point we've evolved into almost. We have to buy young, promising talent or lesser well known older talent given the big 6 just swoop the rest up.

 

But it just takes a few to be brilliant for things to click. 2015/16 for us, then look at Liverpool and signing Mo and Firminio along with a few others 

[StriderHiryu]

7 hours ago, urban.spaceman said:

Thanks for this. 

 

The music reminds me of one my favourite ever migraines. 

 

x

I swear the people that make these videos go out of their way to find the most excruciatingly bad music to listen to.

 

Player looks decent though. I personally don't think we are desperate for players and want to see Barnes in the team next year, but a creative and technical Spanish midfielder who has been capped at national team level? Doesn't sound too bad to me. Mata, David Silva, Carzola, Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, etc the Premier League has a good record of quality Spanish midfielders / forwards working out.

[Nick]

I think his eyebrows might be too bushy for the pace of Premier League football. They might however keep him warm whilst out on loan on a cold wet Tuesday night in Stoke.

[Horibbly Wrong]

Maddison replacement

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

He does look very similar to Maddison and clearly likes the central role. Cracking left peg as well. But is he what we need? Not sure.

[StriderHiryu]

2 hours ago, Marshall Cockney Fox said:

He does look very similar to Maddison and clearly likes the central role. Cracking left peg as well. But is he what we need? Not sure.

Is he what we need? In my opinion not because our squad is actually pretty good at the moment and if we have a weakness it's at centre forward as an option to replace Vardy, as Nacho just isn't getting anywhere near justifiying his price tag at the moment. But what I would say is that in a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 system the three players behind the striker are arguably MORE important than the striker. Look at Liverpool where Salah and Mane score more goals than Firminho, Chelsea where Hazard / Willian / Pedro outscore Moratta and Arsenal where Aubameyang cutting in scores more than Lacazette through the middle.

 

In such systems, it's also really hard to be consistently good week in, week out. That's why the top teams have lots of options like Shaqiri for Liverpool, Man City buying Mahrez, Spurs having Lucas Moura, Sissoko and Lamela, etc. So I can see the logic of buying a highly promising Spanish forward with both creative and goal scoring traits. We often bemoan our lack of cutting edge in the final third, so buying a quality forward sounds alright to me. Like I say I just hope that it doesn't block Barnes from coming into the team next year. I don't expect Barnes to make an instant impact but as a supporter of the club it's important to me to have some local / youth academy players in the team. It's awesome seeing Chilwell in the team and when Gray scored after Vichai's death, his reaction was awesome and really made me like him actually. So I would be quite happy to give another highly promising young player who has been at the club for years plenty of chances to succeed.

 

Anyway below are Mendez's stats from WhoScored. Looks very promising from these stats:

 

 

 

 

Edited 27 November 2018 by StriderHiryu

[norwichfox]

Do we need any more lightweight number 23's?

[weller54]

2 hours ago, Swan Lesta said:

I think his eyebrows might be too bushy for the pace of Premier League football. They might however keep him warm whilst out on loan on a cold wet Tuesday night in Stoke.

Are they as bushy as Iborras'?

Edited 27 November 2018 by weller54

[FoxNotFox]

9 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

But what I would say is that in a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 system the three players behind the striker ar arguably MORE important than the striker. Look at Liverpool where Salah and Mane score more goals than Firminho, Chelsea where Hazard / Willian / Pedro outscore Moratta and Arsenal where Aubameyang cutting in scores more than Lacazette through the middle.

Yes, this is what I'm seeing too. I've referred to it on another thread, much to the amusement of someone.

 

For me, it's not so much that the players behind are more "important" (but I think I know what you mean when you use the word so I'm not disagreeing) but that the lone striker role is not the typical out-and-out striker of years gone by. Further, I think the 3 behind are more fluid than previously. That is to say, it's not a no. 10 and 2 wingers. The 3 roam across the width of the pitch and interchange. We see it a little bit with us, between (particularly) Gray and Maddison but Ghezzal (when he plays) does it too.

 

The 3 also don't look to necessarily play the striker in (though that can happen obviously) They look also to play off the striker. On occasions, it's like a front 4 - or an attacking 4 - where movement and interchange is important. It's what makes Iheanacho potentially an important player for us. It's also why I think Vardy is having to remodel his game (he can't just lead the line, nor sit on the shoulder of defenders and wait - he has to drop, become involved in build up play etc) 

 

I think it was either Man City or Barcelona (certainly a Pep team) that have taken the field without a known/designated striker - much to commentator confusion!

 

I don't profess to understand the game at this level (and I've mentioned that a few times on other threads) but I do see what is happening and how it differs. Some see Puel as not wanting to sign 'strikers', or wanting only to sign 'wingers' - and that is correct in a way but I think it's more involved than that. I think Puel likes a certain type of player than can play anywhere in that front 4, that can play a part in positional interchange. It's just that the old labels don't apply any more. Mobile players cause more problems for defences, they're more difficult to track and 'set a stall' up for.

 

For instance, defences got wise to old Vardy, could negate his impact (because they knew how he would operate) by isolating him or denying his supply lines. Mahrez out left equally became easier to deal with because defences would set up to double/triple up. And that's decided before kick off, is rehearsed in training sessions and (hopefully) put into practice on the day. Now if players are roaming (or, to use my examples, Mahrez becomes Vardy for a particular passage of play) then defences have to adapt to a dynamic situation and it's much more difficult for them and mistakes become much more likely. I reckon that's what Puel looks to induce and exploit - and a fluid, technically adept front 4 are key to that. 

[sylofox]

2 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

I swear the people that make these videos go out of their way to find the most excruciatingly bad music to listen to.

They do it for a reason. 

 

The video needs to be 5mins long for people to watch it. 5 minutes=2mins of class 1min of average play 2mins of the real shite you will see every game. 

 

If the put a decent track on people would see the last 2 minutes. Then no one would buy the player. 

 

Perhaps we should tell Rudkin to watch the YouTube with the volume off. Then we may stop buying duffers. 

[StriderHiryu]

35 minutes ago, FoxNotFox said:

Yes, this is what I'm seeing too. I've referred to it on another thread, much to the amusement of someone.

 

For me, it's not so much that the players behind are more "important" (but I think I know what you mean when you use the word so I'm not disagreeing) but that the lone striker role is not the typical out-and-out striker of years gone by. Further, I think the 3 behind are more fluid than previously. That is to say, it's not a no. 10 and 2 wingers. The 3 roam across the width of the pitch and interchange. We see it a little bit with us, between (particularly) Gray and Maddison but Ghezzal (when he plays) does it too.

 

The 3 also don't look to necessarily play the striker in (though that can happen obviously) They look also to play off the striker. On occasions, it's like a front 4 - or an attacking 4 - where movement and interchange is important. It's what makes Iheanacho potentially an important player for us. It's also why I think Vardy is having to remodel his game (he can't just lead the line, nor sit on the shoulder of defenders and wait - he has to drop, become involved in build up play etc) 

 

I think it was either Man City or Barcelona (certainly a Pep team) that have taken the field without a known/designated striker - much to commentator confusion!

 

I don't profess to understand the game at this level (and I've mentioned that a few times on other threads) but I do see what is happening and how it differs. Some see Puel as not wanting to sign 'strikers', or wanting only to sign 'wingers' - and that is correct in a way but I think it's more involved than that. I think Puel likes a certain type of player than can play anywhere in that front 4, that can play a part in positional interchange. It's just that the old labels don't apply any more. Mobile players cause more problems for defences, they're more difficult to track and 'set a stall' up for.

 

For instance, defences got wise to old Vardy, could negate his impact (because they knew how he would operate) by isolating him or denying his supply lines. Mahrez out left equally became easier to deal with because defences would set up to double/triple up. And that's decided before kick off, is rehearsed in training sessions and (hopefully) put into practice on the day. Now if players are roaming (or, to use my examples, Mahrez becomes Vardy for a particular passage of play) then defences have to adapt to a dynamic situation and it's much more difficult for them and mistakes become much more likely. I reckon that's what Puel looks to induce and exploit - and a fluid, technically adept front 4 are key to that. 

Great post! 

 

Yep to put into context, when Man City recently beat Spurs, they had at one point David Silva playing "up front" (in reality as a false 9) with Bernado Silva, Kevin De Bryune, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling all on the pitch at the same time. Gary Neville later was said "Is Pep trying to break the record for the most amount of number 10's on the pitch at the same time?!" Obviously I'm not saying we should go down that route but when Man City made this change, Spurs just couldn't get the ball and it doesn't matter that all of those players are physically not the strongest when none of them give the ball away. Below is the team Spain played when they won Euro 2012 where as you can see, they didn't play with a striker at all!

 

When people see just Jamie Vardy up front, I think they are looking at it wrong. The system is supposed to be a a fluid front 4 and not just built around trying to feed one player to score. If anything on the attack it's supposed to act like we have 3 players up front though granted watching our team it rarely feels that way. 

 

Vardy has really improved his game IMO since Puel came in even if he's slightly less prolific. Against Brighton he was back to his very best, being aggressive but also incoporating many of the new system's changes too. He was dragging players around and playing it into others, making space for Albrighton and Nacho in that game which caused the pressure to get us the equaliser.

 

However, it's true that no one else in the squad can do what Vardy does. Nacho might be a good finisher but he doesn't work as hard or move enough in comparison. Okazaki does work as hard and has great movement, but isn't technically as good. You never back him to score or even stay on his feet when he's in a good position. It's for that reason that I could understand the logic of trying Gray up top against Liverpool, but that experiment was a real failure. The team looked 5x better in that game when Nacho came on and Gray reverted to an inside forward position. 

Edited 27 November 2018 by StriderHiryu

[lcfc sheff]

How much will he cost is the question? 

[Ric Flair]

20 minutes ago, lcfc sheff said:

How much will he cost is the question? 

Hes got a release clause of £22m I think

[HighPeakFox]

30 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Hes got a release clause of £22m I think

That sounds dangerously similar to the amount of money LCFC are expert at wasting... 

[Ric Flair]

28 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

That sounds dangerously similar to the amount of money LCFC are expert at wasting... 

Yeah it's the new £8m

[Dan LCFC]

I don't mind paying £22mil when there's a good chance that value will grow. He ticks a lot of the boxes to suggest he will, and even if not we'd likely get good money back on him. I can't imagine him being a total flop.

 

Different to the likes of Silva, Iborra & Slimani who were on the verge of deteriorating.

[Ric Flair]

1 minute ago, Dan LCFC said:

I don't mind paying £22mil when there's a good chance that value will grow. He ticks a lot of the boxes to suggest he will, and even if not we'd likely get good money back on him. I can't imagine him being a total flop.

 

Different to the likes of Silva, Iborra & Slimani who were on the verge of deteriorating.

I suppose the only risk is, hes only just broken through so theres only a small sample to go on and if he doesn't make an impact he'd go back to Spain for less than half we paid for him as bar the top 4-5 clubs in Spain they dont spend 8 figures on many players.

[turtmcfly]

40 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

That sounds dangerously similar to the amount of money LCFC are expert at wasting... 

Mods - this comment needs to be index-linked

[Dan LCFC]

4 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I suppose the only risk is, hes only just broken through so theres only a small sample to go on and if he doesn't make an impact he'd go back to Spain for less than half we paid for him as bar the top 4-5 clubs in Spain they dont spend 8 figures on many players.

Maybe so, although there looks to be a bit of evidence that he's going to become a really decent player - on the flip side if he'd been around for longer there's every chance we'd be beaten to him by someone bigger.

 

It's a slight gamble but not a massive one.

[StriderHiryu]

28 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

I don't mind paying £22mil when there's a good chance that value will grow. He ticks a lot of the boxes to suggest he will, and even if not we'd likely get good money back on him. I can't imagine him being a total flop.

 

Different to the likes of Silva, Iborra & Slimani who were on the verge of deteriorating.

Yes I'd agree here. Silmani / Silva and Iborra were dangerous signings to make because if they didn't work out you are left with a player with deterorating price value and high wages. In other words, a nightmare scenario. If the young players don't work out usually the wages aren't as bad and if they had some talent to them they will probably not lose much value. And of course in the case of Gray / Chilwell / Maguire / Mahrez (he was 23 when he first came here) their valuation could rocket. 

Of course we've had a right mixed bag with our Iberians purchases. Ricardo looks good, Iborra is an Ok squad player, but Hernandez (remember him!), Silva and Slimani all flops thus far. I have to say I was very surprised by Silva and Slimani because Sporting are a really good team and they were among their key players. I'd have thought that at worst they would be OK, but it's really not panned out that way at all. Makes you wonder if signing experienced players is even worth it, which is clearly why we are currently going for young players only it seems.

[Horibbly Wrong]

3 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Great post! 

 

Yep to put into context, when Man City recently beat Spurs, they had at one point David Silva playing "up front" (in reality as a false 9) with Bernado Silva, Kevin De Bryune, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling all on the pitch at the same time. Gary Neville later was said "Is Pep trying to break the record for the most amount of number 10's on the pitch at the same time?!" Obviously I'm not saying we should go down that route but when Man City made this change, Spurs just couldn't get the ball and it doesn't matter that all of those players are physically not the strongest when none of them give the ball away. Below is the team Spain played when they won Euro 2012 where as you can see, they didn't play with a striker at all!

 

When people see just Jamie Vardy up front, I think they are looking at it wrong. The system is supposed to be a a fluid front 4 and not just built around trying to feed one player to score. If anything on the attack it's supposed to act like we have 3 players up front though granted watching our team it rarely feels that way. 

 

Vardy has really improved his game IMO since Puel came in even if he's slightly less prolific. Against Brighton he was back to his very best, being aggressive but also incoporating many of the new system's changes too. He was dragging players around and playing it into others, making space for Albrighton and Nacho in that game which caused the pressure to get us the equaliser.

 

However, it's true that no one else in the squad can do what Vardy does. Nacho might be a good finisher but he doesn't work as hard or move enough in comparison. Okazaki does work as hard and has great movement, but isn't technically as good. You never back him to score or even stay on his feet when he's in a good position. It's for that reason that I could understand the logic of trying Gray up top against Liverpool, but that experiment was a real failure. The team looked 5x better in that game when Nacho came on and Gray reverted to an inside forward position. 

Strider, what did you think of my post?

[lcfc sheff]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Hes got a release clause of £22m I think

Could be a bargain if he keeps up his current form, a Spanish international is nothing we should be turning down!

[Lambert09]

The difference between signing him to our other recent flops is his age. Excluding Kaputska because Mendez is already playing in a top division. 

 

At 21 even if it takes him 3 years to get used to the english game we still wouldnt even have him at his prime.  22 m for a 21 year old Spain capped midfielder sounds like a steal! 

Edited 27 November 2018 by Lambert09

[StriderHiryu]

34 minutes ago, Horibbly Wrong said:

Strider, what did you think of my post?

I don't think he'd be Maddison's replacement, but another option who could be used there. I think like Ghezzal he is the sort of player that could end up in the 10 slot occasionally, or we might rotate players around during the games. For example at least 3 or 4 times a game we swap over our wingers, so we might do that with our 10's. But it seems like this guy spends most of his time out on the right hand side, so if anything more of a Mahrez replacement, even though he doesn't dribble as much.

I have to say that Ghezall against Burnley in the first half playing as the 10 was really, really good. Unlucky not to score and IMO actually way more creative than Maddison has been. But then in the second half he gave it away a lot. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that this player has been identified as competiton for his place.