Missing Mahrez

[deanolegend1989]

6 hours ago, Tom12345 said:

There is a reason why Man City paid so much for him. He is top quality and someone like him does not come around easily.

 

The point though is that it is the manager’s responsibility to use what is at his disposal and get the best out of the team.

 

Ferguson was the best in the business. If you look back at the Man U squads, yes he had some top class players, but he consistently made pretty average players (eg. the Neville brothers, Carrick, etc) into pretty good players when playing in the collective. He can lose any player and yet somehow he can find a “replacement”. This is because he recognized there is no exact replicate of anyone but he adjusts and made all his players play at their best. His squads always believe they can win and play accordingly. They almost win just by reputation and by turning up because oppositions fear them before the ball is kicked and as a result they always had that edge.  We had that for a while but is fast losing it thanks to Puel.

 

 

Carrick was never ever close to average. Top draw player in his position and criminally underrated.

We have 2 donkeys in midfield who havnt got a forward braincell in both their heads put together. Neither Ndidi nor mendy can run from midfield , burst into the box , and  or have any kind of passing ability. And even if they had all the above, neither could score a 1 or 1 in an empty net!

they both just scrap around look hard working with no purpose.

Kante did 2 men’s job as 1.

those 2 take 2 positions and barely do 1 mans job!

[Corky]

6 hours ago, Blue ROI said:

At one point we were bottom of the league when he was with us too. 

 

Not to mention 2 mid table finishes after 2016. 

 

Don't assume we would be without problems if he was still with us. 

Given he was playing some excellent football from Puel's arrival until the end of January and the Man City issue, it is a fair point the OP makes.

[ScouseFox]

the majority of our fans wanted him to leave hahahah 

[Foxes1]

8 minutes ago, ScouseFox said:

the majority of our fans wanted him to leave hahahah 

A lot most likely did but only because of his attitude  after he heard Man City wanted him neither him or his agent covered themselves in glory I mean sitting at airports refusing to play on the basis he was depressed he didn't exactly endear himself to the fans at the end of his career here.

[TheLittleBigMan]

Never heard of him.

[Shaun the fox 1]

We are not a one man team 

[David Hankey]

1 hour ago, Shaun the fox 1 said:

We are not a one man team 

Funny though how we can't seem to score without Vardy. Any team even Manchester City will miss the calibre of Mahrez when he moves on from there. It's daft to say otherwise.

[Nicolo Barella]

The mistake wasn't selling Mahrez, it was not appointing Puel the summer before last season and getting Maddison and Ricardo in then... 

[Bazly]

I miss Mahrez about as much as I miss Drinkwater. Which is about as much as I'll miss King or Simpson and a lot less than I miss Cambiasso or Kante.

[fox_favourite]

Any team that generally sits between 6th-20th would miss Mahrez, he's a one off talent. 

[RODNEY FERNIO]

A few sticking up for him … but a lot of them don't seem happy at all.

...Sixty million quid your having a laugh.

… Too slow

… One trick pony

…. Lazy

… Not improved us at all.

 

Personally think he's looked ok when I've seen him play for them.

[UniFox21]

1 minute ago, RODNEY FERNIO said:

A few sticking up for him … but a lot of them don't seem happy at all.

...Sixty million quid your having a laugh.

… Too slow

… One trick pony

…. Lazy

… Not improved us at all.

 

Personally think he's looked ok when I've seen him play for them.

Thought he's played well, offers a different aspect to that of Sterling. 

[Plastik Man]

On 16/12/2018 at 03:34, Tom12345 said:

There is a reason why Man City paid so much for him. He is top quality and someone like him does not come around easily.

 

The point though is that it is the manager’s responsibility to use what is at his disposal and get the best out of the team.

 

Ferguson was the best in the business. If you look back at the Man U squads, yes he had some top class players, but he consistently made pretty average players (eg. the Neville brothers, Carrick, etc) into pretty good players when playing in the collective. He can lose any player and yet somehow he can find a “replacement”. This is because he recognized there is no exact replicate of anyone but he adjusts and made all his players play at their best. His squads always believe they can win and play accordingly. They almost win just by reputation and by turning up because oppositions fear them before the ball is kicked and as a result they always had that edge.  We had that for a while but is fast losing it thanks to Puel.

Well yes, Ferguson was one of the best ever. But it's not as if he didn't have the luxury of spiffing £30M+ on Rio Ferdinand when he needed a new defender (after dumping Stam?) , and that was around 15 years ago. 

 

It seems clear our policy (Puel's) is to purchase younger, promising and hungrier players who are affordable and should retain value. We can't waste £30M+ on older players with little sell on value, who may not even perform... we all know the recent failures we're still lumbered with. 

[Guest]

On 15/12/2018 at 22:15, HibiscusMark said:

Playing a sole striker was ok with Mahrez in the side. He drew midfielders and defenders and was able to create chances. We don’t have that anymore...sadly Gray nor Ghezzal have the quality. 

 

Seems Puel has gone for the ‘stability’ approach..very defensive.  If Jamie’s not scoring I can’t see where the goals will come from. 

 

Very likely we’ll settle for a mid table finish...not good enough given the poor teams in the league.

This is a fake news story isn't it? One of those "when I was a lad" stories.

 

We haven't been missing Mahrez. We've actually been missing the clinical Vardy who played alongside Mahrez.

 

James Maddison has created 41 goalscoring chances this season, most of them for Vardy. We just haven't been taking them.

 

We were a mid table team at best for every season except one that Mahrez played. That's pretty good for Leicester especially a young re-building Leicester - which is what we are.

[HighPeakFox]

6 minutes ago, Gerbold said:

Not so much fake news as rumour-mongering. It's one of the more deplorable facets of the media - think of some possible situation, however unlikely, and turn it into a possibility. Is Puel under the threat of the sack or does the media want him sacked, so there's a real 'story' to fill the column inches?

Of course, everyone who dislikes his management style or his accent or his three-piece suit, will take the rumours as gospel - because it justifies and supports their prejudices.
 

It is known as 'confirmation bias'.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

It is known as 'confirmation bias'.

or being a narrow minded git. 

[HighPeakFox]

3 minutes ago, FIF said:

or being a narrow minded git. 

To be fair, I think every one of us is prone to it.

[Tom12345]

15 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

Well yes, Ferguson was one of the best ever. But it's not as if he didn't have the luxury of spiffing £30M+ on Rio Ferdinand when he needed a new defender (after dumping Stam?) , and that was around 15 years ago. 

 

It seems clear our policy (Puel's) is to purchase younger, promising and hungrier players who are affordable and should retain value. We can't waste £30M+ on older players with little sell on value, who may not even perform... we all know the recent failures we're still lumbered with. 

Yeah, agree with you there re transfer policy.

[foxfanazer]

On 16/12/2018 at 11:01, ScouseFox said:

the majority of our fans wanted him to leave hahahah 

As opposed to what? Keeping a spoiled brat that didn’t want to be here and went AWOL?

[Tom12345]

14 hours ago, FIF said:

This is a fake news story isn't it? One of those "when I was a lad" stories.

 

We haven't been missing Mahrez. We've actually been missing the clinical Vardy who played alongside Mahrez.

 

James Maddison has created 41 goalscoring chances this season, most of them for Vardy. We just haven't been taking them.

 

We were a mid table team at best for every season except one that Mahrez played. That's pretty good for Leicester especially a young re-building Leicester - which is what we are.

I can’t quite agree with this view. Football is simple but not that simple. It is easy for us fans to criticise Vardy for not scoring and quote stats. This is why we do not get paid to do this - it is easy. The chances Maddison creates are not no way at the same standard as Mahrez’s. Maddison has good qualities but he is not Mahrez yet. Nor are the chances created by Chilwell for that matter.  Both tend to either over hits or under hits or not releases the pass at the best possible moment - this is especially true for Chilwell. Maddison is better but he is not Mahrez-like yet: even his pass to Vardy for the win at Chelsea was actually half a yard short (because he should have released his pass a micro second earlier so he could have sent the pass a bit more straight instead of at an angle so that he couldn’t hit it that little bit harder for Vardy to run on to better) but Vardy managed to adjust and bend his body enough for the strike anyway for the win.  These are the qualities of Vardy a lot of fans do not get. I am sure Puel, as a professional coach, sees this.

 

In summary, when so called chances are a yard behind you, just over you, puts you away from goal, or puts you in the path of another defender, they are half chances at best. 41 of these is misleading to say the least. 

 

This has been the story so far this year, and Vardy can be hardly blamed for it.

[ScouseFox]

3 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

As opposed to what? Keeping a spoiled brat that didn’t want to be here and went AWOL?

lols yes exactly that, he could’ve literally said he was gonna play for us but only in the form of crab football and it would’ve still been a billion times better than selling him