Hamza Choudhury the Trailblazer

[Sol thewall Bamba]

I reckon he'll rack up at least 400 apps for us. 

[Xen]

52 minutes ago, lcfc sheff said:

If it wasn’t already obvious I think he’s the best thing since sliced bread...

 

But can’t help feeling he’s surely gonna get a full England cap next year? We lack holding midfielders atm so to me looks nailed on.

He'll end up better than Dier, for sure, so if he can get a consistent run in the side (and the whole side can continue to perform) then there's no reason why not. 

 

There's quite a few youngsters all knocking on the door of the England squad though and - whilst they won't all be directly competing with Choudhury for a CM spot - Southgate will probably be apprehensive about throwing in too many youngsters at once.

[Stadt]

I’m not sure he’s really a holding midfielder, he’s better more advanced when he can be aggressive and win the bail without having to hold his position. In Football Manager terms he’s definitely more of a ball winning midfielder than an anchorman  

[Raw Dykes]

On 01/02/2019 at 13:28, KrefelderFox666 said:

Quite weird because only yesterday was my wife saying the same things. Why are there no Asian (and not meaning far east) players in the PL? I was struggling to give a genuine answer as it's not the fact football isn't a big sport in places like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc where cricket and hockey are some, if not the, biggest sports. A lot of people from those countries live here and were born here but never really picked up football at a top level.

 

Is it still in their culture that they pick up those other national sports rather than football (there are large followings at clubs though, especially Leicester, Man Utd and Liverpool)? Is it genetics that mean players struggle more to reach those top levels? Not an easy one to answer.

I remember reading that they are often discouraged by their parents when they get near to becoming a pro. I'm convinced it has to be a cultural thing. I can't think of another plausible reason.

[StriderHiryu]

7 minutes ago, Stadt said:

I’m not sure he’s really a holding midfielder, he’s better more advanced when he can be aggressive and win the bail without having to hold his position. In Football Manager terms he’s definitely more of a ball winning midfielder than an anchorman  

I expect him to become a box-to-box "engine" midfielder, similar to Henderson / Wijnaldum / Fabinho at Liverpool or Lars Bender / Ilkay Gundogan when Klopp was at Dortmund. Those teams rely heavily on players with terrific engines to run the attacking high press game. Players need high work rate, fantastic stamina, good tackling and an aggressive element to their game, but don't necessarily need to be fantastic on the ball. Hamza ticks all of these boxes which is why I think he's already looked good in Rodger's systems. Under Puel, Hamza looked good but largely stuck to a disciplined role to crowd out the opposition as we ceded possession. Under Rodgers, he's being relied on to get us going quickly so we get hold of the ball and to push the entire team up 10-20 yards. 

 

I expect he will start again against Chelsea, but it will be interesting next season against bottom half opposition if he starts. When Hamza plays we look a bit more 4231 with Maddison moving over to the wing and Albrighton on the other side. When we play 4141 then we have Ndidi as the holding midfielder and have 2 of our wide players starting the game. It seems like it's better to change our tactics based on the opposition we play judging from recent results.

[Foxxed]

Hamza and Tielemans in the centre. Ndidi behind them. Maddison and Barnes cutting inside from the wings. Vardy up front. Hamza can develop into a box to box midfielder. And Maddison can get into the England squad since we're apparently not playing a number ten. Then we win the Euros with four Leicester players on the pitch, two of them from Leicestershire, one captaining the national side .