Leicester without Mahrez

[Nicolo Barella]

Going into this season, many of us worried about replacing Mahrez's output - last season, he scored 12 goals and assisted 13, involved in 25 of our 56 goals. Obviously it is a little early to make an analysis of how Leicester City has fared without him, but seeing as the vast majority of the season has come and gone we can start to look at it I feel.

 

The consensus was, that we would never be able to get a player of his calibre to join so we would have to spread as many of those goals and assists as possible across the squad (relying on a new, creative 10., a real attacking RB and our existing wingers to step up) whilst simultaneously tightening up at the back to ensure we would not concede an awful 60 goals again. 

 

Attacking wise, our new signings Ricardo and Maddison have added a combined 9 goals and 13 assists, whilst the likes of Barnes and Tielemans have come in after the winter window and added 2 goals and 7 assists. Creatively, we have replaced him, it seems, although we lack the same goalscoring knack from open play that he has. 

 

Defensively, we sit on 44 goals conceded with 5 games to go. With some tough games coming up, we could concede anything from 4 to 9 goals in the upcoming games, but either way, we won't be conceding the same amount as last year bar true disaster.

 

I think the team has dealt reasonably well with Mahrez's departure, and although there can be no question that we would have performed much better with him this season, we have certainly not regressed.

[TJB-fox]

Imagine him in this team instead of Gray though. Jeez

[CosbehFox]

We’ve coped remarkably well. Maddison has done well considering the step up. 

[Babylon]

9 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Going into this season, many of us worried about replacing Mahrez's output - last season, he scored 12 goals and assisted 13, involved in 25 of our 56 goals. Obviously it is a little early to make an analysis of how Leicester City has fared without him, but seeing as the vast majority of the season has come and gone we can start to look at it I feel.

 

The consensus was, that we would never be able to get a player of his calibre to join so we would have to spread as many of those goals and assists as possible across the squad (relying on a new, creative 10., a real attacking RB and our existing wingers to step up) whilst simultaneously tightening up at the back to ensure we would not concede an awful 60 goals again. 

 

Attacking wise, our new signings Ricardo and Maddison have added a combined 9 goals and 13 assists, whilst the likes of Barnes and Tielemans have come in after the winter window and added 2 goals and 7 assists. Creatively, we have replaced him, it seems, although we lack the same goalscoring knack from open play that he has. 

 

Defensively, we sit on 44 goals conceded with 5 games to go. With some tough games coming up, we could concede anything from 4 to 9 goals in the upcoming games, but either way, we won't be conceding the same amount as last year bar true disaster.

 

I think the team has dealt reasonably well with Mahrez's departure, and although there can be no question that we would have performed much better with him this season, we have certainly not regressed.

Bloody Fraud and his coherent plans. It's a shame he never got it to click properly on the pitch as I still think he goes about things the right way with his team building. 

[StriderHiryu]

That’s a good review and with our current league position and matching our points tally from last season already we’ve arguably improved slightly. But it does highlight how good he was for us... we combine 4 or 5 players together and they still don’t beat his goal tally and this was in a season where his head was clearly turned. 

 

For me those wide positions are the area we could / should improve the most. The three of Ndidi / Maddison / Tielemans is very well balanced, creative and now scoring goals. But as Riyad showed our inside forwards / wingers aren’t anywhere close to the numbers they could produce. 

 

It will be interesting to see if we recruit anyone in those positions in the summer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Timothy Weah of PSG who is currently on loan at Celtic spend next season on loan here. We’ve also been linked with Harry Wilson of Liverpool (on loan to Derby) and Jarod Bowen of Hull too. 

[Koke]

We have coped more than remarkable. Though it would have been amazing to see Mahrez in the same team as Maddison and Tielemans. Also, imagine if Mahrez had Ricardo behind him instead of Simpson. 

 

[brucey]

3 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Bloody Fraud and his coherent plans. It's a shame he never got it to click properly on the pitch as I still think he goes about things the right way with his team building. 

How much would we have to pay Puel to agree to take over our academy from Beaglehole? 

 

Obviously he wouldn't, but it'd be perfect for our shiny new training ground and academy.

[jayfox26]

If City want chilwell, do a straight swap for Mahrez as he hardly gets a kick there, and then sign Tierney.

 

Yes I know it will never happen but Tielemans, Maddison and Mahrez behind Vardy would be incredible. 

[Ric Flair]

36 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Bloody Fraud and his coherent plans. It's a shame he never got it to click properly on the pitch as I still think he goes about things the right way with his team building. 

Had the right ideas on paper but was an absolute disgrace at times at his implemtation on the field. Tielemans has hit the nail on the head with the confusion and he'd only had to put up with it for 2 games and could at least speak French with him. Puel had the uncanny knack of his team only committing 1 or 2 players forward in to the box at any one time but then also being exposed and carved open at the back time after time. The whole middle of the park was made of wet bog roll.

 

I'll be thankful of his part he played in the vision of this club and he has helped us bring in some great young players which can't be dismissed. We are now witnessing a proper manager though who gets this division.

 

Prior to Rodgers arrival we were missing Mahrez's individual brilliance, which is what Puel's teams rely on. He had it with Ben Arfa at Nice and Maddison is now a completely different player now his confidence has returned due to the shackles being off. I dread to think how good we could be if Mahrez was here instead of Gray in this team, we wouldn't be far off the top 5 if we had our best XI out week in, week out.

 

It's a testament to this team though that they will likely kick on under Rodgers and we won't particularly miss Mahrez's goals and assists as they are being shared amongst the team which is something Puel urged us to do and his parting gift to us was Ricardo and Tielemans who make us such a ferocious beast at times. If and when Harvey Barnes adds goals and some more assists to his game at this level then we will be a team capable of scoring 60-70 goals a season once again.

[FoyleFox]

A good review although i feel it's a little unfair to expect the same input from players new to the league and/or team. Mahrez took a while to settle and produce the contribution he did in the last 2/3 seasons. It will be interesting to see the stats next season, assuming the same players are still with us. 

[Captain...]

28 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Had the right ideas on paper but was an absolute disgrace at times at his implemtation on the field. Tielemans has hit the nail on the head with the confusion and he'd only had to put up with it for 2 games and could at least speak French with him. Puel had the uncanny knack of his team only committing 1 or 2 players forward in to the box at any one time but then also being exposed and carved open at the back time after time. The whole middle of the park was made of wet bog roll.

So true that last sentence. I feel like the big difference since Rodgers arrival has been allowing Ndidi to press and win the ball early and higher up the pitch. Under Puel it felt like Ndidi and Mendy were told to run backwards as soon as we lost the ball, mainly to cover our marauding full backs, but as you said it left us too easy to cut through as there’s no pressure on the opposition. Incidentally want did Tielemans say?

 

On topic Gray and Barnes need to start chipping in with goals, that is the big loss with Mahrez. Goals and more importantly match winning goals. I always think of that Watford game where he was poor all game but had that one moment of composure (not even genius) and won us the game. One chance one goal 3 points. As much as I rate Barnes and Gray they lack that composure to put a bad game or a frustrating game out of their heads and take the chance when it comes not snatch at it. Barnes I’m sure will get there not so sure about Gray.

 

[Dickov22]

Stick Mahrez in this side, keep Tielemans and we are a top 6 or even 4 side next season. 

[Haywood_6]

Sign Tielemans, Bring back Mahrez... we'll win the fookin league again

[Nicolo Barella]

24 minutes ago, FoyleFox said:

A good review although i feel it's a little unfair to expect the same input from players new to the league and/or team. Mahrez took a while to settle and produce the contribution he did in the last 2/3 seasons. It will be interesting to see the stats next season, assuming the same players are still with us. 

It might be unfair, but it was basically what we needed to happen. I agree I think next season should be better. 

[murphy]

This is like 2016 again when Kante threads kept cropping up.

 

Mahrez has gone.  He's picked his toys up from out of his pram and stropped up the road to sit on Pep's bench.

 

I don't miss him and I certainly don't miss his baggage, strikes and airport sulks. 

 

Only players that want to play for Leicester need apply.

[Nicolo Barella]

2 minutes ago, murphy said:

This is like 2016 again when Kante threads kept cropping up.

 

Mahrez has gone.  He's picked his toys up from out of his pram and stropped up the road to sit on Pep's bench.

 

I don't miss him and I certainly don't miss his baggage, strikes and airport sulks. 

 

Only players that want to play for Leicester need apply.

Did you read the post? I'm not whining for him to come back, I'm posing the question "have we successfully moved on as a club?". It's a discussion forum about Leicester City, this is a topic about Leicester City's progress. 

[murphy]

4 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Did you read the post? I'm not whining for him to come back, I'm posing the question "have we successfully moved on as a club?". It's a discussion forum about Leicester City, this is a topic about Leicester City's progress. 

Yes.  Why do you think I'm replying to you?  Seems that you haven't read though this thread yourself.  That was aimed at all the people saying bring him back.

 

 

 

[Jobyfox]

26 minutes ago, murphy said:

This is like 2016 again when Kante threads kept cropping up.

 

Mahrez has gone.  He's picked his toys up from out of his pram and stropped up the road to sit on Pep's bench.

 

I don't miss him and I certainly don't miss his baggage, strikes and airport sulks. 

 

Only players that want to play for Leicester need apply.

I agree with that.

As good as Mahrez was for us we have to keep moving forward.

 

Mahrez and Drinkwater have not had it all their own way at their new teams. Even Kante has had his issues under a new manager. 

 

It’s a cautionary tale about the ‘grass being greener’, but the best way to counter it is with success of our own and chipping away at the monopoly of the big six. If we set ourselves up to be the club that gives promising young talent a route into the first team - that would be a good start - and it’s what we’re achieving with some of our own prospects and the new training facilities.

 

We won’t compete for big name signings, but we might compete with academy prospects who want to fast track their careers. 

[OntarioFox]

Now we're actually playing with intent and properly mixing up our game, I'm going to raise my head above the parapet and say it - we're better off with Riyad gone.

 

We had two weapons before Mahrez left - feeding through to Vardy off the last man, or dumping it out to Riyad on the right wing and hoping he did something special, whether that was one good cross in 20 or a curler into the top corner. Both nice when they came off, but beyond the league title season we'd been worked out and the consistency of pulling off either approach had dried up. Factor in Riyad's atrocious defensive contribution and I honestly don't miss him. We struggled to adapt to losing him as a creative outlet, especially with the tentative approach of Puelball, but Rodgers has already shown in 5 games that this team is capable of a far more varied style of play that plays to individual qualities we probably undermined by placing too much focus on Mahrez.

 

If we continue to play in the way we do, constantly switiching up how we attack and bringing the whole team into our attacking moves, the future is bright. We had become too predictable. You can't say that about us any more, and the likes of Vardy, Maddison, Ricardo and Barnes are all thriving off of it.

 

Vardy deserves a special mention, because while Rodgers himself has alluded to the simple tactical change leading to his current purple patch being to "feed him earlier", the reality is that he is in and amongst our wider attacking style, as shown by his open play goal at the weekend - sneaking in at the back post isn't his game and never really has been, but he was there to tap in when in recent times that peach of a cross would have just sailed straight out of play. Another one to show his under-rated football intelligence and ability to play well in a team system not totally built around him.

 

Oh, and fun fact to round up with - Maddison has already scored as many free kicks for Leicester (3) in less than a full season than Riyad did in his whole 4 year career for us. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall any more than that number in his time with us. So while I still want to thump Madders every time he fails to clear the first man at a corner, we objectively have someone better at set pieces than Riyad ever was, despite that being held up as one of his supposed strengths.

 

So yeah, thanks for the (good) memories Riyad, but after a brief hangover it's safe to say that we no longer need you.
 

[TheLittleBigMan]

Although I miss his silky skills i'm glad he's gone. He was bringing the team down towards the end. Team unity is more important than the Marhez show. Onwards and upwards.

[StriderHiryu]

I'd welcome back Riyad the player tomorrow. The ego... not so much. Hence as most people say it's probably for the best we parted ways.

Ideally we'd want to find a younger version who can get to / is close to the same level but who wants to play for us. Can you imagine Felipe Anderson in our current team? That would have been disgustingly good. 

Though we've made up the numbers, if we had a Riyad type on top of what we already have, we'd be a seriously strong outfit.

[AKCJ]

1 hour ago, murphy said:

This is like 2016 again when Kante threads kept cropping up.

 

Mahrez has gone.  He's picked his toys up from out of his pram and stropped up the road to sit on Pep's bench.

 

I don't miss him and I certainly don't miss his baggage, strikes and airport sulks. 

 

Only players that want to play for Leicester need apply.

I absolutely miss him. 

[AyewJoking]

Its sad to see mahrez not getting much game time at man city.

Wasted talent.

Why couldnt he be happy being the big star playing every game for us?

 

We have moved on. The burden of creativity is shared across several players now.

 

Mahrezs career seems to have stalled although could be revived with a loan back to the mighty leicester

[wokinghamfox]

14 minutes ago, Royston. said:

Its sad to see mahrez not getting much game time at man city.

Wasted talent.

Why couldnt he be happy being the big star playing every game for us?

 

We have moved on. The burden of creativity is shared across several players now.

 

Mahrezs career seems to have stalled although could be revived with a loan back to the mighty leicester

I fear that he will become a victim of squad rotation at Man City. He is the type of player who needs to play every week and at present is only a bit part. 

Honestly he should've stayed with us in hind sight and yes I would like him back, he is never going to get a regular game at City and will probably end up like Scott Sinclair at Celtic.

[lgfualol]

I love Mahrez

 

Come home lad