30-50m Winger

[Dan LCFC]

1 hour ago, Walkers said:

You make that sound like a good thing when really its not

Our deadline day record in August is generally horrific as well haha. Was only because of Tielemans there that I put "in August">

[hackneyfox]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

Perez can get double figures, Maddison and Tielemans could both get close, Vardy could get 20. As we saw in 15/16, Albrighton is good enough and can put in decent numbers, not huge numbers but so long as the others contribute it’s enough. We have more fire power than then.

 

Just can’t see us bumping Albrighton to 3rd choice, Barnes to 4th and Gray to

5th.

Fraser?

Barnes 3rd, Albrighton 4th and Gray to Bournmouth.

[Nick]

7 hours ago, Babylon said:

Perez can get double figures, Maddison and Tielemans could both get close.

 

Just can’t see us bumping Albrighton to 3rd choice, Barnes to 4th and Gray to

5th.

I think Perez and Tielemans will get double figures and I think Maddison will get 7-9 or so.

 

But I don’t see the choice thing exactly the same. I see two players for each position - and if a new winger is purchased who plays on the left presumably, then Albrighton and Barnes are on the bench but will both get minutes depending on the state of the game. I’m not convinced Gray will make the match day squad too often if another winger is bought.

[srex9]

6 hours ago, jeffschlupp said:

What does he do?

 

If he starts on the right he only ever gets the ball about 40 yards from goal and is constantly chipping shit balls down the channel towards Vardy.

 

If he starts on the left he fannies about with Chilwell until he gets the ball on the corner of the box and does that trademark 'nobody's in the box but I'm going to send a massive floated cross in anyway' thing he's done for 5 years here.

 

Two goals a season and half a dozen assists is bloody woeful for a team that most of this forum thinks can get into the top 6.

He's still been one of our most consistent performers. I think a lot of what you've said is more of a reflection of how the team has played in general.

 

Albrighton is by no means a flashy winger that will get you lots of goals but his tireless work rate is nothing to be sniffed at, it's key defensively and tiring for defenses in those games when we have won by out working the opposition. Half a dozen assists isn't that bad either.

 

However I did say he'd make the match day squad as I do feel we need a winger that can contribute more goals. That doesn't make Albrighton surplus to requirements as you need hard working players in a push for top 6. 

[srex9]

6 hours ago, Ashley said:

The original poster has a very valid point. 

 

Albrighton, Gray and Ghezzal are not good enough. 

 

Albrighton stats for goals and assists are awful. He works brilliantly hard but other than that he doesnt offer alot. 

 

P.s. He has scored some vital goals for us which I'm sure we appreciate but if you look at the stats on the whole then No, it's not good enough unfortunately. 

I agree that we need a new winger but I still feel players like Albrighton are important. Despite his lack of goals he's still involved in a fair amount of build up play when we do score. Stats certainly aren't the be all and end all but on the other hand it's obvious we've need a winger with more effective attacking qualities since Mahrez left. Albrighton was always a good foil for Mahrez imo and I still think he can offer something to the team.

[Jimbo]

8 hours ago, srex9 said:

Disagree regarding Albrighton. He's already won the league and is so consistent. I'd have him in the match day squad regardless. Workhorse and so very underrated.

I'd have him in the match day squad but he's not good enough to play in the system we are going to be playing. He's a great option to have should we feel the need to switch to a more conventional 442 but in a 433 or 451, or even the 4141 that we played mostly under Rodgers last season he doesn't offer what we need unfortunately.

 

A great work horse but lacks the technique and skill to 1 of 3 front men

[Dahnsouff]

24 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I'd have him in the match day squad but he's not good enough to play in the system we are going to be playing. He's a great option to have should we feel the need to switch to a more conventional 442 but in a 433 or 451, or even the 4141 that we played mostly under Rodgers last season he doesn't offer what we need unfortunately.

 

A great work horse but lacks the technique and skill to 1 of 3 front men

Bit torn here. He has looked useful in pre-season, and perhaps adapting to the style/formation change. Giving everything is never in doubt with Marc, nor his ability to cross the ball.

But as the style evolves further, I fancy we will see less and less crosses for out wide, and that fast inside pass exchanges will become more prevalent, and I fear this is something Marc is less suited too.

Something Ayoze is far better at.

Also likely the much vaunted £1 billion pound winger/insider forward will be more suited too as well.

 

[Tielemans63]

55 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Bit torn here. He has looked useful in pre-season, and perhaps adapting to the style/formation change. Giving everything is never in doubt with Marc, nor his ability to cross the ball.

But as the style evolves further, I fancy we will see less and less crosses for out wide, and that fast inside pass exchanges will become more prevalent, and I fear this is something Marc is less suited too.

Something Ayoze is far better at.

Also likely the much vaunted £1 billion pound winger/insider forward will be more suited too as well.

 

I love Marc Albrighton (I state this on a weekly basis) however I fear you might be right here. However, where I think Marc can fit into Brendan's plan is that I think he could be well-suited to a high press. Marc can make a tackle and will run all day. He could be effective at pressurising the opposition defence and generally making a nuisance of himself. Albeit as back up to Perez most probably. 

[whoareyaaa]

3 days left to sign someone 

[wattolcfc]

There has got to be some movement on this today, surely?

[Babylon]

9 hours ago, Ashley said:

The original poster has a very valid point. 

 

Albrighton, Gray and Ghezzal are not good enough. 

 

Albrighton stats for goals and assists are awful. He works brilliantly hard but other than that he doesnt offer alot. 

 

P.s. He has scored some vital goals for us which I'm sure we appreciate but if you look at the stats on the whole then No, it's not good enough unfortunately. 

He was in the top 20 assisters for three years running until last season, one of only a couple outside the top 6 who even scraped onto the list. So that quite simply is not true about assists. He absolutely needs to chip in with more goals, but we also won the league with him just chipping in a couple. So what's he not good enough for? So long as the team are chipping in it's not absolutely imperative. If he got 7 assists and 4 goals this season, he'd be right up there with the best of the rest in the league. 

 

Zaha last four seasons

5 Assists

3 Assists

9 Assists

1 Assists

 

Albrighton last four seasons

2 Assists

7 Assists

6 Assists

6 Assists

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Dahnsouff said:

Bit torn here. He has looked useful in pre-season, and perhaps adapting to the style/formation change. Giving everything is never in doubt with Marc, nor his ability to cross the ball.

But as the style evolves further, I fancy we will see less and less crosses for out wide, and that fast inside pass exchanges will become more prevalent, and I fear this is something Marc is less suited too.

Something Ayoze is far better at.

Also likely the much vaunted £1 billion pound winger/insider forward will be more suited too as well.

 

That is something that IMO will let him down far more than what he contributes in terms of assists. 

[Dahnsouff]

24 minutes ago, Paddy. said:

I love Marc Albrighton (I state this on a weekly basis) however I fear you might be right here. However, where I think Marc can fit into Brendan's plan is that I think he could be well-suited to a high press. Marc can make a tackle and will run all day. He could be effective at pressurising the opposition defence and generally making a nuisance of himself. Albeit as back up to Perez most probably. 

In turn, I also suspect you are right. Marc's pressing is surely indicative of the type Brendan would want. Its only his inter-play, passing in tight areas that is his potential downside, something Ayoze is more proficient at. Marc is far from useless, just feel he may play less this season with Ayoze being here, and that Marc will act more as a plan B (Where more crossing is required) and with the reported winger/inside forward coming in. Perhaps we will see Marc in games where we expect to be hemmed in a bit more, games where his all action mentality is required. 

[Babylon]

At the starts of the summer most people were saying we needed a winger, not two wingers. We've signed Perez who is clearly playing that position, so I'm not sure why people have now reverted to needing two wingers. Is it lack of faith in Perez? Is he not a fancy enough, or unknown enough to peak peoples interest?

 

When people talk about centre backs, they seem more than happy to just give Benkovic and Soyuncu a go. Yet the same attitude doesn't see to be taken with the likes of Barnes, who was the great white hope about 5 months ago. 

[dbtcity]

9 hours ago, Ashley said:

The original poster has a very valid point. 

 

Albrighton, Gray and Ghezzal are not good enough. 

 

Albrighton stats for goals and assists are awful. He works brilliantly hard but other than that he doesnt offer alot. 

 

P.s. He has scored some vital goals for us which I'm sure we appreciate but if you look at the stats on the whole then No, it's not good enough unfortunately. 

The problem I’ve always found with us and Albrighton is we don’t play with a target man therefore a lot of His balls in especially from the left are easily plucked out the air by the keeper/big cbs... it’s not that his crosses are bad as I’m sure a big powerful striker would thrive on his delivery it’s just the majority of the players we have breaking into the box really aren’t a danger in the air! From the right it’s a bit of a different story as he’s able to mix up his crosses and fire in a bunch of low balls but even then we rarely have players busting a gut to get on the end of his crosses, that might be different this season with Perez though

[jayfox26]

6 minutes ago, Babylon said:

He was in the top 20 assisters for three years running until last season, one of only a couple outside the top 6 who even scraped onto the list. So that quite simply is not true about assists. He absolutely needs to chip in with more goals, but we also won the league with him just chipping in a couple. So what's he not good enough for? So long as the team are chipping in it's not absolutely imperative. If he got 7 assists and 4 goals this season, he'd be right up there with the best of the rest in the league. 

 

Zaha last four seasons

5 Assists

3 Assists

9 Assists

1 Assists

 

Albrighton last four seasons

2 Assists

7 Assists

6 Assists

6 Assists

I feel before Rodgers came in hes been used too defensively in the past. This pre season he seems to be getting further forward and into more goalscoring positions so hopefully this season he can contribute more in goals and assists.  

[dbtcity]

1 minute ago, Babylon said:

At the starts of the summer most people were saying we needed a winger, not two wingers. We've signed Perez who is clearly playing that position, so I'm not sure why people have now reverted to needing two wingers. Is it lack of faith in Perez? Is he not a fancy enough, or unknown enough to peak peoples interest?

 

When people talk about centre backs, they seem more than happy to just give Benkovic and Soyuncu a go. Yet the same attitude doesn't see to be taken with the likes of Barnes, who was the great white hope about 5 months ago. 

Agreed I don’t think we need a winger to be honest as like you say Perez has filled that void for me! I’m expecting a big season from Barnes this year and having Albrighton/Gray/Ghezzal as back up aren’t bad options... unless we ship out Gray (maybe part of a deal for Ake) or Ghezzal is stick with what we’ve got 

[Ric Flair]

7 minutes ago, Babylon said:

At the starts of the summer most people were saying we needed a winger, not two wingers. We've signed Perez who is clearly playing that position, so I'm not sure why people have now reverted to needing two wingers. Is it lack of faith in Perez? Is he not a fancy enough, or unknown enough to peak peoples interest?

 

When people talk about centre backs, they seem more than happy to just give Benkovic and Soyuncu a go. Yet the same attitude doesn't see to be taken with the likes of Barnes, who was the great white hope about 5 months ago. 

It's the desire and craving for exciting attacking players, I'm sure of it. It's also because Perez is a utility type forward and then the fear is Albrighton, Barnes and Gray continue to struggle to score and we are that 5-10 goals short of where we need to be to compete with the top 6.

 

Me and you have queried for a while about whether we would spend big this summer and unless we go and spend £75-100m in the next few days then we won't have done but if we are going to, the positions that will be improved are out wide and attacking midfield.

[whoareyaaa]

I think we need another proven creative type player than can score, can we rely on Ghezzal, Gray, Barnes, Albrighton? 

 

Do we have enough goals in the team as it is? 

 

I'm not sure what we need tbh

[Collymore]

I think from what I've seen from Perez so far he needs to be given a free role (like Mahrez at times) across the 4 attacking positions. He seems to have that bit of extra quality we've lacked since Mahrez's departure. Albrighton would be the perfect player to play with him being more disciplined and rigid - I think they'll compliment each other well. 

You've then got Barnes and Gray who could potentially replace Perez and I've been very impressed with Ghezzal with his strength and discipline so he could perhaps be brought in to play that Albrighton role if needed for the final 20 mins or cup games. 

 

If we were to sign another winger, it would need to be a hard working Albrighton type player and then we'd be fully balanced and have so many options.

[Finnegan]

23 minutes ago, Babylon said:

At the starts of the summer most people were saying we needed a winger, not two wingers. We've signed Perez who is clearly playing that position, so I'm not sure why people have now reverted to needing two wingers. Is it lack of faith in Perez? Is he not a fancy enough, or unknown enough to peak peoples interest?

 

When people talk about centre backs, they seem more than happy to just give Benkovic and Soyuncu a go. Yet the same attitude doesn't see to be taken with the likes of Barnes, who was the great white hope about 5 months ago. 

 

I think this is over simplifying things to try and fit the narrative you want to be honest. 

 

A lot of people (a LOT of people) were calling for back up to Vardy. The general consensus immediately after Perez signed was that he'd be a good transfer to add depth generally to the squad. Given he's played most of his games at 9 and 10 and considers them his preferred positions that's not unreasonable. 

 

That said, given our lack of depth in all attacking positions it was never unfair to hope we'd sign two wingers even if Perez had been one. 

 

There was also a blanket assumption across the board that Barnes would be starting but it looks in the last few games like he isn't in Rodgers' intended first eleven. If Albrighton is considered by the manager to be our best "left forward" in a 433 then it's definitely not unreasonable to hope we'd sign a better option given he's largely unsuitable. 

 

Edit: FWIW, I won't be disappointed if Barnes, Vardy, Perez in front of Ndidi, Tielemans, Maddison is our first choice for the year. I think that's a great side. I would be very worried about our ability to change a game or cover injuries though if we don't sign the mythical back up 8 and much talked about winger. 

Edited 5 August 2019 by Finnegan

[StriderHiryu]

36 minutes ago, wattolcfc said:

There has got to be some movement on this today, surely?

We will probably wait for the Harry Maguire transfer to be announced by Manchester United first, which would be a sign that the Man United money has reached our accounts.

 

Once that's done, I am sure things will progress quickly. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if a new centre back was announced today! 

[North Leeds Fox]

25 minutes ago, Babylon said:

At the starts of the summer most people were saying we needed a winger, not two wingers. We've signed Perez who is clearly playing that position, so I'm not sure why people have now reverted to needing two wingers. Is it lack of faith in Perez? Is he not a fancy enough, or unknown enough to peak peoples interest?

 

When people talk about centre backs, they seem more than happy to just give Benkovic and Soyuncu a go. Yet the same attitude doesn't see to be taken with the likes of Barnes, who was the great white hope about 5 months ago. 

Personally I think you are right, perez does fill the need for a winger and think he will quietly go about scoring a lot of goals for us this season. However I get the general feeling that this forum does not rate either gray or ghezzel and the likelihood of them coming good is minimal. If both were set to leave or be pushed down the pecking order, a winger would be required. Think we need to get an attacking midfielder that can also play wide (olmo or suso would be my choice) as then we are covered if vards get injured and rodgers prefers perez up top to nacho. 

 

Think if you look at our squad now, the 'weaker' areas in comparison to teams around us is attacking mid depth, a solid cb and then goals from the wide areas. Barnes will be a fantastic player, like soyuncu and benkovic but rodgers seems to have used him more as an impact player and can see that being the case this season. I would be happy to start the season without another winger, just as football fans, we always want more and there will always be more excitement from a new winger than a new cb, even if the cb is much more crucial. 

[fazzyfox]

 

I

4 minutes ago, Babylon said:

At the starts of the summer most people were saying we needed a winger, not two wingers. We've signed Perez who is clearly playing that position, so I'm not sure why people have now reverted to needing two wingers. Is it lack of faith in Perez? Is he not a fancy enough, or unknown enough to peak peoples interest?

 

When people talk about centre backs, they seem more than happy to just give Benkovic and Soyuncu a go. Yet the same attitude doesn't see to be taken with the likes of Barnes, who was the great white hope about 5 months ago. 

I agree it has been a strange one, signing someone who plays wide and straight away rumouring that he wasn't the "big" winger we are after! 

 

I think it depends on how Perez is seen, I'm not over familiar with his game but it sounded like he can play wide or just behind the CF and it sounded like we were replacing Shinji with the added bonus of being comfortable out wide. This sounds like an ideal person to have on the bench but the "problem" comes if he does well and forces himself into being a starter out wide we'd need him to be fresh enough late in the game to move inside if we're chasing a game as Rodgers has been willing to introduce both Nacho amd Shinji.

 

On their day Barnes, Perez and Albrighton all have enough about them to be starters. Maybe over a season we need that fourth winger, currently Gray (who can to a degree play down the middle too). I just think it would be a huge statement to replace Gray with someone like Zaha and know you have someone  who is virtually guaranteed to have an impact and hurt the opposition regardless of who we're playing. It doesn't appear crucial and I always begrudge Albrighton being the considered weak link but to go to that next level having selection headaches is fine and that's one position where it would be good to have  the flexibility of Perez and an upgrade on a player (Gray) who doesn't always have an impact.

 

And I've forgotten Ghezzal.....I'm all for understanding a bedding in period but how many times was he subbed at half time or very early last season, which other club have a senior pro they've had to do that to? I think he has qualities but if we are to be ahead of Wolves and Everton and be biting on Arsenals coat tails I think we need to go that extra step.

 

Another factor is that if Justin is on the bench he could come on and Ricardo push up to RW? If we're chasing a game I could see this happening.

 

And let's not forget though that when we play Choudhury, Ndidi and Tielemans one of the wide players is left out, with the horses for courses approach.

 

So considering all of that I'd agree it's not critical that we get one but if we resolve CB and have big money available there's not many other positions that need it IF Perez can cover Maddison if he picks up an injury. If it happens it should really be for someone top drawer and helped financially and squad place wise with a sacrifice (not literally, that would be harsh) of Gray and/or Ghezzal.

 

 

 

 

[Babylon]

8 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

I think this is over simplifying things to try and fit the narrative you want to be honest. 

 

A lot of people (a LOT of people) were calling for back up to Vardy. The general consensus immediately after Perez signed was that he'd be a good transfer to add depth generally to the squad. Given he's played most of his games at 9 and 10 and considers them his preferred positions that's not unreasonable. 

 

That said, given our lack of depth in all attacking positions it was never unfair to hope we'd sign two wingers even if Perez had been one. 

 

There was also a blanket assumption across the board that Barnes would be starting but it looks in the last few games like he isn't in Rodgers' intended first eleven. If Albrighton is considered by the manager to be our best "left forward" in a 433 then it's definitely not unreasonable to hope we'd sign a better option given he's largely unsuitable. 

 

Perez didn't play a single game as a 9 last season, he played as 10 but the majority was wide right. Considering we don't need a 10, I'm not been sure why he's been considered as the Vardy backup. He was always clearly going to mostly be the winger, for me at least.  So the board assumed Barnes was good enough, but now they don't because Albrighton might start? 

 

I just find the "go with 4 centre backs" "give the two unknowns a go" attitude in one thread totally at odds with how people are talking about the wide roles, when we already have 5 wingers and one of them at least falls into the same "give them a go" type category in Barnes. 

 

If money is unlimited then sod it, let's go nuts and get another one. But I keep thinking that we've got a massive Vardy shaped hole appearing on the horizon at some point and we're going to need to go very big there if we want anywhere close to his quality. So it might be worth keeping the tinder dry if money isn't unlimited and we've got enough wide options out there for now.