Does Maddison start for you?

[sacreblueits442]

11 hours ago, John12345 said:

I agree with you in fact,  any of the technical midfielders praet,mendy,telemann,maidstone,perez etc could play it all day long, he should not be dining out on that one. I like him but he's not good enough to start,  whether that's form based or he's just not that good I'm not sure.

..who is Maidstone?

[RonnieTodger]

Even out of form, I thought when he came on against Braga he changed the game. 

 

In that awful match in Ukraine, he added a bit of quality and made things happen.

[Pliskin]

I don't think he is fit. Definitely carrying something over from last season, but as he is near 100% the club have persisted. It wouldn't surprise me if we see him take a more reserved role for a bit now Perez is back on the scene. He is not 100% over that op in my opinion. 

[Deeg67]

I think our best formation is a back four (ideally with Ricardo and Timmy, obviously), Ndidi, Tielemans, Praet, Under, Barnes and Vardy.  That's how we should be attacking everybody but the very best opposition.  We have better balance, better pace and better width with that group.  Maddison off the bench at the hour mark is what's best for the team, harsh as that is on him.

[BKLFox]

yes, all well and good having Barnes and Under flanking Vardy they will attack from the/coming off the wings but Vardy is redundant without someone feeding him which is what Maddison is there for, especially in a packed defensive.

 

Take last night as an example after 15mins we all thought we were in for a hatful but Nacho didn’t really get a sniff but that wasn’t his fault entirely, Barnes had Thomas linking with him and Praet was more on the right linking with Under there wasn’t someone sat in the middle feeding left, right and centre which Maddison does.

[LVFox]

Think he has to be in the attacking midfield role when everyone is fit. Praet presses well and gets beyond the forwards at times (something Maddison needs to do more), but Maddison has far more quality on the ball. He has plenty still to work on, such as becoming more of a goalscoring threat and not slowing the pace of attacks down too much, but he has more on the ball quality than other options.....he can stay away from corners though please.

[sacreblueits442]

11 hours ago, GingerrrFox said:

Interesting debate on this so far. There could be a number of reasons as to why Maddison’s performances have dropped off this season. 
 

Firstly, he doesn’t seem to have hit full sharpness since his injury when football started again after the season was postponed.

Secondly, many fans have also made the observation that Maddison seems to be a player who thrives off a full stadium and hasn’t yet reached the same levels that he was showing in front of fans in the ground now playing in front of empty stands. 
 

That being said I think neither of those things are the actual issue. Personally I think Maddison is struggling in the side because of the new role Tielemans has developed into this season. 
 

Previously Maddison and Tielemans were playing as number 8’s in front of Ndidi in the holding role. Whereas this season Tielemans has become the conductor of the side in a double pivot, it sounds a subtle change but it is actually a major change to how we set up attacks. 
 

To explain, last season there was a lot of wing rotation in our midfield between the number 8s and wingers, both Maddison and Tielemans were finding gaps in the half spaces between the lines, this space was created by our wingers making cutting runs inside, these movements were allowing both 8s to pick up possession in wide areas and also outside the box. For those who are familiar with Football Manager and the positional roles within the game, both Maddison and Tielemans were playing as “Mezzalas” last season. 
 

This season we’ve been playing with a double pivot due to Ndidi’s injury, Mendy has been the anchor man and Tielemans has had smore freedom to conduct the side in a deep playmaker role with the license to push further forwards at times knowing he had the safety of Mendy alongside him. 

 

Tonight when I saw Ndidi, Tielemans and Praet in the starting lineup I thought we would see the return of the 4-1-4-1 that worked so well for us last season. However we went with a 4-2-3-1, which I think is quite telling for how Brendan wants to set the side out moving forwards. Brendan hasn’t favoured the double pivot throughout the years, he has historically favoured a single pivot but it seems the double pivot is here to stay. This says to me that Brendan wants Tielemans to keep playing in this conductor role, dictating tempo from deeper whilst having the protection of Ndidi/Mendy next to him. 

 

You would expect then that Maddison would slot comfortably in the role Praet played tonight in the “Number 10 role”? However there are very noticeable differences in how Praet and Maddison play that role. Praet compliments Tielemans fully and I’m not convinced Maddison does. 
 

Praet without the ball is full of energy, constantly pressing the opposition in high areas and is a better defender than Maddison, Tielemans reads the game well but often can be exposed in ball winning situations, this hasn’t been an issue when Praet has played. Also Praet doesn’t demand the ball as much as Maddison does, Maddison constantly wants the ball to feet and isn’t a willing runner into the wide areas or in behind which Praet consistently does. 
 

Maddison is a classic number 10 in a 4-2-3-1. He wants the ball and he wants everything to go through him, which means we can lose the pace in our attack and we start to resemble the less incisive and slower possession focused side that we were under Puel when Maddison played exclusively in that number 10 role behind Vardy. Yes we played a double pivot under Puel but the double pivot consisted of Ndidi and Mendy to counterbalance Maddison’s weakness defensively. The onus was on Maddison in Puel’s system to be the creative presence in the middle as we had no other central midfielder with creativity. (Granted there is a slight counter argument that Puel didn’t have Tielemans available so he could well have tried that combination, we will never know). 
 

To summarise I think Maddison has to understand his role has changed. Tielemans is the conductor of the side now and he needs to start to play a complimentary role to that otherwise I fear in the big games he will find himself on the bench and not on the pitch starting. Currently the trio of Tielemans, Praet and Ndidi/Mendy has a much better balance to it

 

Of course when Ndidi is fully fit and ready to complete 90 minutes again we could see the 4-1-4-1 return but so far Brendan hasn’t given us any indication that he will abandon the double pivot in which he has given Tielemans the role of conductor of his Leicester City orchestra. 

..probably why he was so vocal in his insistence of being a Number 8 as opposed to a number 10!!!

  He obviously sees the number 10 role as a hindrance to his ambitions regarding a place in the England team. 

  The "10" role is not so well used in teams around the globe and as usual with a cyclical sport, it will play a part in the managers philosophy.

[whoareyaaa]

he has obvious quality's and can provide that killer instinct you need but he doesn't do it often enough and for me strolls around the pitch, rolling over etc.. needs to toughen up and get stuck in you can't walk round the pitch and expect things to happen.

 

From what I've seen we are better without him at times for the reasons above, obviously he has the ability but doesn't do it often enough.

[Steve Earle]

Put him and Vardy in for Nacho and Praet in last night's front six and you have something very exciting!

[Staffs Fox]

Without doubt for me, he’s a game changing player who aside from Vardy is one of the few players we have who can win a game on his own with a bit of magic,

 

The dreaded 5-2-2-1 hasn’t helped him at all because he’s not a winger so can’t run down the channels and has also been isolated in the final 1/3 as Vardy has been his only outlet. Play a system like last night and have Barnes, Under and Vardy ahead of him and he’ll be able to dictate things a lot more.
 

As many others have said Rodgers obviously was waiting for Wilf to come back before going back to 4-3-3. Now that’s happened Madders should be able to shine again  

 

Top 4, top of our UEFA Cup group all with having a mass of injuries to key players who are now coming back, roll on the festive period I say!

Edited 11 December 2020 by Staffs Fox

[Chrysalis]

The problem for me is when he plays, we either lose praet, tielemans who I feel are more effective, or sacrifice the ability to have both wingers on.  Tielemans has upped his game a lot this season.

 

So 4 defenders, under, barnes, striker, leaves 3 midfielders, one of which is tielemans and another ndidi.

5 defenders makes it even harder.

Edited 11 December 2020 by Chrysalis

[TrentFox]

Is this thread for real???? Perez has 60 good minutes and suddenly Madders huge contribution over a sustained period is totally forgotten and he’s second to a guy most of us had given up on? Wow. Taking ‘fickle’ to a whole new level. 

[honeybradger]

Last season we went 11W-3D-3L when Maddison and Tielemans started together in a midfield 3 last year, including when Ndidi was injured, not including when Maddison was a winger or when we used him as a 10 in a 442 diamond. With Maddison Tielemans Ndidi midfield we were 10W-1D-2L last season, 14W-2D-3L with Maddison Tielemans Ndidi across Rodger's Leicester tenure here. Anyone who thinks maddison ndidi tielemans isnt our best midfield is wrong, especially when praet hasnt been that good this season.

Edited 11 December 2020 by honeybradger

[Lambert09]

Just a quick question but why don’t we wait to see how he looks in the standard 4 at the back before deciding  

 

we’ve yet to see a Barnes, mads, under Vardy combo. I still think it’s going to be frightening 

[SuperMike]

No debate. If he fit, he's got to play.

[Tom12345]

9 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

Just a quick question but why don’t we wait to see how he looks in the standard 4 at the back before deciding  

 

we’ve yet to see a Barnes, mads, under Vardy combo. I still think it’s going to be frightening 

That’s the thing. Rodgers has so far shown to be too risk averse to try that. If Madders is on, it is likely in Rodgers’ preference to have more defensive players on that one of Barnes and Under (or both) would make way. (Personally I would like to see we try Perez as No. 10 in that combination too, but based on Rodgers’ selection preferences so far that is unlikely.) This is why we have this current debate. Madders is a good flair player to have - but there are a lot of good players in the team and different possible chemistry possibilities.

Edited 11 December 2020 by Tom12345

[Lambert09]

2 minutes ago, Tom12345 said:

That’s the thing. Rodgers has so far shown to be too risk averse to try that. If Madders is on, it is likely in Rodgers’ preference to have more defensive players on that one of Barnes and Under (or both) would make way. (Personally I would like to see we try Perez as No. 10 in that combination too, but based on Rodgers’ selection preferences so far that is unlikely.) This is why we have this current debate. Madders is a good flair player to have - but there are a lot of good players in the team and different possible chemistry possibilities.

hmm its hard to say at this point. He has been quite open about the fact that he felt we simply didnt have the personnel available. With the return of wilf, we might get the opportunity to see it.  My heart is hoping to see it on sunday but my head tells me both under and wilf are very unlikely to start. 

 

I completely agree with Perez, he's a good option to rotate in that role. 

[Stadt]

I don’t think Tielemans and Maddison make a particularly effective pairing. Their strengths and weaknesses are too similar so when we don’t have the vast majority of the possession we struggle a bit. In more difficult games we’re better off with one of them + plus Praet centrally.

[Rain King]

If we're going to carry on the policy of selling a big money player each season he'd be first on my list out of the door.

 

I like him but he's the most expendable imo.

[Foxxed]

His pass won us our last prem match so yeah

[tetly]

Ability wise you try and shoehorn him in the team. When he is on it he is a top player up with the best playmakers in the premier league.
Recently when he has started he has been frustrating and probably should get benched. 

[lcfc sheff]

He doesn’t currently get in what I’d consider our best 11... not sure if we should sell him like Chilwell / Maguire or wait again and see how he develops?

 

In this current evolution of the game I don’t think he fits, players need to be more dynamic whilst I think James slows our game down. I won’t talk about his corners as I’m sure we all think the same. 

Praet Ndidi and Youri is the best midfield we’ve got for me

[majaco]

Maddison starts

[Koke]

Did you guys forget when Maddison, Ndidi & Tielemans were ripping up teams last season? Get back to a 4231, get Ricardo and Castagne back in the team, and watch Maddison doing bits again.

[NaijaFox]

4 hours ago, TrentFox said:

Is this thread for real???? Perez has 60 good minutes and suddenly Madders huge contribution over a sustained period is totally forgotten and he’s second to a guy most of us had given up on? Wow. Taking ‘fickle’ to a whole new level. 

I think the alternative being mooted is Praet, not Perez