Williams

[werestandingup_weresittingdown]

i thought he was very poor on saturday, was a weak link in the team all day. Doesnt deserve his place. He doesnt get stuck in and win balls so he should be offering something going forward. He doesnt even do that. We scored 3 goals and he didnt play a part in any of them.

[Ric Flair]

I'm beginning to see why managers might find it hard to develop an all out attacking side at Leicester.

Apart from Hume and the departing Joey is there one attack-minded player who has thrived at Leicester in recent times?.

Playing devil's advocate here, what decent attacking/creative players have we had at this club other than Ryan Smith? Williams was a defensive midfielder until Joe Kinnear tried him in an attacking role and he did well there. He's since come here and been extremely inconsistent in any role/position he plays.

I actually found his performance comical on saturday, my dad summed it up perfectly by saying how can somebody say he played badly when he didn't even touch the ball? He's an enigma that boy, funny as ****.

The kop were chanting some hilarious songs about him in the second half, not derogatry but ammusing.

[Micky Singh]

For gareth to play well the game needs to be played around him and for the team feed him the ball as much as possible. This is when we see the real gareth. More he sees of the ball, the more chance we create. If the game isn't gonna be played around him then he will never deliver. We have to play a fast passing game. We did this way very early in the season and he was awsome in midfield. If leicester played at that speed, tempo and put the ball on the deck and pass it around more. You will see him deliver.

[lush]

Let me start by saying that I really am not a fan of young Gareth so you are quite entitled to say that my view of his performance yesterday is jaundiced.

The match was on the whole poor, so I decided to pay a great deal of attention to Hoddle's, sorry I mean Gareth's valued input into the match. By this I mean I paid attention to his workrate, passing, tackling and use of space ie. a number of occasions where he COULD have moved into space in attacking and defensive roles. My opinion.....

Once again he did feck all and showed no desire or interest. The guy must be so far up his own rear end that he can no longer see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Am I being unfair ?

the best pop idol candidate city have had since andy feely.

[Chimp]

Some of the boneheads on here couldn't see a good player if it hit 'em in the face. Same with Kisnorbo, they make snap judgements like sheep and on prejudice. Williams is another on their hit list.

Snap judgements? We've had the 'pleasure' of watching GW underperform for over a year, we've all had plenty of time to come to our own conclusions, mine is that he simply isn't a good footballer.

Same with Kisnorbo. How anyone can state that his performance in midfield didn't warrant criticism is just baffling.

Get off your high horse and quit trolling.

[l444ry]

Snap judgements? We've had the 'pleasure' of watching GW underperform for over a year, we've all had plenty of time to come to our own conclusions, mine is that he simply isn't a good footballer.

Same with Kisnorbo. How anyone can state that his performance in midfield didn't warrant criticism is just baffling.

Get off your high horse and quit trolling.

Why is it that anyone disagreeing with oh mighty Chimp is "trolling." You get off your high horse and accept that you ain't the oracle who must always be right. Quite frankly Chimp I don't give a monkey's what you think.

[Chimp]

Why is it that anyone disagreeing with oh mighty Chimp is "trolling." You get off your high horse and accept that you ain't the oracle who must always be right. Quite frankly Chimp I don't give a monkey's what you think.

You just proved my point, thanks.

[Manc_Fox]

Why is it that anyone disagreeing with oh mighty Chimp is "trolling." You get off your high horse and accept that you ain't the oracle who must always be right. Quite frankly Chimp I don't give a monkey's what you think.

hahaha hillarious. williams was obviously a good player when he came to us cus forest were trying to say that he was worth 5 million, its just that its never paid off for him at leicester. as someone said previously williams plays well when he has the ball, he is a player that can actually create something, he can switch play just like that and can play some delightfull throughballs, but how is a player like that meant to play well when all we are doing is hitting it up to the strikers by passing the midfield. this is shown by kelly's team selections, he plays a full back right mid, and a centre mid on the left. and by doing this, this causes the midfield to get very packed, i mean if you had welsh and smith playing n the wings, then this would allow to two central midfielders to play their own game instead of others trying to do there job. personally i wud prefer to see hughes partner joey in the middle of the park as he to is an exceptional tallent, he was highly regarded at rangers but was allowed to leave due to persistant injuries which is what we are seeing here, he never seems to be fully fit. so maybe we should persist in playing williams, if hes given a good run in the team then he might be able to show everyone what he can do.

ps. i believe that williams is, not disliked but the reason why people get on his back quicker than others is because he is ex-Forest give the lad a break and bloody get behind him and all the team for a change instead of barracking them as soon as they do one thing wrong, we are 17th in the league FFS not everything we do is going to pull off otherwise we would be top of the table, come back to the real world and encourage our players for a change. just put yourself in their shoes, if your on the pitch trying to play your best, and a couple of passes dont come off for you or lose a 50-50 tackle and then the bloody crowd start slagging u off, your not gona want to play better well i no i would not. this is where u need to get behind the team more when things are going right and encourage the team to play well, not tell them they are playing shit as i am pretty sure they are aware of how shit they have been this season. footballers are human too.

[Leicester City]

i think technically williams is our best player however, it counts for nothing if the performances are not there.

i felt he was doing well at the start of this season looking skilful and classy and even more aggresive.

but he's back to what he was when he first came. nearly 2 full seasons have passed and he has yet to deliver consitently ie, 8-10-12 games of good form.

i dont like to hear it when people say he doesnt try as i hope he does but it makes you wonder

I agree. When i think about our players i get different feelings. Hard to explain really. Hume - brill, Fryatt - brill, McCarthy - brill, Williams - brill. But he doesn't do anything. Its strange.

[Chimp]

[..] ps. i believe that williams is, not disliked but the reason why people get on his back quicker than others is because he is ex-Forest [..]

Oh come on, I don't see anyone mentioning this at all. Stop making excuses for him.

GW gets criticised because, despite his apparant technical ability, he's largely annonymous when on the pitch. It's all very well saying he can be creative, can put in good through balls and can change the course of a match but unless he applies himself it's all hypothetical. Until such time as he turns could into does, he'll continue to recieve criticism.

Personally, I'd love nothing more that for GW to come out of his shell and fullfill all this potential that he's supposed to have. I hate to see a City player underperform, it's such a waste.

[Thin_King]

You all being very harsh on the lad!

Gareth is a superb player, the fact he doesn't get a decent run in the team is obviously not helping his cause - and after the way he's been messed about at this club in his time here - ESPECIALLY WITH LEVEIN - can you blame him for being disheartened by it all?

Personnally I think he's lacking confidence - he's a shadow of his former self at the moment, and he has the ability to be a premeirship player... He shows flashes of excellence and at times can really change a game (see Crewe at christmas - came on and really played well)

And whereas I agree, if a player is on the pitch for city they should give it there all, I feel Williams just needs more match practice and a good run in the first team, the things that arent working for him are down to a lack of match understanding between himself and his colleagues.

[Leicester City]

You all being very harsh on the lad!

Gareth is a superb player, the fact he doesn't get a decent run in the team is obviously not helping his cause - and after the way he's been messed about at this club in his time here - ESPECIALLY WITH LEVEIN - can you blame him for being disheartened by it all?

Personnally I think he's lacking confidence - he's a shadow of his former self at the moment, and he has the ability to be a premeirship player... He shows flashes of excellence and at times can really change a game (see Crewe at christmas - came on and really played well)

And whereas I agree, if a player is on the pitch for city they should give it there all, I feel Williams just needs more match practice and a good run in the first team, the things that arent working for him are down to a lack of match understanding between himself and his colleagues.

Levein didn't play him because he didn't try.

[Ric Flair]

You all being very harsh on the lad!

Gareth is a superb player, the fact he doesn't get a decent run in the team is obviously not helping his cause - and after the way he's been messed about at this club in his time here - ESPECIALLY WITH LEVEIN - can you blame him for being disheartened by it all?

Personnally I think he's lacking confidence - he's a shadow of his former self at the moment, and he has the ability to be a premeirship player... He shows flashes of excellence and at times can really change a game (see Crewe at christmas - came on and really played well)

And whereas I agree, if a player is on the pitch for city they should give it there all, I feel Williams just needs more match practice and a good run in the first team, the things that arent working for him are down to a lack of match understanding between himself and his colleagues.

I've stuck up for Williams alot in over the past year or so but there cannot be any excuses for the lad now. He's been consistently anonymous in 85% of the games he's played for us and anybody who contests that must be deluded. There's no doubting that Williams has the talent, but that doesn't mean we should compensate for him because he doesn't show it. All the excuses you list above have been said many times before but when is he going to change? There have been many players like him before and most of them have amounted to nothing, we've had 3 managers whilst he's been here and none of them have managed to have an impact on him.

At first, we offered the excuse that Williams wasn't playing well under Adams because we played long ball and it was being played over his head. There might of been an element of truth in that, but the other midfielders in the side at the time (Nalis and Gudjonsson) were both imposing themselves on the game even if they weren't playing well or effectively.

Then came Levein who even said himself that he didn't realise Gareth Williams was as talented as he was because he doesn't asert himself aswell as he should and could. Leven worked hard last season and in pre-season to get the best out of him and in patches it looked to be working. This season though after the first few games he was back to his usual self and Levein had enough of it. Gudjonsson was performing excellently after a poor first season and was obviously showing what hard work does in terms of improvement. Something Williams obviously isn't interested in. They had a falling out after Williams walked out from the ground against Burnley at home and he was dropped from the first team for a week or two. He was then given other chances and again he was anonymous for most of it. Now and again he'd show signs of the talent he had but where did it lead?

Rob Kelly is now the manager and he played thje first 2 games under him but got injured. Wesolowski came in and showed exactly what a midfield player is supposed to do.I know not all midfielders are as good as Wesolowski or have his workrate but he showed Williams up for what he is, an enigma!. Williams had to wait his turn for a chance again and he got it last week when he started against Hull, a chance that any footballer should make the most of. He proceeded to put in one of the most inept performances I have ever seen. You couldn't say he had a bad game, because to have a bad game you have to have done something wrong when on the ball. Williams didn't get the ball, he wasn't interested in it. When he did get it, he quickly got rid of it and didn't move in to space to create anything.

He is a shy lad from what I hear, but that doesn't mean he can't asert himself on the football pitch. Perhaps he'll go elsewhere and do the business, but I have my doubts. Forest fans warned us of his condition he has - lazyness. Atleast at Forest he was in the position where he played every match so they were more likely to witness the odd good performance from him, but we have rarely saw that.

I'm tired of making excuses for him, it's time he proved us all wrong. If he can't then he should **** off.

[Frenzied]

Snap judgements? We've had the 'pleasure' of watching GW underperform for over a year, we've all had plenty of time to come to our own conclusions, mine is that he simply isn't a good footballer.

Same with Kisnorbo. How anyone can state that his performance in midfield didn't warrant criticism is just baffling.

Get off your high horse and quit trolling.

I have to disagree Chimp. Williams is a good footballer, he's just not very good at playing football.

Slightly cryptic but my point is that he has a great first touch, excellent vision and can weight a pass well. His problem is that he can't apply those skills in a game and is therefore relatively ineffective.

[Anish]

Another excellent post by Ric, I couldn't agree more.

[l444ry]

Nice to see Williams pay back Kelly's loyalty by making the first goal against Luton, and hopefully win over some of the more moronic on here.

[davieG]

Nice to see Williams pay back Kelly's loyalty by making the first goal against Luton, and hopefully win over some of the more moronic on here.

Just because people have a different opinion to you doesn't make them moronic, it would be nice if you could make your point without resorting to insults.

[1884]

Williams played well yesterday. He looked like he was really enjoying it as well which was good to see. We were passig it around nicely in parts of the first half and he was in the centre of it. Him and Joey were playing off of each other too. Like other people have said, he wasn't outstanding, but he showed he wanted to be there and play for City!!

[l444ry]

Just because people have a different opinion to you doesn't make them moronic, it would be nice if you could make your point without resorting to insults.

Fair point. Apologies all round. I meant moronic views though. After all, Williams has been the victim of dog's abuse on here without without calls for apologies .....

[Thracian]

Just because people have a different opinion to you doesn't make them moronic, it would be nice if you could make your point without resorting to insults.

I quite agree. The whole point of discussion forums is to foster debate and consider different opinions. I've had my viewpoint changed or moderated many times by posters on this site.

I've also watched footballers for nearly 50 years and still cannot make my mind up about Williams. But it is always dangerous to close your mind on players.

Look at Kisnorbo. City fans were almost unanimous that he was of limited value in midfield but now seem to feel as strongly that he is an excellent centre-half.

What I still cannot understand is why he continuously got selected in midfield no more than I understand why Sylla got picked on the right wing.

Generally speaking though I think there's an excellent standard of debate on here from a lot of people who only want to see the best outcome from city's point of view.

I was only thinking yesterday though... thank God they got together enough to get Levein out in time. What an awful waste it would have been to see our young team go down.

[l444ry]

I quite agree. The whole point of discussion forums is to foster debate and consider different opinions. I've had my viewpoint changed or moderated many times by posters on this site.

I've also watched footballers for nearly 50 years and still cannot make my mind up about Williams. But it is always dangerous to close your mind on players.

Look at Kisnorbo. City fans were almost unanimous that he was of limited value in midfield but now seem to feel as strongly that he is an excellent centre-half.

What I still cannot understand is why he continuously got selected in midfield no more than I understand why Sylla got picked on the right wing.

Generally speaking though I think there's an excellent standard of debate on here from a lot of people who only want to see the best outcome from city's point of view.

I was only thinking yesterday though... thank God they got together enough to get Levein out in time. What an awful waste it would have been to see our young team go down.

Quite agree Thracian, but some of the criticism and language used towards Williams and Kisnorbo has bordered on obscene. How ironic that when someone calls to account these "experts" for what they have said it's a case of shooting the messenger.