Disappearing King...

[Brown Fox]

He does nothing apart from scoring. He can't tackle or pass.

Can't pass? Are you for real. You obviously don't watch the match properly. He has numerous assists this season including a sideways outside of the foot one against Millwall. If he wasn't here we'd have no goals from midfield. Fans like you piss me off no end. Soon as we lose a couple of games 'oh let's sell one of our best players' because he doesn't tackle. Idiot.

He does nothing apart from scoring. He can't tackle or pass.

Can't pass? Are you for real. You obviously don't watch the match properly. He has numerous assists this season including a sideways outside of the foot one against Millwall. If he wasn't here we'd have no goals from midfield. Fans like you piss me off no end. Soon as we lose a couple of games 'oh let's sell one of our best players' because he doesn't tackle. Idiot.

[Guest ttfn]

This thread again... :yawn:

King is prone to looking anonymous because most of the donkey work he does goes unnoticed. If he's not scoring or hitting the bar it appears as though he's doing nothing because nobody considers defensive positioning, tracking back, breaking forward, defensive headers and simple passes to team-mates.

But yeah, King. What a joke this guy is. I know for a fact when he's gone and playing well in a Premier League side we won't miss him and his anonymous ways. We'll just pluck out another young, gifted, goalscoring midfielder from the arse end of nowhere and he'll lead us to glory and actually turn up in every game he plays in. Because producing and finding goalscoring midfielders is an absolute speciality of ours.

I'm of the opinion that the "a lot of his donkey work goes unnoticed" argument is just an easy get-out.

From what I've seen, in plenty of games he rarely receives the ball or makes a forward pass. His whole game appears to be based around making these late runs into the box. His involvement, at least when we have the ball, is limited.

Every player should be able to come in for criticism, be it King or your personal favourite, the unimpeachable Yakubu, who can't be criticised because he's "class".

I'm not saying King should be dropped (although a rest would do him some good). But he's not played particularly well in a LOT of games this season, donkey work or no donkey work. He, like Yakubu, is invaluable as a match-winner.

[The Doctor]

is it just me or does the intellegence of the majority of posters seem to correlate to the recent results for city?

[lcfc_jme]

I'm of the opinion that the "a lot of his donkey work goes unnoticed" argument is just an easy get-out.

From what I've seen, in plenty of games he rarely receives the ball or makes a forward pass. His whole game appears to be based around making these late runs into the box. His involvement, at least when we have the ball, is limited.

Every player should be able to come in for criticism, be it King or your personal favourite, the unimpeachable Yakubu, who can't be criticised because he's "class".

I'm not saying King should be dropped (although a rest would do him some good). But he's not played particularly well in a LOT of games this season, donkey work or no donkey work. He, like Yakubu, is invaluable as a match-winner.

It's not an easy get-out. I think saying he's anonymous just because he isn't scoring goals is an easy criticism for the majority to make and largely erroneous at the same time. If you're purely following the ball around the pitch, you won't be seeing the tracking back or forward runs he's making off of it. Nor will you be seeing his covering and defensive positioning.

He may not make 25 forward passes per game - that's more Wellens' speciality. But he does receive the ball and give it short to the more gifted players, be they Gallagher or Wellens, then gets on his bike and drifts into space or makes a late burst forward. Whilst he's doing the simple passes, he's spending next to no time on the ball and just keeping possession ticking over; an unmemorable but important aspect of the game. And whilst he's making the forward runs, if he isn't getting the ball then of course it's going to look as though he's doing nothing, when in actual fact that's not true - standing still and not giving an option would be the "anonymous" thing to do.

As for Yakubu being my "personal favourite", that's just nonsense. Yakubu definitely isn't without his criticisms, but he is the best striker we've got and more than good enough for this league. Many seem to think that just because he doesn't have Waghorn's industry that he's an uninterested waste of space, which clearly isn't the case. His strengths lie elsewhere - drawing defenders out of position and keeping them focussed on nullifying him giving others more space to exploit, for example. Again, unless that's the kind of thing you're looking for, you won't notice it and you'll probably end up questioning what Yak offers - which is what many on here have been doing with increasing frequency lately.

What you do off of the ball is just as important as what you do on it, and I spend just as much time considering what goes on off the ball as I do judging what the players do on it. I guess it all comes down to your own reading, interpretation and understanding of the game. I'm quite comfortable and happy with mine, if others think that your performances should be defined by purely on the ball activities, then that's up to them and that's fair enough. We'll just never be able to fully agree on matters.

[Thracian]

He does nothing apart from scoring. He can't tackle or pass.

I''m quite sure there are statistics around somewhere which would show that King is the club's best passer. And probably the bloke who makes the most passes. And just because King is not some sort of Ben Mee (with his penchant for giving penalties away) or Danny (one season without a win) Tiatto doesn't mean he cannot defend either. In fact the biggest reason our defence seems so inconsistent - apart from Sven's endless tinkering - is because they miss having King just in front of them.

Even Tuesday night it was only when King went into the centre of midfield and Gallagher/Dyer came on that we passed the ball with any competence. Wellens has done it occasionally but he's back now with his multiple touches and his mindbender passes which look more spectacular but often cost us possession, And quite apart from that the bloke is knackered.

Take Yakubu out of the side, restore some movement and pace up front and we'll soon have goals again.

King, in case you're not aware of it, is not only our top scorer - yes a midfielder as top scorer - but he's leading second-placed Gallagher by five, And that's without the massive advantage of taking penalties and free-kicks.. Put simply he's pretty much our only serious threat of a goal from open play.

He's also our second most prolific shooter, ahead of Gallagher.

The major weakness in our team is glaring - we don't have a 20-goals-a-season striker because both Vassell and Yakubu are way past their best as is so often the case with ageing ex-Premiership players...despite the shirt sales they might guarantee.

Just think about it. Fourteen goals and counting from King. Nine goals and counting from Gallagher. That's a total of 23+ for the season from midfield. Two strikers of 20 goals apiece would have made 63, going on 70 for the season and the rest of the team would have more than made up the few more need to be sure of a play-offs place.

Without the contribution of King and Gallagher we'd have been nowhere. And that is what achievement is about, pal. It's about simple statistics. You score enough goals you have a chance. Fail to score and you don't. I've not got it through to the City in nearly a decade and I doubt I'll get it through to you. But at whatever level and in whatever sport, you win titles by attacking.

The theory is so simple. You get the ball, you keep it and when you score your only thought should be to score again.

And you can't attack without prolific strikers. Or without coaches who can make the best of attackers' abilities.

[Haydos]

Kingy leads the shooting charts and has 34 on and 30 off target, Gally is second with 30 on and 34 off target.

Howard is third with 22/28, Waggy fourth with 20/24, Dyer 5th with 24/19, Wellens 6th (surprisingly?) with 15/18.

Yakubu (late arrival) has 14/10 then Abe, 10/8. FINALLY we have Darius with a paltry 10/5. That's 15 shots in 19 league starts (2 subs) which from a striker, despite playing wide is a rather pathetic stat. King has less than twice the amount of appearances yet 4 times more shots from centre mid. Wouldn't call that anonymous.

Edit: Had a look at the up to date actim index and King's sitting nicely in 9th:

Actim Index

[Thracian]

Kingy leads the shooting charts and has 34 on and 30 off target, Gally is second with 30 on and 34 off target.

Howard is third with 22/28, Waggy fourth with 20/24, Dyer 5th with 24/19, Wellens 6th (surprisingly?) with 15/18.

Yakubu (late arrival) has 14/10 then Abe, 10/8. FINALLY we have Darius with a paltry 10/5. That's 15 shots in 19 league starts (2 subs) which from a striker, despite playing wide is a rather pathetic stat. King has less than twice the amount of appearances yet 4 times more shots from centre mid. Wouldn't call that anonymous.

Edit: Had a look at the up to date actim index and King's sitting nicely in 9th:

Actim Index

And Gradel third - two or our ex-Academy players in the top 10. Thanks for that, Haydos.

[Haydos]

And Gradel third - two or our ex-Academy players in the top 10. Thanks for that, Haydos.

Not a bad record to have tbf. Saw him in Sheffield station hopping off the train from Leeds on Saturday night actually. Celebrating another 2 goals no doubt

[Guest ttfn]

It's not an easy get-out. I think saying he's anonymous just because he isn't scoring goals is an easy criticism for the majority to make and largely erroneous at the same time. If you're purely following the ball around the pitch, you won't be seeing the tracking back or forward runs he's making off of it. Nor will you be seeing his covering and defensive positioning.

He may not make 25 forward passes per game - that's more Wellens' speciality. But he does receive the ball and give it short to the more gifted players, be they Gallagher or Wellens, then gets on his bike and drifts into space or makes a late burst forward. Whilst he's doing the simple passes, he's spending next to no time on the ball and just keeping possession ticking over; an unmemorable but important aspect of the game. And whilst he's making the forward runs, if he isn't getting the ball then of course it's going to look as though he's doing nothing, when in actual fact that's not true - standing still and not giving an option would be the "anonymous" thing to do.

As for Yakubu being my "personal favourite", that's just nonsense. Yakubu definitely isn't without his criticisms, but he is the best striker we've got and more than good enough for this league. Many seem to think that just because he doesn't have Waghorn's industry that he's an uninterested waste of space, which clearly isn't the case. His strengths lie elsewhere - drawing defenders out of position and keeping them focussed on nullifying him giving others more space to exploit, for example. Again, unless that's the kind of thing you're looking for, you won't notice it and you'll probably end up questioning what Yak offers - which is what many on here have been doing with increasing frequency lately.

What you do off of the ball is just as important as what you do on it, and I spend just as much time considering what goes on off the ball as I do judging what the players do on it. I guess it all comes down to your own reading, interpretation and understanding of the game. I'm quite comfortable and happy with mine, if others think that your performances should be defined by purely on the ball activities, then that's up to them and that's fair enough. We'll just never be able to fully agree on matters.

Good post. I'm not questioning his off-the-ball work though, he just doesn't do enough on it for me.

[wacky]

The guys out of form at the moment,whether it's down to fatigue or carrying a knock. He covers alot of distance the positioning he plays so naturally he is not going to be on his game every game, so giving him a rest will do him good. You cannot knock the total of goals he has scored this year & is a quality player. The one thing i dis-agree with is that he shouldn't be captain, in my opinion a captain needs to be someone who can rally round a side when things go wrong & show leadership skills. Two players stand out for me is Wellens & Bamba.

[Raj]

ok we were rubbish tonite no fight no nothing, also what does our CAPTAIN do when the going gets tough, gee up the players ,start fighting to get the ball back showing the other players not to give up. no he digs himself a hole in the turf and sticks his head in hoping somebody else will do his job. he has done this in the last 4 games ,he only comes to light up when were winning. give the job to someone who is willing to fight and gee up the players and shout when something goes wrong like walshy,elliot,lennon and sorry i hate to say it even savage gave his all. perhaps give the job to wellens as he,s the one who cares to get stuck in time and again.

My God you are dumb.

No offence.

King is 22.

There were players on Tue,alot older wiser on more money than him with alot of experience who did fcuk all/have done fcuk all for many games.

Think of where we would be WITHOUT King and his Goals.

He's come through the ranks and is a credit to LCFC.

He's bound to have a lapse of form eventually....ANd as others have said....he WASN'T captain!!

[Nick]

My God you are dumb.

No offence.

King is 22.

There were players on Tue,alot older wiser on more money than him with alot of experience who did fcuk all/have done fcuk all for many games.

Think of where we would be WITHOUT King and his Goals.

He's come through the ranks and is a credit to LCFC.

He's bound to have a lapse of form eventually....ANd as others have said....he WASN'T captain!!

Not to worry all he'll be off in the Summer to Everton or West Brom according to Gossip Column BBC Sport this mornin.

Then we'll all be really happy?

Hmm.

[Fox92]

He shouldn't be captain at this moment becauase he doesn't 'lead', 'talk' whatever the word is - even 'gee' up the players like mentioned (I know Oakley doesn't do it either etc). King seems to lack pace and slow the midfield down. He doesn't tackle and he doesn't win that many headers in central midfield regarding his height, plus he always looks unfit/tired for a 21 year old.

Only 21, so he's got a long way to go yet, but I don't think he'll ever make a top side, such as Everton as mentioned. Was the link 6million? I'd take that. Yes he scores goals, and his natural skill of being in the right place at the right time is excellent, but he doesn't get involved enough and the game passes him by most of the time.

As said, he lacks pace so if he can't run now he'll never be able to. Don't get wrong I like Andy King. Maybe he just needs a rest, or maybe he needs a player like Shaun Derry behind him (in midfield), because although Wellens tackles and fights, he is more just a central midfielder. King's simple passing is good, so maybe a Derry type player is needed (someone like Neil Lennon in Martin O'Neill's time here).

Look at all the top clubs, like QPR, Cardiff and Nottingham Forest they all have a holding man - Derry, McPheil, McKenna. I know Abe is supposed to do that but he runs around and gets in players faces like a Savage type. Maybe then King could be the goalscoring one, no need to get involved more, and then a good holding man with Wellens in a more natural central midfield role. I've said for ages we need an expieriened holding man.

Football matches are generally won and lost in midfield...