... Albrighton arguably gives the ball away more than any of our players ... doesn't mean that he doesn't add value ... butt Morgan , Simpson, James, Fuchs, Iheanachoo and Okazaki were all far worse than Ghezall performance wise tonight ..
Why do you keep on about how poor gheźzal is when okazaki James inheacho Agree with you entirely , I don't understand all the hate he gets ?
Albrighton gives it away trying to make things happen Some bloke who sits behind me always used to moan at Mahrez for shooting or losing the ball and it used to piss me off For players to do things they have to try things. Sometimes it will work and you will love them for it. But most of the time it wont come off so accept it and stop moaning at players who try to make things work but its dont come off
Hate??? Dont hate anyone They was all shocking. James, Okazaki and Iheanacho didnt touch the ball or do anything with it Ghezzal messed up every touch, pass and shot until the goal
Unfortunately Puel will get all the blame for this defeat. Yes he selected the team but he never set foot on the pitch. Other than Choudhry, Albrighton and perhaps Evans the other outfield players never looked interested. Bullied by a league two side who knew we were there for the taking. Sorry but Morgan is now becoming liability. Simpson and Fuchs also had shockers and yet another chance for Gray to have an impact but nothing. Gutted but not surprised.
Exactly what Ghazzal attempted tonight ... he kept coming looking for it whilst others hid and never shrieked a challenge ....take your blinkers off ...
He kept attempted to control a ball and make a basic pass and failing Cant fault his effort but sadly just isnt upto the required standard
I think you've made up your mind about Ghezzal before he even starts. Today he was the only one wanting the ball and trying to make things happen before Maddison came on. But it's difficult when there's no movement around him. You certainly can't accuse him of hiding if things don't work out for him, he never gave up trying and he was far from being our worst player. You could actually have taken Iheanacho off and replaced him with a training cone. It would certainly have more movement. This performance showed what we already know. If we are the team trying to break the opposition down we just don't have the guile, invention or movement to do so. We don't have that ability in the first choice eleven, and none of the second string that we fielded today are capable of doing it. And I wouldn't lay blame at the manager's door either. Everyone was asking for some of the players to be rested, so he can only play what's available to him; and they simply aren't good enough. We had enough chances to have won the game 3 times over, but the finishing was plain awful. I'm afraid Matty James is just too slow thinking and doesn't see things ahead of him. Okazaki is too unpredictable and lacks any composure. Fuchs' lack of pace was exposed. On the positive side, Choudhury looks to be really growing into the side now. That means we are good on the defensive side of midfield, but we are crying out for more creativity and a dominant centre forward so that we can vary our game. I'm sure the manager can see where our deficiences are. He probably won't be active in the transfer market this month. It is too easy to end up with someone's unwanted second rate player. But he needs to sort something out at the end of the season, assuming he's still here.
Watching Marc Albrighton tonight, reminded me of a time when I played five a side down the local park with my mate John. He had downed five cans of stella, puked up after ten minutes, started a fight, but sill I'd give him half a point more than Marc on that display! Shockingly bad performance.
I think Ghezzal is one of the worst players to wear our shirt but was probably our MotM today. Albrighton second, penalty apart. I thought Ghezzal looked much better in that central deeper role he seemed to be playing. Might be worth another shot given our lack of creativity there.
Before he was moved to right back he was single handedly making things happen - the only one running at them with the ball
How many actual goals have we scored when Gray and Iheanacho are on the pitch together? is that the first? Just goes to show the severe lack of depth we have outside of the regulars that didn't play today. How many of them really showed that they are worthy of challenging the starting 11? Hell, what even is our best 11?! cause Puel certainly doesn't know!
Our problems are we dont have depth or options in key areas other then in goal and the defence Our midfielders are all 1 dimensional. Not having a go at them. Its us not buying someone different Our wingers Albrighton aside are miles too inconsistent. And off the boil much more then they are on form Maddison has no real competition or cover until we recall Harvey Barnes Up front Okazaki isnt up to it anymore. Waste of a shirt. We dont give Iheanacho any decent service but he doesnt help himself Vardy gets little service aswell Puel hasnt looked at the team and realised we cant play the way he wants as we dont have the players or the quality Its alright for Man City to play slow passing probing as because as soon as a gap pops up. David Silva, De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Sane, Mahrez, Sterling, Aguero, Gundogan, Fernandinho etc. Have the vision and the quality to see and play the pass and make them runs We dont. Vardy just sees the runs and Albrighton aside no one else will pass forward. So eventually Vardy will stop running as he doesnt see the point in doing it This is why I wont have a go at Albrighton as he is the only decent creative player we have and the only one who actually tries to make things happen and has the quality to play them passes Gray runs into brick walls and shoots from stupid positions. Ghezzal loses the ball all the time Ndidi, Mendy and Choudhury will stop you but wont hurt you. James will hurt himself before the opposition plus he is too slow Its clear as day we need to buy a playmaker, a winger (or recall Barnes) and a striker. If we cant find a striker which is more then understandable in Jan. Just bite the bullet and recall Slimani. He is better then no one
I wouldn't argue against much of what you say, Proud. We are woefully short of creativity and lack an alternative striker. We have not been able to replace Drinkwater. Whatever people might think about him, he was always looking forward and had the vision to pick out players quickly. I'll agree it didn't always come off, but he was always available and had a very underrated (by some) touch. As for Slimani? Not for me. He's a big, ugly lump but he isn't the greatest header of a ball. I've seen him miss some absolute sitters. Is he better than Iheanacho? As an out and out centre forward, probably. But the bar is very, very low. And how much commitment would you expect from him when the club has sent out signals that they don't want him back? It is difficult to criticise Albrighton because he always gives everything wherever he is asked to play, and does try to be creative by taking opponents on and going past them. He is undoubtedly one of the best crossers of a ball in the game, but mainly pointless when playing with Iheanacho because he has no movement whatsoever. Yesterday I thought he tried to play too many showboat 60 yard crossfield balls and gave away possession (and he wasn't the only one guilty of that same tactic). I still think Ghezzal tries to do the right thing, but he'll always be compared to Mahrez, and those are big boots to fill. The only way he betters Mahrez is in his willingness to track back and tackle, which is no bad thing. Yesterday we missed Ricardo. Too often the midfield were looking for someone supporting the play on the right and Simpson was still back in his own half. But that's what you get from him - a pretty safe pair of feet defensively, but very limited going forward. Is Harvey Barnes going to be the saviour? If I recall, he didn't really excel when he was given a start in the team. And coming back from a free scoring team at WBA into a Puel side that isn't, would be a big change and a tough ask for him. How long would it be before the boo boys get on his back if he doesn't deliver immediately? One game? One half? The club is in a strange situation. Our league position looks good on the outside but, given the commitment and funds made available by the owners, we should be much more than 2 points ahead of the likes of Watford and Wolves (and there is no offence intended against those sides) at this point in the season. We've wasted millions on players that are either not good enough or who don't fit into our setup. We have players on the fringe of the squad who just aren't good enough to replace any of the first choice eleven, so need to be moved on so that we can bring younger players in through the academy, which doesn't seem to be happening - apart from Choudhury. Where are the youngsters that we should be bringing through? Are they also the wrong type of player? Maybe we need a better director of football, or someone to oversee the progress of young players through the academy. Again we seem to have spent money on setting it up but it doesn't appear to be delivering.
You are right in what you say. All I’d say is that it’s not realistic to fix all problems in one summer window and the problems were an ages squad that could only play one way throughout the team and squad. Before the summer the defence was also considered weak. What I think Puel is doing is building from the back. He fixed glaring issues in the summer with RB, number 10 and younger CB’s looking to the future. Nacho looked after the last two games of last season to have picked up, bit of a false dawn there. I don’t think he could have done much more in terms of recruitment atm (fair play and that). The key thing for me is if he recognises the problems we still have and addresses them either this month or in the summer. I think all fans can agree on the 3 positions most needed, a forward, top winger and a more box to box, forward thinking central mid. Let’s see if he can pull them off. Puel looked furious at what he was seeing yesterday. I like that as it gives me faith that he isn’t blind to the problems that are there. I know he’ll get stick for the selection and maybe so in a couple of cases (James and Okazaki mostly) but that team was strong enough. He was massively let down by those on the pitch last night
It's fine saying let's recall Harvey Barnes, but it's a big step up from the Championship to the Premier league. Like BucksFox said, he will soon have the boo boys after him if he isn't an immediate success. If Puel had played a full strength side against Newport and Vardy, Ndidi, Schmeichel or Maguire had got a bad injury, fans would have been after his blood. We were on a hiding to nothing yesterday. The team that started should have been more than capable of beating a 2nd division side. The players let the fans and the club down, not Puel! Ward made a couple of decent saves, Albrighton (penalty apart) was our best player, Choudhary got stuck in early on, Ghezzal at least tried to go forward and should have scored more than he did and Evans was solid, but apart from that, the rest should hang their heads in shame. Not sure why he brought King on. He obviously has no future at the club, so Ricardo/Mendy would have been a better replacement. I was okay with James starting, as this type of game is a natural progression from a long term injury lay off. Iheanacho and Okazaki were both appalling and Gray didn't make any difference when he came on.
