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Riyad Mahrez

chas vs dave

Well-Known Member
Jul 17, 2008
5,304
21,672
I thought he was hit and miss last night. He lost the ball in Leicester's half for the wellbeck goal. Also, every time he lost the ball, he spent more effort moaning to the ref than trying to win it back. Not sure this would go down well with Poch.
 

SixtyFour

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2008
232
612
Putting aside any thoughts about could we, should we sign him, I love watching the guy when he´s on the ball: he´s sharp, graceful, captivating and you always feel you´re half a second away from seeing something special.

So should we try for him? (50 million, as if...) His main problem seems to be that he always feels he´s half a second away from something special and takes little account of anything else. In the attacking third - yes please; in your own half when you are leading 2-1 away from home and running down the clock to half time - err, maybe not. He overplayed a few times in midfield in the second half too, when 3-2 up, losing the ball and inviting the counter. Unforgivable from a coaching point of view - but unfixable? Probably not.
 

E17yid

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2013
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I'm not really worried about his work rate, tbh, but I could see him being a prick if he's on the bench for any decent period of time. Way this window is going though I'd be happy to have him. Would much rather Barkley, however.

Don't think we need both. Playing the 3-4-2-1 Alli and Eriksen are obviously first choice in the 2 that then means you would have Son and Barkley as well as Lamela and Mahrez all as back up for those 2 positions, bit of an overkill if you ask me. Sure, if we play 4-2-3-1 and not play Dier (assuming everyone is fit) then you'll have Barkley, Lamela and Mahrez behind Alli, Eriksen and Son in the pecking order but still seems excessive to me. 1 or 2 of Lamela, Barkley and Mahrez wouldn't get much time unless we got a few injuries.
 

Larryjanta

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Apr 22, 2014
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I'm not really worried about his work rate, tbh, but I could see him being a prick if he's on the bench for any decent period of time. Way this window is going though I'd be happy to have him. Would much rather Barkley, however.

Don't think we need both. Playing the 3-4-2-1 Alli and Eriksen are obviously first choice in the 2 that then means you would have Son and Barkley as well as Lamela and Mahrez all as back up for those 2 positions, bit of an overkill if you ask me. Sure, if we play 4-2-3-1 and not play Dier (assuming everyone is fit) then you'll have Barkley, Lamela and Mahrez behind Alli, Eriksen and Son in the pecking order but still seems excessive to me. 1 or 2 of Lamela, Barkley and Mahrez wouldn't get much time unless we got a few injuries.

I've wondered this as well. If we stick with 3-4-2-1 then another AM (plus Barkley) would seem like overkill. But I guess Poch wants the options of 4-2-3-1 and 3-4-2-1 in which case we would need another AM
 

SEANSPURS1975

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2005
1,929
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I'm not really worried about his work rate, tbh, but I could see him being a prick if he's on the bench for any decent period of time. Way this window is going though I'd be happy to have him. Would much rather Barkley, however.

Don't think we need both. Playing the 3-4-2-1 Alli and Eriksen are obviously first choice in the 2 that then means you would have Son and Barkley as well as Lamela and Mahrez all as back up for those 2 positions, bit of an overkill if you ask me. Sure, if we play 4-2-3-1 and not play Dier (assuming everyone is fit) then you'll have Barkley, Lamela and Mahrez behind Alli, Eriksen and Son in the pecking order but still seems excessive to me. 1 or 2 of Lamela, Barkley and Mahrez wouldn't get much time unless we got a few injuries.

Mahrez would start if playing in a 4-2-3-1 with Eriksen and Alli. Very much doubt we sign him though anyway.
 

E17yid

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2013
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Mahrez would start if playing in a 4-2-3-1 with Eriksen and Alli. Very much doubt we sign him though anyway.

So you'd have Son, Barkley and Lamela on the bench along with Dier. Very strong bench but not sure you're keeping all of them happy.
 

Clark28

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Aug 31, 2016
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So you'd have Son, Barkley and Lamela on the bench along with Dier. Very strong bench but not sure you're keeping all of them happy.
We play 50-60 games a season, there'd be plenty of games for everyone to play.

Poch would finally be able to rotate without a huge drop-off in quality.
 

GetSpurredOn

Well-Known Member
Jun 18, 2006
5,022
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I think we were looking for someone in Keita Balde who can play in the advanced 3 in 4231, but also be a CF option in any formation if Kane or Janssen were out.
Now since that is not going to happen, the club must be looking for alternatives. Mahrez shares some skills with Balde, in his ability to drive forward with he ball, in a way that our current squad are not blessed with, so from that perspective I could see the attaction, Mahrez would offer us a different dimension, however, he's restricted to the AM 3, and as such would not offer the squad flexibility that Balde would have done.
Suppose a lot depends on our formation of preference, if we revert predominantly to 423, then AM options need more depth, but if we're going to use 3421 more, then Mahrez would be overkill on numbers of we've also got Eriksen, Alli, Lamela, Son, Barkley and Nkoudou.
 

SEANSPURS1975

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2005
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So you'd have Son, Barkley and Lamela on the bench along with Dier. Very strong bench but not sure you're keeping all of them happy.

Imagine the competition for places! That's what we need a strong bench/squad. They would all still get plenty of game time and we would definitely be challenging for trophies.
 

SpartanSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2011
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We play 50-60 games a season, there'd be plenty of games for everyone to play.

Poch would finally be able to rotate without a huge drop-off in quality.

Agreed I don't think rotation is too bad for players' morale especially when it's between PL and CL. Especially if the players are pretty interchangable in quality. The issue is when players aren't even making the 18 man squad more than anything.

But then that's also why I think we looked at Keita Balde, as he can play forward as well as the AM, like Poch used Son last year. I'm pretty sure we'll use both formations too.

I do think due to the depth (if Barkley comes) we will be very specific about any other attacking additions, not sure if Mahrez fits that Keita Balde archetype...
 

E17yid

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2013
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We play 50-60 games a season, there'd be plenty of games for everyone to play.

Poch would finally be able to rotate without a huge drop-off in quality.

The thing is, one of them wouldn't make the match day squad.

Also, unless Eriksen or Alli get injured, I can't see Poch rotating all that much, tbh.
 

E17yid

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2013
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Imagine the competition for places! That's what we need a strong bench/squad. They would all still get plenty of game time and we would definitely be challenging for trophies.

They would not all get plenty of game time at all, tbh.
 

Clark28

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2016
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I can't see Poch rotating all that much, tbh.
His reluctance to rotate so far during his time here could be because we don't have rotation options who are close enough to first team quality.

If we wana win something we need better depth.
 

E17yid

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2013
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His reluctance to rotate so far during his time here could be because we don't have rotation options who are close enough to first team quality.

If we wana win something we need better depth.

I agree we could do with more depth but not too much. We pretty much missed Lamela all of last season and we should have him back in the next 4-6 weeks and I just think bringing in Mahrez and Barkley is too much.
 

Larryjanta

Well-Known Member
Apr 22, 2014
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I agree we could do with more depth but not too much. We pretty much missed Lamela all of last season and we should have him back in the next 4-6 weeks and I just think bringing in Mahrez and Barkley is too much.

Depends on how we play and we have no idea what Lamela we'll also get back. Also, if we have 6 AM (Barkley, Alli, Eriksen, Lamela, Son and Mahrez) then 3 of them can play CM and one of them up top so they'd all get games.

We also don't want to leave ourselves in the position we were in last year where Poch couldn't rotate because he didn't trust any of the reserves
 

nedley

John Duncan's Love Child
Jul 28, 2006
13,941
28,069
There's definately a large part of me that would love him to be our gamechanger.

I think Poch likes him and with him and the others JJ has alluded to we'd have one of the strongest squads in the league.

We'd have everything a title winning team would need.
 

yidmaster

Active Member
Aug 22, 2006
77
101
As much as I like mahrez I just can't see us signing both Barkley and mahrez unfortunately. Because I do rate mahrez as a difference maker and a affordable one also.
 

DukeUSA

Active Member
Jan 6, 2016
83
138
Fifty is five more than Siggy went to Everton for Mahrez is probably twenty million better than Siggy. I don't see it happening but it's not absurd
 
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