Riyad Mahrez

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We improve our team in 1 of 3 ways.
1. Buy a worldie
2. Buy a player who addresses a positional weakness
3. Buy a player who helps us maintain our current very high standards through rotation and back up (ie more than just a 'useful' squad player)
Really believe Mahrez is at least the third of these....
 
Churchlawtonblue said:
Still not done. Do people still beleive the delay is not down to a disagreement over money??? Strange.
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We dont know all the facts mate....I'd like to think, the fact he returned back to the uk instead of going on with the squad "could" be a good sign....It would seem Jorginho waited a few days before going on holiday, hoping the deal would get done.....so hopefully Mahrez coming back to the UK straight after his last friendly is a good sign this could be wrapped up before his holidays....City have also given Napoli a few days and then told them to do one, so maybe things start happening by mid week....
 
TRUE BLUE NO1 said:
We dont know all the facts mate....I'd like to think, the fact he returned back to the uk instead of going on with the squad "could" be a good sign....It would seem Jorginho waited a few days before going on holiday, hoping the deal would get done.....so hopefully Mahrez coming back to the UK straight after his last friendly is a good sign this could be wrapped up before his holidays....City have also given Napoli a few days and then told them to do one, so maybe things start happening by mid week....
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Yes and people were talking about that deal being done and dusted. It fell through over a valuation disagreement. I hope Mahrez goes through but I think City conduct their business very well these days. They are quite prepared to walk away if the deal doesn't stack up.
 
Churchlawtonblue said:
Yes and people were talking about that deal being done and dusted. It fell through over a valuation disagreement. I hope Mahrez goes through but I think City conduct their business very well these days. They are quite prepared to walk away if the deal doesn't stack up.
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You've admitted you don't really want him anyway, so if it falls through you can be happy.

Nobody can say "done and dusted" with any authority until it is actually "done and dusted", there are a number of factors involved.

City do conduct business well, and they can (and do) walk away, but they won't unless there is good reason too, and there are no signs they have done on this deal.

For all we know it is "done", just not announced, and it won't be until he has had a medical, which he probably didn't want to deal with while on international duty.
 
cleavers said:
You've admitted you don't really want him anyway, so if it falls through you can be happy.

Nobody can say "done and dusted" with any authority until it is actually "done and dusted", there are a number of factors involved.

City do conduct business well, and they can (and do) walk away, but they won't unless there is good reason too, and there are no signs they have done on this deal.

For all we know it is "done", just not announced, and it won't be until he has had a medical, which he probably didn't want to deal with while on international duty.
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Conversely for all we know it might not be done? You know as little as I do. All I have said is that when deals take along time and this one certainly has it is usually down to a disagreement over a player valuation. But so many on here seem to think otherwise which I do find a little odd.

Anyway can I ask you kindly no to put words in my mouth If it doesn't go through I won't be happy but I won't be that bothered tho. As I think we have better players than Mahrez.
 
oakiecokie said:
Same people every window mate.You`d think they`d learn from experience that everything takes time and patience,but no,some want it now otherwise they start pissing their pants.
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Think they are attention seekers, more than anything. Have nothing to post, so it's easy to have a tantrum.
 
This will be my "magnus opus" on this subject, so if you don't want to do a lot of reading feel free to skip. The thought that keeps going through my head is whether Mahrez or for that matter any left footer is the right signing if we are making just 1 attacking signing.

For me, we have a weakness on the right hand side. I know Mahrez ussually plays on the right hand side but he doesn't have the attributes which are going to fix the problem. The root of the problem, ultimately is that neither of our 2 right backs are particularly good at crossing and that Sterling doesn't like staying wide either and also is a pretty mediocre crosser of the ball.

The weakness has been exposed a couple of times this season but none more obviously than our games against Liverpool where we were constantly relying on Sane to generate something from wide left. If you look at our squad, Walker and Danilo are arguably our 2 poorest players on the ball. Walker has a lot of great attributes and I rate him as a player, but with the ball at his feet, I don't think it's a stretch to say he and danilo are the 2 poorest passers and neither of them are especially good crossers either. Now if we had a right footed forward who was a great crosser of the ball we could compensate for this but our 2 forwards that play on the right are Bernardo and Sterling. Bernardo likes to come inside on his left foot and Sterling also likes to drift infield, and even if he stayed wide his delivery isn't great anyway. What we really need is a right footed Sane. Signing Mahrez, who prefers playing on the right and cutting inside as well is only going to further exaserbate the problem. When our right sided forward cuts inside , as they all do, neither Walker nor Danilo really have the quality on the ball to make use of the space on the overlap. I really believe that this is why Pep has been taking a look at Cancelo. He is fast and he has excellent delivery (I watch Inter quite a lot).

Sterling is the most curious case. He isn't comfortable playing on the left and cutting inside, he prefers playing on the right, but he still prefers to be infield, not hugging the byline. He almost operates as a second striker. Sterling is a brilliant interpreter of space and his positional awareness is something special. He gets a lot of flak from the rag media over his finishing which isn't the greatest but many times his runs and positivity and reading of the play get him into goal scoring positions that no other player would be getting themselves into anyway. But that's a bit of an aside, because it doesn't fix the problem we have on the right. Needless to say though, with his positional awareness and the way he interprets space in attack, I think Sterling could be one of the best in the world if he were somehow able to improve his final ball significantly.

Basically though, we need a player who can provide the kind of delivery from the right that sane and mendy can provide from the left. None of Sterling, Danilo, Walker and Mahrez are that player. We either need to sign right footed full back who is great with his feet and final ball (Cancelo?) Or a right footed forward who will stay wide and allow Walker/Danilo to underlap thus minimizing their weaknesses (perhaps Zaha?).

This is basically the reason I'd take Zaha over Mahrez. I think Mahrez is a better player overall but I think Zaha fits the profile of what we need better (unless we sign another right back and I guess get rid of Danilo).

I'm sure plenty of people will pillory me for this post or try to convince me how wrong I am. Pep has just led us to our greatest domestic season ever and I'm sure he knows what he is doing. I just can't get my head around how mahrez fits into our jigsaw puzzle though, espicially when I look at our right flank and see the weakness in our wide options there. I really believe that is the most glaring weakness is our team right now and taking pep at face value saying that we'll only make 2 signings, (defensive mid and attacker) I just can't beleive in my head and my heart that Mahrez is the right man.
 
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I come on every few days or so just to check on progress ...

See you all in a few days then
 
Blue balls, I can see what uyou mean, but i suspect pep has gone for mahrez for his ability to unlock deep lying defences. I can see the merit of balls with pace coming in from the right hand side. But I reckon that type of ball will only be effective against those teams that will come out to play. Or when city are hitting teams on the break. Hence against deep lying blocks, defences whatever we want to call them, I think Bernardo,sterling and mahrez are likely to be more effective.
 
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