The perfect fumble
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 3 Jun 2012
- Messages
- 24,095
Not Messi levels, but I do strongly believe that if Mahrez were as consistently close to his best as say Bernardo is now, then he'd be one of our best players. At his best, he's a world class dribbler, he's got world class technique, he's got brilliant shooting and crossing, strong on his weaker foot, and a far better eye for a pass than he's given credit for. He's positionally intelligent, and his defensive workrate, teamwork, and selflessness on a good day are of a very high level.
Mahrez is incredibly talented. It's all the things other than his talent that drag him down. Inconsistency being a big one of those things. All those great assets only make occasional appearances and then when they don't it turns out to be very detrimental to him and his performances; he can really stink out a joint on occasion. At his best, he's world class (and I'll die on this hill), but he doesn't hit that level anywhere near enough at this moment (although he's still better than people often say he is on the bad days).
I agree with all of this, there is one thing about Mahrez and the same can be said of Sterling, though he possesses a different skill set, is that they both scare defences because they're capable of doing something that cannot be easily predicted.
Foden is beginning to effect defences in the same way.