#26 | Riyad Mahrez - 2019/20 Performances

[Mr HJ]

Good goal, but I still don’t think he does enough.

i'd agree - fantastic goal but too many times his balls across the front of our defence left us exposed and he lacked a bit of bite in the tackle. Hard I guess being in and out of the side. Bernardo offers more at present due his work rate and goal ratio. Still not a bad problem to have.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Good goal, but I still don’t think he does enough.

I came on the post the same. Once he scored it seemed like he thought his job was done for night

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

His goal was fantastic but his defensive play is horrendous at times. He almost cost us a goal very similar to against Wolves with one terrible bit of play.

I’m not sure he was man of the match as the BBC said but he won us the game so fair play. He is a big threat cutting in.

 

[BlueLook]

He scored a top class goal and match winner.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Fantastic goal and ultimately the match winner but that doesn’t excuse him from justified criticism and today was another example of him not offering the side enough throughout the 90 minutes both ways.

You know when teams are doing specific training drills and bring in academy kids to effectively just be a moving cone and only do things they’re told? well Mahrez’s role in the side for the majority of most games he plays in seems exactly like that. He’s not much more than a moving cone on the touch line occupying the fullback offering an out ball. to his full credit he does that very well as he almost always retains the ball due to his impeccable control but that isn’t enough. when he receives the ball, it’s always just a simple ball back to his right back and then doesn’t offer anything so then the play generally switches back to the left where we focus our attack. there’s almost never any interplay down the right and with the like of cancelo who’s basically a winger, or a marauding Kyle Walker to work with as well as Kdb just inside there should be so much more combination play down that side.

Now this isn’t entirely Mahrez’s fault. We’ve heavily focused our attacks down the left for years now because david silva operates there and he generally controls the game when he’s on the pitch, mahrez cant do much about that but when he does get it he can do so much more.

We see when Bernardo plays there, he too can go long periods without seeing much of the ball as we focus down the left but when he gets it he’s a threat, he makes stuff happen and you see passages of play down that side.

last season and the season before that, with sterling down there and Sané on the left we saw our right side being effective, whether it was attacking down there or having sterling coming in off the wing to get into the box and score a lot of goals when we’re attacking from the left. you never see that from mahrez, that could be tactical which is why I won’t blame him entirely but sometimes you have to make things happen yourself like he did for the first and only time in the match for his wonderful goal.

We know his talents, we’ve seen what he’s capable of and he’s never got close to those standards with us nevermind doing it regularly like he did at Leicester.

Despite being a record marquee signing, being used to the league, having a full pre-season to prepare he didn’t reach expectations last season but most would be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in his first year and call it a season of adapting. You don’t get that benefit second season though, you have to perform. He started the first three games brilliantly, was our best player and looked like he found his spot but since then he’s regressed back into last season Mahrez.

So what’s the issue? Is he being misused? in which case do we question Peps tactics? Is it a confidence thing? is he just this inconsistent of a player and his Leicester days were an anomaly? Or Is he just incapable of adapting to our style and is simply just not a good fit in our side?

 

[George Hannah]

He scored a top class goal and match winner.

Agree, trademark goal - really important.

 

[quiet_riot]

Great goal but that was about it. A pussy in the event of a 50/50, doesn't appear to be involved in defense, just gets back enough to look like he's helping.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Fantastic goal and ultimately the match winner but that doesn’t excuse him from justified criticism and today was another example of him not offering the side enough throughout the 90 minutes both ways.

You know when teams are doing specific training drills and bring in academy kids to effectively just be a moving cone and only do things they’re told? well Mahrez’s role in the side for the majority of most games he plays in seems exactly like that. He’s not much more than a moving cone on the touch line occupying the fullback offering an out ball. to his full credit he does that very well as he almost always retains the ball due to his impeccable control but that isn’t enough. when he receives the ball, it’s always just a simple ball back to his right back and then doesn’t offer anything so then the play generally switches back to the left where we focus our attack. there’s almost never any interplay down the right and with the like of cancelo who’s basically a winger, or a marauding Kyle Walker to work with as well as Kdb just inside there should be so much more combination play down that side.

Now this isn’t entirely Mahrez’s fault. We’ve heavily focused our attacks down the left for years now because david silva operates there and he generally controls the game when he’s on the pitch, mahrez cant do much about that but when he does get it he can do so much more.

We see when Bernardo plays there, he too can go long periods without seeing much of the ball as we focus down the left but when he gets it he’s a threat, he makes stuff happen and you see passages of play down that side.

last season and the season before that, with sterling down there and Sané on the left we saw our right side being effective, whether it was attacking down there or having sterling coming in off the wing to get into the box and score a lot of goals when we’re attacking from the left. you never see that from mahrez, that could be tactical which is why I won’t blame him entirely but sometimes you have to make things happen yourself like he did for the first and only time in the match for his wonderful goal.

We know his talents, we’ve seen what he’s capable of and he’s never got close to those standards with us nevermind doing it regularly like he did at Leicester.

Despite being a record marquee signing, being used to the league, having a full pre-season to prepare he didn’t reach expectations last season but most would be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in his first year and call it a season of adapting. You don’t get that benefit second season though, you have to perform. He started the first three games brilliantly, was our best player and looked like he found his spot but since then he’s regressed back into last season Mahrez.

So what’s the issue? Is he being misused? in which case do we question Peps tactics? Is it a confidence thing? is he just this inconsistent of a player and his Leicester days were an anomaly? Or Is he just incapable of adapting to our style and is simply just not a good fit in our side?

My Leicester City mate called him out as a lazy bugger before he left. So laid back he is horizontal was the phrase. My view is that he doesn’t have the mental intensity that Pep teams require. Poor fit for us. Good post btw.

 

[decmancity]

Clearly has the ability and needs to get a run of games to get in the groove. He should play v Shaktar and Newcastle at least. Presumably with David’s injury we will see Bernardo or Foden in that spot so likely he keeps his spot.

 

[Roachy]

Other than the goal, tosh.