Riyad Mahrez

[ADegenerate]

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.

That’s a very sensible post and I’ve questioned the signing myself. I’m also of the belief that Zaha is the more versatile player and offers what we need on either side even though like you said Mahrez is the better player. Any other manager and I’d have a little bit of anxiety, if that’s what you want to call it, but I’m not in the slightest bit worried.

 

[93.01]

Blueballs.Fuck it, I think there is merit for what we are both saying.You are right it was the case a lot last season. It's about transitions of play I suppose though I think. Where there will be stages in the game when what you are saying is spot on. But equally if city are one nil down to a team who are sitting deep, I suspect what I amasaying may have merit when you need players like sterlings and mahrez who can play give and goes etc in tight spaces.

 

[Dribble]

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.

Our play isn't about crosses seeing as Aguero & Jesus stacked on top of each other barely reach 6ft.

Mahrez is about variation & unlocking tight defences. When you say Mendy & Sane's crosses, what they provide is passes from out wide, as opposed to a crossed ball just slung in. Our play is a lot more accurate than just plain ole crosses.

When I'm at matches, it makes me despair when I hear fans calling for us to boot it long. With Ederson it's become an option but again I see it more as an accurate long pass.

Slinging high balls into the opposition area won't help a team like us with such a lack of height amongst our forwards. Playing accurate low balls into feet & chests is the last thing opposition defences wants with the calibre if skilful forward we have.

In this respect, if we get Mahrez, I'm really looking forward to seeing him, as I think he'll a devastatingly excellent addition. Think about what he's done for Leicester, but now doing it in a City team surrounded by the better quality. No wonder the rest of the league are shitting themselves at the prospect...

 

[Hart of the Matter]

Our play isn't about crosses seeing as Aguero & Jesus stacked on top of each other barely reach 6ft.

Mahrez is about variation & unlocking tight defences. When you say Mendy & Sane's crosses, what they provide is passes from out wide, as opposed to a crossed ball just slung in. Our play is a lot more accurate than just plain ole crosses.

When I'm at matches, it makes me despair when I hear fans calling for us to boot it long. With Ederson it's become an option but again I see it more as an accurate long pass.

Slinging high balls into the opposition area won't help a team like us with such a lack of height amongst our forwards. Playing accurate low balls into feet & chests is the last thing opposition defences wants with the calibre if skilful forward we have.

In this respect, if we get Mahrez, I'm really looking forward to seeing him, as I think he'll a devastatingly excellent addition. Think about what he's done for Leicester, but now doing it in a City team surrounded by the better quality. No wonder the rest of the league are shitting themselves at the prospect...

Not sure crosses need to be high balls into the box. Mendy whips in low swinging crosses from the left. It is a really unique style and very dangerous. Cannot think of many if anyone in the game who can do the same either from the left or the right. Like others have said though, Marhez gives us other options.

 

[blueballs84]

Our play isn't about crosses seeing as Aguero & Jesus stacked on top of each other barely reach 6ft.

Mahrez is about variation & unlocking tight defences. When you say Mendy & Sane's crosses, what they provide is passes from out wide, as opposed to a crossed ball just slung in. Our play is a lot more accurate than just plain ole crosses.

When I'm at matches, it makes me despair when I hear fans calling for us to boot it long. With Ederson it's become an option but again I see it more as an accurate long pass.

Slinging high balls into the opposition area won't help a team like us with such a lack of height amongst our forwards. Playing accurate low balls into feet & chests is the last thing opposition defences wants with the calibre if skilful forward we have.

In this respect, if we get Mahrez, I'm really looking forward to seeing him, as I think he'll a devastatingly excellent addition. Think about what he's done for Leicester, but now doing it in a City team surrounded by the better quality. No wonder the rest of the league are shitting themselves at the prospect...

Our play is absolutely about stretching the width of the pitch and then bringing balls in from wide. When I use the word "cross" I'm not simply referring to high crosses aimed in high for the head of a convential 6 ft centre forward. We constantly seek to make the pitch as wide as possible then deliver the ball in across the box. Watch our 106 goals this season and take a look at how many result from balls delivered in from wide, either behind or through the defense.

On th left next season we will have Mendy and Sane, two players who have impeccable delivery from wide (whether you want to call them crosses, cutbacks, passes is irrelevant). On the right the width is provided by probably our 2 worst ball players (Walker and Danilo) and Sterling who tends to get very narrow.

Mahrez has a nice pass that can unlock defenses and a good shot from distance, that's great, I think he is a very good player. I don't feel he has anything we don't already have through the centre that Silva, bernardo and de bruyne aren't already capable of providing. All 3 can play a killer pass, both de bruyne and Bernardo have a good shot from distance and de bruyne is excellent from set pieces.

What concerns me more is that teams are going to (and some already did last season) identify that we are much weaker attacking from.the right, and realise that if they double up on Sane and pack the defense centrally, they'll stand a good chance of keeping us out. We already have 3 of the best passers in the league unlocking defenses through the centre, Sterling whose best movement is ussually central as well, and we have sane and mendy to deliver killer balls and run at the defense from the left. From an offensive perspective our right hand side is an obvious weakness. Pep obviously knows what he is doing and he wouldn't be targeting Mahrez without knowing how he wants to use him, but if we just placed all our blind trust in Pep then we may as well just close these forums because there'd be nothing to talk about. My personal belief is that we need another quick player with good delivery from the wide right more than we need another player who'll be playing the ball prinarily through central positions

 

[Marvin]

This is probably the most significant transfer of the Summer in Europe yet few seem that interested.

 

[blueparrot]

This is probably the most significant transfer of the Summer in Europe yet few seem that interested.

Well I was driving down from Scotland last night and put talk shite on for an hour and two blokes on their transfer show said it was going to cost £100 mill and he was going to just sit on the bench , we are just stockpiling . So maybe it's that :)

 

[BlueAnorak]

Well I was driving down from Scotland last night and put talk shite on for an hour and two blokes on their transfer show said it was going to cost £100 mill and he was going to just sit on the bench , we are just stockpiling . So maybe it's that :)

Ah including the wages again - strange how they don't do it for other teams. Occasionally Utd but only because City fans keep pulling their chain about consistancy.

 

[93.01]

I think sane and sterling are both excellent but mahrez is equal if not just a level above these two.

 

[TRUE BLUE NO1]

This is probably the most significant transfer of the Summer in Europe yet few seem that interested.

I think people will love this signing when it happens mate but many (including myself) see this as a great complement to Sterling and Sane, so maybe seem less excited about it. I love the fact that he is proven in the prem and will make us even more dangerous going forward but just think the DM is the "need" signing of the summer...