Who should replace Riyad Mahrez?

Sheikh rattle and roll said:
Not a popular choice and he’s going elsewhere but if we wanted a short term
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Mane would do the same job possibly a better one.
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Meh, Bayern got rid. He couldn't recover from injury and lost pace. I think he has signed for a Saudi club anyway. I would rather go for Sane in that case.
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
You’ve named 9 players there, but 4 of them (Gomez, McAtee, Palmer and Bobb) aren’t remotely good enough yet for regular rotation never mind a starting berth, and I’ve got one or two reservations about Alvarez to be honest as well. A ruthless finisher, tenacious and looks good playing off a striking partner, but playing as a line leading centre forward he lacks a change of gear and frequently disappears.
Either way 5 (or 6 if you add Kev to the mix) attacking players of proven standard is a pretty small number for a club looking at a 55 game season. We need a couple of signings IMO….
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I disagree about 'remotely good enough.' Three of those were the outstanding players of the recent U21 tournament. When would you actually give them a go if not now?
 
oldius said:
I disagree about 'remotely good enough.' Three of those were the outstanding players of the recent U21 tournament. When would you actually give them a go if not now?
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That tournament means absolutely nothing towards who gets used by top PL teams. These friendlies we just had mean much more by virtue of being club football, real adults and consolidated teams.
No one is advocating we don’t have kids in the squad. We always need them to fill bodies and give quality to our trainings. They get used carefully in games of less competitiveness and eventually in second half of certain games. That has always been the Pep way. He will not throw them in the fire. Remember when he did that with Delap in that awful home game vs Leicester. And eventually he will let Egan Riley start against Sporting for instance.
What is insane is advocating for completely untested kids to take relevant senior spots. It’s not just Pep, the majority of big club managers won’t do it, much less in a level of competitiveness as English football is now.
Palmer has had his chances and it’s clear he won’t make it here. It’s unfair to him keeping him here to fill a spot.
Gomez may be of use for some clubs, and he may be content staying for a small role in the squad, but I doubt anyone here thinks he will become a starting player for us anytime in the future.
The other two may be the new Palmers, given spare chances this season, but what I saw in the friendlies show me the decision making is nowhere near there for the top level and undeveloped to seriously impact a game, but they have time to improve. It may be that in the coming weeks Pep and McAtee talk and he decides it’s best to continue playing more elsewhere — he hinted at that in a recent post game interview
 
oldius said:
I disagree about 'remotely good enough.' Three of those were the outstanding players of the recent U21 tournament. When would you actually give them a go if not now?
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I take the point, but I would have thought that the way to go would be to integrate them gradually off the bench, to gauge if they’re up to the task. The issue is not so much they aren’t ready (although from what I saw of Palmer last season and McAtee at Sheff Utd, I wasn’t convinced about either of them), it’s that the squad is so lacking in the attacking midfield department that we will have little option but to play them, regardless of whether they prove to be good enough. Going into a 50-60 game season with only 4 established senior pros for the attacking central midfield and wide berths, I just think is daft.
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
I take the point, but I would have thought that the way to go would be to integrate them gradually off the bench, to gauge if they’re up to the task. The issue is not so much they aren’t ready (although from what I saw of Palmer last season and McAtee at Sheff Utd, I wasn’t convinced about either of them), it’s that the squad is so lacking in the attacking midfield department that we will have little option but to play them, regardless of whether they prove to be good enough. Going into a 50-60 game season with only 4 established senior pros for the attacking central midfield and wide berths, I just think is daft.
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That's exactly how I think they should be used, or one starting each game, with others as subs. They would also play in cup matches. It has to be gradual, just as it generally is with new players who arrive.
 
i like Doku quite a bit, he is a problem on 1 vs 1, needs to improve his final ball which should be doable, as he unlike sterling has good technique
 
I don't want to get my hopes up, but Doku would be a really exciting signing IMO. Plays both sides, absolutely rapid, phenomenal dribbler one on one. Turned 21 at the end of May, so much potential but already has experience in the Champions League and is a full Belgian international.

Totally different profile to what we have, but if we can't find a direct replacement for Riyad I'd rather add a new dimension to our attack than sign nobody and be short on numbers.
 
He can definitely beat a man, never lifted his head up when I last saw him play but it was a while ago and he may have developed.
 
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