Okazaki

[Shane]

Wtf is Okazaki doing playing for the u23s today against Chelsea, when against Bournemouth we had 3 defenders on the bench?!! Take out one of those defenders and put Shinji on the bench atleast ffs! 

[Mark]

Twenty games without a goal 

[Fox92]

Thought Okazaki was deemed not good enough on here months ago?

[Lovejoy]

10 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Thought Okazaki was deemed not good enough on here months ago?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

 

#Maddisonout

[Sharpe's Fox]

Puel would rather go around point scoring than have options off the bench to win games.

 

 

 

Edited 16 September 2018 by Sharpe's Fox

[La-li-lu-le-lo]

I was scolded for mentioning Shinji.... Yet it’s perfectly acceptable for our clown of a manager to play the likes of Gray upfront. 

[Lesta2014]

Still not fully fit from injury? 

[Wymsey]

Had heard an MLS club were keen on him in the Summer, but the club refused to sell him.

The MLS, like with other ageing but talented players such as David Villa etc, would've been a great move for him imo at this point of his career.

[mozartfox]

2 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Thought Okazaki was deemed not good enough on here months ago?

Highly likely. But thats the beauty of FT. The discussions are fluid and change both frequently and from game to game.

[RumbleFox]

God I hate you all.  The only person I hate more is myself.  X

[peterborofox]

Definitely not a top level striker any more. But should still be on the bench at the very least

[Stadt]

He offers basically nothing on the ball

[STUHILL]

He's still our 3rd striker here, and may be needed if Vardy and Nacho pick up knocks, so he should be included in match day squads, when possible. 

 

I agree that he should have been on the bench Saturday, if fit. He still has something to offer, especially from the bench and we need to inject some energy into the game.

 

Honestly though, he should still probably be moved on in January and we should sign a big no.9 striker who can offer us something different from the bench. 

[MPH]

2 hours ago, STUHILL said:

He's still our 3rd striker here, and may be needed if Vardy and Nacho pick up knocks, so he should be included in match day squads, when possible. 

 

 

 

You’d think so wouldn’t you?

 

 

 

however apparently Gray up front as the lone striker is a better option. 

[tsintskaro]

He is finished i guess 

[UPinCarolina]

Can’t believe we’ve possibly seen the last of him. It doesn’t seem like he’s finished as a player.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

Love the guy. But he's very limited as a player. Still could/should be an option off the bench though.

[La-li-lu-le-lo]

Funny how Vardy seems to score more goals when Okazaki is in the side too. 

[lgfualol]

From what I have seen there is not much of a difference between Gray up front and Shinji. Both are dogmuck at shooting and passing. 

[gerrytaggart]

10 hours ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Puel would rather go around point scoring than have options off the bench to win games.

 

 

 

Yeah,  no one wants Puel to score any points.   Oh wait....

Edited 17 September 2018 by gerrytaggart

[Captain...]

He is the  opposite of what Puel wants, similar to Albrighton, 100% effort and hard work but lacking in finesse and composure.

 

The thing is both have been effective in a very successful side because they pressure the opposition defence and create space for the other players, but that only works as a team strategy and if the style and approach that Puel wants is to control possession then they are not the players for that. Saying that neither are Ndidi and Morgan.

 

If Puel can rediscover the blend of his early games where we still had that energy but also more control then we will do well.  Is Okazaki the solution? I don't know, but we do seem to play better with him in the side.

[La-li-lu-le-lo]

1 hour ago, Captain... said:

He is the  opposite of what Puel wants, similar to Albrighton, 100% effort and hard work but lacking in finesse and composure.

 

The thing is both have been effective in a very successful side because they pressure the opposition defence and create space for the other players, but that only works as a team strategy and if the style and approach that Puel wants is to control possession then they are not the players for that. Saying that neither are Ndidi and Morgan.

 

If Puel can rediscover the blend of his early games where we still had that energy but also more control then we will do well.  Is Okazaki the solution? I don't know, but we do seem to play better with him in the side.

We always seem to play better when he is in the side, even when he isn’t playing particularly well. His constant movement and energy is nightmare for defenders, plus it creates more space for Vardy to exploit. Puel doesn’t seem to understand this and this slow Sunday morning build up play won’t create hat fulls of chances for Vardy. I might be a bit bias towards Shinji not because his erratic technique or lack of goal threat..but I really appreciated the work he did off the ball, and it’s only an opinion but I maintain that it’s one of the main reasons Vardy got so many goals. Maddison might be a fantastic player, but he just doesn’t offer Vardy the same kind of support Shinji did. 

[Captain...]

3 hours ago, La-li-lu-le-lo said:

We always seem to play better when he is in the side, even when he isn’t playing particularly well. His constant movement and energy is nightmare for defenders, plus it creates more space for Vardy to exploit. Puel doesn’t seem to understand this and this slow Sunday morning build up play won’t create hat fulls of chances for Vardy. I might be a bit bias towards Shinji not because his erratic technique or lack of goal threat..but I really appreciated the work he did off the ball, and it’s only an opinion but I maintain that it’s one of the main reasons Vardy got so many goals. Maddison might be a fantastic player, but he just doesn’t offer Vardy the same kind of support Shinji did. 

I don't know if Puel understands the value of Shinji or not, but if we are playing a patient build up possession based game you can't have players in the team that give the ball away cheaply. I would say we still have too many of them. If we spend 2 minutes working an opening and pass it to someone in an advanced position and they fall over then all that time and energy and opportunity is wasted. Opposition will soon pick the player to pressure, they will stand off players who are tidy in possession like Mendy, Maguire and Maddison wait for the ball into Okazaki or Morgan and pounce.

[Jattdogg]

Shinji is a workhorse not a goal scorer. Think we need more shinji character right now (minus easy falls overs)

Edited 18 September 2018 by Jattdogg

[worthosoriginals]

ah brilliant. yet another have a go at puel thread.....in disguise.