Luke Thomas

[An Sionnach]

21 minutes ago, nathan. said:

I said it multiple times.

 

He is not ready for the prem and needs a loan 

You might think that but I bet he doesn't nor his agent.

[Foxxed]

11 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

The only thing Thomas is missing..

Support & encouragement from far too many on FT....

To be fair, Victor seems miles ahead. Still, writing off a local Premier League standard 21 year old may be a tad unwise.

[Jobyfox]

I thought Luke was pretty steady when he first came into the side. Even if his athleticism suggested his ceiling might not be as high as Chilwell or Justin. 
 

This season he has been poor. The last game I saw him, live, he was positionally poor and was caught in some sort of no man’s land. He neither wanted to engage an attacker or defend an area, but just drift. To be fair coming into a poor, dysfunctional side, might not have helped with his confidence. 
 

I’m not ready to give up on him just yet. He may not ever have the physical attributes of those mentioned previously, but could still make it if he works on his positioning, ball control and distribution. A full season in the Championship, on loan, could make or break it for him 

[Koke]

I understand development and maturity is not linear but Thomas is a year and a half older than Kristiansen, and he has almost 50 more Premier League games more than Kristiansen, yet Kristiansen is levels above Thomas. 

 

Luke Thomas will go the same way as Hamza - Championship football by the age of 24.

[Koke]

12 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

The only thing Thomas is missing..

Support & encouragement from far too many on FT....

 

Supporting someone does not mean lying to them about their abilities. 

[Bptiger]

3 minutes ago, Koke said:

 

Supporting someone does not mean lying to them about their abilities. 

I think Thomas lacks going forwards he tends to play lay the easy option of going backwards must of the times . He’s not a bad defender, but he would benefit from a stint in the championship where he could learn to get forward more , 

[Gamble92]

12 hours ago, fuchsntf said:

The only thing Thomas is missing..

Support & encouragement from far too many on FT....

If anyone's relying on the support and encouragement of Foxestalk they really are screwed

[ts_1010]

I hope Luke looks at the massive forward leaps that KDH and Chilwell took during post/preseason. And the improvement to Alexander-Arnold, since he's packed on the muscle.

 

Chilwell was doing endurance runs in his local park weeks before pre-season started. He ended that season with a transfer to Chelsea. KDH did son conditioning and endurance after coming back from Luton. He topped the fitness tests in Pre-season that year. Which helped force his way into the first team. 

 

Thomas has always had questions hanging over his physicality. Rodgers was saying that he couldn't manage 2 games in a week when he was 19. There are 17/18 year old all over the leagues who could do that. If he can work on himself and make himself a real physical presence, both as a strong player and a guy who can bomb up and down. He could take a massive leap forward in his career.

[Foxdiamond]

54 minutes ago, Koke said:

I understand development and maturity is not linear but Thomas is a year and a half older than Kristiansen, and he has almost 50 more Premier League games more than Kristiansen, yet Kristiansen is levels above Thomas. 

 

Luke Thomas will go the same way as Hamza - Championship football by the age of 24.

Will always be popular with me. FA cup winner with Leicester at 19!

[moore_94]

1 hour ago, Koke said:

I understand development and maturity is not linear but Thomas is a year and a half older than Kristiansen, and he has almost 50 more Premier League games more than Kristiansen, yet Kristiansen is levels above Thomas. 

 

Luke Thomas will go the same way as Hamza - Championship football by the age of 24.

Lets not pretend like we didn’t see play Thomas playing well for us at a younger age than Kristiansen is now, and winning an FA Cup might I add.

 

It has also only been 2 and a bit games for Kristiansen. I am not saying he will but there is always a chance this great start for him peters out and he plateaus as well.

 

You say you “understand” development and maturity is not linear yet you seem so 100% certain on his future.

 

Lets not also forget we have KDH who didn’t even make his debut in the Prem until he was days from turning 23.

Edited 16 February 2023 by moore_94

[dmayne7]

5 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Lets not pretend like we didn’t see play Thomas playing well for us at a younger age than Kristiansen is now, and winning an FA Cup might I add.

 

It has also only been 2 and a bit games for Kristiansen. I am not saying he will but there is always a chance this great start for him peters out and he plateaus as well.

 

You say you “understand” development and maturity is not linear yet you seem so 100% certain on his future.

 

Lets not also forget we have KDH who didn’t even make his debut in the Prem until he was days from turning 23.

Totally agree.

 

And not meaning to piss on the optimism for Kristiansen but he actually had a pretty poor first half against Villa, giving the ball away in dangerous areas 3/4 times from undercooking passes. Kind of mistakes that Thomas would be crucified for. He massively improved after that and his physicality and desire to win means he could be the next gem we've unearthed (and at the very least should make a good player at this level) but there is no way people are cutting Thomas the same slack (which I get given VK is just starting out).

 

For Thomas, it's always been about his physicality. To come in and have the impact he did at his age, shows that he's clearly got it technically and mentally, but he desperately needs that half a yard of pace and more strength to give him a chance of bailing himself out when he makes a mistake or is sold a bit short.

 

That performance against Salah last season is genuinely one of the best 1 on 1 defensive displays you'll see because it wasn't like Salah had an off day, Luke just handled him that well.

[Sunbury Fox]

Come on, Kristiansen didn't have a piss poor first half against Villa. For a start he played a crucial part in the second equaliser. He's levels better than Thomas, it's quite clear. As someone said above, Thomas will probably end up a steady Championship player, like Hamza. No shame in that at all but in 2 games Vic has shown far more than I have ever seen from Thomas in 50 games, both in terms of physicality and aggression, as well as intent and confidence to get forward and make things happen. 

[tom27111]

I like Luke, I always have.

 

As others have said, FA Cup winner, with an assist (yeah, but it was still an assist)

 

Kristiansen does look a lot better player, and obviously we have JJ, Castagne and even Ricardo that can play on the left if needed.

 

Luke has had some great games, notably Liverpool at home last season where he totally nullified Mo Salah, but he's also a bit naive and lightweight.

 

I would now like to see him go on loan for a tough season in the Championship.

 

But I'm convinced there's a player there that can improve us in the future.

 

I don't care if that's 3 or 4 years in the future.

 

At some point, I think he'll become a regular. 

 

People mature at different ages. 

 

Let's be honest, KDH is hardly young.

 

You don't have to be a wonder kid to make a top level player.

 

I think our greatest ever striker proves that.

Edited 16 February 2023 by tom27111

[tom27111]

And let's be honest, he was never ready for first team football when he was thrust in to it.

 

And he'd always be compared to Chilwell or Fuchs who'd owned that position for the last few years.

 

I'd imagine the long term plan was to loan him out, like we did with Barnes and KDH, but needs must.

 

In some way, that's helped his development, but also hindered it.

 

Whatever you think of him, nobody can say that he hasn't gave it his all for us.

[lgfualol]

Has either been told to stay back or has lost confidence with attacking. When he burst into the team, he was playing very high up the pitch, scored a couple times and had a great cross on him. Now he barely overlaps and looks for safe back passes every time. Not sure what happened there.

[deep blue]

41 minutes ago, lgfualol said:

Has either been told to stay back or has lost confidence with attacking. When he burst into the team, he was playing very high up the pitch, scored a couple times and had a great cross on him. Now he barely overlaps and looks for safe back passes every time. Not sure what happened there.

He also interchanged/linked up well with Barnes when he first came into the team, but that has dropped off.  As you say, you have to wonder whether lack of confidence playing in a dysfunctional team, and/or instruction from the coach, have played a part in his diminished effectiveness.

[Jobyfox]

3 hours ago, Koke said:

I understand development and maturity is not linear but Thomas is a year and a half older than Kristiansen, and he has almost 50 more Premier League games more than Kristiansen, yet Kristiansen is levels above Thomas. 

 

Luke Thomas will go the same way as Hamza - Championship football by the age of 24.

Well there is still the possibility that he might be joined by the rest of the Leicester City squad 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

1 hour ago, lgfualol said:

Has either been told to stay back or has lost confidence with attacking. When he burst into the team, he was playing very high up the pitch, scored a couple times and had a great cross on him. Now he barely overlaps and looks for safe back passes every time. Not sure what happened there.

[gerblod]

22 hours ago, Sunbury Fox said:

It's no surprise that Barnes immediately looks better with Vic behind him. 

It's no surprise, is it?!  Short memories abound on here. I recall the same interplay between Thomas and Barnes when Thomas was thrown in at the deep end becsuse Rodgers had no choice but to field him.

His potential and, more importantly, his confidence, has been stunted under Rodgers managership. I recall too, that Chilwell gradually lost confidence in going forward. A section of 'fans' decided it was good sport to boo him every time he moved forward. Then, on here, the criticisms began. Chelsea saw the potential there and rescued him from losing that potential.

[alanf0x]

If you need something to summarise Luke, he has a personal shopper…worlds gone mad 

[LCFCJohn]

Thomas has never played, let alone a run of game, in a competent side. Since he came into the side we have been a shambles aside from the odd game here and there.

 

I’m not sure how a young player thrown into that situation can be so harshly criticised!

[westernpark]

11 minutes ago, alanf0x said:

If you need something to summarise Luke, he has a personal shopper…worlds gone mad 

Think that’s more a reflection on footballers in general, rather than just Luke Thomas.

[The Quick Brown Fox]

9 hours ago, Bptiger said:

I think Thomas lacks going forwards he tends to play lay the easy option of going backwards must of the times . He’s not a bad defender, but he would benefit from a stint in the championship where he could learn to get forward more , 

To be fair to the lad, going sideways or backwards has probably been drilled into him by Brendan. 

[Ed 1]

29 minutes ago, alanf0x said:

If you need something to summarise Luke, he has a personal shopper…worlds gone mad 

Know for a fact he’s a lazy lad outside of football and I think this has also been shown to be the case during matches on numerous occasions. 
 

I really I am not sure why people keep mentioning the fact he’s a local lad as a reason for keeping him? we could pick up players from Coalville, Shepshed etc, but I thought we were playing premier league football and it’s quite obvious Luke Thomas isn’t good enough in any way for this. 

[Mike Oxlong]

51 minutes ago, alanf0x said:

If you need something to summarise Luke, he has a personal shopper…worlds gone mad 

This surely amounts to gross misconduct