Summer 2022 priorities (and realistic options)

[Manc Fox]

11 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Johnson isn't a consideration because Forest will sadly win on Sunday. 

Come on Ric, please be a little more optimistic.

Come on Huddersfield 

[sacreblueits442]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

But he's not going to come here as 3rd choice and Daka isn't going to be relegated to 3rd choice either. The only way we get CDK is if we consider him versatile enough to be the RW signing which bothers me greatly. 

 

Look at nearly every PL side worth their salt and how many of them have 3 strikers? They tend to have multi dimensional forwards, most of them don't even have 2 like we do. It's a challenge. 5 subs makes it a bit easier next season to still give players some football but that's why I think we'll take a punt on someone like Ali-Cho or Piroe over CDK.

.  If Nacho goes, and you know that Rodgers only tolerates him, then we only have two strikers, where one has broken down twice  and is mid 30s.

 CDK will leap ahead of Daka, as he will provide a better balance for the team.

  At present Daka does not provide a presence upfront and does not hold the attention of any oppositions backline. The jury is still out and his raw skills need to be honed.

  Playing CDK as a RW would be utter madness, it will not help anybody. 

Edited 26 May 2022 by sacreblueits442
Spelling error.

[Ric Flair]

30 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

.  If Nacho goes, and you know that Rodgers only tolerates him, then we only have two strikers, where one has broken down twice  and is mid 30s.

 CDK will leap ahead of Daka, as he will provide a better balance for the team.

  At present Daka does not provide a presence upfront and does not hold the attention of any oppositions backline. The jury is still out and his raw skills need to be honed.

  Playing CDK as a RW would be utter madness, it will not help anybody. 

I just find it highly unlikely we spend significantly on a right winger and then buy another striker who plays in a front 2 and they either are on the bench or the right winger is as we'd not play a front 2 and Barnes and a right winger, not to mention Maddison has been operating from that position recently.

 

I know over the course of the season you need plenty of options but without Europe it is going to be much harder to give players game time unless we are a disgrace with injuries again.

 

Like it or not, the club view Daka as the heir to Vardy's throne and there's scant interest in deploying him in a front 2 where right now he is much better st playing. I think if we get CDK he'll end up being used wide right and won't work and then we'll be calling to go 2 up top and still have an issue at RW when we invariably decide we don't want to play a system with 2 strikers again because we lose the midfield battle.

[Dahnsouff]

Think people stuck on a RW are going to be disappointed (again) because CDK is that guy, and he will sit narrower than a bog standard RW

 

imo

[Ric Flair]

4 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Think people stuck on a RW are going to be disappointed (again) because CDK is that guy, and he will sit narrower than a bog standard RW

 

imo

I am watching with interest. I think we still want Madueke so that goes against what you've said but we will see. I'd certainly not be surprised to see CDK or Ali-Cho signed to play either wide right or up front but once again it may well not solve our issues and mean we either play 2 up top which he doesn't really like to do for any great length of time or have a glaring weakness in our side once again.

[FoxinNotts]

13 hours ago, ROB-THE-BLUE said:

Basset plays LB right? They've only just got Digne

Left centre back

[Dahnsouff]

2 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I am watching with interest. I think we still want Madueke so that goes against what you've said but we will see. I'd certainly not be surprised to see CDK or Ali-Cho signed to play either wide right or up front but once again it may well not solve our issues and mean we either play 2 up top which he doesn't really like to do for any great length of time or have a glaring weakness in our side once again.

Not sure why, just don`t believe Madueke is coming, maybe just a pessimist!

 

Just fancy we might adopt a flip flopping 3 behind the striker, so

                                              <!-----

LW (Barnes)  AM (Madders)  RAM (CDK)

 

Which would transform into

          --->

        LAM (Barnes) AM (M) RW (CDK)

 

Allowing us to compress the space behind the striker to rapidly reclaim the ball after the breakdown

[Steve Earle]

28 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

I am watching with interest. I think we still want Madueke so that goes against what you've said but we will see. I'd certainly not be surprised to see CDK or Ali-Cho signed to play either wide right or up front but once again it may well not solve our issues and mean we either play 2 up top which he doesn't really like to do for any great length of time or have a glaring weakness in our side once again.

Pretty sure CDK can play any of the 3 in a 4231 as well as second striker? I see him as helping us take a wage off the books (replaces both Iheanacho & Perez) and providing cover/rotation for Maddison. I might be letting my blue tinted specs colour my judgement but... 

[Ric Flair]

29 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Not sure why, just don`t believe Madueke is coming, maybe just a pessimist!

 

Just fancy we might adopt a flip flopping 3 behind the striker, so

                                              <!-----

LW (Barnes)  AM (Madders)  RAM (CDK)

 

Which would transform into

          --->

        LAM (Barnes) AM (M) RW (CDK)

 

Allowing us to compress the space behind the striker to rapidly reclaim the ball after the breakdown

 

4 minutes ago, Steve Earle said:

Pretty sure CDK can play any of the 3 in a 4231 as well as second striker? I see him as helping us take a wage off the books (replaces both Iheanacho & Perez) and providing cover/rotation for Maddison. I might be letting my blue tinted specs colour my judgement but... 

Both raise good points, I just have a general uneasiness about CDK playing anything other than up front in a 2 or with dynamic wingers around him, which we don't have on the right currently. 

[honeybradger]

Every year people get obsessed over some unproven talents in a foreign league. Ali Cho would fit in with our U23s from the looks of things, certainly would want nothing to do with him for 15mil.

[Supergray22]

5 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

That's the problems we face, no Europe means that it's very difficult to offer regular football to the majority of the squad and this is why very versatile players tend to be favoured in some positions to be able to do so. If we suffer a lot of injuries again then there's never enough players we can own as a 25 man squad isn't big enough but I think we'll try and rectify that rather than concede we'll get lots of injuries again.

 

I can see us going for a very unproven 3rd striker who can play in a front 2 or on the wing - enter Ali-Cho.

That is the problem. You are caught between a rock and a hard place and won’t ever (rarely I just remembered 15/16) get it perfect. Not having Europe does suggest we buy fewer new players but with more quality that can improve the starting eleven and get us back into Europe. Ie one fofana over two soumare. And don’t play villareal. 

Edited 26 May 2022 by Supergray22

[Nicolo Barella]

7 minutes ago, Supergray22 said:

That is the problem. You are caught between a rock and a hard place and won’t ever (rarely I just remembered 15/16) get it perfect. Not having Europe does suggest we buy fewer new players but with more quality that can improve the starting eleven and get us back into Europe. 

Finding a right winger that fits the starting eleven is not some impossible challenge... we could have signed Raphinha. There exists the player out there who will fit in our team.

[Stadt]

Georginio Rutter for RW and ST.

He's mostly played on the right of a strike pairing (352) this season but he's played LW & RW too.

 

 

https://fbref.com/en/players/c64c01fc/Georginio-Rutter

 

He's already got so many fundamentals in place and he's only just turned 20. He's probably the most 2 footed player in Europe (no exaggeration, 55% of all his actions have been with his left, 70% is normally very good), works hard, good defensively, he's a strong, wiry 6'0.  

 

0.54 non penalty xG+xA, Vardy has 0.55.

 

 

 

 

Edited 26 May 2022 by Stadt

[Stadt]

41 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Finding a right winger that fits the starting eleven is not some impossible challenge... we could have signed Raphinha. There exists the player out there who will fit in our team.

The summer we signed Ghezzal for £12m, Raphinha moved from Vitoria to Sporting for about £7m. He'd scored 15 goals in 32 games league game that season  

[Leicester_Loyal]

Think I've accepted that we need to shift quite a few players and make very shrewd signings this summer, although I'll still be shouting from the rooftops when we have a fairly quiet and cheap summer.

[Supergray22]

52 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Finding a right winger that fits the starting eleven is not some impossible challenge... we could have signed Raphinha. There exists the player out there who will fit in our team.

I agree. We buy on potential though as to buy a proven EPl talent like him now may be beyond our desired budget. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but we need to rediscover our Midas touch in scouting. 

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, honeybradger said:

Every year people get obsessed over some unproven talents in a foreign league. Ali Cho would fit in with our U23s from the looks of things, certainly would want nothing to do with him for 15mil.

That's because we've been linked to him a number of times. I personally think we're going to have to take a punt on some unproven players like we've done so well in the past. No proven player is coming here as 3rd choice striker if Iheanacho leaves. 

[JimJams]

4 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Think people stuck on a RW are going to be disappointed (again) because CDK is that guy, and he will sit narrower than a bog standard RW

 

imo

Yep. Perez replacement with the width coming from a Ricardo overlap.

[sacreblueits442]

3 hours ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Finding a right winger that fits the starting eleven is not some impossible challenge... we could have signed Raphinha. There exists the player out there who will fit in our team.

...any RW would fit, so long as it is not a make do and mend, like employing CDK or Perez out there!!!

  If we want to go for this rebuild, then by all means,let's go for it, and in the end, if the Daka problem cannot be solved, we should look to release him, and actually play people in their position that they are meant to be.

  There are hard choices that needs to be made, and applying mental gymnastics to get around doing what needs to be done, won't help.

[sacreblueits442]

2 hours ago, Stadt said:

The summer we signed Ghezzal for £12m, Raphinha moved from Vitoria to Sporting for about £7m. He'd scored 15 goals in 32 games league game that season  

...we were warned about Ghezzal before he turned up, everyone was saying he was too slow!!!

[honeybradger]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

That's because we've been linked to him a number of times. I personally think we're going to have to take a punt on some unproven players like we've done so well in the past. No proven player is coming here as 3rd choice striker if Iheanacho leaves. 

Why do we even need a 3rd choice striker though? We rarely play 2 up top and daka hardly had any substantial league minutes despite vardy missing half the season. Dont think Ali cho would get the minutes he needs to develop properly here either. He also seems to be more of a winger than a striker as well and he doesn't look good enough to be our first choice rw either. Just seems like a waste of funds to me if we do end up selling nacho.

 

Edit: also he doesn't look particularly talented. If he does come good it will be when he's 24-25, he doesn't look like a player who will be tearing it up any time soon.

Edited 26 May 2022 by honeybradger

[leicesterseddon]

If we can shift them, I'd be up for selling any or all of Perez, Bertrand, Choudhury, Mendy, Vestergaard. Don't want to sell Soyuncu, but if we could get our money back I'd be tempted to roll the dice, as he has declined significantly.

 

Can't see us successfully getting rid of more than two of that lot though, realistically. I expect Tielemans to go, but think we'll get less than most on here assume.

 

Schmeichel I wouldn't push out the door, but if he wants to leave I wouldn't stand in his way. Nick Pope would be my ideal, realistic replacement.

 

As I see it the prorities in terms of new signings are:

 

1) a centre-half aged 25-30, to deputise for Evans when he's injured

2) a central midfielder (I'd be in for Erikson on a free, although will be competition)

3) a right winger (this is where I'd stick most of the transfer budget)

[Ric Flair]

1 hour ago, honeybradger said:

Why do we even need a 3rd choice striker though? We rarely play 2 up top and daka hardly had any substantial league minutes despite vardy missing half the season. Dont think Ali cho would get the minutes he needs to develop properly here either. He also seems to be more of a winger than a striker as well and he doesn't look good enough to be our first choice rw either. Just seems like a waste of funds to me if we do end up selling nacho.

 

Edit: also he doesn't look particularly talented. If he does come good it will be when he's 24-25, he doesn't look like a player who will be tearing it up any time soon.

That's what I'm saying, I think any 3rd choice striker will be a winger or a punt on a young forward. We've been linked quite regularly with CDK, Piroe and Ali-Cho.

[Pliskin]

So here’s a plan I’ve drawn up. Trying to keep the fees realistic and close to transfer market suggestions. 
 

Out

Soyuncu £30m

Youri £30m

Kelechi £20m

Soumare £20m

Praet £15m

Vesty £5m

Hamza £5m

Ward £10m (potentially replaced by Iverson, bring a bit more cash in). 
 

Looking at making around £130 ish million (which is a best possible scenario but potentially unlikely).

 

Soumare leaving could generate a bumper cash injection, but it would mean we might have to bring in another CM. So, in terms of players coming in; 

 

In

 

Mousse Niakhate £16.20m

Houssem Aouar £14m

Christian Eriksen Free

Noni Madueke £30m 

Mohamed Ali-Cho £20m 

Ademola Lookman £14m

 

You could even look to sell Mendy, and bring in Axel Witsel on a free.

 

 

GK

 

Kasper

Iverson

 

DF

 

Castagne

Fofana

Niakhate

Ricardo

Justin

Evans

Amartey

Thomas? If not loaned out

Bertand if Thomas is loaned out if not he can go.

 

MF

 

N’didi

KDH

Eriksen

Aouar

Mendy/Witsel

 

AMF

 

Barnes

Maddison

Madueke

Lookman

Perez 

Albrighton 

 

ST

 

Vardy

Daka

Ali-Cho

 

Could easily play a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 formation and even a back three with these players.

 

I would think that’s shapes up pretty nicely, and if we could hammer out some good deals, we could end up with some money left over in the pot once the business is done. 

 

[SafewayFox]

I l

5 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

So here’s a plan I’ve drawn up. Trying to keep the fees realistic and close to transfer market suggestions. 
 

Out

Soyuncu £30m

Youri £30m

Kelechi £20m

Soumare £20m

Praet £15m

Vesty £5m

Hamza £5m

Ward £10m (potentially replaced by Iverson, bring a bit more cash in). 
 

Looking at making around £130 ish million (which is a best possible scenario but potentially unlikely).

 

Soumare leaving could generate a bumper cash injection, but it would mean we might have to bring in another CM. So, in terms of players coming in; 

 

In

 

Mousse Niakhate £16.20m

Houssem Aouar £14m

Christian Eriksen Free

Noni Madueke £30m 

Mohamed Ali-Cho £20m 

Ademola Lookman £14m

 

You could even look to sell Mendy, and bring in Axel Witsel on a free.

 

 

GK

 

Kasper

Iverson

 

DF

 

Castagne

Fofana

Niakhate

Ricardo

Justin

Evans

Amartey

Thomas? If not loaned out

Bertand if Thomas is loaned out if not he can go.

 

MF

 

N’didi

KDH

Eriksen

Aouar

Mendy/Witsel

 

AMF

 

Barnes

Maddison

Madueke

Lookman

Perez 

Albrighton 

 

ST

 

Vardy

Daka

Ali-Cho

 

Could easily play a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 formation and even a back three with these players.

 

I would think that’s shapes up pretty nicely, and if we could hammer out some good deals, we could end up with some money left over in the pot once the business is done. 

 

I like this a lot but can’t help but feel we’ll feel disappointed with some of the fees that we’ll get for some of our players.

 

I’d also seriously consider Cornet over Lookman but can’t explain why other than I feel he has a chance of getting better numbers (goals and assists).