Yup, he's a good player and I'm a fan. Our own players looked wanked at the minute too, it's been a long ass slog of a season.
Wilfred Ndidi - Leicester Player
- Thread starter IrishRedDevil
- Start date
Tielemans is the one you want from their midfield. Can’t see him being sold for less than 50 mil though.
Is he an actual DM though? I like him but not sure he ticks the boxes we need for the DM spot which is all important for us imo.
Plus they would probably want something silly like 60-odd mill
Yeah fair point! I think we need someone like him who moves into space and turns quickly too. Fred just takes too many touches and so does McT when he’s not just powering forward.
Then why aren't people happy with Fred? He tackles and passes well.
we bought him for £40m so we'd want at least what we got for Mahrez which is circa £65m if we were to sell I would imagine
Yeah that’s what I was thinking, the thing is that’s not a ‘silly price’ for Leicester because you don’t need to sell so why wouldn’t you ask for that sort of money.
At the same time it’s a lot of cash for any club at the moment and I don’t think he is a proper DM in the mould that we need at least. Good player though no doubt.
They have been criticized because there are two of them playing together. Two players without the attacking or defensive skillset on their own so they have to play as a pair. As a pair they complement and work well together...ish. But if Pogba stays and Im not at all sure how this will work but if he does and we play a double pivot or one DM and two 8's in Pogba and Bruno then Ndidi is the only player I can see that is capable of that because he will have to do most of the defending himself. All he needs to do (I say all as if its simple but its not) is to sit in front of the back 4, break up play and then simple pass to Pogba or Bruno. I cant see how an expressive box to box or defensive minded CM would ever work with Pogba next to them because Pogba just doesnt have the skillset to do it. So either we play 2 defensive CM's like McFred or a Fred/Rice etc and play one of Pogba/Rashford on the left or sell Pogba get a Rice type player and then play him with Mctominay or Fred in the double pivot
We have Pogba for his role. We dont have Ndidi who allows Tielemans to play that role
Because Fred isnt that good at defending. So if hes not going to be great at defending as a DM, he better be doing a lot going forward.
You will not get a better player to shield the defence, win the ball and he can help us on set piece defending. So he wouldnt have to be breaking teams down or score many goals because he's doing 100% of the DM job unlike Fred
You bought him for £17m?
That’s NDidi, I was replying to a post about Tielemans
yet he's better than Rice who people want here to cover on his own
but yeah Ndidi is a monster defensively, however people who expect progressive and better passer than Fred will be unpleasantly surprised, great upgrade on McTominay though.
Defensively? I dont think so. Especially when you also consider in the air, which is our problem with set pieces and Fred doesnt help at all thereyet he's better than Rice who people want here to cover on his own
but yeah Ndidi is a monster defensively, however people who expect progressive and better passer than Fred will be unpleasantly surprised, great upgrade on McTominay though.
No he doesn't
IS Nidi better than fredmcsauce?
Better defensively but not good enough passer for us imo. Arguably may be ok if has a controller beside him like Kroos or Scholes etc
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I agree. We need to try to find someone like the Fabinho mould with a good passing range to start attacks. People will be frustrated with Ndidis lack of quality on the ball.
I dont see it with him. He's just physical and nowhere near as good a ball winner as Ndidi, nor is he a good passer or strong in the air like Ndidi. He'd cost a lot less sure, thats because hes average and hes only started 14 games and come off the bench 10 more for Gladbach in the league this season. So he isnt even a guaranteed starter there
Why on earth would we want this? Not better than Fred and McTominay. Kinda ridiculous to think he's better
we should only be shopping in this range for an absolute no-brainer
I'd add Rice to that
nice to have but not going to improve us enough for the 60 million or whatever they'd cost
they are well established which is nice but also come with a well established price
for 10/20 million more we can get a Sancho, one of the biggest talents in world football.. or next season Haaland - the value for money just doesn't compare
I'd add Rice to that
nice to have but not going to improve us enough for the 60 million or whatever they'd cost
they are well established which is nice but also come with a well established price
for 10/20 million more we can get a Sancho, one of the biggest talents in world football.. or next season Haaland - the value for money just doesn't compare
Ndidi doesn't suit with Ole's double pivot in my opinion. I think Ole wants more all round midfielder rather than a specialist like Ndidi, he prefers someone who can operate in a hybrid role. Ndidi suits the current Leicester's style.
Thats why we need this type of player. Right now we have a subpar CB and a subpar DM needing the rest of the team to make up for them. That wont take us further than where we are
With a good CB and a good DM we would be free from having to play 2 DMs and can play a more attacking lineup
But we are not playing with a DM specialist formation or system. We are playing with 2 hybrid midfielder formation/system, 4231. Take a look at Bayern 4231, none of Kimmich & Goretzka operates like Ndidi. Our double pivots operate the same as Bayern's, their midfield just offers more technically but the concept is similar.
What you think we need is not what the manager wants.
To the people who don’t rate Rice - what makes ndidi better than him?
Our problem on set pieces is how we defend, not 1 player all of them. We have numerous 6ft plus players, yet struggle to deal with the oppositions danger men on set pieces that Fred would never be marking.
So having 1 more who can mark someone good in the air is an obvious improvement. Its no surprise to have problems defending set pieces when you have players in the team in defensive positions who dont defend in the air
You're right in the sense of thats how a 4231 should work but we have Pogba. If he leaves then yes we dont need an Ndidi but a more progressive technical defensive minded midfielder. But if he stays then how is a double pivot with Pogba ever going to work? Thats the million dollar question. I can only ever see it working with a DM specialist.
He's been playing on the left lately and only effective playing in double pivot against team that park the bus. I think that's the answers of the million dollar question.
So drop Rashford or play Rashford on the Right Wing is the long term answer? Only games Rashford will get at LW is against park the bus teams or if Pogba is injured.
Cavani can't play week in week out, Pogba lately has injury concern, and Pogba can still play in double pivot against team that park the bus.
Rashford is useless as striker. Yes there will be games to play due to injuries and resting players etc. but you still cause major problems with two of our top players having only one available position in the team. We have the same issue with De Gea and Henderson. There will be a number of major games where both will be fit but Ole will have to drop one of them. Do you think they will be happy sharing? Lets say we play Liverpool or Man City or Champions league game or maybe even a final. Both fit. Sorry Pogba/Rashford only one spot available. Yeah they may keep quiet for a bit (Probably not Pogba so much but he might) but behind the scenes that just causes problems and at the end of the season one or both will want out. Im all for strength in depth in all positions but that means one star and one really good player not two stars in the same position. You cant have Lewa and Haaland and swap them around or play Haaland on the wing some games and Lewa on the left sometimes. That would be nuts.
We seem to have developed a knack of allowing the obvious danger man a free run or to be marked by the player who's zone they're in (generally AWB and Lindelof). I can't think of a single time Fred has been expected to defend a corner and got beaten by his man. Personally think Ndidi isn't what we need at all, he's very limited in certain areas. Having anther 'tall' player for set pieces wouldn't be reason to be spending 50 million plus.
So wouldnt you think it would be a massive improvement if instead of Lindelof and AWB who arent strong in the air, we had Ndidi who is? Its really obvious. We dont even use Fred in such a situation because he never wins a header. Someone who was good at it would be a better option than Lindelof and AWB who arent
He's just not what we need. People keep harping on about the need for a DM to improve our defence but in reality, the best way to improve our defence is to control football matches better. To do that we have to get a press resistant player who can pass well and control the game from the midfield. That's an incredibly hard player to find but without it, I think we will struggle to advance as a team. We have to get away from the thinking that we just stick big physical players in the midfield to 'battle' or work hard, we need genuine quality. In other words, we need to find the player that Pogba was meant to be for us.
That's what you think, but in reality he is not useless and can be useful.
Let's not compare keeper situation with the outfield position. There is a reason why City has solid squad depth in attack but not in goalkeeper. Rashford or Cavani is not Lewa though, Lewa is like Bruno, Ronaldo, Messi won't be dropped. Again, Pogba can still play in double pivot against team that park the bus. And whether you like it or no, Cavani cannot be forced to play week in week out, that's fact and that fact is a risk that we decided to take. If he's dropped then the likely choice to replace him will be Rashford which happened vs Aston Villa and previous games.
Yes they will be happy sharing, why not? If you are not happy then pack your bag like Lukaku.
Just imagine play Cavani up front with Rashford on the left and Pogba in double pivot against Crystal Palace in our last day of the league match to determine our league title and then play Pogba on the left in UCL final and Rashford as a striker since Cavani needs rest.
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I'd be looking at improving our defensive positioning, getting Harry to mark the obvious danger man and upgrading Lindelof, over buying a limited midfielder. I mean if that's the route we need to look at we should never have sold Fellaini.
Maguire is marking the danger area and/or another danger man. There are more than 1 threat at a set piece
Fellaini couldnt defend half as well as Ndidi dont be ridiculous
Maybe they don't rate either.
I didn't say he could, simply replying to your lets spend a fortune to have a player who's good in the air for set pieces. I value a player having a good passing range and being able to move with the ball, over being a limited beaker up of play. For the fee Leicester would want I'd say we'd 100% be taken to the cleaners, there'd be far better options out there.
OK thanks. Good to hear others perspective. Cant see it myself. Rashford is maybe not useless as striker but I would have Martial there next, then Greenwood before him. And I would say Greenwood is better at RW. And even if Rashford can play there its still stupid to play him out of his best position. Its like Pogba on the LW. Its is not really his best position and he definitely is not at his best in a double pivot. Yeah he can play there but even in the Crystal Palace scenario you mentioned it will only work if he is forced into being disciplined and therefore not giving him the best platform to succeed. See how Pogba played against Liverpool? He struggled because he is not a LW. He was forced into a defensive position tracking TAA. Which he can do to a degree but its not really a clever idea over a season.
This is the difference between Bayern, Liverpool, City etc - They put players in their correct positions and not just fit everyone in. If we want a double pivot then sell Pogba and get technical defensive minded players. If we want a LW decide between Pogba or Rashford with Martial as back up. But that's just me.