King better than Silva?

comment by Hairyfox (U3467)
posted 51 seconds ago
Black star your obviously an intellectual reverting to threatening behaviour when I have tried to debate
In a fair manner.
Cherio 👏
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Threatening behaviour?!

Brilliant. Told you do one and you’re almost in tears. Go cry to admin cupcake

Oh my god that’s the best of the weekend

.

Hairy,

I think you make some good points, but I’ve not really seen anyone saying that the defence and forward line played a good game. I would argue that the defence achieved their primary function, which is to prevent goals.

I think you could make an argument that Barnes and Gray still have much to learn about making the right runs, but I’m not sure they’d have been found anyway. Also, Slimani isn’t the best with his back to goal.

The distribution from the defence was also poor - particularly from Benalouane. I would ‘defend’ them a little bit by saying that too often the lack of invention in the midfield area meant that the ball was tapped around for a bit before just going back into the defensive area. This gave them little option sometimes, but to lump it forward.

With James and King you’re not going to get a CM who creates space by breaking the defensive line through carrying the ball forward (ala Kante). You’re also rarely going to get a superb defence splitting pass (ala Drinkwater). So we need to replace our departed midfielders with better than what we had in reserve.

Ndidi does that through sheer hard work, tackling and does drive the team forward. If you watch Iborra he’ll draw players in before releasing the ball or quickly turn to similarly create time and space for him and others. It’s just about that additional quality.

The midfield weren’t the only reason why we were so poor against Fleetwood. It’s just that some players have now proven over time that we have to aspire to better. You could definitely add Benny to that list of players we need to move on and Amartey is another where the jury must be out and it’s probabpy only youth that saves him - but James and King (in particular) I’m hoping are yesterday’s men.

Thank you Joby for your balanced view.
Were fairly well in agreement as far as player judgements are concerned.
I go back to my opening point which is King and James are our bench midfielders.
For now maybe, until we have something better but we have tried to bring in numerous individuals who have failed.
But it’s not their fault we can’t find better, in the meantime they have been a credit to the club and our supporters should remain respectful.
As I previously mentioned have a go at those players who we bought at exspense and paid handsomely but didn’t perform.

I agree Hairy that we should remain respectful. I think I made the point in an earlier post that our failure to recruit is not the fault of James and King. They’ve both conducted themselves with great professionalism.

In some ways I wouldn’t be averse to keeping them both on the basis that James is 4th and King 5th choice CM, although it might be hoped that one of the U23s might put them further down the pecking order.

If they ever start a game again together, however, my expectations will not be high.

threatening......behaviour

Oh my god it’s funnier with every read

Just for completeness here's my six'pennorth.

On Saturday the whole team were garbage, including Kingy. However Silva did virtually nothing for most of the match and looked bewildered about what was happening. I can only assume he's never experienced anything like going away to a lower league side in the third round of the cup at a small ground with a poor pitch.

So on the day King had a marginally better game, which isn't saying much.

For the longer term picture, for me King is still a useful squad player, so I'm with Dunge on that one. I'd like to think we could do better, but don't reckon we are yet in a position to keep a superior player happy with bench warming.

In what way is Andy King useful these days for a top 8 premier league club? Surely you want an upcoming younger player who is looking to develop into a top midfielder as a squad player? A bit like Chilwell - introduce them gradually.

I agree with the MOTD commentators on Silva who said that he was starting to get into the game until he got badly crocked and then seemed nervous. He still chased down balls and forced their keeper into an error so worked much harder than King even if it didn’t come off for him

Has Andy King had 4 months without playing competitive football by the way?

Firstly don't get me wrong, I can see that Silva is the future rather than Kingy. Just my opinion about Saturday, none of them covered themselves in glory, although King had our best chance.

He's useful because (as 4th/5th choice midfielder) he can still do a job when asked (eg Saints away), and doesn't complain in the meantime.

I wouldn't object to him being replaced by someone better, or with better potential, provided they are willing to accept they will hardly play and don't whinge about it. This latter point seems to be a prevalent issue amongst modern footballers, probably due to them being wound up by agents seeking to make a fast buck.

I suppose for years I've been annoyed that Kingy is always seen as someone who goes missing. The guy who site near me at the KP was always moaning about this and him being too lightweight, until I started asking him who got back to make that crucial tackle and stop a dangerous breakaway, who headed the ball away in the box - the answer was 'don't know' whereas it was King in reality.

I can’t really remember him impacting a game for some time - certainly not this season. I agree he has his plus points but the reason people tend to like him....and this is a very English thing.....is because he’s hardworking and polite.

There’s also a romanticism about the fact he has been here for 10 years and played in league 1 as well as the prem.

He’s a good finisher when going into the box usually and still has that from his attacking midfield days but those moments are few and far between