Iheanacho’s progress

Hey KTF1.

There is no denying that Ian is finally looking like the player he can be. He’s always been a natural finisher and calm in front of goal, but when his confidence looked shot last season, I really did fear he wouldn’t come back from it.

Huge credit to Rodgers. He’s clearly worked hard with him and he now has more strings to his bow. He can link the play brilliantly and his close control and hold up play to bring in our wide midfielders for their wild slashes at goals has been a pleasure to watch.

He’s now getting goals and assists, and with the management team taking constantly about “improving their numbers”, I’m not sure you can continue to overlook Ian.

Would he work in a 4-1-3-2? I fear that formation would be good when chasing games but it could leave us far too exposed as a starting formation.

I think 3-5-2 is one way to get them both the team together, or potentially 4-4-2, but I’m not sure either should be our plan A. Ian May have to accept an important role as our go to bench player to change the game.

However I think he merits a run in the team. I certainly wouldn’t be rushing Vardy back anytime soon.

What a turn around from last season when he was behind grey and 15 other players in the squad for 1st team selection,
Praise for Rogers and the team for turning him around,
But he deserves the praise because the talent was always there,
This is about mental strength and that's the hardest of enemy's!

comment by dublin fox optimistically pessimistic, (now a Cambridge fox)(still can not spell fox) (U1131)
posted 1 hour, 22 minutes ago
What a turn around from last season when he was behind grey and 15 other players in the squad for 1st team selection,
Praise for Rogers and the team for turning him around,
But he deserves the praise because the talent was always there,
This is about mental strength and that's the hardest of enemy's!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Totally agree

I figure it’s in part good timing. He’d been given a development plan by Rodgers, then when he got onto the pitch he committed to it. But, unlike Gray, he saw the results of it - scoring in the last minute against Everton with a goal given by VAR and mobbed by his teammates. Regardless of anything else, that must have been a massive moment for him and his own confidence - to commit and get a payback from it.

I agree with everything stated above. Where does this all leave Gray? He cut a dejected figure at several points of the game yesterday. It is hard to believe he was on the bench for the full England team on the day Chilwell made his England debut, just 16 months ago. I hope BR can turn him around, like he has with Nacho. UTF

Well, Rodgers has already had one go at turning Gray around, and he did look better for a few matches. But unlike Iheanacho he never really produced anything to back up the effort.

I imagine they’ll keep trying with him but there’s a pretty clear choice two wingers at the club out of the four, and that Rodgers is favouring a change in formation over their replacements.

Grey??
I think there's multiple problems,
I don't think confidence is one of them,
He still has a bit of a chip on his shoulder he makes the same mistakes,, one touch to many and over doing the dribbling and positioning,,
once he mucks up once or twice his head goes down,

He has improved he defends much better but his forward /attacking decisions are often wrong,
He must be doing it in training or he'd not get near the bench let alone the team,
But as far as premier league is concerned he's only just managing impact sub,
He's had several games against lower Premier and league teams and he should be showing his ability in these matches if only for 20 minutes each half,
Besides the odd cut inside and 40 yrd goal I don't see much else,
I don't think he's going to make it as a Premier league player unless he sorts out his faults,

comment by dublin fox optimistically pessimistic, (now a Cambridge fox)(still can not spell fox) (U1131)
posted 41 minutes ago
Grey??
I think there's multiple problems,
I don't think confidence is one of them,
He still has a bit of a chip on his shoulder he makes the same mistakes,, one touch to many and over doing the dribbling and positioning,,
once he mucks up once or twice his head goes down,

He has improved he defends much better but his forward /attacking decisions are often wrong,
He must be doing it in training or he'd not get near the bench let alone the team,
But as far as premier league is concerned he's only just managing impact sub,
He's had several games against lower Premier and league teams and he should be showing his ability in these matches if only for 20 minutes each half,
Besides the odd cut inside and 40 yrd goal I don't see much else,
I don't think he's going to make it as a Premier league player unless he sorts out his faults,

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Sadly I agree. I'd like to see improvement in Gray like Brendan has managed with Ian.

The biggest indication of the progress that Ian has made, in such a short time, is fans reactions to seeing his name on the team sheet. If Vardy wasn’t fit to face Villa you’d actually be currently quite confident in Ian’s ability to deputise. Six months ago we’d have thought this was a catastrophe. His progress has been one of the most pleasing aspects of this season.

The only reason Gray has been so close to the team is because there are still question marks against our other wide players. If we could sign another wide player he’d be the one I’d let go. It’s come to the point where I’d like to see what opportunities could be given to our youngsters rather than Gray in reserve.