Midfield Shinji

I've seen this suggested in the past, but it remains not for me. He's a forward who helps out, not a midfielder with all that that entails.

No way, never a midfielder he would actually be a worse option than King which is saying something. We need Silva and a fit Iborra in the centre but this isn't happening anytime soon unfortunately.

Oki's target this season is to run more and get more goals by getting in the box more, I'd say he's succeeding all round.

Leave him be and we'll end up with an extra goal scorer getting a decent tally.

You are basically asking whether he could play the Kante role I think. Run around a lot and break the play up.

I think he already does that brilliantly from the front.

The more I watch us with Okazaki playing, the more I think we owe our title to his contribution, even if he wasn't recognised as much as some that season.

It may be worth a try if we're playing a 3 or are short, but I don't think Shinji has the passing range or vision to play in a midfield 2.

If he was played in a 3 in midfield this would help out Iborra who is less of a run around type player but who does have the passing range. Shinji doing the hard work as closing down and breakng up play, Ndidi getting in the strong challenges both on the ground and in the air and Iborra sittng in front of the back 4 (which would also help out when McGuire goes walkabout).

This is a joke, right? The man who gives the ball away every time it comes near him, falls over himself, falls over the ball and falls over every time an opposition defender farts, in the centre of midfield? He's scored a couple of tap ins and a deflection.

Yes he runs around a lot, puts a bit of pressure on defenders but he doesnt actually make many tackles when you look at the stats. He doesnt complete many passes, doesnt get any assists and rarely scores any goals.

Its fair to say im not in the Oki fan club. He's a likeable chap, but he's not even as good as Dickov!

comment by Foxy Boy (U20186)
posted 12 hours, 14 minutes ago
This is a joke, right? The man who gives the ball away every time it comes near him, falls over himself, falls over the ball and falls over every time an opposition defender farts, in the centre of midfield? He's scored a couple of tap ins and a deflection.

Yes he runs around a lot, puts a bit of pressure on defenders but he doesnt actually make many tackles when you look at the stats. He doesnt complete many passes, doesnt get any assists and rarely scores any goals.

Its fair to say im not in the Oki fan club. He's a likeable chap, but he's not even as good as Dickov!
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No, that's the joke.
He's been our best players this season. He only plays half the game, but has contributed and influenced more in them minutes than the likes of Mahrez and King do for the whole 90 minutes

I can understand Foxy Boy's criticism. SO essentially gets by with high work rate rather than quality and, until this season, did not contribute much in terms of assists and goals. This has changed a bit this season and he is arguably our player of the season after a few games.

At the moment SO is the first name on the team sheet due to the way we play. Rather than criticise what he doesn't bring I think the real challenge is to develop a formation and style that makes him more redundant. Without the right quality in midfield we are severely lacking in options in that respect and that is why he's so essential at the moment.

As to the original question about him becoming a midfielder I would say no, no and no. His qualities are best used in doing precisely what he's doing now. He neither has the physical presence nor the required range of passing to be effective in midfield. We are short of options and quality, but not this desperate- yet.