I'm well aware of the qualities that Albrighton brings. These were very much in evidence towards the end of the 14/15 season and the first half of last season. However, his performances dropped off a lot in the second half of the season and he created virtually nothing and contributed little. After all, that's why he was replaced in the team at times and usually subbed off. You don't pick a winger to defend.
And that's exactly what I was talking about. People in England used to say the same about midfielders until Makelele.
People have this tunnel vision view of what players have to be by their position and one of the reasons Albrighton was such an underappreciated part of last season's success.
Alex Ferguson consistently and notoriously picked Ji-Sung Park on the wing for his ability to defend in the big matches. Helenio Herrara notoriously utilised defensive wingers to allow his full-backs more attacking freedom and they are two of the most successful managers of all-time, so managers clearly do pick wingers on their ability to defend and it clearly has been a successful tactic doing that - so to write it off as an option is silly. Especially when you have such a gung-ho winger as Mahrez on the opposition wing who you want to allow the freedom to join the attack without leaving huge holes in your midfield.
You pick players on their ability to fit the system and if that means picking a winger who is good defensively to help negate a very attacking winger on the opposite wing then that's what exactly what you should do.
However, my favourite line from your post has made me laugh - it's the fault of those naughty strikers that failed to score from his assists that stopped him being rated even better - what total drivel!
*Sigh*
You know very well that's a straw man BN. But I'll bite...
I wasn't blaming the strikers at all. But the simple fact is, assists are an overused because of fantasy football and I don't remember anyone caring about them until about 10 years ago because they rely as much on the assitee as the assister and chance creation stats are a much more accurate representation of creativity because they take the element of whether a striker finishes it or not out of the equation.
And objectively, Albrighton was one of the absolute best chance creators in the Premier League last season, as well as being our best as a club and England's best as a nation.
I wasn't blaming the striker, I was saying that he could easily have gotten more assists last season - as any player could - if they had taken more chances and that's why chance creation stats are more accurate representation of a player's creativity.
