Was Ranieri dropping Okazaki a lot? It seemed like he wasnt playing him and went back to being Tinkerman instead of what worked for them.
Kept hearing how he would drop players hours before a game or change formations (eg like a diamond) even though they didnt practice it.
If all that is true, it makes sense why they would suffer this season. Dunno.
Yes and no. Okazaki has 14 PL starts and 3 in the CL. In that time he has managed 3 goals and 0 assists. And no doubt worked very hard for the team.
In simple terms, there would appear to a huge amount of player power currently at Leicester. Team has been shocking for most of the season yet Fuchs, Morgan, Huth, Simpson, Schmeichel, Drinkwater, Mahrez, Vardy all start when fit and not suspended; they did so under Ranieri and this continues under Shakespeare. The only players from the title winning line-up who are at all vulnerable to sitting on the bench are Okazaki and to a lesser extent, Albrighton; last season these two players would typically start games but often found themselves being substituted after 60-70 mins.
The vast majority of the changes in the line-up are either due to suspensions, using different options in Kante's position, most recently Ndidi, but prior to that Amartey, King and Mendy, or accommodating Slimani, Musa or Gray instead of Okazaki or occasionally, Albrighton.
Demarai Gray and Slimani have both had less playing time than their performances merit. Musa hasn't done well yet his stats are no worse than those of Albrighton, Okazaki or Mahrez.
Perhaps Ranieri should have simply not bothered with incoming transfers last summer except for a replacement for Kante, as the title winning line-up don't appreciate competition for their places in the team. The alternative view would be that he should have selected the team on merit and ignored what happened the previous season; in which case the likes of Morgan, Huth, Drinkwater, Mahrez and Vardy would have been benched well before Christmas.
Ranieri used a diamond formation for one game. It didn't work so he changed it either at half-time or early in the 2nd half.
