Çağlar Söyüncü: Leicester City’s Turkish delight

A mere six games into the season and Leicester City already have a plethora of positives to take away: one of them is Çağlar Söyüncü.

His blend of brutish tackling and no-nonsense defending with a composed elegance on the ball has the Foxes faithful hailing him as a favourite already. He has only played15 games, mind.

He seems to possess a rather disrespectful attitude against his offensive counterpart, a trait that has already rewarded him with a fantastic performance against one of Europe’s elite forwards in Harry Kane.

However, there are obvious consequences to this approach, which Kane’s goal last week is a testament to. Söyüncü has a tendency to navigate towards the ball-operator rather than tracking his man.

Against Tottenham Hotspur, he attempted to close down Erik Lamela in possession rather than track Kane, who was running in behind him.

A few intricate passes later, Söyüncü was on the wrong side of the England international as he made it 1-0. It’s a case of reading the game and understanding where the threat of the opponent is coming from.

He misread Lamela as being the threat when it was Kane who was making an advancing run.

Luckily for Söyüncü, he’s alongside one of the Premier League’s best centre-backs in Jonny Evans.

The understanding the two defenders have already established is phenomenal and in time, Evans will be able to relay his knowledge of game-reading to maximise Söyüncü’s potential – potential that could be considerably high. Not many players in world football have the same blend of tackling and elegant footwork.

Many would have argued after losing Harry Maguire, whose best asset is his confidence in playing out from the back, Leicester would struggle to implement the style Rodgers wanted: a possession-orientated game with a focus on building from the back.

But Söyüncü has seamlessly fitted into the Maguire role – and even that is an understatement. He is especially commanding when Leicester play a 4-1-4-1, not only because of the added space he’s able to push into but also because Turkey operate in a similar system, so there’s an element of comfort here, too.

Then there’s an interesting fact as well: Söyüncü has heavily decreased the number of goals conceded for every club he’s played for. His career started with Altinordu FK, a Turkish second division mid-table team. During his two years with the club, Söyüncü dropped their goals conceded per game from 1.51 to 1.17. At SC Freiburg, it dropped from 2 to 1.4.

It’s only early days in his Leicester career but he has had his impact on the numbers. The East Midlanders average1.19 goals a game when he doesn’t play to 0.73 when he does play. There’s no coincidence at play here.

It is time we realise how complete a defender he is. He’s no longer that “in a few years” player, he is performing like an elite defender and there’s no obvious indication why his performances levels will drop.