Why Leicester’s defence can become best in Premier League

Jonny Evans – the stalwart

Jonny Evans is perhaps the most consistent starters for Leicester City. The Northern Irishman joined in July 2018, and since then has made himself integral to the squad. He deserves his prominence in the squad.

I have about three words to describe the stalwart: composure, success, and retention.

I would invite the reader to genuinely look in the Oxford English Dictionary, find the word ‘composed’ and you will definitely find a picture of Jonny Evans defending against some of the biggest names in attacking football. Seldom does Evans make a mistimed or mistaken challenge.

This fact is reflected in his style of play. It is hard to use statistics to back this up, as there is no statistic on a successful defensive non-action. This is his speciality. If a striker or any attacker attempts to round him, he will often get himself between man and ball, and just shepard the ball until he is either fouled, Schmeichel gets the ball, or he has a chance to clear the ball up the pitch or pass it.

What is reflected in the stats is his successfulness. As he makes less challenges than his colleagues, he is expected to at least make an impact. And an impact he does make.

His aerial duel success rate is 71.11% – the best of all our defenders. His ground duel success rate is 67.92%. He even has a 100% take-on success rate. Once more, when he makes a challenge, it is usually a very sound and well judged challenge. He does not make challenges which are likely unsuccessful.

I will also declare that he is simply critical to the way Brendan Rodger’s plays. The system requires a seemingly excessive ball recycling machine: constant breakthroughs and transitions, constant returns to the defence, and constant movement. It is incessant.

Jonny Evans perfectly suits this role. His composure making him uniquely poised to receive the ball under pressure and make still make the backwards or sideways pass to beat the pressure and not lose the ball. He completes more sideways passes than any other player on the pitch: 38.7 per 90. Almost all of his passes are in Leicester’s defensive half.

This is not the negative ball retention we saw under Puel, this is a positive, movement-based ball retention from Rodgers. So Evans helps the Foxes to not concede silly fouls, not concede in general, and to keep hold of the ball after a failed transition to attack.

Caglar Soyuncu – the Turkish wall

Caglar Soyuncu is one of the standout signings of the Srivaddhanaprabha Family’s era in charge of the East Midlands outfit. His signing represents everything which is good about the club at the moment.

An underrated young defender, brought in to understudy to Maguire and eventually take his place. He costed around €21m (around £18m). He is now worth at least €40m. So, what does he bring to the table?

There are three startling qualities which allowed him to supplant and improve upon Maguire – especially in Brendan Rodgers’ system. These are his progression, breaking pressure, and his strong tackling.

Soyuncu offers a very different role to Evans. He completes around 26.6 progressive passes per 90 – more than four passes higher than the next closest (Evans). ‘Cags’ loves to come quite far out of defence, passing the ball wide to an advancing wing back (usually Justin) or passing inwards to Tielemans. This is a very useful skill to have.

On top of that progression is his breaking of pressure. You will see this constantly when he plays: he receives the ball, is under pressure from an opposition attacker, and just rounds them. He just plays through the press.

Playing through the press removes two or three players from the opposition defensive block, thus providing more space for quick and fluid transitions to occur to get the ball forward. Where Evans can stay back, Soyuncu and break a press and start a transition to attack.

I need not dally too long on his strong tackling abilities. Nor do I really have to provide any statistical basis for this. He just does what he has to do. Though less energetic than, say, Fofana, Soyuncu will make more tackles, and be more disruptive than Evans.

A partnership between him and Evans was always natural. They play so differently they actually compliment one another, and both are versatile enough to pick up any slack left from the other defenders.