Wilfred Ndidi named Leicester’s best player of 2021 so far

Wilfred Ndidi has been named as Leicester City’s best player of 2021 so far, according to a report from CIES Football Observatory.

Some say the Nigerian is underated – well, not by us at Foxes of Leicester! He’s a colossus in midfield, the entire Blue Army know as much.

I often see or hear fans of enormous clubs such as Manchester United, Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool commenting on Ndidi’s prowess, in addition to suggesting that they would love for him to be signed by their teams.

And the statistics back up the Fox’s high profile: he regularly places higher than role leaders like N’golo Kante, in categories such as interceptions and tackling. Now CIES Football Observatory has confirmed his quality, by naming him as Leicester’s best performing player in 2021 so far.

In fact, for Europe’s ‘big-five’ divisions, Ndidi is the 13th highest scoring player overall and third in the EPL; rigour, shooting, recovery, distribution, take on and chance creation are the categories measured for efficiency.

Leicester City’s recruitment realistically scrutinised

Writing for Football Fancast, Daniel Orme has intriguingly asked the question whether Leicester deserve the moniker of ‘transfer leaders’. It is true, in recent years the Foxes are preeminent in respect to most incomings and outgoings, taking into account now proven quality signed and fees accumulated. The transfer market reign has possibly lasted up to ten years, if you count Kasper Schmeichel and Jamie Vardy and subsequently what’s been achieved on Filbert Way in that era.

Yet, Orme rightly offsets the amazing buys and sales against what the east Midlands outfit lost in unfortunate acquisitions such as: Islam Slimani, Andrej Kramaric, Ahmed Musa, Vicente Iborra, Gokhan Inler, Adrien Silva, Yohan Benalouane, Ron Robert-Zieler, Bartosz Kapustka, Filip Benkovic and Rachid Ghezzal.

And the writer estimates that these failed signings – albeit some have proven themselves as elite players elsewhere – cost Leicester approximately £135 million. Which is clearly unsustainable even with Harry Maguire leaving for Manchester United for a huge chunk of those fees. Nevertheless, Leicester should continue how they have been, generally, as it has got them this far!