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Leicester’s Wesley Fofana v Rúben Dias: How roles, team impacts statistics

By Dominic Wells

Leicester City's French defender Wesley Fofana (Photo by KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Leicester City's French defender Wesley Fofana (Photo by KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Leicester City’s French defender Wesley Fofana (Photo by KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /

After being crowned the Premier League Player of the Season for the 2020/21 campaign, Rúben Dias has been scrutinised and compared with many of the top centre-backs in the league. A lot of Leicester City fans believe Wesley Fofana’s excellent first season in the English top-flight deserves equal recognition.

When comparing the two players, you have to contextualise the roles they play – are they an aggressor in the centre-back pairing (seeking tackles and blocks), or are they the dictator (holding a deeper position, vocal and commanding). You have to outline the quality of the team they feature for, but also how much/little possession they have – teams that reside in the lower half of the table tend to have defenders that are more “active”, completing more tackles, interceptions and blocks per 90 versus the “elite” central defenders – whose team will dominate possession thus limiting chances to perform defensive actions.

It’s through this widen contextualised lens that you can fairly compare two players, and this also highlights why Rúben Dias’ campaign has been honoured with an individual award. I would also like to preface this by saying that I thought Wesley Fofana was Leicester City’s second best player this season – behind Youri Tielemans, and considering this was his debut campaign (of which he started aged 19) is an unbelievable achievement.