Leicester City’s three best performing players from September

Ademola Lookman

My first ever piece on Foxes of Leicester was reflecting on Lookman’s career so far to see what he can bring to Leicester. But I’ll admit, I was still sceptical about his signing, especially compared to the other players that the rumour mill had churned up during the summer. Lookman therefore had a lot of expectation on his shoulders, but boy has he delivered.

Lookman has made five appearances in September and will most likely feature against Legia Warsaw on Thursday. From those five appearances, Lookman has only made two starts and is yet to play the full 90′ for his new club; Brendan Rodgers has put this down to building up his fitness.

His debut was a brief cameo against Manchester City during the 1-0 loss and he took the position of covering for Harvey Barnes on the left-wing. His next Premier League appearance was during the tough 2-1 loss at Brighton, but this is when fans got to see a first real glimpse at what Lookman can offer.

Lookman was left unmarked as he stooped low to provide a diving header into the Brighton net for what he, and many others, believed to be his first goal for the club. Unfortunately, Harvey Barnes was ruled to be blocking Brighton’s goalkeeper Sanchez and, as such, the goal was ruled out. Whilst the final result left a bitter taste in the mouth for many a fan, it at least gave a glimpse at what Lookman can do.

Following that encouraging performance, Lookman then made his first start for Leicester in their opening Carabao Cup game to Millwall. The game itself was relatively stale, but Lookman – who started as a centre-forward – opened the scoring, latching onto the rebound of Kelechi Iheanacho’s long-range shot.

The ball came to Lookman who made no mistake, volleying into an open net to open his account for Leicester City. It may look an easy finish, but there are countless examples of players skying over that type of chance. It has prevented any narrative of Lookman having a duck on his shoulder, hopefully this is the first goal of many.

From that, Brendan Rodgers saw enough to hand Lookman his first Premier League start against Burnley, and whilst Lookman didn’t score or assist during the game, his running really excited fans. He started on the right of midfield and assisted the progress of the ball in the match until he was substituted on the 69th minute.

This is Lookman’s first month with Leicester and it has been a relative success. He isn’t an out and out goal scorer, but that’s not what fans were expecting from Lookman. The Foxes need someone who can dribble well from out wide, and can provide passes that open up space for the likes of Vardy and Barnes to strike in. There is a lot to like from what we have seen from Lookman.

What next from Lookman? Now Lookman simply needs to push on and perform consistently at this level. If he does that, he will build up both his goals and assists, and can expect to start week in week out. Lookman faces a different type of challenge to his peers; he needs to prove to Rodgers that his is worth signing on a permanent deal. So far, so good.