Foxes of Leicester
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Leicester: Why Brendan Rodgers still refuses to use Filip Benkovic

By Elliot Mackness

Filip Benkovic of Leicester City (Photo by Mikolaj Barbanell/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Filip Benkovic of Leicester City (Photo by Mikolaj Barbanell/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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Leicester City
Filip Benkovic of OH Leuven and Leicester City (Photo by Plumb Images/Getty Images) /

As SmarterScout show, stylistically he was exactly what you expect a no-nonsense centre-back to be. Statistically, he was awarded a rating of 84/100 for the number of defensive actions he undertook, and an 82 for the quality (success rate) of those actions. These are fantastic underlying numbers, and were backed up more by other stylistic preferences.

Benkovic is a strong aerial presence, making use of this frequently when one-on-one with attackers or defenders in the box.  He was awarded an 88/100 for his propensity to make aerial challenges. Leicester City decided he needed experience in English teams and not the preeminent Scottish team.

So, at his next loan spells he had one bad game and was never played again, and then did not play at all at OH Leuven. If Rodgers has seen him at these heights and allowed him to reach such lows, the question remains why keep him with the Foxes and why not make use of him during the terrible defensive woes we have had.

Rodgers responds

As LeicestershireLive detail, the attitude the gaffer has taken towards the Croatian tower is one of indifference.

"“We decided to keep him here because of the situation we’ve had with injuries. With Wesley going down and Jannik and Jonny having some issues, we couldn’t be left short”"

The only reason he remains at the King Power is that we had an injury crisis. Yet it remains to be seen why keep him to fill in the gaps when he was not used to fill in the gaps.

Perhaps Rodgers has his reasons:

"“he’s shown that strength and that mentality in training, which is important if you’re going to play in a good squad of players. Hopefully he will continue along that journey and we’ll see the player we think we have”"