Leicester conundrum: Should Brendan Rodgers drop Patson Daka?

What a difference one week makes. After going through a period of just one win in seven games, Leicester City have now won two on the bounce. When it comes to wins, just like London buses, it’s either none or then they all come at once.

After the euphoria of a stunning (if defensively suspect) turnaround in Moscow, Brendan Rodgers and Leicester have to look ahead to a tough fixture against Brentford on Sunday. The rich vein of form of all three LCFC strikers provokes even greater dilemmas for the manager, who has tough decisions to make.

In most situations the solution is pretty simple, starting with a simple question. Is Jamie Vardy fit? When the answer is yes, he starts. The fact that Vardy is currently the joint top Premier League goal-scorer underlines his continuing importance to the team.

Nevertheless, Vardy’s supremacy has come under more of a challenge in recent times, first by Kelechi Iheanacho and now by Patson Daka. Whilst it’s no secret that Vardy and Iheanacho have an incredibly potent partnership together, it seems almost unfair to drop Daka after his four-goal display in Russia.

Daka showed exactly why the Foxes paid £22m to sign him with Vardy-esque finishing with both feet and excellent movement off the ball. The question is, can he replicate this consistently in the Premier League? The long-term answer is probably yes. Unfortunately for the Zambian, tried and tested often will get the nod, especially when that tried-and-tested is also in a rich vein of form.

Alternatively, Rodgers could resort to playing all three strikers, with Daka and Vardy ahead of Iheanacho in the 10. This would shoehorn Kelechi into an unfamiliar position but one that could work with the way he likes to play. Even so, given James Maddison’s resurgence and the similarity of Daka and Vardy, it’s unlikely Rodgers will shake things up and risk ruining the chemistry up top.

Ultimately, whilst Daka has won the hearts and minds of many Leicester fans, Rodgers and reason will point to Vardy’s imminent return. Judging from Rodgers’ press conference, this is even more likely to be the case.

Daka will therefore likely have a place off the bench as an impact substitute, where he can hopefully continue his goalscoring exploits. Nevertheless, FOL are confident Daka can be a success at LCFC, even if his introduction to first-team action comes very gradually.

Round-up from Leicester City pre-match press conference

Brendan Rodgers also held a pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s clash with Brentford which brought to light a mixed bag of news. On the positive side, Timothy Castagne and Ayoze Pérez have both been declared fit after injury scares. To add to the positivity, Youri Tielemans appears to have shaken off a ‘back spasm’ he picked up in Thursday’s match and will also be fit.

The only negative is that Marc Albrighton will be out for “2-3 weeks” due to the horror leg-breaking tackle committed by Spartak’s Aleksandr Lomovitskiy. Somehow, despite a VAR check, the Russian escaped with just a yellow card.