Jannik Vestergaard on his poor Leicester City form

It’s fair to say that Jannik Vestergaard’s arrival at Leicester City hasn’t gotten off to the smoothest of starts. After Wesley Fofana’s horrific pre-season injury and Jonny Evans’ plantar fasciitis that troubled him at the start of the season, Leicester needed a new centre back with Premier League experience to help with a struggling backline.

City would have been hoping for Vestergaard to offer an assured presence in the back line, especially considering his three years at Southampton and seven years spent in the German Bundesliga. Unfortunately, Vestergaard has struggled in his performances for Leicester.

When you come into a new club with a £15million transfer fee, and when you’re expected to fill the monumental gap that Evans and Fofana’s absence leaves, there is going to be high expectation placed on you; it was never going to be easy for Vestergaard. He was drafted in almost immediately, not being given a pre-season with either Leicester or Southampton and had just come back from a busy and dramatic campaign for Denmark in the Euros. All in all, to quickly fit straight in would have been a huge challenge for anyone.

His first game for Leicester offered a lot of promise, he put in several key blocks against Manchester City in their 1-0 at King Power in September, but since then he has failed to kick on. So far, he has played 12 games in all competitions for Leicester but has only started 4 of the last 11 Premier League games – his last start coming in the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace in the beginning of October. He was even left completely out of the squad for Leicester’s home fixture against Spartak Moscow.

Speaking whilst on international duty with Denmark, Vestergaard spoke about his tough start with Leicester and his desires to improve:

"“My club change has been big and a bit of an upheaval…I ran into an injury on top of zero vacation and startup, so it has been a little bit uneven – both for me personally and for the team.“So as happy I am for everything that has happened, I am just as hungry to improve and get up to the level I have shown before and which I know I have.”Jannik Vestergaard, via the Leicester Mercury"

It’s promising that Vestergaard knows that he hasn’t been at the level that he knows he can be, and that he has a desire to improve. It’s not just his place in Leicester that he is fighting for though, if he doesn’t improve then his place in the Denmark set-up could be under threat. He won the latest of his 32 international caps with a shock 2-0 loss against Scotland this week, but his country’s qualification for the upcoming World Cup will also serve as motivation to improve.

November and December will be crucial for Vestergaard’s career, with the Foxes still fighting in all three of the Premier League, Europa League and Carabao Cup. Games will be coming thick and fast for City, and he will get his chances. However, with the return of Jonny Evans, and Wesley Fofana’s comeback edging closer and closer, it’s now or never for Jannik Vestergaard. Let’s see what he can do.