Brendan Rodgers has faced numerous selection headaches over the course of this season and it appears that there is another one brewing at Leicester City.
After a string of impressive performances from Leicester’s summer signing, Patson Daka, the Zambian is now staking his claim to be the Foxes first choice striker. When Daka arrived at the club from Austrian champions RB Salzburg, it was clear that he was seen by Rodgers as a natural long-term successor to Jamie Vardy, who turns 35 in January. However, following a comfortable win over Newcastle which saw Daka again get on the scoresheet, the 34-year-old is surely no longer an automatic selection.
I always assumed that the Zambian international would eventually take over from Vardy and lead the line for the east Midlands side considering how similarly they play. However I have been surprised to see the 23-year-old hit the ground running so quickly.
Scoring seven goals already this campaign, his performances have virtually pushed fellow LCFC striker Kelechi Iheanacho from being the hero of the Community Shield and top goal scorer for the club last season, to now being second in line to the throne and struggling to even get minutes off the bench.
Daka’s explosive pace has proven a challenge for most defences and there is no better example of that than when he put four past Spartak Moscow, regularly running in behind the backline causing havoc in what will go down as one of the great individual performances by a Foxes player. His play style is almost identical to Vardy, meaning that rotating these two during busy periods, has less of an impact on the way we play than if we started Iheanacho who plays a different role to the two.
However, although the former Salzburg striker has remarkable pace that even Vardy in his prime would struggle to match, it is hard to see him being chosen as our striker to lead the line in crucial fixtures when both are fit. The former England international is still a threat today and is ageing like fine wine. It is a well known fact that Leicester’s number nine has one of the best returns when it comes to playing against top Premier League sides.
The four sides he has scored against the most are Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City respectively, picking up 35 goals in 55 games. Not bad for a non-league player who can only score off the back of long balls. Very few strikers in the league relish a big game in the way the 34-year-old does and there is no one else in England I would rather have leading the line in an important game than him.
That being said, Daka definitely has the skillset to become a great Premier League striker, even if has at times struggled to make an impact in big games. Consequently I can’t see the Zambian being chosen as a lone striker in must-win clashes anytime soon ahead of Leicester’s number nine.
However in the Zambian’s defence he is still very young, at just 23-years-old he has many years ahead of him to become more consistent against stronger opponents. And I think he will, the fact that it has taken him such little time to adjust to playing for Leicester City makes me believe that Daka will become seriously good by the time he reaches his peak.
I have seen the idea floated around by the Blue Army of potentially starting the pair alongside each other in a two striker formation. Which in theory would be great, two extremely quick strikers running in behind causing defenders all sorts of troubles.
Except sadly it isn’t that simple, playing two up top would likely see our midfield overrun and result in a lack of service for two strikers that genuinely don’t stray from the last defender and rarely drop back to help link up attacks. It is something that could work in the dying stages of a game if we were pushing for a late equaliser, however, ultimately it would not be an efficient tactic to deploy Daka and Vardy up top together for 90 minutes meaning that it is a case of choosing one or the other.
City fans can consider themselves lucky to be in the situation where we are even entertaining the thought of Vardy no longer being the first choice striker, however as impressive as our summer signing has been, I would still take the former England international in important clashes, for now.