Leicester 2-3 Tottenham – 3 things we learned: The future and the bad

Ever since completing his £15m move from Southampton to Leicester in the summer, Jannik Vestergaard has struggled. To begin with, I was patient with the lad. Afterall, he’s a seasoned international with Denmark and has been impressive for Southampton. Last night however, I gave up on him.

His pace has always been an issue, but his physicality should make up for that, as should his height. But last night his pace was fully exposed, with even Harry Kane skinning him. Yes, Harry Kane. That would be okay though if Vestergaard out muscled the attacker; he did not. Slow, weak and a liability, Vestergaard was rubbish.

Perhaps the most damning stat of all was that Vestergaard, who stands at 6’6 tall (almost 2 meters high), failed to win a single aerial dual last night. Not even one. In the last goal, Vestergaard didn’t even jump for the ball when trying to win it in the air. He is a shambles.

All this being said, he was not the worst player on the pitch last night. Hence why I use the word scapegoat, because he is not the centre of Leicester’s defensive problems. He has only featured in a smattering of games. Caglar Soyuncu, however, has been a constant figure in the 16th worst defence in the Premier League (36 goals conceded), and was terrible last night.

Perhaps it was the last two seasons of Cags which has meant that he has evaded the criticism he deserves, or perhaps it’s the fact that, due to his huge size and the fact that he is a recent recruit, Vestergaard gets a considerable amount of the blame. Soyuncu has considerably more pace than his counterpart, and yet he too was left for dead by Harry Kane last night.

Soyuncu made direct errors in all three of Spurs’ goals yesterday. For the first goal he failed in his dual with Harry Kane and decided to instead go to ground in an attempt to tackle the ball. He didn’t, and instead he looked foolish laying on the floor as Kane hit a strike past Kasper Schmeichel.

For the Spurs equaliser, Soyuncu had the chance to either get in the way of the Doherty cross or produce a clearance. Instead, he stuck out a loose foot which teed up the shot for Bergwijn. For the third, Soyuncu went to ground again, trying to predict where Bergwijn would dribble the ball, rather than staying with the man. Cags decided to slide to the near post to block a shot that would come there, instead he simply let the far-post be exposed after Kasper – who is also to blame – failed in his attempt to claim the ball.

Bergwijn, already high on confidence, duly stuck it into that empty far post, leaving a prone Soyuncu to angrily smack the ball back against the post in frustration after letting the goal in. All this after mocking Bergwijn for diving just before the equalising goal. The Dutch international’s outburst and push resulted in a yellow card, but also a comical dive from Soyuncu who should have stood his ground.

Soyuncu has been poor all season. His confidence and chops have gone and have been replaced with foolish passing and an addiction to the floor, leading to predictable defending for opponents. In a time when Leicester have been missing both Evans and Fofana, Leicester needed Cags now more than ever, instead he has been a shambles.