Get Carter’s Leicester player reviews 2021/22: Fringe centre backs
By Damon Carter
Daniel Amartey
Appearances 39 / Premier League – 28 / FA Cup – 1 / League Cup – 1 / Europe – 9
Moment to savour – An outstanding display in a memorable victory at home to Liverpool
Moment to forget – A death trap pass back at the City ground that allowed Nottingham Forest to take a 2-0 lead
One of the few fringe centre backs to come out of this season with much credit is Daniel Amartey. After being utilised as a right back and defensive midfielder in past seasons, it was good to see him finally be given a chance in his specialist position for Ghana. Given a chance is a fairly loose term though, he was more just thrown into the situation and forced to play next to Caglar Soyuncu for several games.
The lacking partnership may explain the Ghanaian erratic positional sense is one that seems to be improving and he covers a decent amount of ground without being too sluggish. He can even be a little bit dangerous when attacking corners, which he showed when heading in an equaliser at home to Spartak Moscow.
But like all City defenders, he too struggles on crosses and could well be accused of not being aggressive enough when rising for challenges. Or perhaps there is something far deeper going on at Leicester’s plush training ground surroundings given every centre back seems to suffer from the same problem.