Is it time to sell this Leicester star as displays decline?

What happened to Soyuncu?

21/22 preseason comes around and the Northern Irish stalwart is out of action. The Turk and French defenders are training together and looking good as they provide a strong and active core at the back. Optimism was rife in the support base for this partnership. It was not to be.

Like a grisly poem about anguish, ‘Little Wes’ was injured during the Foxes’ preseason fixture against Villareal. So, it would seem the soon to be signed Danish international would become his partner. Once again, Vestergaard would not even get a chance to play before injury struck again.

The opening match is Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester wins 1-0 with a backline of comeback king Daniel Amartey and Caglar Soyuncu. The situation appeared at least stable: Cags had to take on the leadership role and become more passive to guard against any mistakes by Amartey, but this worked well.

The next match was a polar opposite: a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of West Ham United with Soyuncu making the wrong decisions in being proactive at the wrong times and Amartey being your average low-quality CB.

After a brief period working fine but unconvincingly with Jannik Vestergaard, Amartey and Evans were more involved alongside Soyuncu. In fact, the Turkish defender had his best games in a back three with the composer Evans beside him.

This period ended with Cags’ injury and Wilfred Ndidi taking a temporary CB role. Once again, this would change quickly as Ndidi himself received an injury. Eventually, Amartey and Soyuncu settled as our partnership as injuries kept the side fluctuating. However, regardless of settling, it never became fully consistent.

This is because Soyuncu just does not suit it. He is the proactive defender, not the passive composer we needed in place of Evans. That is compounded by the Ghanaian defender just not being all that good. Cags was working overtime to cover for Amartey and did not suit it.