Wout Faes’ great Leicester debut amidst poor collective result

The defender would look to try and take responsibility. Now, often this was met with a good shape from Tottenham and a lack of supportive movement by the midfield. However, when it was met with positive movement, it would unlock a creative or progressive midfielder to work some magic.

To compare the progressiveness against Wesley Fofana’s last two games for the side, we see something interesting from the statistics. Using FB Ref, we can see that the CB had a progressive distance in yards of 239 where the French CB – totalled over two matches – had 344 yards.

To go alongside that, the King Power’s fourth Belgian actually totalled an extra progressive carry over Fofana, once more in only one match. Often, this did not imply trying to dribbled passed an opposition player, but mostly into space left by opposition midfielders and attackers tracking back.

Another interesting comparison is where the players placed their pressures. Now, Fofana completed many more pressures with the ball and a higher percentage were successful (either stopping a play or winning possession in some way), but one element is harmonious. The new defender likes to make his pressures more often in the middle third of the pitch.

This is important. Similar to a Caglar Soyuncu or a Fofana, Faes has a danger sense. When an opposition attacker or midfielder had the ball in the middle third, the defender did try to press that player and disrupt and link up play.

Progressiveness was the nature of the game. Faes would progress into space then look for a progressive pass to play. Almost all of his passes were along the ground, although Sofascore report 2/3 successful long passes (high passes) as well. A vast majority of these passes were successfully completed.