Leicester City signed Belgian defender Wout Faes in the summer, and the player made his debut against Tottenham. Here is what we made of the debutant.
Being a defender in a 6-2 routing where four of the goals came in the second half alone does not look pretty. In fact, questions would fairly be asked as to what about the defensive line-up could have been to blame for such a catastrophic collapse.
Well, to be blunt, it had nothing to do with either Wout Faes or Jonny Evans. Neither made particularly massive mistakes, and were incessantly left unshielded by the midfield and a poorly considered defensive structure after the introduction of Heung-min Son.
Leicester City’s Belgian debutant
Instead of fixating on the result, let us for a moment appreciate what our new centre-back did well during the fixture. For the Foxes, it is clear why they purchased Faes over other potential targets. Not just did the player bring a fresh face, but the non-expensive transfer looked well-rounded.
It was clear how the player would fit in from the first moment he had the ball. Instead of looking back, Faes looked to his sides and forwards. Not just in terms of passing, but in terms of progressing the ball himself.
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.
Therefore, during the match – despite the awful result – the individual performance of the debutant is unquestionable. Strong, possessive, progressive, and composed. As I have said, I do not feel any of the goals were the fault of the centre-backs: they could do no more than prevent close range shots. Danny Ward could have done much better with the longer range efforts.
What more do we need to see?
It would be unfair to judge the player negatively on a single performance in a trash result. This is why we have focused on the positives. However, when replacing one ‘WF’ with another, and expecting a ‘Cags’ style of player, I would have liked to see more aggression in tackling.
Leicester City need to press more, tackle more, and maintain a compact shape to improve their defence. Nervousness had inflicted other players, causing omissions from duties and a lack of challenging. Instead, they preferred to just be in the way and not actively engage.
Perhaps it was a tactical decision by Brendan Rodgers, but we need to see more active engagement and challenging from the player in the defensive third. It is all when and good putting that pressure on in the midfield third, but it is not useful when you have a player like Son barrelling down on your goal.
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