Heading into the World Cup, Leicester City had seven of their players representing the club and competing for their countries.
It was an eventful early competition for the Foxes; only James Maddison remains in the quarterfinals. Three LCFC players were on the Belgium squad which surprisingly failed to make it out of the group stage despite being ranked as the second best team attending, according to FIFA. Danny Ward, Daniel Amartey and Nampalys Mendy were not able to help their respective nations past the knockout stages, either.
Some Foxes played their hearts out, while others haven’t even been given a chance at all. We saw high and lows from Brendan Rodgers’ men, as explained below.
Best: Leicester City’s Timothy Castagne
Despite Belgium underperforming, Timothy Castagne played well, especially considering he played two games at centreback. Castagne’s best performance came against Croatia which ended in a 0-0 draw. Defensively he was solid: he had five recoveries, four general clearances and two headed away. In addition to that, he was able to move the ball back up the pitch due to 73 out of 76 accurate passes.
A starter in all three games, Castagne was able to help the side keep two clean sheets. He was consintatly making recovieres and interceptions, whilst teams struggled to score on Belgium. The ball movement was key from Castagne as he was the best passing defender.
If this side could have ignored or bypassed chemistry issues and had an in-form striker up top, the Red Devils would likely have still been in the tournament at the point. ‘Timo’ played well to help his team get close to qualifying.
Worst: Danny Ward
The Welsh goal keeper had a great run of form at Leicester City before heading to the World Cup. Unfortunately that form did not carry over to the tournament. Wayne Hennessey played ahead of Ward to start off the tournament. In the 87’ against Iran, Hennessey got a red card as the game was tied with zero goals. Ward came into the gane and Iran scored two goals to win the game.
Ward would be forced to start the next game as Wales took on a dangerous England squad. He and the defnesive were not able to stop the English attack as they were able to score three goals. Marcus Rashford was able to get a brace past Ward. Distribution was also an issue for Ward as he was 43% on accurate long balls and 60% on accurate passes.
Best: Nampalys Mendy
Mendy was a key factor in Senegal making it out of the group stages. A rough 3-0 defeat to England in the Round of 16 overshadowed a good tournament for the defensive midfielder. Mendy played well against Netherlands and Qatar. In those games he was 85% with his accurate passes while recording 11 recoveries. He was all over the midfield in those two games. He was subbed on against Ecuador and he was able to help the team maintain their 2-1 lead.
Mendy was great at passing the ball against England. He secured a score of 49 out of 50 for accurate passes, and went six for seven with regard to accurate long balls. The Sengal squad was just not able to keep up with the quality of the English squad. Mendy should have earned the oppruniuity to get more minutes in the Leicester City squad.
Worst: Youri Tielemans
The Belgium squad had high expectations heading into the World Cup. Youri Tielemans was one of the reasons as to why they had those expectations. He was not able to deliver. He only played the first half against Canada before he was subbed out of the game. He was 68 per cent on his accurate passes and a worrfying 25% on his accurate long balls.
Tielemans was subbed on in the last thirty minutes of Belgium’s 2-0 defeat to Morroco. He played well in duels and was able to move the ball well yet, it was not good enough of an effort to help the squad win. The LCFC player than only played the last 13 minutes against Croatia where he was not able to help his team score the needed goal. Like the Belgium squad, Tielemans was underwhelming this World Cup.
Did not play: James Maddison and Wout Faes
The two best players Leicester City sent to the World Cup haven’t played. Wout Faes shockingly was not a starting centre back in the Belgium squad. Castagne started at centre back over him which is confusing. James Maddison has unfortunately not played due to the spectacular play of Phil Foden and Gareth Southgate’s personal agenda for Mason Mount.