Harry Souttar singled out for well-earned Leicester praise

Since arriving in the January transfer window Leicester City’s Harry Souttar has become quite a fan favourite with the Leicester fans.

Souttar’s aggressive and physical style matched with his excellent technical and ball-playing ability may have something to do with standing out. But the big Australian has also been massively appreciated by the Leicester head coach, especially after his standout performance in the 1-1 draw at Brentford.

When talking to Jordan Blackwell, reporter for the Leicester Mercury, Brendan Rodgers had this to say about the centre half following the Brentford draw:

"“Harry Souttar in particular was outstanding. Places like here where they load the boxes with set-pieces, your centre-halves need to be able to defend. Him and Daniel were very good but Harry in particular got his head onto everything.”"

A top Leicester City recruit

That was an excellent summary of the 24-year-old’s display, to be fair. The ability Souttar possess when defending in the box, especially with dealing with crosses and setpieces, is superb, as Rodgers touched upon. It does feel very much like a second coming of Harry Maguire – barring the last 18 months or so of course. Not just the former’s mannerisms in-game but also his temperament on the ball. It is a calmness that many centre backs do not possess.

It is going to be a very interesting last 11 games for the Foxes in a sense of seeing how the partnership between Souttar and Wout Faes develops, as all great centre-back partnerships need time to allow pairs to become familiar with each other’s playing style. Faes is very much a front-foot defender, always looking to put a foot in at any opportunity and it has resulted in the conceding of soft goals.

Looking back to the 3-1 loss to Manchester United, Marcus Rashford’s first goal, Faes dove in to try and win the ball, leaving Souttar Stranded whilst playing Rashford onside to go through and score. This is a negative that, after 15-20 games of playing side-by-side, will most likely not occur considering what seems to be quite a high ceiling for the pair.

Whether that forecasting is correct or not, what is very clear that even with Faes out suspended, Souttar showed brilliant defensive capabilities in what could turn out to be a vital point in the battle to keep their Premier League status. Do you like the look of the Aussie?