Leicester City remain locked in a relegation battle despite a few seasons ago being in the top four battle. Here are three players who have not done enough.
The King Power club’s rapid regression has been shocking and frustrating. Claims of players not working hard enough, not being good enough, not being coached well enough, etc. have been thrown about. This season though, there are some who have stood out – badly.
To help illustrate my picks, I shall be using data from FB Ref, ratings from SofaScore, and snippets of information from SmarterScout. However, as is the usual, these will be personal opinion, so please let Foxes of Leicester know your thoughts on our social media channels.
Leicester City’s former star boy
A few seasons ago, the Foxes were in dire straits as their star left-back Ben Chilwell was out for the count. The next season he would depart anyway. In that moment, U23 starlet Luke Thomas was given his Premier League debut. He did a brilliant job coming in providing defensive innovation and attacking output.
During the 22/23 campaign however, his performances had left supporters yearning for the return of Ricardo Pereira and James Justin. Timothy Castagne has since taken on the left-back role with the Portuguese international returning to be the first-team right-back. Thomas has been dejected by supporters and the head coach.
The England U21 international has 10 appearances to his name this season, accumulating a total of zero attacking contributions of any form as well as giving possession away countless times (10.6 averaged based on minutes according to Sofascore, and only a 78% passing accuracy according to FB Ref). So, we have a player who has barely contributed and has actually ended up helping the opposition.
Needless to say, a lack of positional awareness has also left the Foxes questioning what changed to reduce the defensive competence of this brilliant young talent. You can still see glimpses of the talent we had come to expect of the English left-back: SmarterScout illustrate that Thomas continues to recover well – this means he can track back frequently into defensive positions. So, he may give the ball away, but he tracks back well.
Personally, I still believe Thomas has immense potential and remains a critical player for us going forward, but clearly being the only option put too much pressure on the youngster and led to a shattering of confidence and form. Brendan Rodgers has not managed this player well.
Patson Daka
Leicester City’s most exciting transfer of last season was Patson Daka. The promise of an explosive goal-machine consistently scoring in another league when given the opportunities; a player with pace, gall, and tenacity. The perfect replacement to Jamie Vardy.
This was the campaign for him. The English striker is coming to the end of his career and has performed poorly; it was the opportunity for Daka to start matches and to start showing what he could do. Now, it could simply be the malaise in the team, but the 20 appearances he has claimed have been utterly shambolic and simply unacceptable at this level.
Four goals, three assists, four big chances missed, and low defensive involvement. The Zambian has not overly contributed to a successful high-press and has failed to drive the team onwards. In fact, SmarterScout rate him at 52/100 in terms of propensity to shoot: this was supposed to be a selfish but clinical goal machine.
As with Thomas, I continue to trust Daka. I think he is a brilliant striker being affected by the overall malaise and lack of quality seemingly affecting the squad and destroying his confidence. What the striker has tried to do is be at the ready for passes to feet, thus his explosiveness and pace has been under utilised. Hopefully the next campaign will be much better for the player.
Wilfred Ndidi
This one is honestly a little sad to say. The King Power club will remember but a short couple seasons ago, a midfield of Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, and James Maddison: the most balanced trio you could get. The Nigerian did all the defensive work, the Belgian all the possession and progression, and the Englishman all the creativity. Now, Ndidi looks a shadow of that former glory.
FB Ref still rate him within the 97th percentile for interceptions and 95th for tackling, which is good, but the reality is that his defensive output has fallen dramatically. For example, SmarterScout rated the player 97/100 for defensive quantity, 63/100 for quality; this campaign has seen 54 and 21 respectively. These are shocking declines in the amount of actions taken by Ndidi to break up play and in the success of these actions.
We already knew the player had no attacking output, but not now not have anywhere near as much defensive output, while continuing to have extremely low possession and progressive passes comparatively to other midfielders, is genuinely really sad. I miss the player we used to watch dominate as our anchor at the base of a midfield better than any other.
All three must be replaced in the starting XI. Viktor Kristiansen, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Papy Mendy have earned their chances ahead of these players. Let us hope they can keep their places and build some positive performances.