‘Big’ Jannik Vestergaard: he certainly is the man of the moment. What moment that is would be highly debatable depending on who you ask. The 6’6″(1,99m) Danish defender didn’t arrive to the East Midlands with much fan fare. My personal memories of Vestergaard stemmed from the Foxes 9 – 0 demolition of the Saints back in October of 2019. As it would play out, the giant Dane ended up as most Leicester City fans thought he might: on the bench, barely touching the pitch in an official match. LCFC paid £17.6million for him in the summer of 2021 and it’s safe to say that so far they haven’t gotten any return on that investment. But whose fault is that exactly, and can it be rectified?
Let’s take a look at the state of the things when Big Jan arrived. Brendan Rodgers had just notched his second successive fifth place finish, but it was a weird time at the club. People were happy and worried at the same time. Most fans will recall that in each of these seasons Rodgers had brought the team to the brink of Champions League qualification, only to fall out of the top four on the final day of the season; first by losing to Manchester United(19/20), and the following season by losing to Tottenham(20/21). In addition to Vestergaard, the Foxes also signed his Southampton teammate Ryan Bertrand. You may remember him from such starring roles as “Guy that took the red card that led to Leicester steamrolling the Saints nine to nil”. Needless to say, fans struggled to grasp any reason as to why we signed these two athletes.
Fast forward to the current position the Foxes find themselves in. Relegated to the second division, their recognized star players from last season departing, and facing the task of being the team to beat in the Championship this season. And it seems as though a familiar character is making a return to our collective consciousness. Vestergaard was most recently seen in the final warm-up game against Liverpool in Singapore this past Sunday. With his reemergence into the team many fans have been left to wonder: what does this mean for opening day against Coventry City?
In my opinion there are only two reasons why Big Jan is coming back for seconds. Both of these reasons need to be put into the context of Connor Coady being injured for now. I do believe if he was fit this wouldn’t be talked about as much. Reason number one is simple enough: Maresca has seen something he likes in training and wants to try to utilize the player. Reason two: LCFC desperately want his wages off the books and are trying to capitalize on the new style of play from the manager and the lesser quality of opponent in the second division to entice someone to buy him.
Of these, reason number two takes less explanation. Jannik Vestergaard is rumored to be among the top ten earners at the club. I do not believe he is a terrible player. Maybe he wasn’t cut out for what Leicester’s aspirations were. His quality wasn’t equal to the heights the club were reaching for, but with the horrible injury to Wesley Fofana the club scrambled to find cover and settled on the Danish international. The club will play in the Championship and try to play a style that should see them boss many teams in the league. It could be a chance to show this player isn’t finished and recoup something for him as well as get his earnings off the books. All players start with a clean slate when a new manager comes in, and that isn’t any different for Vestergaard.
Reason number one requires an understanding of tactics I only feign to possess. In my limited understanding, Vestergaard is a decent passer. This system requires our center backs(it seems particularly the middle and left) to draw opposition players onto them and make the correct passes. Vestergaard did it in the game against Liverpool; pinging a ball over the top for Daka to run onto. Admittedly he did give the ball away more than a few times, but I guarantee the manager’s instructions were to play with freedom and not worry about the result.
In addition, the guy is tall. Vestergaard is most certainly a potential asset in both boxes. Overall Leicester City don’t have many tall players. Wilf is the only one who immediately springs to mind in the height category. Effectiveness on set pieces is something the Foxes have lacked for quite some time and it would be nice to see the giant Dane use that prolific height for us finally.
Let me close with a small justification of why he deserves a chance. Brendan Rodgers destroyed this club in more than one way, and part of his Godzilla-like destruction of our club was freezing out perfectly good players for whatever reason he decided. Take Soyuncu. Rodgers just stopped playing him completely, he then arrives to Atletico Madrid on a free. You know, the 3rd best team in Spain. Soyuncu has gone from being blacklisted from a relegation side to Champions League. While I’m not saying Vestergaard has the same redemption arc as the Turkish Lord Farquad, surely he has a chance to clear his name.
Again, with Coady out and rumors floating around that Maresca doesn’t rate Souttar, it looks like it will be Vestergaard or Faes. Both may leave before the window ends, but let’s not be so quick to condemn the choice of a player who literally featured in 10 games for us, and if analyzed correctly, you can see those games were such gut punches to confidence that I’m amazed he didn’t retire. Let’s get behind this team and loudly support the boys no matter the lineup come Sunday. This is new era at Leicester City Football Club; let’s usher it in with pride. Up the Foxes!