How each Leicester City player has fared in the opening two months of the campaign under Enzo Maresca, who has guided the club to their best-ever league start in the Championship
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of Leicester City’s brilliant first couple of months under Enzo Maresca is that it’s not an easy task to pick out the team’s star player.
The run of 10 wins in 11 games in the Championship is a result of the team’s efforts as a group and their application of the manager’s tactics. It’s the system, and not necessarily individual ability, that is the crux of their success.
But that’s not to say that certain City players have not stood out. There have been many excellent performers over the first two months. Here are our grades for the season so far.
Hermansen is maybe the bargain deal of the summer. He has transformed the way City can play because he’s so good at passing and so composed on the ball. In the Championship, it’s like having an extra player on the pitch. Plus, he’s got the best save percentage in the division. Bar his error at Blackburn, he’s been brilliant.
Grade: A
Jakub Stolarczyk
A new manager with fresh eyes has seen the young Pole fly up the pecking order, and deservedly so if his few performances are anything to go by. His first three games saw him keep clean sheets, albeit he had very little to do, with his first conceded goal not coming until the second half at Anfield. He’s not quite as good on the ball as Hermansen, but looks a very able deputy.
Grade: C+
Ricardo Pereira
In a new role, he’s done very well, although that’s not a surprise for a player of his talent. He’s calm, passes accurately, and understands tactically what Maresca wants, while he still defends expertly when faced up with a winger. It feels greedy to ask, but one or two more of those trademark Ricardo dribbles up the pitch every now and then would really make him one of the best players in the division.
Grade: A-
James Justin
He’s Maresca’s go-to man now Doyle is injured, and hopefully regular game-time will see him make progress towards the levels he reached prior to his knee injury a few years ago. Even without getting to those heights, he’s been more than solid, showing strength in defence and the energy to get forward occasionally, which certainly gives City a different option from the wide centre-back role.
Grade: B-
Wout Faes
Defensively, he’s been extremely good. There have been very few rash moments while winning individual battles against opposition strikers has looked easy for him at times. Maybe that he finds it easy perhaps explains why he sometimes looks too laidback, which has probably been the only downside to his performances so far. That means that on the ball, he sometimes doesn’t pass with the right urgency, although he’s been positive at carrying it forward.
Grade: A-
Jannik Vestergaard
Who would have thought this could happen? Before this season, Vestergaard had not played a league match for 18 months, and had not won one he had started in his whole two-year City career. Now, he’s one of their star performers. Those pace problems against Coventry aside, he’s been excellent, marshalling the penalty area really well at the back, and passing superbly to start City attacks.
Grade: A
Conor Coady
He has finally made his debut, and made two ludicrously good goal-line clearances against Liverpool, but owing to that long foot injury, he has perhaps looked a tad rusty. He’s not been bad, but he’s definitely not yet been good enough to oust Vestergaard.
Grade: C
Harry Souttar
A first outing of the season at Anfield allowed him to show off his defensive abilities, with the big Aussie still at his best when the box is under siege. He was decent on the ball too, though not at a level that might see Maresca turn to him over Faes.
Grade: C
Callum Doyle
The quality of his passing makes clear his Man City education, with balls zipped through the lines into the attacking players a key part of City’s success in the early weeks of the campaign. But there have been wobbles defensively. Against Hull, Delap ran him ragged, and there were a few mistakes at Southampton too.
Grade: B-
Harry Winks
It’s scarcely believable that he is playing in the Championship, that’s how assured he has been. He makes his job look very easy as he moves the ball around the pitch with speed and accuracy, expertly judging when to raise or to slow the tempo. He does some excellent defensive work too and can often be found mopping up.
Grade: A
Hamza Choudhury
He’s earned Maresca’s trust to be used in a number of new roles, and has done a solid job in them. Perhaps with that responsibility, and perhaps with greater experience, he has looked more composed on the ball than when he was last at the club. He still loves, and is very good at, sliding tackles too.
Grade: C+
Wilfred Ndidi
It initially looked like Maresca’s Ndidi experiment would be too hopeful, with the Nigerian struggling to adapt. But since the September international break, he has been very good. He looks like a man reborn, playing with freedom and with a smile on his face, having learned where to be to make an impact in attack, helping himself to goals and assists, while also showing off his dancing feet in and around the box.
Grade: B+
Leave a Reply