The People vs The Fosse Way: Don’t doubt Wout - There’s nothing special about Conor Coady
In a new series, we’re inviting opinions from the audience and arguing against whatever we get in.
Representing the people on this feature’s first outing: @FoxisBlue, on why Wout Faes deserves to keep his spot.
Taking the prosecutor role for The Fosse Way: Harry Gregory, who is advocating for a change at the back.
Do you have a particularly strong Leicester City-related opinion - maybe you want to sack Enzo immediately and bring back Big Nige? Or you’ve seen something we’ve written that you wholly disagree with - maybe you think Danny Ward is a much maligned figure at Leicester City?
Share it with us and we’ll appoint one of our intrepid writers to argue with you. This is The People vs The Fosse Way.
The first question up for debate concerns the man with the cartoon character hair, the divisive Wout Faes.
Is it time for Enzo to roll the dice and try either Conor Coady or Ben Nelson, or is Faes unfairly being scapegoated and deserving of patience?
Representing the people
@FoxisBlue
As the end of Leicester’s season becomes fraught, Leicester fans are once again falling into the non-playing superstar syndrome. What’s that, you ask? Simple, it’s where a player who is not getting playing time is suddenly seen as a much better player than he actually is and therefore must have a place on the team sheet.
This has already happened this year with Kelechi Iheanacho, Patson Daka and above all, Wilfred Ndidi. But as title and promotion hopes start to decline the latest non-playing superstar is Conor Coady.
Yes the 31 year old, £7.5m signing from Wolves (via a failure at Everton). He was signed to a long-term contract at a vastly inflated weekly wage and brought in as a leader and ball distributing centre-back, following the departure of Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu and the expected departure of the unused Jannick Vestergaard.
However, a pre-season injury to the veteran opened the door for Vestergaard who has performed admirably in the role originally set aside for Conor. So much so, that Conor has only managed 516 minutes in the championship all season, this, despite Vestergaard’s disciplinary record and the coach’s worry about tired players during a long and combative season.
Still, there is a crescendo of cries for Coady to start for Leicester from a large portion of frustrated Leicester fans. Naively, they wish to see him replace Faes in the starting lineup and play alongside Vestergaard. Instantly increasing the vocal leadership on the pitch but drastically reducing the already pedestrian speed of the defence.
These fans fail to understand that Enzoball entails centre-backs stationed at the halfway line in 1v1s or 2v2s. The centre-backs need to be cool on the ball, with good ball control skills and be great distributors. The side that the fans fail to grasp is that this means the centre-back must stop the attacker crossing the halfway line either through interception or more physical means and when they don’t, one of them needs to have the speed and wisdom to get back and defend. Sprinting 30 or 40 metres alongside their opponent.
This is further complicated by the tactic which removes the right-back from the defence and puts them in midfield, meaning that the only potential cover comes from the left-back. Coady is the direct replacement for Vestergaard. He is not a replacement for Faes as they play quite differently.
In this system, Coady could play alongside Faes but not alongside Vestergaard. Would Coady replacing Vestergaard be an improvement? It’s hard to say as in 50 games we haven’t seen much of it. Coady would bring vocal leadership but clearly Enzo believes that Vestergaard is a much better quarterback-like centre-back than Coady.
In the summer Vestergaard’s contract expires and he will leave meaning that if Enzo is still in charge, Coady (then 32) is likely to take the role on. If that’s in the Championship he may well be sufficient, if that’s in the Premier league I really doubt it.
The one thing I’m sure of is that he isn’t a non-playing superstar and the fans need to realise this and get behind Faes for the final 4 games (especially the 3 home matches). If anything is going to save this team it’s more likely to be home support than Coady playing alongside Vestergaard.
Representing TFW
Harry Gregory
In my 11-a-side playing days, I was a slow but reasonably aerially good central defender. You could say there are similarities with Jannik Vestergaard. There were limitations to what I could do and I can confess that I was rinsed on multiple occasions. As a team we quickly worked out that I was better suited to play alongside a quicker sweeper type central defender.
I would attack the ball or go touch-tight to the striker while the other central back would look to keep himself free to sweep up. The relationship between two central defenders becomes one of trust. You consistently look after your partner – and the dilemma is often a choice between pressing the ball or to mark the other attacker on your shoulder.
If you think of the defensive relationship between our back four, you look at the roles of aggressive defending and considered defending. Wout Faes adopts that role of the aggressor. He will press the ball regardless of position on the pitch. Jannik, despite his lack of pace, is left to be the sweeper. That, on face value, is a disaster waiting to happen.
The sweeper of the two must predict what the aggressive centre back is going to do. That’s exactly why Wout Faes has no place in this Leicester City XI currently. There is no pattern to what Faes will do. Whether it’s a stroll sixty yards up the pitch to lose the ball, a miscued attempt of a clearance or applauding a fellow player as the opposition win the ball back. That’s been Faes this season. For Vestergaard it must be a total headache to face up alongside.
Enzo Maresca could choose to go with the more experienced and steadier Conor Coady whose experience would suggest that he will take the ‘percentage’ option on most occasions. Coady isn’t a prized ball player or even an aerially dominant force. However, he’s safe. The ideology that Faes is chosen on account of him being the quickest of the central defenders would have logic if he was the ‘sweeper’ but he’s not.
Mostly likely down to confidence, Faes’s outright defending has got progressively poorer. For the goal conceded at Plymouth, he allowed Mustapha Bundu to move the ball up the pitch without challenge and then held off engaging which gave Bundu the chance to cut in.
Two points here to pick up. That he held off him rather than engage Bundu to physical contact suggests Wout didn’t back his own speed against Bundu. There was a lack of intelligence that he couldn’t identify either that Bundu wanted to cut in with his right foot to shoot despite the previous twenty minutes, he consistently cut inside.
The casual arrogance he displays could be supported if the ability and performances backed up. Something which probably wasn’t caught on screen last Friday was Faes’s reaction to a poor pass he attempted towards Fatawu. Rather than hold his hand towards Fatawu, he shrugged his shoulders to absolve himself of blame.
Even in his best form, there’s been behaviour which suggests once he believes he has the beating of a striker, he becomes overconfident. How many times have we seen that over-eagerness to tackle end up in two players in a heap and give the referee a decision to consider?
Right now, City need a steady performer to firstly defend and stop the needless goals being conceded. Wout Faes does not provide that. Simply Enzo: go simple.
Your verdict
Faes or Coady? Let us know in the comments…
