Rating every Leicester City summer signing - #6: Cesare Casadei
The scorer of an injury-time winner before we even had the chance to ask our writers what they thought of his arrival, Cesare Casadei has already shown his potential after signing on loan from Chelsea.
Adam Hodges: 8
The young Italian made a direct impact on the Cardiff game by not being distracted by the foul on Jamie Vardy and kept his head down to drive the winning goal home.
Reminiscent of another Chelsea loanee of yesteryear, Muzzy Izzet, Casadei will surely start from now on in the position that Wilfred Ndidi had surprisingly found himself playing.
A KDH/Casadei partnership in the attacking pivot of Maresca's box midfield will be a handful around the box for opposing defenders.
A competent right winger is now needed to allow Casadei to link up with, getting the ball out wide and stretching the opposing full backs.
Iain Wright: 8.5
The demand for "young, hungry players" has almost become a cliche and he certainly fits that bill.
However, the worry I have is that there are a significant portion of our match-going fans that have no patience whatsoever with young players, as demonstrated by the groans in the stadium when Kasey McAteer and Wanya Marcal-Madivadua haven't beaten their man at the first time of asking or a pass goes astray.
All players, especially young ones making debuts or with just a handful of games at this level, need support, not fear of failure. The reality is, following relegation, we can't just loan players out and have them back match ready like we did with Harvey Barnes and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, as we are the proving ground now. Which is why we've got the opportunity to have Casadei on loan in the first place.
His time at Reading showed he's got a lot to learn, develop and toughen up. Fans in the stadium need to be supportive to enable him to do that which, in turn, should allow his quality to shine. Just don't fall in love with a loan player!
David Bevan: 9
I’ve already explained why I think Casadei is pretty much the perfect loan signing, and that was before he popped up with a debut winner. The most noticeable thing from actually seeing him play in the flesh was his presence.
It seems strange on one hand to willingly sacrifice a player of Wilfred Ndidi’s historic pedigree from the starting lineup in favour of an inexperienced loanee. But Casadei is just what we need in this setup, whereas Ndidi needs to go back to the drawing board to work out the next step in his career.
Another goal or two for Casadei in the short-term and opponents will be watching him a lot more closely, particularly as his height will naturally attract markers in and around the box, which should open up space for others. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Jamie Barnard: 7
I’m going to go 7. If only because I won’t have to see Wilfred Ndidi in front of goal, trying to remember how to do something other than tackling.
Against Cardiff I thought our right side offensively let us down in having two players there (Ndidi and Marcal-Madivadua) who weren’t fully comfortable.
So if Casadei can at least look comfortable and live up to just some of the hype then he’ll be a solid signing.
Average rating: 8.13
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