Why Leicester City should prioritise a new right winger in January
Jordan Ayew made a dynamic contribution to Leicester City’s goal at Villa Park on Saturday and has popped up with vital goals. Now it’s time to consign him to the bench for the rest of the season.
The most puzzling aspect of the Ruud van Nistelrooy era so far has been his preference for Jordan Ayew over Facundo Buonanotte. To start with, we thought it meant Buonanotte would be heading back to Brighton, but that idea has been put to bed.
And after Leicester had created chances and even dominated for long periods against Manchester City with Buonanotte in for the suspended Ayew, it seemed unfathomable that van Nistelrooy would go back to Ayew at Villa Park.
Of course, watch the highlights of Leicester City’s 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa and you will see Jordan Ayew racing down the right wing. You’ll watch him put in the perfect low cross for Jamie Vardy, whose shot will be parried out by Emiliano Martinez. Your eyes will then be drawn to Stephy Mavididi rushing in from the other flank to place the rebound into the net.
On the face of it, impact from all three. It was a brilliant bit of play from Ayew, trademark Vardy to move across the defender and get the shot away, a third league goal of the season for Mavididi from just twelve starts - not a bad record by any means.
Vardy has six goals and Ayew four. Both rank just outside the top 40 players in the Premier League for goals scored per 90 minutes, above Heung Min-Son, Bukayo Saka and Anthony Gordon.
But if you watched the whole game, you’ll know that Leicester looked feeble in attack outside of that one success.
It’s been a strange quirk this season that players who should be replaced have briefly popped up with the goods to bury the question. Ricardo Pereira was on the bench when James Justin scored twice at the Emirates.
After Ayew’s equaliser at Ipswich, he was selected up front at Old Trafford. A substitute again for the next game against Chelsea, he came on and scored a penalty and was picked from the start at Brentford.
The problem at the sharp end of the pitch is that Leicester have taken just four shots in each of their past three away games. Newcastle, Liverpool and Aston Villa are all tough places to go, but 75% of the fixture list looks difficult. There has to be more of a threat even in games like these.
Of course, Leicester do have more winnable games to prove themselves under Ruud van Nistelrooy. Less daunting encounters lie ahead, but it’s hard to describe any of them as “winnable” when you’ve won one of your past twelve in the league.
Leicester haven’t forgotten how to win this season. They’ve never really stumbled upon a formula in the first place. The three wins were all highly fortunate and time is running out for van Nistelrooy to fashion a team that can get the balance right between defending and attacking at Premier League level.
That comes down to resources, and Leicester have been complacent about where the attacking threat is coming from. This problem had been concealed by an early record of scoring in each of the first ten league games. But the underlying numbers suggested that wouldn’t continue.
The complacency was rooted in two misconceptions - the need for Premier League experience and a fundamental misunderstanding of Abdul Fatawu’s importance.
The former was demoralising given that four of the five best permanent signings the club have made in the past five years - Wesley Fofana, Mads Hermansen, Abdul Fatawu and Bilal El-Khannouss - have all been young players with no prior experience of English football.
Perceived wisdom will tell you it’s a gamble to keep signing players like that rather than “experienced pros” like Ayew and Bobby Decordova-Reid.
But Hermansen, Fatawu and El Khannouss all represent our best hope of doing the two things Leicester need to do more than anything: energise the fanbase and sell for a big profit.
Instead, Leicester splashed out on Oliver Skipp. One of the strangest quotes of the season so far was Steve Cooper’s response to the signing of Skipp.
“Oli offers us strength now, a different profile in midfield,” said Cooper. “This league is brutal. You have to be able to have a more competitive starting team and also when you make changes. That’s what the game is now, it’s about changes, it’s about five subs, and the impact those changes can have on a game.”
It’s true that the central midfield positions looked light at the time, but for the club to sanction a £20million+ signing that was clearly never seen as anything other than rotation, who offers no goal threat or height for set pieces, always felt bizarre.
It’s still early in Skipp’s Leicester career and he’s got more than enough time on his contract to go on three or four Vestergaard or Soumare-style redemption arcs. At the moment it feels like a tragic waste of money and a reminder that for clubs our size, even one or two big money failures can send you spiralling in the wrong direction.
We are told there is no value in the January window. Well-run clubs manage to find it. In the 2023 window - while Leicester were scrambling to sign Victor Kristiansen, Harry Souttar and Tete - Bournemouth brought in Ilia Zabarnyi and Antoine Semenyo, now key men in their push for Europe. Aston Villa signed Jhon Duran from Chicago Fire. Brighton signed Buonanotte.
Buonanotte is one of many cheap pick-ups Brighton have made from across the globe. That Leicester have been forced to develop his talent and increase his transfer value for Brighton’s benefit should be reason alone to sack Jon Rudkin.
Brighton, meanwhile, were able to bring both Yankuba Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma off the bench in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal. They do have players like 34-year-old Danny Welbeck and 39-year-old James Milner, but they don’t have 33-year-old wingers.
Now, Buonanotte would probably be most Leicester supporters’ option to come back into the side on the right wing. But the most interesting opinions always go against the tide. Neither Ayew nor Buonanotte should be genuine right wing options.
Ask most Leicester fans what their priority position for reinforcement would be and they would say right-back, or possibly centre-back, with James Justin and Conor Coady both struggling.
The defence is, admittedly, a nightmare of its own. In truth, this Leicester side needs bolstering in so many positions that it’s difficult to pin down just one or two. But there’s an argument that Leicester should prioritise a right winger above all else.
Someone who offers as close to what Fatawu can as possible: pace, creativity and sheer terror for opposition full-backs - while also working off the ball to help his right-back. It would mean Leicester could look to either side of the pitch for a rapid option on the counter rather than relying solely on Mavididi.
When Leicester were promoted last summer, the twin threat of Mavididi and Fatawu should have been seen as a blueprint. It’s what clever clubs do - sign two players for each position and stick to a plan.
Instead, Rudkin has presided over chaotic squad-building in recent years with countless players exiled by different managers because they don’t fit a tactical strategy. And as soon as someone’s injured, the entire plan goes out of the window without a like-for-like replacement.
Clearly, it will be almost impossible to find someone as good as Fatawu again. In January. For peanuts. While remodelling the rest of the team at the same time.
At times last season, with Ricardo pushed into midfield, Fatawu was the entire right hand side. This season, that responsibility has fallen to Justin who has subsequently endured a torrid campaign. He’s been asked to do too much with too little support and replacing him will just see the same problems handed to someone else.
But if Leicester can re-balance the entire right flank with more pace and threat further forward, Justin will benefit, Mavididi will benefit and so will everybody else.
