We need much more from Mavididi - it’s time for Stephy to step up
Not another international break… We’re using this one to make the most of two defeats in a row and roll out our hottest takes on Leicester City’s season so far - starting with David Bevan posing a question about Stephy Mavididi.
Since James Knight bravely stuck his head above the parapet and asked, after 13 wins from 14 games, whether we were any good or not, we haven't been able to stop losing. So it is with trepidation that I ask, specifically, is Stephy Mavididi any good?
I'm starting to become notorious in the TFW WhatsApp group for not rating Mavididi. So I'll get these clarifications out of the way first.
There's a huge discrepancy between Mavididi's performances and what I'd become used to expecting from a right-footed left winger in a Leicester City shirt. But that was Harvey Barnes - a £40million Premier League player - which is obviously an unfair benchmark.
There's also a huge discrepancy between Mavididi's performances and what I'd expect from someone who had his own song after one game. But that's not his fault, and anything that helps the atmosphere is a positive. Even Mavididi himself playing up to it with the edited Lamborghini logo is the kind of thing that should be encouraged to help the connection between players and fans.
I’ll add a third caveat - Leicester’s acquisition of wide players in the past few years has either been abysmal or non-existent. This means we’ve had to start from scratch after selling our one winger, whereas the likes of Southampton and Leeds have had players available from the get-go.
Nevertheless, as much as I want Mavididi to succeed, because he seems very likeable, he needs to start producing more. Much more.
Buzzkill
The alarm bells started ringing as early as Mavididi’s debut on the opening day against Coventry, when his attempts to take on his marker seemed to involve repeatedly running straight into him.
Fast forward a few months to the announcement of the two lineups ahead of the crunch game against Leeds and there were opposition fans on social media worrying about what Mavididi would do to their out-of-position 17-year-old midfielder Archie Gray, filling in at right-back. To be frank, I didn't think they needed to be concerned.
I haven't felt a buzz of excitement very often when Mavididi has got the ball this season. At the heart of that feeling, or lack of it, is that I never really sense that a goal is on the cards, and the basic stats back that up even before we delve into more detail.
For a 25-year-old attacker with several years of experience in one of Europe's top 5 leagues (albeit the weakest one), Mavididi's output has been pretty dire so far in terms of goals and assists.
He laid the ball off to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for a goal against Coventry, shot through the goalkeeper's legs at Huddersfield, registered a goal and an assist at Southampton on a night when a lot of fans still questioned his decision-making as a whole, and scored a massively deflected goal at QPR, where he also laid the ball off for Harry Winks's late winner.
And that's it. 3 goals and 3 assists from 16 games. And I'd argue only one of those assists was anything more than laying the ball off for a long shot.
Stats life
It's not helping that Abdul Fatawu only has one goal and one assist from his 12 games too, but Fatawu is 19 and playing in his first full season at senior level. Mavididi has more than ten times the number of starts and minutes in his career. Fatawu is also on loan, subject to a buy clause, as opposed to Mavididi who is just beginning a five-year contract.
Wide players can often drift out of games but Enzoball means our wingers can’t argue that they aren't involved enough. Mavididi's touches per 90 have gone up from 37.3 last season at Montpellier to 48.4 this season. It's where those touches take place that's most interesting - 5.45 touches per 90 last season in the defensive third has become 4.36 this season and 16.2 in the midfield third has become 14.9.
But 17.1 in the attacking third has rocketed up to 30.3. In the opposition penalty area, it's up from 3.57 to 5.64.
Yet his number of take-ons is down, his successful take-ons are down, the success percentage is down. His xG per 90 is down from 0.30 to 0.23. This is a player we need to be blazing past his full-back and getting a high-quality shot at goal. Whether this is reluctance, inability or purely down to instruction is still up for debate. It's obvious from Enzo Maresca's comments about Fatawu that Maresca likes his wingers to make space for players inside so it isn't all about the take-ons.
Challengers emerge
The question is how much Mavididi’s lack of productivity is due to Maresca’s instructions. Matt Piper mentioned two aspects of this on the When You’re Smiling Podcast this week - firstly, that he’d noticed Mavididi stands off his marker to receive possession and secondly, that we don’t get enough bodies in the box for the cross. There have certainly been times recently when both Mavididi and Fatawu have been forced to look for each other because there are so few options in the middle.
However, if other teams continue to keep close to us at the top or even perform a Lamborghini-esque overtake, Mavididi won't be judged this season against Harvey Barnes or even Fatawu, but our closest challengers' left wingers. As Ipswich and Leeds in particular get closer to us, their players become more of a benchmark for ours.
While Mavididi has 3 goals from 16 games, Crysencio Summerville of Leeds and Ipswich’s Nathan Broadhead both have 6 goals from 13 games. They're both having nearly twice as many shots as Mavididi, and both have been successful with more than 50% of their take-ons compared to Mavididi's 39% (Fatawu is at 49.2%).
After two defeats in a row, attention was always going to turn to where Leicester need to improve. The overall defensive record is still strong, with even the two goals conceded in those games coming from set pieces. We need more in attack.
Of course Mavididi isn't the only player who needs to step things up to help turn all our possession into goals. We need greater consistency from the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall too. But Mavididi seems like the one with the biggest leap to make from what he's producing at the moment to what we require to stay ahead of the pack.
12 Days of Christmas at The Bridge
For the past 10 years, The Bridge Homelessness to Hope has served a 3-course Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings to hundreds of people in Leicester who are experiencing homelessness.
This year, they want to go one better and offer their guests (service users) not just one day of celebrations but 12 days of festive events over the month of December.
If you’re enjoying The Fosse Way, please consider donating to The Bridge’s Christmas appeal:
