Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers doubts that his most experienced defender Jonny Evans will be available for the opening game of the season and we all know how his troubled foot has seen him struggle with fitness levels last season, pulling off in games and leaving a gap behind him that at the moment no player has been able to fill.
During pre-season and in games he was absent last season, Leicester struggled and are letting in goals you would not see with Jonny Evans in the middle of the heat as he is by TCF rated as among the best defenders in the Premier League and highly thought off.
Today and in previous pre-season games the defense has been rocky and leaky and with that stability gone and with the two more lively defenders, Soyuncu and Fofana, not really seeing the calmness needed as the two have other qualities, but need that steady character at their side.
We all know that money aren’t flushing in without making major sales. Pulling that magic rabbit out of the hat has in previous years also been very difficult and the signing of Jonny Evans, done by Claude Puel, back in 2018 has been fantastic business, with emergency defenders such as Molla Wague, Ryan Bennett and Aleksandar Dragovic being brought in during previous transfer windows and not really had any special impact, none of them staying on after their loan spells. TCF believe that Filip Benkovic has a huge potential, but still very young and not really experienced enough to just replace Jonny Evans at this point, but would rather see Rodgers doing a try than juggling his systems around, as that upsets the rest of the team balance.
Ozan Kabak, earlier linked with a move to Leicester, and Caglar Soyuncu has been a pair in the defence of Turkey and they struggled to keep some sort of stabilty in games against top opponents, so this would be a risky scenario and one we believe wouldn’t be the ideal idea as Kabak needs time to adjust to such a job and we would not see Brendan Rodgers going into the market after him.
Embed from Getty ImagesA more experienced player must be a priority and James Tarkowski of Burnley would be the ideal man to go for, but that would surely not be a player joining on loan. While the pre-season has been an experimental time regarding the back four or back three, it will surely be a headache for Brendan Rodgers to get everything in order to that day of the PL season opener.
The fact that Leicester signed Ryan Bertrand instead of trying to bring in Robin Gosens shows a scenario that you probably can work out yourself, and at this moment Jonny Evans must be seen as the main concern, and could Leicester bring in one of the forgotten men in football, Phil Jones?
Phil Jones could be the perfect man, but we don’t know much about the England international that has been placed in the freezer by OGS and this is just a wild guess on a player that in his best form could go straight in and be part of a back three and possibly available on a loan.
Embed from Getty ImagesNothing said about Phil Jones, but in form a great player, hardly seen in the game for a while, so we just don’t know if this is possible. Those other players linked with a move to Leicester are either favorites to join other clubs or just not ready to step straight into the heat.
James Tarkowski is not seen linked with other clubs at this moment, and Phil Jones is on the radar of West Ham according to the rumour mill, so we just have to wait and see what Brendan Rodgers will do. He has a worry to sort out, but hopefully Jonny Evans will regain full fitness and we can just calm down, anyway to get some sort of a settled group of central defenders would at least see one new player added, or give Filip Benkovic the chance to establish himself as that fourth player to call for when you need that cover and you will need that during a season. Ben Nelson (17) is surely a huge talent, and how he went about last season and took his place in the U.23’s, could as well surprise everyone and of course James Justin is also one to actually consider heavily as that cover, as he can operate in a number of positions in the back. We do just hope that Jonny Evans will soon be back to full fitness and best of luck during his struggles with this bad and difficult injury.
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