We all have seen the best of Hamza Choudhury in a number of games playing in midfield. His tackling and speed on short distance is known as his best attributes. His passing is also good at times but struggles in the offensive part of the game. Competition in midfield is also hard and to see him perform, going defensive, as he did makes it difficult to overlook him going forward.
Hamza was World class alongside Jannik Vestergaard and his presence shows that he can control a back four being in that deep role solved in the best way possible.
Being left a bit in limbo by Brendan Rodgers in the last two seasons not getting too much game time really gave a message back in this 3rd round FA Cup game.
His passing was absolute and 86% of it was good. Stats never lie, but the question is will he be given more chances to play in this role? Looking at the past players such as Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Moore comes to mind as Hamza played his game with calm and finesse.
Brendan Rodger compared him with Javier Mascherano. Pep Guardiola did this with a purpose using a natural midfielder in a defensive role as passing and the vision of the game often is more developed for a player in this position and you get a fluid and better result especially with passes.
Hamza did even make Jannik a better player being more in control of his role, got a penalty and cleared everything in the air. The roles were definated and easy to understand as a good old pairing of experienced defenders.
Watford might not have been the best of opponents but that should not take away the performance of that battling duo that did see Leicester get through to the 4th round.
Going back a number of years Jimmy Bloomfield did the same and played Jon Sammels and Alan Birchenall at times in that sweeper role, but it never became a permanent solution as both players wanted to play in midfield and did not really fancy the idea of being in a back four.
Graham Cross, Frank McLintock are others to mention both being players combining the roles and Frank doing his trade at QPR and Arsenal more and more as a central defender with him playing midfield at Leicester. Kevin MacDonald is another example and of course at present time Wilfred Ndidi.
Brendan Rodgers do have an eye for possible solutions and with what we know at this moment, Hamza could be the alternative instead of moving Ndidi to the back as his presence is very much needed in midfield.
A great performance by Hamza and shows that Brendan Rodgers might have good options in this position going forward, nice to watch such a great performance and being the icing on the cake getting a great afternoon after watching this grand performance.
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