LEICESTER, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 27: General view inside the stadium where a detailed view of a corner flag can be seen prior to the Premier League match between Leicester City and West Ham United at The King Power Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Leicester City have four top strikers – but this is why Enzo is reaching out for Patson Daka
Most managers in this division would love the ability to pick just one of Leicester City’s strikers on a regular basis, but Enzo Maresca seems to have settled on Patson Daka as his main man. Not every Leicester fan loves Daka, so let’s look at why they probably should – and why Enzo does.
Attitudes towards Daka sum up the rough 80/20 split in the fanbase that dominated the agenda in the early part of last week. As 80% of fans back Maresca’s tactical idea and 20% have retained an element of scepticism, there’s probably a similar divide over Daka.
The majority of fans appreciate his dynamism, team ethic and current goal record. A minority focus more on his inconsistent touch, the occasional horror show of a miss and his failure to prove himself in two Premier League seasons – all of which carry validity.
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What is inarguable is that since he was introduced into the side at Championship level, he has brought goals – both for himself and for his team-mates.
Nacho man
We were expecting this kind of impact from Kelechi Iheanacho, who would surely suit Maresca’s big idea perfectly by dropping deep to link play and getting the flying wingers on the ball further up the pitch. That was why Brendan Rodgers only started picking Iheanacho once we had a pacy option on the right as well as the left last season.
It also seemed inevitable Iheanacho would score in the region of 25 goals in the Championship. That’s not going to happen now, and it seems far more likely that Daka will end up as our top scorer. In fact, if he kept up his current goalscoring rate, Daka would get close to 25 despite not starting a game until 9th December and missing three games while at the African Cup of Nations.
Through Maresca’s rotation prior to selecting Daka, both Vardy and Iheanacho have played enough this season to draw some meaningful conclusions and Daka is now getting there as he approaches 600 minutes of Championship action. Tom Cannon arguably hasn’t had enough pitch time to warrant real analysis but there are a few indicators in his early numbers too.
Iheanacho averages 48 touches per 90 minutes, with Daka on 34, Cannon 29 and Vardy 28. This discrepancy largely stems from the midfield third, where Iheanacho has 10 more touches per game on average than the other three (26 to Vardy’s 16 with Daka and Cannon on 15).
In the Premier League years, Iheanacho suffered from the presence of both Jamie Vardy and James Maddison in the number 9 and the number 10 roles respectively. Iheanacho was a 9 and a half.
Take both Vardy and Maddison out of the equation and when Daka and Iheanacho played together, they often complemented each other. But this was never going to happen enough to be a real solution – the days of a front two seemed to be long gone even before Maresca arrived with his rigid devotion to a single striker. Iheanacho’s career-long struggle to pin down a consistent starting place continues, while Daka has adapted to the system.
In and out
This season, the distribution of touches between the midfield third and attacking third per 90 (15/15 for Daka, 26/19 for Iheanacho) neatly sums up the idea that Iheanacho either plays too deep or hasn’t got the pace to make it into the final third for the finishing touch.
The obvious reference point is Daka’s first goal of the season against Plymouth. It may be Leicester’s best goal of the season. Not the prettiest, necessarily, but the most effective and efficient, which encapsulates Daka’s impact on this team. It’s the most startling illustration of his pace and the contribution that makes to Maresca’s idea. Press us high and we’ll run in behind.
Daka is also Leicester’s best striker out of possession. It brings to mind the famous quote about Drinkwater playing with Kante either side. Daka’s pace means he can press two defenders in an instant, which is a huge positive.
This Leicester side benefits from dual roles all over the pitch – Mads Hermansen doubling up as a centre-back when we have the ball, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s energy meaning he can patrol entire swathes of the pitch, both wingers working back tirelessly in full-back positions. Daka provides one of the most important aspects of this approach and is reminiscent of prime Vardy’s ability to wage a one-man war against a back four, to borrow a Gordon Strachan line about a young Emile Heskey.
Pass mastering
Daka’s main weakness is, of course, his passing. And yes, it’s something he needs to continue to work on. And yes, Iheanacho attempts more passes (31 to Daka’s 17) and is more successful (87% completion to Daka’s 76%). But Daka has more assists in his 592 minutes of action than all of the other strikers put together (3, with Vardy and Iheanacho both on 1).
A simple pass to Wilfred Ndidi for the fourth against Plymouth was the first of the three and a smart through-ball for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s opener against Swansea the most recent. The best, though, came at Portman Road on Boxing Day, and is one of the other candidates for the best goal Leicester have scored this season, particularly given the situation.
The movement off the ball was remarkable – Ricardo’s run moving the Ipswich centre-back away from Daka and Ndidi’s decoy run dragging the right-back away from Mavididi – but Daka’s acceleration was what really scared the home side’s back line and that must be a constant worry for every team we play. Defenders at this level are just not used to playing against lightning fast international strikers.
Three days later, we saw the other side of the coin. Daka was dreadful in possession during what was otherwise a cakewalk at Cardiff, and three days after that Tom Cannon scored twice on his first league start.
Cannon fires
Daka and Cannon are both mobile but whereas Daka is pure athleticism with unrivalled pace, Cannon’s attributes seem to have more of a balance – a bit more strength, a bit more aerial ability. The most interesting difference is in their shooting.
Vardy has the highest percentage of shots on target at 43%. Daka’s is 37%, Cannon 39% and Iheanacho 31%. But Vardy also takes fewer shots per 90 – just 2.05 compared to Daka’s 2.89 and Iheanacho’s 2.72 with Cannon way out in front on 3.50.
The average shot distance tells a story too. On average, Vardy shoots from 11.3 yards, Daka from 12, Cannon from 16.3 and Iheanacho from 17.5. This shows the clear stylistic and positional difference – Iheanacho’s average shot distance over his entire seven seasons at Leicester is 17.2, while Vardy’s in the same period is 13.4. Cannon’s 16.3 in a blue shirt is from a small sample size but it’s also identical to his record on loan at Preston last season.
This supports what you would think – nobody associates Vardy or Daka with shots from distance, while Cannon appears happy to shoot on sight and Iheanacho is simply far more likely to be outside the box.
Tap-in merchants
Vardy is constantly threatening to run out of steam, then he scores a classic counter-attacking goal like the ferocious strike at Blackburn or the finishing touch at Stoke and he looks 27 again and the fans are calling for 10 more years of him.
This season though, he’s struggled to sniff out the easier goals. And Leicester offer up more of these than anyone – the ball from the byline stood up to the back post for a tap-in. Daka’s already scored two of these. The first came against Millwall when he offered for the ball on the edge of the box with Harry Winks probing, then when Winks found Ndidi in the channel, Daka sprinted in to tap Ndidi’s cross over the line. The second came on Saturday at Stoke, touching home Abdul Fatawu’s header back across goal from Dewsbury-Hall’s cross.
While both goals were simple tap-ins from a yard out, which each contributed greatly to his extremely high xG rating, Daka celebrated both with an extravagant gymnastic celebration that sums up the need to live in the moment. Because here’s one future consideration – Daka’s current deal runs out in 2026 and while that sounds a long way off, we’ve seen how quickly two years can become one and one can become nothing in the world of contracts. Two years out is probably the optimum time to sell.
That debate can wait, as can the one about whether Patson Daka is a Premier League striker or not. For now, he’s thankfully one of the most dangerous strikers in the division we’re currently putting to the sword.
