Leicester City ace James Maddison has had his say on why Caglar Soyuncu rarely featured under the Foxes previous manager Claude Puel. According to James Maddison, Soyuncu took a while to adapt to the Premier League and also struggled to communicate with Puel – who also wasn’t fluent in English.
“I think a lot of Premier League fans and Leicester fans won’t have known much about Cags from last year because he hardly played. We always saw glimpses in training. Sometimes it takes a season or 18 months to get used to the English game, the way we work, the way we train. When he first came in his English was rubbish, now it’s better and you can communicate with him, and it’s showing on the pitch because he’s been an absolute rock at the back this season. He’s become more consistent, definitely. You can’t be too harsh because you don’t know what it’s like coming from a foreign country, when you don’t really speak the language. Sometimes it takes a season or 18 months to get used to the English game, the way we work, the way we train.” When he first came in his English was rubbish, now it’s better and you can communicate with him, and it’s showing on the pitch because he’s been an absolute rock at the back this season. He’s become more consistent, definitely. You can’t be too harsh because you don’t know what it’s like coming from a foreign country, when you don’t really speak the language.”
Soyuncu has gone onto form one of the Leagues strongest defensive partnerships alongside Jonny Evans this season. The Foxes currently sit third in the Premier League, just two points behind last season’s champions Manchester City.
Brendan Rodgers has reminded his Leicester City’s surprise high-fliers to get better for getting their entry into champions league spots. He was carefully evaluating the suggestion that his team, who finished ninth last season some 20 points behind Chelsea, may be overachieving.
Brendan Rodgers said “At the start of the season we were classed with Everton, West Ham and Wolves as four teams that could maybe – maybe – break into the top six. So, for this group of young players to achieve what we have up to this point is remarkable. But we’re not settling: we know there’s a lot to improve; it will always be a challenge against the Chelseas, Arsenals and Manchester Uniteds, and we need more quality going forward. All the same, to get where we want to get to, we had to win today’s game, we had to.”
For Rodgers, Leicester’s winter break cannot come soon enough and they will not return to work until Sunday. Some of his exhausted troops looked to be running on empty during their ninth game of 2020: Wilfred Ndidi pulled out on Saturday morning; James Maddison has lost his joie d’vivre and Jamie Vardy has not scored since the week before Christmas.
