Midfielder Dennis Praet has admitted it “really is a struggle” to earn a place in the Leicester City line-up as the Belgian midfielder waits for his next opportunity. Praet has the versatility to play in Youri Tielemans’ role and Maddison’s, but admits it has been difficult to displace them, and “painful” to not feature.
Dennis Praet said: “The injury healed very well and I even made my comeback a little faster than I had hoped. It is of course not easy to fight back into a team that is doing quite well. In the past few weeks, I didn’t take much playing time. Of course that’s always a shame and painful for a football player, because you just want to play. Last season I was often slightly deeper. More in the eight and thus in the place of Youri Tielemans. This season I mainly played as a 10. For that position I am in competition with James Maddison. We are now playing with three or five in the back and therefore in a different system than in the beginning of this campaign. The regular midfield with Tielemans, Wilfred Ndidi and Maddison is of course there. It really is a struggle to get a place there.”
Explaining Praet’s recent stint on the bench, Rodgers said the 27-year-old had been unfortunate not to play, with his injury preventing him from getting back up to speed.
Brendan Rodgers said: “It’s difficult because he’s a talented player. The games, like last week in the final, we’re closing the game out, so we put on big Wes (Morgan) for defending the box, and we put on Hamza (Choudhury) to run and chase and press and see the game through.
The other day (against Chelsea), James was starting the game. We played a different system, rather than play 3-4-1-2, we played with two number 10s, one was Ayo and then we brought Maddison into play.
Brendan Rodgers said: “The plan then was when we were chasing the game, I wanted to have someone who could score a goal coming off the bench (Kelechi Iheanacho). So that meant the system was different. He’s been unfortunate. He started the season really well. He’s been a valuable player for us, Dennis, in the squad. He picked up the injury, and then when you’re not playing so much, it’s hard to come in and pick up the speed. He’s a talented player who has been unfortunate that he hasn’t played as much as he’d have liked.”
