3 talking points from Wilfred Ndidi’s Community Shield performance

The Leicester City midfielder had a decent showing in the Foxes’ defeat of Manchester City on Saturday.

Leicester City’s quite dramatic 1–0 Community Shield win may not be predictive of what’s to come in the 2021/22 season, but some observers were pleased by the Foxes’ success over Manchester City at Wembley Stadium.

In the traditional curtain-raiser, Pep Guardiola’s team were beaten by last season’s FA Cup winners, with Kelechi Iheanacho netting a late penalty to seal the win against a second-string Cityzens.

Wilfred Ndidi was one of four Leicester players to complete the game and the only one that didn’t start in defence — three of the Foxes quartet that finished the game played at the back.

While there’s a tendency to label the encounter at the Home of Football a glorified friendly, comments by Antonio Conte and Pep Guardiola in recent years suggest otherwise.

Given Ndidi’s decent-to-good performances, what was remarkable about the Nigeria superstar’s showing against the Manchester outfit?

Interestingly, the midfielder didn’t lead for tackles made against the defending Premier League champions, although his five tackles ranked second behind teammate Ricardo Pereira (eight).

The right-back also won more total duels than the West African, just about pipping Ndidi 10–7 for tussles won in the game.

Rodgers’ top defensive midfielder, however, made a joint-high three interceptions, a stat he shared with wide attacker Harvey Barnes.

Interestingly, the Nigerian committed no fouls throughout the 90 minutes, a truly impressive stat owing to his style and volume of times he gets stuck in.

A reservation over Ndidi has been his ability in ball progression and press resistance — or lack thereof — and this was nearly exploited a couple of times in each half where City players seemed to make a concerted effort to close him down.

The Cityzens successfully forced turnovers in those situations but their decision-making in the final third left a lot to be desired and they couldn’t profit.

Without a doubt, it’s a facet of the Nigerian’s game that, perhaps, counts as his major weakness.

Owing to the horrific injury suffered by Wesley Fofana in a mid-week friendly against Villarreal and Jonny Evans’ continued struggles to recover from injury, there were murmurings that the ex-Liverpool boss would utilise Ndidi at centre-back.

However, the Super Eagle was deployed in a midfield pairing alongside Youri Tielemans with Daniel Amartey filling in at the back with Caglar Soyuncu.

Despite Ndidi’s adeptness at centre-back — last season’s showings in that position indicated he can still do a job in that role — the 24-year-old’s strengths are evidently magnified in the middle of the park and need to play there, rather than intermittently moonlight in central defence.

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Seye Omidiora is a passionate football writer and pundit whose deep appreciation for the beautiful game exceeds the usual. He is currently a columnist for Goal Africa and has previously written for Vital Football UK, IBCity Info and Opera News.

Follow him on Twitter @theReal_SeyE

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