DEFENCE DILEMMA
SOLID BACK-LINE: Caglar Soyuncu, left, and Wesley Fofana, right, hope to be Jonny Evans’ defensive partner but City may play all three at the back
ONNY Evans is set to return to lead the Leicester City defence this weekend, but manager Brendan Rodgers must decide who plays alongside the veteran centreback.
The Northern Ireland international has missed City’s last two games, at Burnley and Brighton, with a calf problem that saw him substituted a fortnight ago in the defeat to Arsenal.
But he is expected to be declared fit for Sunday’s clash with Sheffield United, and as Rodgers’ rearguard organiser, is likely to go straight back into the starting 11.
This leaves the manager with two decisions to make: how many defenders will form his back-line against the Blades, and which player(s) partner Evans in that formation.
With injuries ruling out a lot of the attacking options, Rodgers has opted for a back three in the last two matches, and so Evans could slot in between Wesley Fofana and Caglar Soyuncu.
That would see them make their debut as a trio, with Fofana and Soyuncu starting alongside one another for the first time at Brighton last weekend.
If Rodgers wants to change to a back four, he will then have to choose between Fofana and Soyuncu to partner Evans, a dilemma that has not cropped up often this season.
Due to injuries, there has only been one month where all three have been fit, in January, and Rodgers then stuck with Evans and Fofana to keep the continuity in the back-line.
Evans knows that whoever he plays with, as the senior man he has a responsibility to be the organiser.
“There’s been a lot of team rotation and I’ve played with different partners in different formations throughout the season, but it’s been enjoyable and I’ve liked the games coming thick and fast,” Evans told the club at the end of last month.“You look at the boys that have played; Wesley has come in, he’s really young but the performance levels are very high.
“Caglar Soyuncu is a fantastic player, a really strong defender that I played a lot of football with last season, although he missed a lot of the first half of the season with injury.
“Daniel Amartey has come in too and he’s had a tough time over the past year or two with injuries, but I feel – being one of the senior players around the squad – I have a responsibility to try and lead the team and try to lead the defence.
“That’s something I’ve tried to do since I arrived here.”
Playing with Fofana and Soyuncu means cooperating with two players whose native tongue isn’t English, but through the language of football, and with the help of first-team coach Kolo Toure, they have been able to develop a way of communicating.