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Leicester City hype train must race past Steve Cooper's ever-present to get Man United nod
The Boubakary Soumare hype train has picked up enough speed over the past week that he’s now a real contender for his first Premier League start of the season.
But if Leicester City manager Steve Cooper wants to select the French midfielder against Manchester United, that might mean dropping Wilfred Ndidi for the first time. The Nigerian is, alongside Mads Hermansen, Wout Faes and Jamie Vardy, one of four players to start every Premier League game for the club so far.
There is a way they could play together, but it would probably involve dropping Abdul Fatawu, moving Facundo Buonanotte to the right and playing Ndidi in a more advanced role. But if Cooper wants to keep his front four intact, then it’s hard to see Ndidi and Soumare playing together.
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Soumare would need Harry Winks in the team. The qualities he’s shown in his last two outings are in his ball-carrying, his power and his eye for a forward pass. If Cooper wants him to show off those abilities, it means affording him freedom, and so City will need the other midfielder to sit tight.
That is Winks’ game. He rarely wanders off, instead positioning himself at the base of the midfield to keep things ticking over and to help shut down opposition counters. It used to be Ndidi’s position, but he too has more freedom these days. And he’s made the most of it.
That’s why he’s started every week. He didn’t have his best outing at Ipswich last weekend and had a rotten afternoon against Aston Villa, but otherwise he’s been one of City’s better players every week and already has four assists to his name.
For Cooper, he’s reliable. He’s someone who can be trusted to deliver. Whether the same can be said about Soumare right now is uncertain.
Asked why Ndidi is always in his line-up, Cooper said: “I’ve been asked in these press conferences about him having good numbers on assists and impact in goals. The answer is there in a lot of ways. He’s been having an impact in games.
“He has Premier League experience. He’s been there a good spell of time now. That’s important, that you have those people who supporters can identify with, characters and personalities that have been built over a course of time.
“But ultimately he has had important moments for us in terms of assists and in terms of being able to play a couple of positions. He’s another athletic midfield player. One of the demands of the Premier League is athleticism and he brings that to the middle of the park.
“I don’t want to make it too simple of an answer but he’s an established Premier League player. He can handle it week in, week out and we have to have that in the group. He’s somebody that we’ve utilised as much as we have, because at the end of the day he’s delivered more than he hasn’t.
“If you think about it, he always has one moment in the game where he’s nearly assisted or nearly scored. He’s always nearly involved, or involved, in a goal. That’s a good attribute.”
