Rodgers, Vardy hail Ndidi’s centre-back performance
Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers and star striker, Jamie Vardy have hailed Nigerian ace, Wilfred Ndidi following his impressive performance in an out-of-position role in the foxes 3-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
Ndidi was deployed in a centre-back role to partner with last seasons breakout star, Caglar Soyuncu in the opening Premier League game against the newly-promoted West Brom following injuries to Jonny Evans, Wes Morgan and Filip Benkovic.
In the run towards enjoying a clean sheet in his first real test as a centre back, Ndidi gave a good account of himself in the encounter, making 105 touches and had an 88% successful pass rate.
New signing, Timothy Castagne opened the scoring, before Vardy’s brace handed the King Power Stadium outfit all three points at the Hawthorns.
Rodgers didn’t at all seem surprised by the performance of his top tackler, explaining that the former Genk man has previously excelled at centre-back for his side during one of their pre-season games.
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“Ndidi playing at centre-back was outstanding. He played 60 minutes there in a pre-season friendly,” Rodgers told BBC Sport.
“He did play there earlier in his career. He’s got the profile to play there – he’s big with a good leap.
“Even if he’d played there all his life it would be tough coming back from everyone playing different systems with national teams. It would always be difficult to be cohesive after a couple of days training.”
Vardy also praised the Nigeria international for excelling in the unfamiliar role while also hoping his side can build on the victory at the Hawthorns.
“We need to keep going, we need to continue working hard in training, taking it into the games,” he told Sky Sports.
“Wilf [Ndidi] has played centre-back today, I think he’s done really well, it is not his natural position”.
Ndidi has performed magnificently well for Leicester City since he joined the side in January 2017 from Belgian side, Genk, in what was pegged as a replacement for the huge void left by N’golo Kante, who joined Chelsea on the heels of the foxes Premier League winning season.
The Nigeria international has made 121 Premier League appearances for the King Power Stadium outfit and holds the record for the most successful tackles in the league for three seasons running.
