{"id":1363919,"date":"2024-09-18T17:58:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T16:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1363919"},"modified":"2024-09-18T18:06:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T17:06:39","slug":"wilfred-ndidi-leicester-new-position-role","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/wilfred-ndidi-leicester-new-position-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilfred Ndidi: The Premier League’s most underrated DM is becoming a no.10"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Wilfred Ndidi first joined Leicester City in 2017, he was tipped to be the next N’Golo Kante.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nigerian midfielder joined Leicester in January from Belgian side Genk and immediately became one of the best tacklers in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Averaging 4.02 tackles per 90 minutes in the second half of the 2016-17 campaign, only Idrissa Gueye (4.56 per 90) had a better average in the Premier League that season among players with at least 1,000 minutes. From his debut until the end of the season, Ndidi made more tackles than any other Premier League player (68).<\/p>\n

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Looking across the campaign as a whole, Ndidi’s 68 tackles placed him just outside the top 40 in the Premier League in 2016-17. Considering he only played 1,522 minutes, that’s a remarkable feat. And it was just a taster.<\/p>\n

In the following years, the Premier League became Ndidi’s when it came to tackles. He topped the charts for tackles in 2017-18 (138), 2018-19 (142) and 2019-20 (129) before injuries hampered his time in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

But despite his injury problems and season in the Championship, Ndidi remains unrivalled in the Premier League. Since his Premier League debut, Ndidi has made more tackles than any other player. The Nigerian’s number stands at 704 in 196 games, averaging 3.91 per 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

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Overall, that’s 152 more than Declan Rice in second place. And the Arsenal midfielder has played 49 more games than Ndidi and over 4,000 more minutes. Aaron Wan-Bissaka (512), Idrissa Gueye (486) and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (468) complete the top five for tackles.<\/p>\n

Since his Premier League debut, Ndidi also leads the division for interceptions (393), while sitting fourth for possession won in the middle third (838) and possession won (1,567).<\/p>\n

This Ndidi is averaging 2.61 tackles per 90 minutes, which is lower than we’ve come to expect from the Nigerian. He’s also averaging 2.87 possessions won in the middle third and just 0.52 interceptions. These are all lower than his average per 90 from his Premier League career as a whole.<\/p>\n