Comparing Caglar Soyuncu and Harry Maguire's stats: Has Leicester’s new defensive hero helped ease the loss of Harry Maguire?
Caglar Soyuncu is enjoying a stellar season at the heart of Brendan Rodgers' in-form back-line after replacing Harry Maguire at Leicester.
Maguire left Leicester to join Manchester United in the summer for a world-record fee of £80m- – making him the most expensive defender in world football.
Many thought Leicester's failure to land a suitable replacement would come back to bite them but Rodgers' show of faith in Soyuncu has been richly rewarded.
Harry Maguire was an undisputed starter for the Foxes throughout the 18-19 season which meant Soyuncu had limited game-time in his first season in the Premier League, making just 6 appearances for the club.
The Turkish international has made a seamless transition into the Leicester first-team playing every minute in each of City's league games so far this season, seldom putting a foot wrong.
Now with the help of whoscored let’s analyze the stats of both the centre-backs’ and take a look at who has fared better this season.
Tackles
In defensive duties, Soyuncu has made successful tackles at an average of 1.6 per game and Maguire has made 1.1 tackles per game.
Soyuncu seems to be more successful than Maguire while attempting successful tackles this season.
Aerial Duels and Interceptions
Maguire certainly has an edge over his defensive rival in this category.With an average of 4.6 aerial duels won, Maguire seems to have bettered Soyuncu’s 2.9.
In terms of interceptions, again Maguire leads the chart with an average of 1.7 interceptions per game, compared to Soyuncu’s 1.4.
Clearances , Blocks and Dribbles
Compared to Maguire's 4.0 clearances per game, Soyuncu has managed an average of 5.1 per game.
In terms of blocks, Maguire has an average of 0.5 per game, which is not too less than Soyuncu’s 0.7 per game.
While neither of the two can be called error-prone Soyuncu certainly has more to improve in that regard since he is more of a risk-taker in possession, which is backed up by the fact that Soyuncu has already been dribbled past by opposition 0.6 times a game in comparison to Maguire’s 0.2.
In the 21 top-flight appearances the Turkish international made this season, Leicester have kept a total of eight clean sheets, conceding 22 goals in the process. Therefore, it comes as little surprise that Foxes have the third best defensive record in England’s top flight this season.
Pass Success
Soyuncu’s 89.8 passing accuracy is higher than Maguire’s, which currently stands at 86.6. Soyuncu also leads the pack in average passes per game by more than 5%.
Goals and Assists
Soyuncu has edged Maguire in the goal-scoring department with one goal to his name. Maguire is yet to open his account for United. While both have assisted once for their team.
In short, Soyuncu has been a revelation this year. His impact on this Leicester team has been genuinely stellar and his performances have drawn the admiration of Arsenal legend Martin Keown. In his column for BBC Sport, Keown said
"(Söyüncü) Is a defender made for the modern game. - agile, aggressive and good in the air, but also brave on the ball too. The more I see him, the more I like him. He is not the tallest defender at 6ft 1in but he has got a very good spring. On the ground, he gets in the faces of attackers and he also never panics when he is in possession.
Whatever situation he is in, he never really looks troubled to me".
Soyuncu is still young and best years ahead of him. If he keeps this form up it won’t be long before some of the world’s biggest clubs come calling. But whether Leicester City are willing to lose one of their biggest assets is another matter entirely.