Leicester City should look to make a bid for Arsenal’s Carl Jenkinson
Leicester City have made a decent start to their Premier League campaign and the Foxes currently sit 7th in the standings with 12 points from their first seven games. It has been a mixed start, to be honest, as the Foxes haven’t been consistent enough as evident from their record of four wins and three losses.
The Foxes have shown plenty of promise this season, however, and manager Claude Puel has plenty of positives to take from the seven games. Most of the promising passages of play have come from the attackers led by Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho. James Maddison has emerged as one of the best attacking midfielders in the Premier League since moving to King Power Stadium this summer.
Leicester have been let down on multiple occasions by some rather sloppy defending at the back. In fact, the 4-2 defeat at the hands of Bournemouth was the icing on the cake as far as Leicester’s defensive howlers are concerned.
Harry Maguire and Wes Morgan have established a decent partnership in the heart of the defence. Ben Chilwell has taken his game to a new level by playing as the team’s first-choice left-back ahead of the veteran Christian Fuchs. New signing Jonny Evans has filled the void with efficiency while another summer recruit Caglar Soyuncu is yet to make his debut for the Foxes.
To be honest, they haven’t been outrightly poor at the back but the right flank has been susceptible to frequent raids by the opposition. In fact, most of the goals Leicester have conceded came from the right this season. The experiment to deploy new signing Ricardo Pereira at right-back has backfired horribly and the Portuguese full-back has had some nightmares at the back.
He has been out of position on multiple occasions, allowing the opposition to exploit the open spaces on the right. At times, he found himself in the right place but failed to deal with the attackers.
In fact, he has made a mockery of himself as a defender and has looked like a player devoid of positional sense and situational awareness. Furthermore, his game reading and decision-making abilities are questionable since he has often been exposed at the back after making adventurous surges forward.
Leicester City have gone in with Daniel Amartey as a makeshift right-back and the Ghanaian has done a decent job at cutting out the attacks from the flanks. However, he is not a specialist in that position and might be exposed against the better teams in the Premier League. Puel does have the luxury of having Danny Simpson as the reserve right-back but he hasn’t shown any intentions of using the veteran so far.
As things stand, the Foxes are in desperate need of a specialist right-back and they should target Arsenal’s out-of-favour reserve right-back Carl Jenkinson in January.
The 26-year-old moved to Arsenal from Charlton Athletic back in 2011 but has failed to establish himself as a regular starter. Consequently, his career hasn’t taken off and he continues to remain on the fringes of Arsenal’s first-team. Over the course of seven years, Jenkinson has made only 62 appearances for the Gunners across all competitions.
Read More:- 241 passes with 84% accuracy – This Leicester City powerhouse is set to take the Premier League by storm
Although he has failed to establish himself as a regular for the Gunners, Jenkinson has served impressive loan stints at West Ham United and Birmingham City. He might not the most disciplined defender but he can be effective down the right with his tackling and blocking. The former England international does struggle with consistency but he could be a good addition for Leicester due to his experience.
A player with a keen eye for a cross, Jenkinson has the ability to find the target man in the box with perfectly-weighted crosses.
That said, having someone like Jenkinson in the squad would provide a better balance between the defence and the attack. Hence, the Foxes should look to sign him in January.
