Keith Gillespie has praised his Northern Irish compatriot Brendan Rodgers for the job he is doing at Leicester City in turning his side into a robust defensive unit.
The Foxes currently sit in third place in the Premier League table and remain front-and-centre in the hunt to secure a Champions League spot at the end of the season.
Gillespie drew particular attention to the defensive acumen that Leicester have shown this season, despite not always grabbing the headlines ahead of trademark scorers in the likes of Jamie Vardy, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison.
Speaking to Football FanCast, the Northern Irishman claimed: “Defensively they have got great defenders in terms of Evans, Soyuncu, Fofana, Castagne, Pereira and Justin. There’s six there that are as good as anybody in the league. I think he has assembled a really good squad there.”
Gillespie’s comments are as much a testament to the great work that Leicester’s recruitment experts have undertaken in the Midlands.
Having sold star left-back and academy product Ben Chilwell to Chelsea in the summer, albeit for a sizeable £45 million fee, Leicester faced a challenging task in appropriately replacing Chilwell and re-investing some of the proceeds from his sale.
The club met that challenge by bringing in the likes of young centre-back Wesley Fofana from Saint-Etienne, whilst Belgium international Timothy Castagne arrived to provide reinforcement on either full-back position.
Leicester have subsequently conceded fewer goals than last season’s champions Liverpool, using their defensive prowess as a platform to remain in the upper echelons of the Premier League.
A maelstrom of coaching and recruitment has shored up Leicester’s defensive options superbly, vindicating Gillespie for his praise.
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