When you are talking about a defensive midfielder in the Premier League who can work for over 90 minutes on the pitch without lowering his game for a minute, you are talking about Wilfred Ndidi.
Since Ndidi left Genk, a Belgian Pro League club to join Leicester City, a Premier League-winning team, he has been unstoppable, even injuries hardly stop him.
The player who was seen as a direct replacement of a former player of Leicester, N’Golo Kante, who left the club to join Chelsea football club in the summer of 2016, has grown to become a major heartbeat of the Foxes.
In fact, whenever Ndidi gets injured, his void is always felt in the team. The injury he sustained in this outgoing season which made the club to lose a series of matches in his absence, was a testament to the fact that Ndidi is an engine room of Leicester City.
Ndidi is the best Tackler in the Premier League
For instance, this season alone, according to the statistics put together by Sky Sports, Wilfred Ndidi made 4.4 tackles per 90 minutes which made him the best tackler in the Premier League this season. The only midfielder who came close to such return this season is Southampton’s Oriol Romeu (3.2 per 90 mins).
This incredible performance of the 23-year-old Nigerian International has planted him in the heart of the fans of the club and the coach of the side Brendan Rodgers.
He has remained a regular of the 3rd placed team before the league was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic with 23 league appearances and 2 goals.
Since January 2017, he has made 111 appearances for the Premier League club as a Defensive Midfielder with 6 goals and 5 assists – a stat which makes most football fans to always compare him to Kante.
Wilfred Ndidi Says Kante is a Machine
However, Ndidi recently came out to put an end to such comparison by describing Kante as a machine while he remains himself.
“I’ve always seen myself as Ndidi, I want to be seen as Ndidi,” he said in an Instagram live.
“Kante is a great player, if you see the way he plays, you’ll know he’s a machine.
“The advice I got right from the time while I was playing that position is just yourself.
“Every player has his own quality, it’s not everybody that can be like Ronaldo or Messi, everybody has his own way.
“I just want to be myself, play my game and fight for three points.”
And that has been the game plan the Super Eagles of Nigeria player has been following which has established him as a force to be reckoned with and one of the deadliest defensive midfielders in the Premier League.
