Patson Daka and Harry Souttar are “unbelievable” and are only being kept out of the Leicester City team by the performances of their team-mates, rather than a lack of trust from Enzo Maresca.
Daka and Souttar have played just twice each this season, with the City manager turning to other players. The duo nearly left at the end of the summer transfer window – Daka to Bournemouth and Souttar to Rangers – and their futures will come into focus again as January comes around.
Maresca has said that before City can do any business, they must move players on. He is expecting that those whose work in training is not being rewarded with game-time will ask to leave.
Daka and Souttar fall into that bracket with the pair last featuring in October, albeit Souttar did say on international duty with Australia last month that he wanted to stay and fight for his place. Their lack of opportunities so far could be perceived as a lack of faith in their abilities from Maresca, but he says that’s not the case.
“To be honest, Pat and Harry, they are unbelievable in terms of, they are very good guys, they are very polite, they train very well,” Maresca said. “The reason why they don’t get minutes is easy.
“First of all, both of them at the beginning of the season, the idea was that they could leave. Then they stayed, it doesn’t matter, we are here and we are going to use them. In general, there is not any issues or any problems with them. They are fantastic. They work good every day.
“The problem with Pat is that we have Kele (Iheanacho) and Jamie (Vardy), and now Tom (Cannon) is back. Kele and Jamie are doing very well. It doesn’t mean that if Pat plays he’s going to do bad, but there are already two players who are doing well.
“Harry is exactly the same. He had the chance against Liverpool and he had the chance against Stoke. He played well. At the same time, Wout (Faes) is doing well, Jannik (Vestergaard) is doing well, Conor (Coady) is another guy… What can we say about Conor? He’s fantastic. For me, he’s an important player, even if he’s not playing.
“But the circumstances and the reason why they’re not playing is very simple. It’s not because I have any problems with them. It’s because there are players who are doing very well. In this case, the only thing you can say is to keep working and waiting for the chance.”
While Daka is expected to move on in January, a deal could prove tricky with the striker heading to the Africa Cup of Nations. The 25-year-old is set to lead the line for Zambia at the tournament in the Ivory Coast, having scored nine goals in his last eight games for his country.