Callum Doyle is a “very important player” who was a “big loss” during his three months out – but it doesn’t mean he will walk back into the Leicester City starting line-up.
Doyle made his comeback from a serious knee injury in the New Year’s Day win over Huddersfield and made the first start of his return in the FA Cup victory over Millwall. But for City’s clash with his former loan club Coventry, he was an unused substitute.
The Manchester City loanee had played every minute across all competitions under Enzo Maresca before suffering his knee injury in late September and the manager bemoaned his lack of a left-footed defender to come in as back-up. But James Justin was handed the task and has done such a solid job that Doyle now faces a battle to win his spot back.
This has been a theme of Maresca’s management, something he has called his “player rules”. If deputies do well when injured players are out, they keep their place even after the positional rival is fit again. It was true for Jannik Vestergaard with Conor Coady, and for Patson Daka with Kelechi Iheanacho at the end of last month too.
Now, it may be true of Justin with Doyle too. Maresca has urged Doyle to work hard in training to prove he deserves to earn back his place in the 11.
Asked if it would be difficult for Doyle to get back into the team, Maresca said: “Not difficult, no, he just has to continue to work. We’ll see if we are going to give him the chance immediately or not.
“He helped us the other day a lot (against Millwall) in the way we want to play. We said since his injury that for us it was a big loss in terms of the way we want to play, the build-up, the switch of play from his side to the other side, the balls in behind. That’s exactly what he offers.
“In general, he’s a very important player for us. He’s back, we’re happy. We’ll see when we give him the chance again. Also, they can play together. Southampton away, they played together, Doyle as a central defender and JJ as a full-back.”
Doyle’s exquisite ball over the top for Tom Cannon against Millwall was his second assist of the season, having also set up Kasey McAteer’s winner at Rotherham with a long switch of play. It is in the passing game where Doyle thrives, as shown by the numbers, with the 20-year-old only second to Conor Coady for progressive passes per 90 minutes, and fourth only to Abdul Fatawu, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and Stephy Mavididi for passes into the penalty area per 90 minutes.
