Leicester City 2-0 Southampton: Player ratings as Foxes ease past rock bottom Saints | OneFootball

The King Power Club ended up 2-0 victors against Southampton. Obviously, although not an expected win for the Blue Army who likely thought our poor season would be capped off by losing to the rock bottom team which remains level for the worst ever Premier League team in the history of the division. So yeah, it is great not to lose to that.

Despite the level of opposition we were against, it is evident the players had to put in a professional goalscoring and defensive performance to carry the result home. Overall, I would say Leicester played at a 7 out of 10 performance. Plenty of room for improvement when in and out of possession and particularly in wasting their chances.

Leicester City player ratings

The starting line-up consisted of Jakub Stolarczyk in goal; a back four of Luke Thomas, Conor Coady, Wout Faes, and James Justin; a midfield trio of Wilfred Ndidi, Oliver Skipp, and Bilal El Khannouss; and a front three of Jordan Ayew, Jamie Vardy, and Kasey McAteer. Patson Daka, Jeremy Monga, Jake Evans, Boubakary Soumare, and Michael Golding were substituted on later in the fixture.

Jakub Stolarczyk - 8. I cannot fault the performance of the Polish goalkeeper. Being brought in due to the unfortunate injury of Mads Hermansen and being spoken of by supporters as the preferred No.1 for our return to the EFL Championship should the Dane be sold, there was a lot of pressure on the lad. Although barely tested by the Saints, be it composed passing under pressure or calmly collecting the ball in myriad positions and pressures, Stolarczyk did what he had to do to get the clean sheet.

Luke Thomas - 8. Thomas ran all over the pitch against Southampton, playing as well as can be expected of someone who had dual responsibilities with an explosive Southampton right-wing being his opponent and ball progression and chance creativity part of his role. Thomas was involved in creating most of our chances, put in challenges, and linked up well with Khannouss. Decent.

Conor Coady - 7. For similar reasons to the English left-back, Coady did his job well. Occasional marauds into the midfield, composed passing to retain possession, and the odd long ball topped off a good defensive performance. Coady was usually in a position to block or clear a ball, and would press well with others to create mistakes or win the ball.

Wout Faes - 6. Nothing really to complain about or be impressed with. The talent we know the Belgian has sets an expectation, which is seldom being met nowadays. A good performance in pressing with Coady and others to create mistakes, and I do think Faes did well supporting Thomas on the left.

James Justin - 6. The English right-back was not bad. Nor was he impressive. There was little to his game to complain or talk about. As such, Justin gets a six for doing the basics well and getting involved often in midfield to progress the ball.

Wilfred Ndidi - 7. The Nigerian midfielder was everywhere on that pitch. Be it linking up play in the final third between the Moroccan maestro and... *checks notes*... Jordan Ayew, or putting in challenges from the side or behind opponents to win the ball for the Foxes. Ndidi is a massive credit to Leicester City and it will be a shame to see him leave when he does.

Oliver Skipp - 6. I personally like Skipp. A vicitm of having a large price tag and being compared to the cheaper Harry Winks or the equally priced Moroccan. Against Southampton, Leicester's second Tottenham Hotspur signing was not involved in the most flashy of ways. He put in a solid performance, seldom gave the ball away, and help the King Power side to hold onto possession well. Skipp deserves his chance in the Championship as our starter (preferably still with Winks with him).

Bilal El Khannouss - 8. Wasteful. That is perhaps the word that best describes Khannouss' involvement against the Saints. Nevertheless, he was all over the pitch, was the only one taking chances which seemed difficult, got the assist for Jamie Vardy's early goal, and linked up play across the whole pitch. The only real negative was a missed one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Jordan Ayew - 8. Again, the 33-year-old has been a solid signing. Despite initial fan uproar over two experienced signings at once, neither particularly exicitng, Ayew has been one of the highest contributors to our success. Scoring five goals puts him... *checks notes again* second in our goalscorers this season in the Premier League. Gosh, five is all it takes eh? At least Ayew scored a rebound to stun the Saints into chanting that their players were not fit to wear the shirt.

Kasey McAteer - 6. Again as with others, McAteer seemed to do his job well. Supporting Justin on the right flank by pressuring players from behind and joining the back line to allow Justin to sit more compact with Coady almost in the box, the Foxes' academy graduate was defensively adept. However, despite a couple instances of flare and technical quality being display to beat his man and get a cross or pass into the box, little came of it.

Jamie Vardy -10. First of all, the legend showed himself a professional by halting the game on behalf of the injured referee David Webb. Second, he scored his 199th goal for the club putting him one away from a massive milestone. Finally, despite only occasionally being involved, Vardy's low involvement essentially just appears to be high impact.

Substitutes - 6. Most of our changes came at the 84th minute. They did not have a chance to effect the game either positively or negatively, and two of them were youngsters not ready for Premier League football. So, I am just going to say they did not play badly, but nothing to shout home about. Well, apart from congratulations to Jake Evans on his home debut for the Foxes.