The Foxes manager reveals why he moved to sign the 29-year-old Zambian star from Red Bull Salzburg
Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has compared new signing Patson Daka to Jamie Vardy, insisting it was the reason he signed him.
The 29-year-old Zambian international joined the Foxes in a deal worth £23m signing from Red Bull Salzburg in June, and made an immediate impression at his new club with a goal against QPR in a pre-season friendly.
Ahead of their Community Shield fixture against Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday, Rodgers has revealed the freedom to choose when to deploy Vardy, who turns 35 in January, as the reason to sign the forward.
“That was the whole reason for bringing Patson in,” Rodgers said as quoted by the Guardian. “He is very similar to Jamie in his traits. He wants to run off the backline, he’s a great finisher, and all of those players – Patson, Jamie, and Kels [Kelechi Iheanacho]– we’re going to need all of them.
“It’s a long season, hopefully, lots of games, and there’s not one of them who’s going to play in every single game. You want to be able to maximise their talents, bring them on in games, start them in games. Bringing Patson in gives us that extra flexibility to do that.”
On whether Daka was the perfect signing for Leicester, Rodgers said: “As a player, he’s everything we thought. He wants to run in behind and he works his socks off, which is important in a team like ourselves.
“He presses, he runs and, as seen with his goal at QPR, as soon as the ball is in front of him he just becomes totally natural. There’s no hesitation, he just finishes.
“He’s fast but speed is also in the brain – that’s where you need it – and thankfully he is a thinker as well. Along with the other new signings [the midfielder Boubakary Soumare from Lille and defender Ryan Bertrand from Southampton], he is really going to help the team.”
Rodgers further feels having a strong striking force will help create competition which will be healthy for the team.
“Sometimes competition is the best coach,” Rodgers continued. “You can coach players to do certain things but sometimes the best coaches are the players themselves.
“Jamie’s a very unselfish player so he will look on [Daka] as someone to come in and support if the squad and team are to achieve what we want to achieve this season.
“Bringing in someone of that quality will certainly help Jamie but ultimately it will help the squad.”