Who is Nicolas Tagliafico? A left-back upgrade on Chilwell for Leicester?

On Wednesday, Chelsea completed their big money capture of Ben Chilwell from Leicester. The Blues have been chasing the England international for some time now as Frank Lampard sought to bring in a new left-back and he finally got his man this week. Chelsea may not have had to pay the rumoured £85m Leicester had supposedly demanded for Chilwell earlier in the summer, but a reported outlay of £50m still makes the 23-year-old the third most expensive left-back in history. 

Leicester now have the funds to invest in a new left-back and while they have £50m to burn, and teams may look to exploit that cash injection, the Foxes are shrewd in the market when it comes to replacing outgoing stars. Since their Premier League title win, Leicester have now made at least one big-name sale per summer, yet despite the high profile departues of N'Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez, Harry Maguire and now Chilwell, they still finished the season fifth. 

Indeed, the Foxes have a knack of investing wisely, even with the exits of some key members, and you can expect similar as a replacement for Chilwell as their starting left-back. The stand out candidate at the time of writing to succeed the England defender is Ajax's Nicolas Tagliafico. 

The Eredivisie side have previously confirmed that they would sell Tagliafico, as well as goalkeeper Andre Onana and midfielder Donny van de Beek, were they to receive acceptable offers for the trio. Now Leicester have the funds required to land the Argentine and they're tipped to make their move for a new left-back before the season gets underway on September 12th. 

The question now is whether or not Leicester will actually be upgrading in moving Chilwell on to make room for Tagliafico. While the Premier League is arguably a tougher league than the Eredivisie, Tagliafico has still established himself as one of finest attacking full-backs on the continent following his arrival from Independiente. 

Chelsea had been credited with an interest in Tagliafico, so too had Barcelona and Arsenal, but it's Leicester who are now leading the race to sign a left-back who garnered a WhoScored rating of 7.30 in an, admittedly shortened, 2019/20 Eredivisie campaign. That return, though, was enough to feature in the team of the season as returns of three goals and four assists contributed towards his inclusion in the best XI, reinforcing his fine attacking output. 

A total of 1.1 key passes per 90 may have been marginally lower than Chilwell (1.3) in their respective leagues last season, but this can be down to the fact Ajax and Leicester both implement different systems. For the Dutch side, for example, the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Dusan Tadic and Quiney Promes were charged with pulling the strings in the final third, however Brendan Rodgers relied on Chilwell to help James Maddison in creating the chances for the forwards. 

This is further emphasised in that Chilwell averaged 3.9 crosses per 90 in the Premier League, a far higher return than Tagliafico (2.5) in the Eredivisie with Rodgers demanding Chilwell push upfield as routinely as possible to help stretch the opposition. Of course, this impacted his cross accuracy with the now-Chelsea man putting in a cross success rate of 18.4%, that a drop in Tagliafico's 26.3%, though with the English defender attempting more crosses, a lower success rate shouldn't be a huge shock. 

Nevertheless, Rodgers will look to Tagliafico to provide a similar attacking threat as Chilwell and the Argentina international's creative and crossing returns are certainly boosts for the Foxes boss as he pursues a new left-back. Off the ball, too, Taglifico's aggressive approach to defending is a bonus for Rodgers and Leicester. 2.7 tackles per 90 last season was a better return than Chilwell's average of 1.6 tackles per 90 and it's this committed approach from the left-back that appeals to Rodgers. 

With Ricardo Pereira on the opposite flank, Rodgers will have two dedicated full-backs to help in the favoured back four and provide additional width and creativity in the final third. Factor in Tagliafico's versatilty - he is also able to play at centre-back - and there is greater tactical flexibility at Rodgers' disposal than he had with Chilwell at left-back and with Champions League experience to boot, Leicester will have benefitted immensely from Chilwell's sale to bring in a left-back of Tagliafico's calibre as his replacement provided they can get this deal over the line.