Loan Army: Round-up

Lets see how our loan army are getting on.....

Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gents,

Welcome back to the 23/24 season loan army report. This is a summary of what our loan players have been up to over the last week.

Thankfully a LOT more to report than this time last week.

A PL debut for one player, back-to-back starts for another & a FIRST clean sheet for someone!

Lets get into it……

Gaga Slonina:

Gaga kept his first clean sheet of the campaign at the weekend in a 2-0 victory against Charleroi, a much needed win and clean sheet for his side.

Gaga had some pretty incredible stats in this match as well, 100% saves, 0.57 goals prevented, 23/30 passes, 11 recoveries, 40 touches and a mammoth 8.3/10 match rating!

He has seemingly been a shining light in a very average side this season, but the odd match like this will boost his confidence tenfold!

Bashir Humphreys:

Since my last report Bash has completed a further 180/180 mins, playing full matches in a 1-0 defeat to Watford and a 1-0 win vs Chelsea’s opponents tomorrow, Blackburn Rovers.

In this time Bash has racked up some more impressive numbers, completing 125/141 passes, having 157 touches, making 10 defensive recoveries and 100% tackle success rate, he seems to be going from strength to strength during this loan spell.

Zak Sturge:

Another couple of sub appearances for Zak, unofrtunately for him, he is directly competing against arguably Peterborough’s most valuable (or 2nd) player. He is consistently making more appearances from the bench and hopefully he can break in soon.

He played 15 mins v Port vale and 26 mins against Blackpool, that is 6 consecutive appearance from the bench for Zak now and some progress in my opinion.

It’s been a slow start for Zak but one suspension or rest for his direct competition and he could force his way into the XI.

Andrey Santos:

Andrey has finally made another Forest appearance after just under 2 months of waiting and it was his PL Debut!

He played 7 minutes away to Liverpool, completed 6/6 passes had one shot blocked and another go narrowly wide. Hopefully this will be the start of some more appearances as Andrey forces his way into the Forest midfield, it is massive for him to be put on away to Liverpool, although the game was out of reach.

Cesare Casadei:

FINALLY!!! It feels like ages since I was able to write a positive report on this lad but here we go!

It’s taken an injury to Ndidi but he has been put straight in and flourished, since this time last week Cesare was played 168/180 minutes earnt himself a player of the match award and been heavily involved in everything good Leicester have done!

He has completed 67/73 passes, created 4 chances, had 99 touches, made 8 defensive recoveries and won 18/27 duels! (I am holding back on some of these stats for a later article)

Some huge numbers and some impressive numbers in there, I am sure the lad will be gutted not to have had a direct goal contribution, but he ahs contributed to pretty much everything else!

Hopefully he nails down this position in the Leicester side and continues to flourish!

Tino Anjorin:

Tino’s rehabilitation and comeback to being a 90 min player has continued over the last week, I must say Portsmouth have been treating him excellently, not rushing him and making sure he is getting enough minutes to get confidence, fitness and his level back.

He played 33 mins away to Cambridge last midweek in a 0-0 draw, he then started on Saturday away to Reading completing 61 mins and scoring his first league goal of the season in a 3-2 win.

He made 13/19 passes, had 100% (3/3) shot accuracy, had 40 touches had 2 defensive actions and competed in 18 duels! Not bad for 61 mins!

Omari Hutchinson:

Omari has been a used sub and started in the last week, playing 21 mins away to Bristol City last midweek, in a narrow 1-0 win for Ipswich. He started on Saturday against Plymouth in the 3-2 Home victory, Omari and Ipswich are flying at the moment and are competing with Casadei’s Leicester for automatic promotion. They are 9 points ahead of 3rd with a game in hand.

Omari had a quieter match v Plymouth, he completed 70% of passes, made 1 chance, had 52 touches, 10 touches in the opposition box, had 6 defensive actions and won 4/12 ground duels.

I will be at Ipswich v Fulham tomorrow (Wednesday) night and hopefully Omari will start again, if he does I will bring a separate article about that performance.

Harvey Vale:

After Bristol Rovers’ battering by Burton 10 days ago, Harvey was dropped to the bench for the following match last midweek v Stevenage, being brought on at Half Time, from what I have seen and read, he changed the game and Joey Barton (his manager) had some excellent things to say about him after, see below.

https://twitter.com/FelixJohnston_/status/1717143124336676903

He was reinstated into the starting XI for Saturday’s fixture v Northampton, starting in his more familiar and favoured Left wing position, he completed 90 mins, had 47 touches, won 3/4 tackles, made 7 defensive actions and won 7/14 duels.

Charlie Webster:

Charlie got his first taste of first team action since his suspension, at the weekend. He came on with 13 mins to play, completed 6/8 passes, had 17 tocuhes, took 2 corners, won 1/1 tackle, competed in 6 duels and made 3 defensive recoveries.

An energetic cameo, something we have come to expect from Charlie, I am sure he will use this to get himself back into that starting team!

Diego Moreira:

Lyon’s game at the weekend was postponed

Mason Burstow:

For the first time in his loan spell, Mason was an unused sub v Norwich on Saturday.

David Datro Fofana:

DDF started and played 69 mins v Napoli last midweek in the Champions League, his first start in the competition. I have linked his clips from the game below.

https://twitter.com/ChelseaIoanArmy/status/1717253113831182426

Unfortunately, his attitude when leaving the pitch has left him suspended from first team action until this Thursday (a week long ban). He refused to shake his Manager’s hand and looked very annoyed at being taken off.

https://twitter.com/Blue_Footy/status/1717531238687252671

You will all remember Si was told that frank Lampard and his staff were unimpressed by DDF in training when they came back to the club in April.

Angelo Gabriel:

Angelo was a victim of formation change v PSG last week, when Starsbourg changed to a back 5 with no wingers he was benched.

This week they were back to their usual 4-2-3-1 and Angelo was back into the starting XI for the 1-1 draw away to Rennes, a very decent result.

He played 58 mins, completed 10/12 passes, had 29 touches, won 2.5 ground duels and made 4 defensive recoveries. Far from his best performance but more valuable minutes and experience for the lad.

Dion Rankine:

Dion is still out injured, but I found this when looking for information which is dated 20th October, meaning he should be back soon;

“Dion (Rankine) is probably three weeks away, he had another scan and he’s progressing really well, he’s very close, but Chelsea feel they want to keep him for another three weeks, so we are very much guided by them in his recovery, but we look forward to getting him back. We hope to get him back before that so he can join in with training.”

No vote this week as I believe Cesare Casadei deserves an article after his incredibly impressive last week for Leicester.

Thanks for reading.

Luke Rushbrook