Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers believes forward Patson Daka will soon end his dry spell with Leicester City if “he continues to make more runs upfront.”
The 23-year-old Zambia international has gone 12 matches without finding the back of the net, his latest blank coming in the Premier League fixture against Aston Villa which ended in a 0-0 draw at King Power Stadium on Saturday.
His last goal for the Foxes came way back in January 23 when he put his side in the lead against Brighton & Hove Albion before Danny Welbeck scored late on to salvage a 1-1 draw for the Seagulls.
Rodgers has called for patience from fans for the Chipolopolo star, who joined the Foxes from Austrian outfit Red Bull Salzburg at the start of the season, insisting he will get it right after adapting to the intensity of the Premier League.
“It’s just time,” Rodgers said as quoted by Leicestershire Live. “He’s not a footballer that’s going to come in and link the game. He’s a player that thrives on the through balls, but if there’s no space.
“We’ve just said to him about making more runs. I think he was better at that [against Aston Villa]. He had a couple of moments in the box where he lacked a little bit of composure.
“He’s a player who in time will score many goals. It’s not always easy coming into a game. What he does is he sets a pressing tone. I thought, especially having played so many games, how we pressed the game was excellent, especially in the first half.
“They couldn’t build the game because we were so good in that area, and he’s very important for us for that. It’s just him adapting. He’s coming from a league in Austria, into the best league in the world. That’s always going to take time.”
Daka has managed 20 appearances overall, accumulating 1,004 minutes of playing time. He has been selected in the starting XI in 11 of these appearances across Leicester’s 32 fixtures and came on as a substitute on nine occasions.
The attacker has scored four Premier League goals in this campaign, his opening goal of the campaign coming in the 4-2 victory against Manchester United on October 16. Last season for Salzburg, Daka made 28 Austrian Bundesliga appearances, scoring 27 goals and providing four assists.