Jamie Vardy’s two goals in Leicester’s 4-1 win at Huddersfield earned him the plaudits but boss Brendan Rodgers was equally impressed with two more of his players.
Rodgers, who labelled Vardy as one of the Premier League’s best strikers, also picked out James Maddison and Caglar Soyuncu for special mention after the Foxes’ fourth straight win.
Maddison’s superb second-half free-kick sealed the points for Leicester, while Turkey defender Soyuncu made his first appearance since December.
“He’s an outstanding talent,” Rodgers said of Maddison, who displayed the quality which earned him a call-up into England’s senior squad last October.
“He’s a better player than I thought he was. I’d seen him at Aberdeen when he was up on loan in Scotland, when I was at Celtic, and he had talent.
“But actually coming into work with him, what he has is a hunger, he’s not just a good player, he’s hungry to be a better player.
“His free-kicks, he works on them every day, so it’s not by accident. You’ve seen his goal a few weeks ago from that range.
“But he does what he’s asked to do in his job, which is create goals and score goals.”
Rodgers handed Soyuncu his first appearance of the year as a replacement for Jonny Evans, who missed out due to a hip injury.
“I think a special mention today to Cags our centre-half,” added Rodgers, who confirmed he opted not to select England defender Harry Maguire following the birth of his baby daughter this week.
“He (Soyuncu) was only told (on Saturday) morning he was playing. Apart from a loose pass at the end when he was tired, I thought he was outstanding in the game having not played for five months.”
Vardy struck in either half to join Gary Lineker on 103 in the club’s all-time leading goalscorer charts.
The England striker scored after Youri Tielemans had fired Leicester into a half-time lead.
Aaron Mooy’s 52nd-minute penalty gave Huddersfield fleeting hope, but Maddison curled home a free-kick and Vardy added his second from the spot in the closing stages.
Huddersfield boss Jan Siewert said it had proved a difficult week for his players after relegation was confirmed with defeat at Crystal Palace seven days earlier.
“It was hard mentally for the players and in a way the result is explainable because if you have such momentum like we had today, after half-time we came back and had the possibilities to score,” he said.
“There was a fantastic save from (Kasper) Schmeichel from Steve Mounie’s chance, so it was hard for us to take.”
Siewert opted not to include Danish pair Jonas Lossl and Mathias Jorgensen in his squad for the second week running.
“They were not injured,” Siewert added. “As I’ve said, I have to look at each player in this squad and I have to look at each player’s contract, so I did it today. This is the reason.”
