There is no better sight in the Premier League than Shinji Okazaki’s face after he scores. There really is not. It is a portrait of pure, unaffected joy and even the most curmudgeonly spectator must struggle to not smile with him. His face is so expressive that a hugely popular new app in his native Japan has a keyboard consisting entirely of Okazaki emojis: Happy Okazaki, Sad Okazaki, Approving Okazaki, Angry Okazaki and so on. Against Crystal Palace he demonstrated yet again that for Leicester City he is Busy Okazaki. Dangerous Okazaki. Vital Okazaki.
This was only the Japanese striker’s second league start of the campaign even though he was an essential component of last season’s triumph. His role in that sensation earned him folk hero status in Leicester and catapulted him to a level of celebrity that makes it hard for him to venture outdoors when he returns to his home country.
“I have to stay at home, I usually get mobbed but it is good,” he says. “Leicester are now a very big team in Japan and I’m proud of that. Things were a little crazy when I first went back. A lot of people would come up to me and say: ‘What happened?’ I can’t explain it to them though, it was just an amazing season.”
His performance against Palace on Saturday served as at least a partial explanation and, more to the point, as an indicator of more good things to come from Leicester. Jamie Vardy, without a goal in nine matches for club and country, was omitted so that Okazaki could start up front alongside Islam Slimani, the player who has usually been picked ahead of him by Claudio Ranieri since joining in the summer. Together the pair set the tone for what Ranieri hailed afterwards as Leicester’s best display of the season.
Okazaki and Slimani continually outmanoeuvred and outmuscled Crystal Palace’s centre-backs, James Tomkins and Damien Delaney. It was no surprise that a couple of tackles and passes from the duo led to the opening goal, which was converted from 18 yards out by Ahmed Musa. It was a fine finish by the Nigerian, who for most of the match supplied the extreme speed that Leicester might otherwise have lacked in the absence of Vardy.
Okazaki scored the second goal himself before Christian Fuchs landed a beauty from 25 yards and Yohan Cabaye clinched deserved consolation for the visitors.
There was, as ever, much more to Okazaki than attacking. Ranieri famously said that N’Golo Kanté played the role of two players for Leicester last season - but so did Okazaki and he gave an effective reminder of that here. Not only did he buzz around up top, pestering the Palace defence relentlessly, but he also dropped into midfield, offering support and solutions to team-mates across the pitch. “When I play I think I can help the team because I can help the centre midfielders, the strikers and the wingers,” he says. “Whatever I do I can help the team.”
The visiting manager was impressed. “Okazaki links the play so well and he fills that extra midfield role that a striker needs to do,” said Alan Pardew. “His work rate and application was spot–on.” Okazaki’s work helped Riyad Mahrez and Danny Drinkwater to flourish.
The excellence of Okazaki alongside Slimani does not necessarily push Vardy down the pecking order but it certainly shows that Leicester have more options than they did last season and Ranieri would be well advised to make plentiful use of them. “Always he is my man, our goalscorer,” said Ranieri of Vardy. “He knows when there are so many good players, a little rotation does not matter.” Ranieri said that with a beaming smile, which is the effect that Okazaki tends to have.
