Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall explains why he wants to emulate idols Paul Scholes and Kevin De Bruyne, tells Sky Sports about why Leicester's nightmare start doesn't phase him and explains why their Monday Night Football clash with Nottingham Forest will mean even more to him
Monday 3 October 2022 22:34, UK
Tell Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as he sweeps the board at Luton's 2020/21 player of the season awards that within 18 months he'll have played more than 50 times for his boyhood club and started both legs of a European semi-final. Would he believe you? Quite possibly, as it happens.
That loan spell at Kenilworth Road was where the penny dropped. A late bloomer throughout his youth career and still 5ft 3ins until a growth spurt around his 16th birthday, Dewsbury-Hall had found himself up against it more often than not.
Approaching his 23rd birthday, he still had not made a single league appearance for his parent club Leicester - but fighting adversity had long harboured a level of determination in the midfielder. With the reassurance he could mix it at Championship level, he saw no reason why he couldn't go one better back in the top flight.
"I'd always believed it would happen but belief is one thing, showing it is another," he tells Sky Sports at the Foxes' new training ground in Seagrave.
"I went to League One and played well, but it was only 10 games, there wasn't much in it. Then coming to the Championship, having a full season and showing what I could do, I felt really confident. If I could show that there, then I wanted to be moving on to bigger and better things.
"I stopped feeling like a youth player the minute I came back from Luton. I'd had a really good year and started to make a name for myself, and even though I hadn't really played for Leicester I felt different. I didn't feel like I was coming in as an U23, but like a new signing."
He has acted like just that for Brendan Rodgers over the past 14 months. Dewsbury-Hall made his Premier League debut in August 2021, his first league start last December, and went on to feature 44 times in all competitions last season. This year, he has played a part in every league game and been one of few bright points in an otherwise miserable spell at the King Power.
Barely a year after his top-flight bow the 23-year-old's stats already match up against many of the division's more seasoned midfielders. Two, in particular, stand out in his mind as he looks to continue his rapid rise.
"The ideal player to describe myself as would be a mix between Paul Scholes and Kevin De Bruyne," he says without a second thought. "If I ever got to that level, I'd think I'd completed everything! That'd be me done.
"Scholes was my idol growing up, and I think De Bruyne's the best midfielder in the Premier League. Having their attributes - the unbelievable passing, being so technically gifted, comfortable on the ball, the awareness and knowing all the space around you.
"Having all those things, those ingredients to be that top, elite-level midfielder, and on top of goals and assists, adding those stats to your game. I've always said I want to be that all-round midfielder who can do everything, I think every team craves it. That's what I'm working towards in my game."
Can that dream become a reality? Who knows. Dewsbury-Hall has been handed a more attacking role by Rodgers this season, and an extra opportunity to prove himself. It remains a hugely lofty ambition even so but this is a man who has spent his life proving people wrong. He's certainly got the fight for it.
That attitude is serving him well in the malaise of Leicester's current predicament. For one reason or another, many of his team-mates have wilted under the pressure, as summed up in their second-half capitulation at Tottenham before the international break. That left them rock bottom of the Premier League with the worst defensive record in the division's history at this stage of a season.
The pressure hasn't told in the same way on Dewsbury-Hall's relatively inexperienced shoulders - precisely because it doesn't feel like anything new.
"Resilience is a massive part of my life," he says. "I never got it easy coming through the ranks, and some would say I've broken in, a lot of players have.
"I had to have that strength to wait for my chance, and it's something which is built into me. I feel like that's a huge bonus."
Keeping his feet on the ground has helped too. Dewsbury-Hall still lived in his childhood bedroom in his family home until the close season, and is now finding his feet after flying the nest with his partner.
"I like doing the cooking but knowing what you're supposed to use to clean different things, that's more of a challenge," he says with a smile.
The cliche goes that the next game can't come quick enough after a defeat. In some ways that's not true of Leicester, who have been in dire need of a defensive reset for some time, amid a crisis born of individual errors and set-piece woes.
Even so, there have still been green shoots from the mud of the single point they have to show for seven games of disappointment. They were the better side against Tottenham for 45 minutes, and have performed in patches in most games so far.
"We did dwell on that Tottenham for a little bit, but it also gives us an opportunity," says Dewsbury-Hall. "The message has been that there's been positives, and we have to recognise that. We've dominated some of them, but certain aspects have gone wrong and we've been punished. We need to nail down what we have to improve on.
"Concentration, awareness, and just fighting for it - fighting for that clean sheet. Once you get that, it's tough to break that spirit."
If Leicester could pick any team to face on Monday Night Football this week, it'd be Nottingham Forest. Four games without a point themselves, and the second-worst defence in the league - better only than the Foxes' - Steve Cooper's side come into the first East Midlands derby of the season under plenty of pressure themselves.
Whoever the opposition, Leicester's squad feels too good to be in this position. No side is too good to go down, but with the quality at their disposal, there is no reason one confidence-boosting win cannot create a domino effect.
"It could be as simple as getting one win to kick-start our season," he says. "And what a game it would be - a massive derby game, which hasn't happened in the Premier League for 20-odd years, a run of fixtures we would look at and think we should be picking up a lot of points, it could be the perfect start to a positive couple of months."
Three points would mean the world to the whole Leicester squad, but no one feels the emotion of a derby quite like a homegrown player.
And even then, not all would lay down the same fighting talk as Dewsbury-Hall ahead of Monday night's game at the King Power. Would it be sweeter to finally get that first win against one of their biggest rivals?
"Yeah, definitely," he says bullishly. "I grew up in Leicester, I've got a lot of friends who are Forest fans, I know the importance of what this game means to not only the club but also the fans.
"It's a game I'll be going into 100 per cent from minute one, it's a massive thing, it's a chance to etch yourself into the history in the football club - because these games haven't come around at this level too often."
On current form, he has as good a chance as anyone to write themselves into those history books. And a bit of De Bruyne or Scholes magic wouldn't hurt one bit.
Watch Leicester vs Nottm Forest live on Monday Night Football from 7pm on Sky Sports Premier League.
