Everton travel to the King Power later today for their Premier League clash with Leicester City which will see Marco Silva come up against his former defender Harry Maguire.

The pair worked with each other during their time at Hull City, and Silva has since come out to praise the qualities of Maguire ahead of their encounter.

The Breakdown

Speaking on his time spent with Maguire at the KCOM Stadium, Silva told the Telegraph: "When I joined Hull, he [Maguire] didn't play enough matches until that point. He was third choice behind Michael Dawson and Curtis Davies.

"With me he played always. I saw in him fantastic qualities to achieve something really important in the future. He's a very good player, he's strong, he has quality. He had many things to improve because he didn't play at a high level when he was younger and he's achieved it through hard work."

And Maguire is exactly the kind of defender Silva needs Kurt Zouma and co to be. The Portuguese coach brought in the 23-year-old from Chelsea on loan alongside Yerry Mina -- who has yet to feature due to injury -- from Barcelona, but defence still remains a problem for Everton.

The likes of Zouma, Michael Keane and Mason Holgate have not been defensively solid enough, constantly being opened up by opponents and losing too many 1v1 duels.

Maguire, in contrast, has become such a sturdy defender since joining Leicester, while his ability on the ball is just one aspect of his game that has seen him become so highly rated by England manager Gareth Southgate and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho.

If Everton are to have a successful season then Zouma, Keane, Holgate and the rest of the Toffees' defenders need to start putting in similar shifts to Maguire.