Promoted Teams Analysis – Leicester City

Promoted Teams Analysis – Leicester City

Welcome to Promoted Teams Analysis – Leicester City

The final promoted side we are looking at are the former Cinderella story, Leicester City. They were trotting towards the Championship title last season and then seemed to lose their way a bit. They made it a lot tougher than it needed to be. They won 13 of their first 14 games and were sitting pretty. They slipped to third place by the end of February and were then fighting for the top spot, only winning the title by a single point. They had 97 points, scored 89 goals, conceded 41 and kept 15 clean sheets.

Everything was looking nice and easy for their return, we knew who the players were, we knew the way they played, and most were predicting they would stay up easily. Alas that has all changed with Enzo Maresca leaving for Chelsea and former Forest manager, Steve Cooper coming in. What will Cooper change or do to the Championship winners?

Formation – 4-3-3

Last season they played with a 4-3-3 or a fluid 4-2-3-1 with the former being used more for home games. Now Cooper tends to play with a 3-5-2 formation and we will have to look at the preseason games to see whether that stays the case. It does look like it’s still a 4-3-3 from the games I’ve looked at.

Hermansen (GK)

Ricardo – Faes – Vestergaard – Justin

Soumare – Winks – Ndidi

Fatawu – Vardy – Mavididi

Goalkeeper and Defenders

Leicester had the best defence in the league last season, only conceding 41 goals with an xGC of 42.7 but only 15 clean sheets so they really spread out those goals. Cooper wasn’t exactly defensively solid at Forest so has he improved his tactics?

Wout Faes (4.0) started 43 games for the Foxes last season and was one of their key players. There is a new manager but being a Belgian International who played at the Euros I can’t imagine Steve Cooper wanting to drop that kind of experience. Faes is a quality player and should be fine to keep his place. He also got 2 goals so can chip in attack-wise sometimes!

Faes’ partner was the Danish giant, Jannik Vestergaard (4.0) and could still be his partner but we need to see if that remains the case with Cooper now at the helm. Vestergaard also got 2 goals, the same as Faes. Conor Coady (4.0) was one of the backups and we all know his Premier League experience so could he be given a chance to start under the new manager? Cooper liked to play a wing-back formation when at Nottingham Forest so could we see that happen and a possible 3 CBs? New signing Caleb Okoli (4.0) has come in from Atalanta (via Frosinone, where he was on loan last season) and is a left-sided CB who played in a wingback system in Italy.

Speaking of wingbacks Ricardo Pereira and James Justin (both 4.5) are well capable of providing sufficient attacking threat, be they wingbacks in a 5 or full backs in a 4. Periera was used as an inverted right back by Maresca last season where he was able to get 4 goals and 3 assists. The Italian is a lot more progressive than Cooper though so I can’t picture the Welshman using inverted wingbacks. Pereira’s output will likely decrease.

Midfielders

A big loss for the Foxes is the sale of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Chelsea. The young man was the player of the year and in the championship team of the season last year. Will they be able to replace him?

Harry Winks (4.5) is the reliable 4.5 midfielder that most will be picking. You know what to expect with these guys, so I won’t say much but currently he is the most owned with 11.5% and his nearest rival is Yamoliuk at 2.9%. This proves he is the most nailed, but a big issue may be price drops if someone new and shiny comes along.

Stephy Mavididi (5.5) could be an interesting option. The 26-year-old was signed from Montpellier in 2023. He scored 12 goals and got 6 assists. He is usually played as a winger but can come inside to play up top. He averaged 2.21 shots per 90 with 0.85 on target. That will help his BPS potential. He is on a lot of set pieces taking corners, in-direct free kicks, some direct ones and the odd penalty. He shared penalties with Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka last season who are two players I don’t see featuring much so could that promote the English youngster to top penalty taker? One to keep an eye on but an exciting little option at that price.

Abdul Fatawu (5.5) is another player who could be a solid differential. A Ghana international- who was on loan from Sporting last season – impressed so much that they have signed him permanently. His main statistics from last season were 6 goals and 13 assists (from an xA of 10.75). He is more creative than Mavididi and would probably be the assister with Mavididi being the finisher! Much like his attacking partner, Fatawu is one player to keep an eye on and something I kind of like for the nicer fixture runs.

Bobby Decordova-Reid (5.5) has signed from Fulham this summer and could provide some challenge to theml above players or, maybe with the loss of KDH, is there potential for all three to play together?

Strikers

Leicester were the best team last season for xG with 84.9 but their 89 goals were actually beaten by Ipswich who scored 92.

One last Jamie Vardy Party? Priced at 5.5m and is a proven Prem striker but… and this is a big BUT… he’s now 37 years old, he rarely started last season for Leicester and when he did, he was subbed off quite often; also, there will be a new manager so will he even bother playing an ageing player or focus on youth?

It may be pointless to look at last season due to the new manager but Vardy played 35 times but was involved in a substitution in 34 of those games. Subbed on 17 times and subbed off 17 times. He still had a great scoring record with 18 goals and 2 assists with 4 of those being penalties. I reckon if he is on the pitch, he will be the penalty taker.

Patson Daka (5.0) made 20 appearances but was subbed off 14 times and subbed on five. Not very reliable.

Tom Cannon (4.5) made 13 appearances only young but one to keep an eye on as he could get the starting role with Kelechi Iheanacho leaving the club. He only had 2 goals and 1 assist last season but could be given more chances with a new manager and the phasing out of Vardy. Cannon was a good impact sub last season.

My Top Three Picks

1. Faes
2. Fatawu
3. Mavididi

Thanks for reading Promoted Teams Analysis – Leicester City. This article was written by Matt X.

Follow @MattyMcveigh

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