Premier League Fantasy Football Tips 2021/22 – Leicester City
Premier League Fantasy Football Tips 2021/22 for Leicester City by @CoysFPL.
In this team preview series, Dan previews all 20 Premier League teams ahead of the 2021/22 season including season expectations, expected lineups, best player picks, under the radar gems, and players to avoid.
Find all our other Premier League 2021/22 Team Previews here which will be continually updated as the season draws closer!
Leicester 2021/22 Season Expectations
Despite losing a Champions League place in the final few weeks of the season, Leicester still enjoyed a successful last campaign.
The clubs’ aim this season will be finally achieve the feat that they’ve failed to do on their last two attempts – to qualify for the Champions League. With stiff competition it will be a tough challenge but with the side they have built, it would be far out of the extraordinary.
The additions of Patson Daka and Boubakary Soumare provide excellent squad depth; the former looks like the long-term replacement for Jamie Vardy whilst Soumare is the ideal back-up to Wilfred Ndidi.
I think Leicester will once again fall short of Champions League, but only just.
How To Play Fantasy Premier League 2021/22 | The Beginner’s Guide
Leicester 2021/22 Expected lineup:
The new wealth of depth makes predicting Leicester’s line-up a huge challenge. Brendan Rodgers switched between four and three at the back last season, but has opted forward the former in early pre-season.
Kasper Schmeichel will undoubtedly start in between the stick, with Jonny Evans and Wesley Fofana in front of him no matter what the system.
Caglar Soyuncu will start should Rodgers opt for three at the back.
Timothy Castagne will start in either full-back role, with Luke Thomas, Ricardo Pereira and newcomer Ryan Bertrand initially fighting for the other full-back spot. Thomas impressed at the back-end of last season so I think he’ll start the season as first choice of those three.
Youri Tielemans should partner Wilfred Ndidi in one of the best midfields in the league, with Boubakary Soumare coming in if the side line-ups with three in the centre of midfield.
Harvey Barnes developed into one of Leicester’s key men last season and he should start after returning from injury.
James Maddison should start behind Jamie Vardy, who might struggle to keep his space from talented arrival Patson Daka, but Kelechi Iheanacho‘s impressive end of season form should see him keep his place.
Leicester Best Players:
Kelechi Iheanacho should keep his starting spot after a fine end to last season, where he managed 14 goals and three assists in the last 15 appearances. Only Gareth Bale had a better goal per 90 minute record last season.
Iheanacho topped the Leicester charts for shots per 90 minutes, and was second for shots in the box per 90 minutes. He also created a decent amount of chances, making 1.7 key passes per 90 minutes – the third most in the squad.
Harvey Barnes registered an impressive record of a goal involvement every 139 minutes in the Premier League last season – only bettered by Iheanacho and Jamie Vardy in the Leicester squad. He had the same amount of shots per 90 minutes in the squad as Vardy, with 2.6. That record was only bettered by James Maddison and Iheanacho.
Barnes also ranked second for shots in the box per game with 1.7. Only six Fantasy midfielders had more shots in the box per game, and Barnes’ shot accuracy is decent: he was fifth for shots on target per game of all Fantasy midfielders.
He scored more goals per 90 minutes than the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wilfred Zaha, Raheem Sterling, Sadio Mane and Ollie Watkins.
Jamie Vardy was once again Leicester’s top scorer last season, with 15 of his 17 goals coming in the Premier League. However, he only scored four times in his last 21 Premier League appearances: that record is no where near what you’d want when paying for a premium priced forward, and eight of those 15 goals were penalties.
He has started the previous two seasons very well, scoring 11 in his first 13 appearances last season, and 17 in his first 18 appearances of the previous season. Iheanacho only scored three fewer goals despite playing nearly 1500 minutes less, and Vardy was only joint third in the current squad for shots per 90 minutes.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was Vardy’s last season in the Premier League, and one in which his spot was taken by newcomer Patson Daka.
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Leicester Under the Radar Players:
Only one of the top half teams last season conceded more than Leicester, so their defence isn’t as strong as anticipated. Only three teams conceded more goals at home than the Foxes, and Leicester ranked only 12th in the clean sheet charts.
For those reasons their defensive options don’t massively appeal to me, but I can see the upside of the wing-backs in particular.
Timothy Castagne scored twice and assisted four last season but his underlying stats weren’t as impressive as you’d expect. He only averaged 0.31 shots per 90 minutes and 0.80 key passes per 90. That shot record was bettered by all players in my expected line-up bar Schmeichel. That being said, he still had the best expected goal involvement record per 90 minutes of the defensive options, with 0.13.
In the small sample size we gained last season, there wasn’t much evidence to suggest Castagne’s goal involvement increased when playing as a wing-back rather than a full-back, although he was involved much more when playing on the right, with all six of his goal involvements last season coming when playing on that side.
Youri Tielemans is a pretty consistent midfielder that you can count on to play every game and get the occasional involvement. He has made double figure goal involvement returns in his last two Premier League seasons, but given that last seasons’ six goals was his best league tally ever tells you what you need to know. Furthermore, he only had 1.3 shots per game last season, with 69% of those coming from outside of the box. Tielemans does get a share of set-pieces, however.
Luke Thomas became an ever-present starter towards the end of last season and I think he’s done enough to keep his place for the start of this season. Given that he should be available at a generous price and is quite an advanced full-back he could be worth punting on if his spot in the line-up becomes clear.
He scored twice and assisted twice in his 25 appearances in all competitions last season, with both goals coming when playing as a wing-back. Thomas averaged 0.5 shots per game, which was best of all the Leicester defenders. Not only that, but 80% of those shots came in the box. That would rank him fourth in my expected line-up for shots in the box per game.
Fantasy Premier League 2021/22 Tips – Team Previews and Best Players
Leicester Players to Avoid:
There are better defensive options than Wesley Fofana and Caglar Soyuncu given their lack of attacking expertise, and the latter isn’t completely nailed. I’ve seen a lot of fuss over Fofana in the official Fantasy Premier League game given his £4.5m price tag, but I think there are plenty of better options.
Like I said before, Leicester’s defence is nothing special and Fofana has minimal goal threat: he has only scored twice in his career and never for Leicester. He also picked up seven yellow cards despite only starting 27 games.
It’s harsh of me to put him in the avoid category but I wanted to bring him up and don’t see him as one of the best assets or as going under the radar.
Patson Daka boasted an outstanding goal record for RB Salzburg last season with 34 goals and 12 assists in 42 appearances in all competitions. That equalled a goal involvement every 63 minutes, and although that was mainly in a weak Austrian league, is still a remarkable record.
We have seen some fantastic talents come out of the Austrian Bundesliga, like Erling Haaland, Sadio Mane and Dayot Upamecano. I’m unsure over whether he’ll start earlier on in the season, so stay clear for now, but when he gets starts I’m expecting him to become a very good Fantasy asset.
Find all our other Premier League 2021/22 Team Previews here which will be continually updated as the season draws closer!
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Our How to Play FPL Guide is a great place to get started whilst our Ultimate FPL 2021/22 Guide has everything you could ever need be a successful FPL manager.
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