After their League winning exploits last season, Leicester City have faded away from the limelight owing to repeated poor performances in the league. One of the main reasons for this is definitely the under-performance of the big names. More than the team play last season, Leicester always found some individual or the other whose superior performance gave them the edge over their opponents. They always had the last laugh.
This is the exact thing that is missing this season as the Foxes struggle at the 14th position with 12 points from the opening 11 games. While some have more or less kept their form from last season, many have fallen down.
Stars
Islam Slimani
After Riyad Mahrez, Ranieri has found another Algerian talent in Islam Slimani. Although Slimani’s goal scoring form is not even close to that of Jamie Vardy’s last season, he seems to be the only forward, who has stepped up when the team needed him. He has scored three goals this season and registered one assist. Ranieri also seems to have more faith in the 28-year-old than he has on Vardy at the moment.
Riyad Mahrez
Although he has not been the same player in the Premier League that he was last season, he has been phenomenal in Leicester’s Champions League campaign with 3 goals and 1 assist in 4 games. Ranieri is hoping he brings his form to the league games as well. Mahrez has scored one goal this season, creating 14 chances and one assist. He has completed 280 passes this season with a pass accuracy of 78%, of which 74% were forward passes. His defensive contributions have decreased this season with him winning only 36% of average duels.
Kasper Schmeichel
Although injuries have cut short his start to the season, he had some inspiring performance in the goal. He has made 31 saves this season keeping two clean sheets. His average claims are 97% successful and his average saves per goal are 2.82. Zieler is deputizing for the injured custodian and the Leicester fans will be hoping their star keeper returns sooner than expected.
Duds
Robert Huth
The towering defender was one of the main reasons for Leicester City’s fairytale run last season. There was absolutely no one who could break past Leicester’s defence and Huth was at the end of it. He defended, he intercepted, cleared and when his team needed him, he even scored from indirect set pieces. But this season his performances have taken a nose-dip. The Foxes have lost more matches this season already than they had lost in the full of last season. Where he had won 55 % of the average duels last season, has reduced to 37 %. The average defensive actions, which was 11 last season has come down to 8.
Danny Drinkwater
He had earlier lamented the departure of N’Golo Kanté stating Leicester have not found his replacement this season. The anchor of the team has also seen a major dip in his performance. In 11 appearances, he has scored no goals creating seven chances and one assist. He has completed 583 passes this season with a pass accuracy of 79%, of which 83% were forward passes. He has been successful in only 41% of his average defensive duels, which is the most telling of all stats considering Kante’s absence.
Shinji Okazaki
Okazaki has scored one goal this season and registered no assists. He has a shot accuracy of 40% with 72% passing accuracy. There is no surprise he is not in the start line up. He is lacking the edge and his workrate seems to be the only positive when he plays.
Stats credit: Squawka
