Premier League Preview 2019-20: Leicester City
Leicester City Football Club
Credit: Leicester City FC
2018-19 Premier League Finish: 9th Place
2019-20 Premier League Prediction: 7th Place
Transfers In:
Youri Tielemans MF - Monaco £42,000,000
Ayoze Perez FW - Newcastle United £31,000,000
James Justin DF - Luton Town £6,000,000
Transfers Out:
Shinji Okazaki FW - Free Agent
Danny Simpson DF - Free Agent
Three years removed from their triumphant Premier League title, Leicester City are entering their 6th consecutive season in the Premier League. Since their cinderella title winning season, Leicester have finished 12th, 9th and 9th. And in that time frame, Leicester have had 3 different coaches. You could say their standards have become pretty high since then. Brendan Rodgers took over as manager near the end of February last season and led Leicester to a 6-3-2 record over the finish of the season. Leicester City are hoping to continue to improve under Rodgers in his first full season as coach and get back in Europe after getting a taste of it in the 2016-17 season. I feel like I have Leicester finishing in their best case scenario. They might could reach a spot as high as 6th, but I can’t see them cracking top 5. Worst case scenario for this team would be around 13th. This squad is way too talented to be anywhere near the relegation zone.
Strength:
Jamie Vardy
Credit: Leicester City FC
In my opinion, Leicester’s strength is their attack. Jamie Vardy has been one of the top 5 strikers in the Premier League over the past few seasons. Vardy’s last 4 seasons in the Premier League, he’s scored 24, 13, 20 and 18 goals. I don’t have time to research who has scored more goals than him over that time frame, but I can assure you that that list is very small. Vardy is starting to get up there a little bit in age, he’s 32, but striker is the one position that older players seem to thrive at. I don’t really expect any sort of srop off from Vardy anytime soon. Outside of Vardy, Leicester now have another deadly attacker in Ayoze Perez. Perez has been arguably Newcastle’s best player over the past few seasons and has registered 8 and 12 goals in the past two seasons in the Premier League. Perez and Vardy is a heck of a 1-2 combo, and that’s why I have Leicester reaching that last Europa League spot in 7th. Leicester is going to be a fun team to watch this season.
Weakness:
Harry Maguire
Credit: Metro
There isn’t really a weakness in this squad that sticks out, they are solid all the way around. The one weakness that I’m going to go with is their defense, due to the likelihood that Harry Maguire is on his way out. With Ben Chilwell and Ricardo Pereira slotted in at the full back positions, the weakness would be in Leicester’s CB pairing. With Maguire in the line-up paired with either Jonny Evans or Wes Morgan, Leicester has a very solid defense, but with Maguire out, and no replacement being brought in, then I would consider the CB pairing to need improvement. I think that Evans and Morgan would get the job done, but would definitely be the weakest link in this club. Leicester have truly put themselves in a great spot. I think they have a really good team and if they are able to hold on to Maguire then a Europa League spot is a real possibility. If they do lose Maguire, they’ll be around £60 million richer so hopefully they would be able to go out and make an addition.
Top Goalscorer Predictions:
Jamie Vardy: 15 goals
Ayoze Perez: 13 goals
James Maddison: 8 goals
Home Kit: Big fan of this Leicester home kit. Top 3 so far from the teams I’ve reviewed so far. I really like the waterprint checkerboard and the gold stripes look great.
Credit: Leicester Mercury
Away Kit: This is as good of a pink jersey as you will find. Now I’m still not a huge fan of it as I just don’t like pink jersey’s, but the design and the black stripes and lettering are decent.
Credit: Football Shirt Culture