What Leicester City need to become a Premier League top six side in 2019/20

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LEICESTER, ENGLAND – MAY 12: Ricardo Pereira of Leicester City is challenged by Ross Barkley of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Chelsea FC at The King Power Stadium on May 12, 2019 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) /

Right-back

Ricardo Pereira deserved his Player of the Season – and Players’ Player – award this campaign. He was as wonderful in defence, eventually, as he was great in attack. Although, Ricardo seems to need a teammate such as Marc Albrighton to double-up with him, especially against better teams.

Don’t think for one second that this is an endorsement to see the Portuguese eliminated from the lineup, because it is not. This assessment is merely pointing out that Albrighton’s era in the starting XI may soon come to an end; as well as advocating Ricardo’s move forward as a right-winger. His productivity is too valuable there to ignore.

Therefore the right-back position would be open for the incoming of a more capable top six standard option than just Daniel Amartey. Or Ricardo may simply remain where he is; it’ll be interesting to see the decision play out. Especially with the 25-year-old admitting to Leicester Mercury that he didn’t expect his season to be quite the success it was.

Winger

If Ricardo doesn’t become advanced as proposed in the previous section – providing Rodgers agrees that Albrighton is now more of a backup – then can Demarai Gray finally step up and consistently perform? Why should the Leicester faithful believe that now, after years of, frankly, disappointment?!

Consequently, FoL would not be surprised at all to see the club buy a Premier League – or Serie A, La Liga or possibly Bundesliga – proficient winger this off-season. A significantly expensive wingman is more likely to be purchased if £40 million is not spent on Youri Tielemans.

Striker

A long held theory among Leicester fans is that a goalscorer of exceptional calibre, let’s again say proven top-division standard, is needed to bolster the Foxes’ attack. This is an accurate assessment; one you will also hear echoed by national pundits and experts. Mainly due to the fact that, before his departure, Shinji Okazaki supplied next to no goal support to the still fully effective Jamie Vardy. Okazaki did of course have a noteworthy industrious capacity.

Kelechi Iheanacho has not, and in FoL’s opinion, will never reach his potential. Nor will he net a sufficiently supportive amount. Rodgers has vowed to stick by the attacker, yet many, us included, opine that selling the Nigerian and replacing him in the aforementioned parameters of player is the right outcome to the situation.