Leicester City are apparently going to do battle with Chelsea and Arsenal for Said Benrahma. Here’s Foxes of Leicester’s verdict.
Said Benrahma: an Algerian winger who has come from France and impressed in the Championship. Sound familiar? Could Leicester City have another Riyad Mahrez on their hands with a bid? Let’s investigate.
Benrahma joined Brentford from Nice in July 2018 for around £1.5million after being at the French club for five years. After appearing 38 times last season for Brentford, the Algerian international has been one of the most impressive players in the second English division this campaign.
Reminiscent
Since Riyad Mahrez said goodbye to Leicester City in 2018, the Foxes have been missing the flair and excitement from their wingers. Despite the superb development of Harvey Barnes in the past year, another winger will certainly be on Brendan Rodgers’s wishlist this coming transfer window.
The three-time Algerian international has been catching the eye of Premier League teams this season after breaking into the Brentford first-team in January 2019. Additionally, the Algeria wideman scored nine goals in 14 appearances for the Bees – and hasn’t looked back since.
Voted PFA Fans’ Player of The Month in January 2020, Benrahma has been rumoured to be leaving his current team this season. While Leicester City are heavily linked with the 24-year-old, Chelsea and Arsenal have recently shown interest, too.
If City can capture Benrahma, will he be the man to replace Mahrez? Could he do what Rachid Ghezzal has struggled to do?
What Benrahma can bring to Leicester City
At Brentford, Benrahma plays on the left of the prolific front three with Ollie Watkins and Bryan Mbuemo. He has scored 10 goals and assisted 7 as the Bees are currently sat 4th in their league, with nine games remaining. At age-24, he possesses the ability to run at defenders and cause countless problems for the opposition. With the preferred nature of receiving the ball at feet so he can directly enter the opposition territory.
Like Leicester, Brentford enjoy playing on the counter-attack: with the midfield three of Emiliano Marcondes, Christian Nørgaard and Joshua Da Silva, the pace of the front three make this easy for Thomas Frank’s side to catch opponents out on the break.
With Benrahma familiar to the way City play football under Rodgers, his commitment to using silky skill and flair to beat opponents would add to the wingers already at King Power Stadium.
This season the former OGC Nice player has taken the most shots, 49, in the whole league and has made the most assists per 90 minutes, 0.52. Despite his side being 10 points off the automatic places, only Aleksandar Mitrovic has taken the most shots in the league – Benrahma has 127 and Mitrovic has 131.
Another interesting stat that compliments the winger, is that he has taken the most shots on target per 90 minutes: 1.60 per match in the Championship.
This season, only 14 goals and 14 assists have been contributed by the four Foxes wingers, meaning the vacancy for a winger is open at the club. Benrahma may be the man for the job.