Leicester’s best Player and Young Player of the season

Barnes has the seventh highest ranking on the goal-creating actions (GCA) per 90 metric for the entire league, with a very impressive 0.65. In essence, the metric encompasses players who aren’t directly involved in the making of a goal (i.e goal or assist), instead it attributes success to all the players involved who heightened the chances of scoring the goal. This means that although Barnes was able to assist 8 goals this season, he played a contributing role in a further 7 more goals, leaving him with a GCA of 15 for the season.

All of this, whilst only being 21-years-old. It’s easy to forget the cries of the Foxes faithful, begging for an elite winger to join the ranks ahead of the 2019/20 Premier League season, when an academy product has subsidised this output for an entire year. This isn’t to say he’s been perfect, Barnes definitely has his intrinsic flaws – off-the-ball movements, fragile confidence (mentality), and occasionally poor decision-making. But given the importance of his role to Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City, Barnes has delivered to a level not many could have foreseen.

During last seasons awards, Ricardo Pereira rightly swept the floor winning both the Spectators Player of The Season and the Players’ Player of The Season. The Portuguese right-back furthered his magnificent form into this campaign, but a major injury has ruled him out of all the games post-restart, consequently missing 23.6% of Leicester City’s Premier League games this season.

I’d argue the defender still deserves the award, but I feel it’s unfair to those who’ve performed to a consistent level through the entirety of the season. For that reason, my Player of The Year is Jamie Vardy, surprisingly claiming the award for the first time in his eight-year tenure with Leicester City.