Foxes of Leicester
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Leicester vs Brighton, preview: can the Foxes progress in the FA Cup?

By Elliot Mackness

Neal Maupay of Brighton and Hove Albion, Wilfred Ndidi of Leicester City (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Neal Maupay of Brighton and Hove Albion, Wilfred Ndidi of Leicester City (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) /
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Adama Traore of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Caglar Soyuncu and Hamza Choudhury of Leicester City (Photo by Nick Potts – Pool/Getty Images) /

Lack of Leicester City clean sheets

Defensively speaking, the Foxes have been alright. In the FA Cup, we have kept one clean sheet, in the Premier League we have nine. Brighton have yet to keep a clean sheet in the cup, but now have seven in the league. Four of those seven came in the last five matches, two against Tottenham and Liverpool.

Really, Brighton have not been good at keeping clean sheets or preventing goals. In the league, they have an xGA (expected goals against) of 27.69, conceding 30. That xGA is actually surprisingly good.

Brighton’s defensive issue is on the turnover – the counterattack. Once the Brighton transition has been halted or the ball has been lost, the team fails to assume an organised defensive block before a quick counter-transition easily breaks any attempt at a high press.

Brighton need to get better at either a high press or tracking back. This has happened to an extent in recent matches, leading to critical wins against big clubs.

Leicester have an xGA of 26.69, conceding 25. Remember, three of those were stupidly to Leeds United. This is good. In a massive thanks to Wesley Fofana, Jonny Evans, and Kasper Schmeichel for being immensely impressive in defence. They have prevented countless goals.

The Foxes main concessions have originated from two sources. Poorly defended turnovers and set pieces. Ndidi does much to prevent turnover goals with his swift interventions and disruptive challenges. Choudhury has been doing this recently.

The goalkeepers Robert Sanchez and Kasper Schmeichel have been good. It is difficult to predict who will be between the sticks for either team though. Both have secondary goalkeepers who really need a chance to play.

Danny Ward will probably not play. I suspect Brendan Rodgers will want to not risk losing to Brighton in the only domestic cup competition the Foxes are in. However, Ward’s distribution short and long is more accurate than Schmeichel, so perhaps he might play if we go for a direct transition style.

Jason Steele and Christian Walton have both played in the FA Cup for a single match for Brighton. So, I really don’t know who their goalkeeper will be. Probably Sanchez if Potter wants to win.