Which Leicester City players should you possibly select for your FPL team? @FplFoxy aka Jake Raynes chooses his three best options for Foxes of Leicester.
Leicester are having a tremendous season in the Premier League form and their continued success probably justifies selecting a few Foxes in your fantasy side. With this in mind, let’s take a look at Leicester’s top three Fantasy assets that you should consider bringing in to your starting eleven.
Harvey Barnes of Leicester city
At £6.9 million Barnes represents a cheap avenue into the Leicester attack and with ten goal contributions this season (seven goals and three assists) Harvey is on track to post his best attacking numbers in his short Leicester career.
Barnes is one of the most exciting players to watch under Rodgers, his direct running and blistering pace can be devastating, the young winger did have some questions around his finishing which I the stats would suggest has improved this campaign. Barnes has accumulated an expected goals (xG) rating of 4.89 this season meaning he has actually over performed when it comes to converting the chances that have fell to him this season.
The return of Jamie Vardy should help Barnes who has developed a good relationship with the veteran striker and likes to play in the space Vardy creates. Fantasy managers who are looking to save some of their budget would be wise to consider Barnes for their fourth or even fifth midfield slot.
James Maddison
One of the few “luxury” players in Brendan’s side, Madders is all about creating and scoring beautiful goals and is allowed the freedom of a traditional number 10, playing between the lines and finding space to work his magic.
After an injury stricken start to the season Maddison has found his form again with six goal involvements (three goals three assists) in his last seven premier league appearances. Visually Maddison is playing like a player full of confidence his passing is sharp and he always seems to be on the same page as the deeper lying Youri Tielemans.
Maddison’s increased understanding of his role within the Foxes’ system and also the roles of his teammates has led to the Leicester playmaker massively over performing his expected goals (2.55) and expected assist (2.64) ratings.
Maddison doesn’t quite match Barnes on the xG/xA metrics but his tendency to score and create goals from outside the box is a large factor that has to be considered when using these statistics means he is still a viable fantasy option at 7.4m.
Ricardo Pereira
If you are looking to climb your office mini league and need to think a little more outside the box with your selections Ricardo is a player that needs to be high on your shortlist. Pereira is currently only owned by 0.3% of players due to his lengthy injury absence and at 5.9m Ricky could provide the perfect differential for managers planning a late surge.
Despite being side-lined for the entirety of project restart last season Ricardo (118 tackles) managed to still finish second in the Premier League tackle rankings only behind Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Wilfred Ndidi (joint first on 129 tackles). You may be wondering how this will add to your fantasy points total – but tackles won are one of the key metrics used to form FPL’s “bonus point” system. In addition to Ricardo’s sturdy defensive stats the Portuguese fullback also chipped in with 3 goals and 2 assists last season from 28 appearances which is a more than respectable return.
Ricardo is a certainty to feature going forwards with the unfortunate news that James Justin, one of Leicester’s best performers in fantasy football and on the pitch this season, is out with a lengthy ACL injury.
With Timothy Castagne also in and out of the side with persistent muscle strains Rodgers is unlikely to have the luxury of rotating his full backs so Pereira should get plenty of minutes for the remainder of the season. All stats used in this article are taken from Fantasy Fantasy Football Scout.