Brighton v Leicester: Potterball v Brendanball on the South Coast

The return of Fofana and a new partnership

Those who have followed my writing will know what I think about Leicester’s defenders. They are world-class, with a balance of centre-backs and fullbacks who can play a variety of styles and alter the way we progress or retain the ball.

Two of those are Caglar Soyuncu and Wesley Fofana. Strictly speaking, these two are similar. Both are aggressive in their challenges, both can progress the ball quite far out of defence, and both have good heading. Where they diverge is in energy, the ‘fear factor’, and dealing with pressure.

Fofana is more energetic, able to rush with pace to break up attacking play and disrupt the opposition. Soyuncu though is stronger, more able to apply pressure and thus fear in attackers, as well as being more capable of playing through pressure when other players are instinctive enough to spot his passing lanes.

Although Leicester City have had issues in recent matches defensively, surely this new partnership will make a much more physical and involved backline for the Foxes.

With that being said, the East Midlands outfit have nine clean sheets (which has not been accumulated for four matches), with an xGA (expected goals against) of 33.45, actually conceding 31. This is a midtable defensive performance.

Earlier in the season, this statistic was far more favourable. Brendan Rodgers should perhaps look to what has left the Foxes exposed on the turnover (almost exclusively where our goals against come from) so much. Partly, this is the absence of Fofana.

The South Coast side under Graham Potter are actually one of the best defensive teams in terms of xGA. They have eight clean sheets, a lot of those coming in recent weeks, with an xGA of 28.70, actually conceding 33. Either they have been unlucky with all those additional goals, or their goalkeeper has made errors.

One goalkeeper who seldom makes errors is Kasper Schmeichel. His two extraordinary saves against Burnley gained Leicester City the point.

I expected the new partnership between Fofana and Soyuncu to be deployed along a back four, and this will inevitably lead to a more favourable position for dealing with turnovers, and reduce the xGA. Nevertheless, their work will still be cut out for them, and scoring goals is going to be another issue.