Brighton v Leicester: Predicted Foxes lineup, Vardy to retain place

Leicester City face Graham Potter’s Brighton & Hove Albion at the American Express Community Stadium on Saturday. So what to expect in this one? The Foxes have performed far better this season in their away fixtures as compared to their inconsistent home fixtures.

What should Leicester City expect?

While Brendan Rodgers hopes to get hold of the three points, Graham Potter will be looking to scrap for at least a point from Brighton’s fixtures: being only three points above Fulham, the Seagulls will be trying hard hoping to get further and further away from the relegation zone.

A long list of bothersome injuries has crippled the King Power club more than often this season and that has unequivocally affected their results. According to the gaffer, Jonny Evans won’t play against Brighton after missing out on the Burnley game.

The same can be said for Ayoze Pérez who along with Evans can be expected to make a return to the squad for the next matchday when Leicester City take on Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United. Wesley Fofana was introduced in the 66th minute after absence for a couple of games after injury.

Fofana he is expected to make a start to reinforce the backline alongside Çağlar Söyüncü. This relieves Wilfred Ndidi to return to his natural CDM role and make far more impact in the middle of the pitch. Additionally, this also means Hamza Choudhury and Nampalys Mendy would possibly be benched.

"“(Evans) will be a big doubt for the weekend, we’re looking more towards Sheffield United. It’s good to have Wesley back. He’s only trained for a couple of days, so we could only bring him into the game, but he has come through well.”-Brendan Rogers on the centre- backs, via Leicester Mercury"

The Jamie Vardy situation

There is no sugarcoating the fact that the main striker, Jamie Vardy, is having somewhat of a rough patch. He has not been his usual and the fans are not happy about it. To be honest, statistically yes, he has been underperforming since his surgery. But it’s too early to count him out. He is still Jamie Vardy and he does a lot of sublime things that many a time goes unnoticed by spectators.

Jamie Vardy is still clinical when he is not upping the numbers, the way he lures away certain defenders with his timed runs creates a lot of pockets of spaces for others to exploit. The last match against Burnley was a good example of this. Vardy created the space for Iheanacho to make that brilliant run from the lobbed-through pass from Ndidi. The whole fluidity of the move that resulted in the goal was instigated by a simple movement from Vardy.

"“Jamie Vardy walks just three yards, he takes Tarkowski out of his space, his comfort zone and Iheanacho makes the movement in behind, makes Ndidi’s mind up, a striker has to make the midfielder’s mind up, he makes his mind up,”Clinton Morrison, Sky Sports pundit on Vardy’s role in Iheanacho’s goal, via Leicester Mercury"

That is precisely why a struggling Vardy should not yet be dropped now more than ever because the team is already thin and as it stands five players: James Maddison, Dennis Praet, Wes Morgan, Harvey Barnes, and James Justin are still out and until Maddison, Barnes or Praet comes back to availability, Brendan Rodgers doesn’t have the liability to not use the striker.

Predicted Lineup

Starting XI: Kasper Schmeichel, Wesley Fofana, Çağlar Söyüncü, Luke Thomas, Ricardo Pereira, Timothy Castagne, Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, Marc Albrighton, Jamie Vardy, and Kelechi Iheanacho.
Subs: Danny Ward, Daniel Amartey, Cengiz Ünder, Hamza Choudhury, Nampalys Mendy, Christian Fuchs, Sidnei Tavares, Vontae Daley-Campbell, and Thakgalo Leshbela.

The contrasting mentality and assessment from both the managers will be an interesting watch this weekend.