How Leicester should line-up for Wolverhampton Wanderers game

Leicester City face Wolverhampton Wanderers at home on the opening day of the season. With several absences, this is the team that should face Wolves.

With our first Premier League match quickly approaching, Leicester have a lot of fitness and injury concerns going into the new season.

Meanwhile, Wolverhampton Wanderers have strengthened their side since the departure of club legend and current Tottenham Hotspurs coach, Nuno Espirito Santo.

Here is an update on injuries, transfers, and the team line-up that should face Wolves.

Leicester City’s absences

The Foxes will definitely be without James Justin, Wesley Fofana, and Jonny Evans. They are out due to sustained or protracted injuries. They may also miss out on Papy Mendy, though his injury is less severe.

Timothy Castagne and Dennis Praet have not played much football recently, so their fitness is of concern, while Castagne has only trained with the team for a week.

It is unlikely that either will feature in the starting XI, though I expect them both to be on the bench to be used should Brendan Rodgers choose to do so later in the match.

Wolverhampton Wanderers’ transfers

The wolf pack have strengthen in defence, attack, and in goal. In goal, Portugues ‘Keeper Jose Sa has been signed with the departure of Rui Patricio. Sa is an assured no-nonsense goalie, so do not expect many mistakes.

In defence, they have signed Colombian defender Yerson Mosquera. At only 20, he is one for the future and will feature on rotation with Max Kilman. This signing only makes a back three more of an option for Bruno Lage.

They have also signed  Francisco Trincao from FC Barcelona on loan. The right-winger will not start ahead of Adama Traore, but represents a massive improvement in squad depth and quality.

How should the Foxes line-up?

Wolverhampton Wanderers are a tough team to beat. Defensively they are compact and in attack they have the undoubted pace and energy of Pedro Neto and Traore to get onto long balls and supply the returning Raul Jiminez.

To counter this, Brendan Rodgers should focus on dominating possession and aerial domination in defence. By controlling the vertical positioning of the ball and stopping long balls with aerial challenges, this minimises the ball-time Traore and Neto will receive.

After taking out the danger men, the game plan would be simple: use technical ability and penetration to get beyond the defensive line and whip low crosses into the box.

A 4-3-3 formation is preferred, and here are the expected participants:

Kasper Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Daniel Amartey, Caglar Soyuncu, Ryan Bertrand, Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, Jamie Vardy, and Marc Albrighton.

Were it not for Vardy, I would have placed new signing Patson Daka straight into the starting side. Expect to see him off the bench.

My belief is that Rodgers will favour legend Albrighton over Ayoze Perez due to his crossing ability and previous link-up play with Ricky P. The partnership on the right will be critical to beating Wolves.

Youri and Wilf will need to get further into the opposition half to help dominate possession and provide back-passing routes to prevent turnovers.