It took until deadline day, but Leicester City finally addressed the winger position by signing Ademola Lookman. How does the 23-year-old fit into Brendan Rodgers’ system and how successful is this acquisition from a Foxes perspective?
After struggling in his initial Premier League season, playing for Everton back in 2016/17, Lookman ventured into Europe and followed the footsteps of other English talents — most notably wingers — by applying his trade in the German Bundesliga. It was originally as a loan, but his deal with RB Leipzig became permanent in 2019, after enduring a good year with the club (and a further two mismatch years at Everton). Now, the German-side have allowed him to leave on loan for the second time in two seasons — with Leicester City following Fulham in securing his services.
It’s easy to simply dissect the basic numbers for Lookman’s season with Fulham and suggest that he performed to a fairly standard level. Four goals and four assists in 34 games (2,747 minutes) isn’t overly productive. Throughout his career, Lookman has been a goal-scoring winger over a creative one, with him ending only a single season (2018-19) with more assists than goals. Yet, despite this notion of leaning towards finishing chances instead of scoring them — albeit providing minimal numbers in both metrics, Lookman was one of the Premier League’s best creators last season.
A good measurement for creativity is “shot-creating actions” (SCA) which essentially asses the two actions prior to a shot and accredits them with being impactful in the creation of the shot. This can vary from a tackle, to a dribble, although it’s often just a pass. Lookman finished the season with 115 shot-creating actions, which placed him as the 9th best in the league — only Jack Grealish outperformed him from clubs outside the “Top Six”.
Managing to create this many chances, in a side that scored the second-fewest goals in the league, is fairly impressive. It is however worth noting that across the overall season, Lookman only underperformed his expected assists (xA) by 1.2 — as he would’ve expected to receive 5.2 assists with the chances he created and only managed four, which shows that despite creating a lot of shots for his side, his lack of assists weren’t solely due to the poor finishing of the Fulham forwards, and perhaps down to the “bad” (or difficult to convert) shooting chances he created as well.
Aside from having very good creative numbers last season and also showing a preference of scoring instead of creating, there’s a specific stat that Lookman shone in which is extremely important for the Foxes and that’s in relation to his dribbling. I constantly fill my articles and threads with the idea that Leicester City lack players willing to bypass an opponent in a one-versus-one scenario by dribbling, or carrying, the ball. When it’s brought down to its most basic form, dribbling past an opponent removes them from the defensive phase and in an era dominated by high-presses and “man-for-man” marking, this is extremely valuable.
Ademola Lookman was the sixth best player for the “players dribbled past” metric, totalling 87 successful take-ons versus an opposition. In the exact same campaign (Premier League 2020/21), the best performer for Leicester City was Youri Tielemans with 45 — while both wide players (Ayoze Pérez and Harvey Barnes) managed 31 and 28 respectively. Adding this dimension to attacks for the Foxes is greatly beneficial and creates a two-dimensional attacking approach, rather than being limited to just passing through the opposition — like Rodgers’ side have been forced to this season, and have shown real signs of creating in these fixtures.
However, with all of this considered, where does the England youth-international actually fit into the Foxes system? Well, he’s spent the majority of his career operating on the left-side of midfield, but this won’t be the case with Leicester City. I’m fairly confident that his flexibility in positions — which has seen him play anywhere across the front three (behind the forward), is one of the crucial assets that attracted Brendan Rodgers’ interest. Look at some of his previous signings for the Foxes; James Justin and Timothy Castagne, and you’ll see this is a highly sort after requirement.
He’ll most likely operate on the right-side of Leicester City’s 4-2-3-1, replacing Ayoze Pérez. The improved output offensively will ultimately force his inclusion, and adding pace into the forward line will also optimise the ruthless nature the Foxes still possess in transitional attacks. But, can he subsidise the excellent off-the-ball and defensive acumen that the Spaniard offers that would make him an all-round a better option that the former Newcastle United winger?
Time will tell, although the data suggests that he’s not too far behind the defensive output of Pérez. When directly comparing the two, Lookman outscores him (on a per 90 basis) in the following metrics; tackles won, pressures success rate, and clearances. While the overall tackles, blocks, interceptions, and pressures are in Pérez’s favour. I would probably refer to Pérez as a “defensive winger” because of his prevalence in the aforementioned metrics, but does Rodgers prefer that to an increase in attacking output — I’m unsure. I’d also caveat this by stating the inverted movements of Leicester City’s current number 17 allow for the attacking full-backs to progress and impact the game in an attacking sense, whereas Lookman might occupy wider areas in the final stages, potentially negating these runs from depth. Another time will tell scenario.
I suppose that’s kind of my verdict with the overall transfer, time will tell. In all honesty, there was a couple of players that fitted the correct profile (left-footed right-winger) better than Lookman. Domenico Berardi of Sassuolo and Noni Madueke of PSV — both of whom would’ve been excellent additions. But, with only a short period of negotiations, successfully acquiring Lookman can only be seen as positive by the Foxes faithful. His numbers suggest he’ll be a creative force, with the likelihood of a few goals himself, and he’s adept enough defensively that he’ll probably start ahead of Ayoze Pérez.