Leicester v Tottenham: Foxes injury nightmare expected XI

Leicester City are living a waking nightmare as injury news casts doubt on what team can be expected to play against Tottenham. Here is what you must know.

Brendan Rodgers’ Foxes were already weary of getting a result against a side three points ahead of them – though with two more games played than them – before finding out two more names were to be absent from the line-up.

The injury news could turn out to be a fatal blow for the King Power side, who will need all the support they can get from home supporters. Let us have a look at the injury news and what side to expect as a result.

Zero Leicester City CBs

As per LeicestershireLive, we know that several players are out from injuries and from a severe COVID outbreak which has decimated the depth in the squad. The full list of absentees and those not quite fit contains:

Caglar Soyuncu, Jonny Evans, Wesley Fofana, Daniel Amartey, Jannik Vestergaard, Filip Benkovic, James Justin, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Kelechi Iheanacho, Ayoze Perez, Ademola Lookman, and Hamza Choudhury.

The only positive news is that Ricardo Pereira returned just ahead of the Newcastle United fixture, though he did not feature. This means Leicester have literally zero fit senior side centre-backs and will have to find an answer for this nightmare.

In that same press conference, the Northern Irish gaffer has stated the Foxes tried to get the game postponed, but the Premier League denied the request. This is possibly due to Tottenham Hotspur already having two games in arrears.

Expected starting XI

One can only assume two possible formations: a variation of a 4-2-2-2 and possibly a 3-4-3. In this context, I will run through what players I would expect to see feature in either scenario.

Firstly the 4-2-2-2: Kasper Schmeichel, Luke Thomas, Wilfred Ndidi, Ryan Bertrand, Timothy Castagne, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Youri Tielemans, James Maddison, Boubakary Soumare, Harvey Barnes, and Jamie Vardy.

Second the 3-4-3: Schmeichel, Bertrand, Ndidi, Castagne, Thomas, Pereira, Tielemans, KDH, Madders, Vardy, Marc Albrighton, Barnes. This one would help to prevent overloads in defence by simply having more players further back.

The King Power outfit will be on the defensive regardless of which formation they end up going with. However, with multi-functional and competent players still available, Rodgers should be able to choose a strong XI, if nowhere near our strongest.

It is also worth noting that either Benjamin Nelson or Lewis Brunt (probably both) with be present on the substitute bench as any defensive injuries would require actual CBs to fill in. Nelson would be a good shout, but the situation remains dire.