Stat shows this expensive Leicester transfer flop will be sold soon

Ayoze Perez has been with the Leicester City since 2019. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, his time at the King Power is coming to a close. Here is why.

I will be the first to admit I thought this would be the return season for the versatile attacker. In his first season, ‘Ayo’ performed mainly on the right of a front three, and linked up well with either Ricardo Pereira – who would run on beyond him – or James Justin.

However, a second season was marred with injuries, poor performances, and a career-ending miss. Since then, we have seen his favoured position as an attacking midfielder occupied by simply better options like James Maddison, and for a short time Dennis Praet.

In 2022, Brendan Rodgers is yet to start the Fox. He came off the bench to play Randers in February, and in the league he last featured for minutes against Brighton & Hove Albion in January. Clearly Ayo is well out of favour. For good reason too.

Leicester City’s £30m flop

To call the player a flop is a little rough. Nevertheless, there are few better descriptions which can be attributed to the Spaniard. To go from a value of £30m to around £13m according to reports, is simply not a good look.

To compound this, his performances have been at best uninspired. This is his primary issue now: ‘Madders’ and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall look impassioned and bright, they inspire the team and create. Perez plays well, but does nothing more – certainly not £30m worth of excitement.

Comparing himself to Maddison is perhaps the best statistical underline of why the player finds himself down the pecking order. I shall use stats from Understat and Sofascore to illustrate my point.

Eight league appearances, only three of those as starts, two assists, an xG of just 0.96 and an xA of just 1.03, and just 0.3 tackles plus 0.1 interceptions per game. Contrast that with 28 appearances, 22 of those as starts, five assists, an xG of 4.98 with eight goals scored, an xA of 4.09, and 0.9 tackles plus 0.4 interceptions per game.

The stats speak for themselves. Even when played, Ayo has struggled to impact games from an attacking or defensive standpoint. On the other hand, Madders has scored ‘worldies’, put in challenges, and tried to inspire the squad.

The King Power club are right not to be playing the Spaniard in their bid to recover the season. They are also correct to be looking for real competition to Maddison in the transfer market, as well as an actual prolific right-winger. Versatility is good, but when you cannot perform one job really well, all you will be is a sub.

I suspect Ayoze Perez will leave this summer for a fee of around £10m alongside fringe players like Papy Mendy and Ryan Bertrand. It is time for a player like Charles de Ketelaere and Noni Madueke to grace the East Midlands pitch.