Leicester vs Palace: expected Foxes starting XI

Foxes of Leicester round up Leicester City’s injury news and predict the starting XI with the east Midlands side preparing to face London club Crystal Palace.

Welcome to FoL as we look ahead to Saturday’s lunchtime Premier League clash. Leicester seemed to have turned a footballing corner last Monday through victory against Nottingham Forest. Obviously the latter were not the most testing of opponents, nevertheless, LCFC got the job done impressively.

As you will know, almost all of the good work and progress was undone in familiar fashion versus newly promoted and underestimated Bournemouth in the subsequent fixture. Now Brendan Rodgers and his men contest the Eagles this coming weekend.

At his pre-match press conference, Rodgers revealed that Nampalys Mendy, Timo Castagne and Dennis Praet are fit again. Unfortunately Jonny Evans and Wilfred Ndidi are doubts for the Palace outing. FoL’s expected starting lineup is below:

Danny Ward; James Justin, Daniel Amartey, Wout Faes, Timothy Castagne; Boubakary Soumare; Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Youri Tielemans; Harvey Barnes, James Maddison; Patson Daka.

Will we see the Leicester City that demolished Nottingham Forest?

During his presser, Rodgers also said that his team must generate crowd noise essentially by showing them efforts and quality play spectators can be proud of and support. Although, the Northern Irishman admits that 12:30pm Saturday kickoffs don’t always have the same atmosphere as later matches; night games are especially fervent in Foxes of Leicester’s view, so we sympathise with the gaffer here.

However, that is the only get out clause I shall personally allow ‘BR’ presently. This is because results are gone past worrying, the majority of displays and tactics are inadequate to say the least. Meanwhile Leicester’s Premier League position is unacceptable.

Rodgers will have to devise a solid plan for the Palace meeting, more complex than versus the east Midlands rivals. Patrick Vieira has transformed the South Londoners into a more dangerous and equipped opponent. They are capable of upsets, as we’ve seen, not that away teams winning at King Power Stadium is a surprise these days.

Having said all this, a prediction is difficult to make, though a score draw may ultimately be the outcome on Saturday afternoon. Leicester have won four of the last six English top-flight meetings with Palace; the Foxes did not lose once in that period.