Leicester City’s August stats reviewed: Defense

This article is the third segment of the Leicester City August Stats Reviewed. In the first two articles, the teams shooting, possession and passing stats were analyzed. In this segment, the team’s defensive statistics will be scrutinized.

In the four league games played in August, Leicester conceded just three goals, one of the lowest in the league. Given that they tend to dominate possession, opposition teams have had an average possession of only 34.5 percent against the Foxes, the second lowest in the league after Southampton.

Most of Leicester’s defensive stats seem to be average – not great but not concerning either. Leicester have been fairly solid in defense so far and have conceded a total xG of 4.7 in the league. This is the 13th highest in the league but given the lack of possession opposition teams have against Leicester, the Foxes should be doing a better job of denying chances.

Opposition players have a non-penalty expected goal per shot (np-xGps) of 0.09. This is higher than what Leicester have mustered against their opposition (0.07). They have also allowed nine big chances against them while only mustering six big chances for themselves despite their dominant possession. A big positive from this is the fact that only one of the nine big chances were converted with keeper Mads Hermansen playing a major part in saving most of the remaining eight chances.

Moving on, the Foxes have allowed 51 shots (10th best) and 14 shots (11th best) on target from the opposition. Again, there is room for improvement as all of these shots are coming from oppositions with significantly lower possession than Leicester.

Leicester City’s Jannik Vestergaard

The 6ft 6 Danish Centre-back is regularly considered a liability in the defense by fans because of his frighteningly slow pace and agility. Given that Leicester play with a high defensive line and dominate possession, there is always a worry that the opposition’s counter attacks will exploit Vestergaard’s pace by having pacey forwards run in behind to collect long balls sent over the top. However stats show that this hasn’t been a problem yet.

There have only been three completed through balls against Leicester, the joint 2nd best in the league. Opposition players have taken shots from an average distance of 18.1 yards, which is the 9th highest number in the league. Thus, Vestergaard’s pace doesn’t seem to be something which the opposition are exploiting so far.

However, even with Vestergaard’s physicality, Leicester seem to be struggling with long balls and dead balls. Opposition teams have an average long ball pass completion rate of 49.8% against Leicester, the 6th highest figure against any team. Opposition players have also utilized dead balls to create 11 Shot Creating Actions, joint 5th highest against any team.

As highlighted in an earlier article, Leicester have completed just 29 passes into opposition penalty boxes and five crosses. With much less possession of the ball, opposition teams have managed to muster 25 passes into the penalty box with nine crosses completed. The Foxes have to put more balls into the opposition box while also allowing less penetration into their own box from the opposition.

Overall, Leicester City seem to be doing a decent job defensively. There is room for improvement for Enzo Maresca’s team but nothing highly concerning as such. With Conor Coady nearing a return to the first team, there should be heightened defensive performances with his leadership and ability.

Note: This is a summary of Leicester’s August games, so the 0-1 loss to Hull City is not included.