Predicted Leicester XI vs Stoke: Iheanacho starts in 4-3-3

Enzo Maresca’s Leicester City is set to host Stoke City as the Foxes look to continue their adventure in the Championship, an XI is predicted.

10 games played, 27 points gained, the best ever start to an EFL Championship campaign ever. Supporters of other clubs are rattled by us having an expensive squad, but who cares, the King Power club are a small amount ahead with unexpected high fliers Ipswich Town and Preston North End. Both of which have been felled.

So, with such a good set of performances, and with the Foxes out of one cup competition, there is room for the Italian to rotate the team and retain a freshness and sharpness to the squad. However, the obvious thing to do is to keep the team which keeps winning together for as long as possible. Of course, this is in absence of both Kasey McAteer and Callum Doyle.

Leicester City predicted XI

My XI: Mads Hermansen, James Justin, Jannik Vestergaard, Wout Faes, Ricardo Pereira, Harry Winks, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Wilfred Ndidi, Stephy Mavididi, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Abdul Fatawu.

My expectation is for very few changes to the starting XI from the successful Preston encounter. I believe Conor Coady and Jamie Vardy will be rested – one for only recently returning from injury, and the other simply because they are older and need more rest to stay at their best.

Otherwise, the team remains unchanged. The English fullback remains in Doyle’s spot until the centre-back returns, as neither Harry Souttar or Ben Nelson would be preferred by Maresca. Leicester City should see more of Fatawu and Yunus Akgun with the academy breakout star out for a prolonged period. Meanwhile, it seems impossible to drop Winks and KDH: they are perfect in midfield.

Bear in mind that four of our top five attacking players (measured as non-penalty expected goals per 90 added to expected assists per 90) are present in this XI. Seniorman Kels, Ndidi, Mavididi, and KDH have been excellent in the attacking third and must obviously be present as much as possible.

This being said, the head coach could rest a lot of players as we had a midweek fixture. This could see Hamza Choudhury, Cesare Casadei, Marc Albrighton, Souttar, and possibly Akgun in the starting lineup.