Leicester City Season Review 2023/24 - Part 2 (Attack)

The second installment in the 2023/24 Leicester City season review, this article will be a statistical look at the Foxes’ attack this season. On the surface, it was a successful season for the Leicester players in attack. The Foxes scored 89 goals in the league (the second highest) and had the highest xG.

Introduction

The champions created the most big chances (142) and had the second best conversion rate of big chances. 43 percent of the big chances were converted. The players proved to be good dribblers as well, ranking fourth in the league for most dribbles. Additionally, their passes and carries into the box were effective, winning the Foxes a total of 13 penalties, the most in the league.

Leicester had a strong start to the season, winning 19 of their first 23 games. The second half of the season was a lot more inconsistent for the Foxes. They won just 12 of their next 23 games, a sharp decrease from the first half. Their last 14 games were especially disastrous, of which they lost seven games.

Dividing the season into two equal halves

Dividing the season into two equal halves, the offensive stats look similar. In the first half of the season, LCFC scored 47 goals from an xG of 42.8. They created 69 big chances and converted 42% of them. In the second half, the Foxes scored 42 goals from a xG of 41.9. 42% of the 74 big chances were converted. While the first half is slightly better, it doesn’t seem drastic enough to justify such contrasting performances. 

The only significant difference was the possession enjoyed by Leicester. The first half saw Leicester enjoy 64.5% possession, which was reduced to 58.65% in the second half. This does suggest that the Blues lacked some control of the game in the second half of the season, something which Enzo Maresca likes to avoid. 

Looking at the results, the first half of the season saw Leicester show a lot of grit. In 10 of their 19 games, they won by just a single goal. Those one goal leads weren’t instances where they took a big lead but had it cut down. In almost all of them, Leicester fought from a losing or drawing position to score the decisive winner. The Foxes seemed to have lost that ruggedness in the second half of the season, only winning four games with such a close margin. 

In the 11 games which Leicester failed to win in the second half, the opposition had higher xG in only three of the games. The Foxes lacked that decisiveness which was prevalent in the first 23 games of the season. 

Finishing

Another glaring issue in the second half of the season was the finishing. For a team with four supposed high quality strikers, Leicester were awful at putting the ball at the back of the net. While the overall offensive stats of the second half of the season are similar to the first half, we can get more clarity by isolating City’s performance in the last 14 games of the season and in their losses.

In the last 14 games, the conversion rate of big chances dipped and in general, their quality of shooting decreased. They scored 21 goals from a xG of 25.4 and converted 36% of their major chances. Their chance creation was at par with the rest of the season, averaging a xG per game of 1.81 compared to the season’s average of 1.84. However, the big wins against Southampton, Preston North End and Norwich City make the data look slightly better than it should.

Narrowing it down to the losses, the numbers get dismal. In Leicester’s 11 losses, they scored 4 goals from a xG of 14.3. In those 11 games, their chance creation was slightly worse (1.30 xG per game) but they still managed to create a respectable 25 big chances. Out of those, a shocking three chances were converted. That’s a 12% conversion rate of big chances. 

It is a given that when team’s loss, it’s down to a poor performance coupled with the opposition team’s superiority. However, with Leicester, the way the team loses is worrisome. The fact that a team which ends up winning the league can be so terrible at times does not bode well for the team’s mentality or consistency. 

Dominating games, creating lots of chances and missing almost 90% of them is simply unacceptable. It’s okay if it happens once or twice but this pattern of defeat has been repeated too many times for a top class side like Leicester.

It’s evident that Leicester need more consistent forwards. The team can’t have all the forwards completely switch off for around 10 games in the season. That’s 30 points gone. In games which they were dominating. 

With Kelechi Iheanacho departure and Patson Daka’s uncertain future at the club, the Foxes will look to target a high quality striker. Tom Cannon has potential but doesn’t look Premier League standard yet. A loan move for the Ireland international could be the right move this summer. With club legend Jamie Vardy recently committing himself to Leicester for another season, there will be good options to bring in from the bench.