Scout Report: Leicester City – Strengths, Weaknesses and who should Everton start.

A brilliant start to the weekend for Everton fans, as The Toffees smashed BSC Young Boys 4-1 away from home on Thursday evening, but know all eyes are on the visit of Leicester City, in which a win for either of these two sides could be crucial to there campaigns. Despite Everton’s recent form in the league, they are the clear favorites for the three points against a team who haven’t won at Goodison Park since 1985, but anything can happen. What is Leicester’s biggest strength that Everton must deal with? What is their biggest weakness, which Everton can expose? Who should Everton start with?

The Gaffer: Nigel Pearson (Win Ratio: 46%)

Not a man to listen to on ‘Match of the Day’ as he could bore you to death, but Nigel Pearson is a man of great controversy. After retiring from football in 1998, he went into management starting at Carlisle United. He kept them from relegation to the Conference thanks to Goalkeeper Jimmy Glass’ famous goal against Plymouth Argyle. He left the job a year later and was caretaker manager at West Brom, England U21’s and Newcastle before being appointed at Southampton in 2008.

He was only there for one year, ending 20^th in the Championship and having just a 21.43% win percentage before the appointment at Leicester in the same year. He won League One with Leicester before being appointed as manger off Hull City. Pearson led The Tigers to breaking a 66-year record with 14 consecutive away matches without one defeat. That season they ended 11^th. Nigel soon went back to Leicester in 2011 and has led Leicester from being a mid-table Championship side to become a Premier League side, ending top last season.

Being a former defender and judging by Leicester’s defensive actions made this season, you can tell that Nigel is a manager who focuses much more on his defensive hold than his attacking options.

Strengths:

Defensive Actions

Leicester City has made the 6^th most defensive actions (Clearances, Blocked Shots and Interceptions combined) in the league, so defensively they can be quite solid. The Foxes have made 1,438 defensive actions in the league this season, only West Ham, Swansea, QPR, Burnley and Hull City have made more than they had.

They’ve made 848 clearances in the league, which is more than Manchester United but less than Everton, Liverpool and nine other clubs. Leicester have blocked the most shots in the league this season – making 121 blocks. Also, only Arsenal have made more interceptions than they have, Arsenal making 481 whilst Leicester have made 469. This could affect Everton’s passing play in the final third, which I am sure we don’t want after the performance in midweek.

Depth

Here are three heat-maps from three Leicester games. The one on the left is the match against Manchester United when they somehow scored five, the middle is against Arsenal when they lost 2-1, which was there last fixture, and the one on the right is against Aston Villa there last victory. All three show how deep Leicester City were in each of them games. Although this allows teams to attack a lot and put pressure on the defence, that also leaves much space at the back to counter-attack. Expect another ‘Park the bus’ type performance when they travel to Goodison.

Weaknesses:

Set Pieces

Leicester City have conceded 13 goals from set-pieces, which is the joint highest tally in the League this season. They aren’t good at defending from dead ball situations, marking, giving away fouls outside the area, the lot. There not good at attacking them either, only Southampton, Villa, Hull and Swansea have scored lesser goals than the Foxes, scoring just 6 goals.

Everton, meanwhile, have scored 10 goals from set-pieces but only two have been from corners. It maybe a weakness for Leicester, but they shouldn’t worry too much about Everton corners – unless Luke Garbutt is taking them.

Winning Duels

The Foxes maybe good at clearances and interceptions, but winning duels is a big weakness for tomorrow’s visitors. Leicester had the lowest winning duels percentage in the league, winning just 44% of all duels (aerial, take ons and tackles). They have the joint-lowest percentage of aerial duels won in the league, winning 44% of them – although Everton have won only 45% of there’s.

They are a bit of a dirty side is well, committing 326 fouls in the league (joint-highest with Crystal Palace), whilst Everton have suffered the most with 308. A player who loves to win fouls for The Toffees is Steven Naismith, so expect him to be on the team sheet for tomorrow.

Creating Chances 

Here is a list of Leicester City’s top key passers, even Paul Konchesky is up there! Leicester is a team that really lack in creative players. Mahrez is at the top creating 24 chances for his side, 3 leading to goals. They do rely on the top four players on that list most of the time; only Leonardo Ulloa provides some danger towards the Everton defence.

This means that Leicester are the third worst teams in the league that create chances, creating 191, Aston Villa and Hull City are the only two to create less. If Everton’s defence is as organized as it was on Thursday, then we should be comfortable.

So that is there strengths and weaknesses, lets see who the danger men are.

Key Players:

Wes Morgan – Center Back

Key Stat: No player in the Premier League has blocked more shots than Wes Morgan (blocking 35).

The Jamaican defender is solid at the back and is a leader for the team. He has not only blocked more shots than anyone else in the league, he has also made 60 interceptions (only 5 other players have made more) and has made 195 clearances (only 7 other players have made more). He is a very experienced defender and there have been moments where his actions could be vital to if they stay up or not.

Matthew James – Midfielder

Key Stat: Only Leonardo Ulloa (23) and Riyad Mahrez (24) have created more chances for Leicester City than Matthew James (22).

The 23-year-old has been important in their midfield hold, creating chances and winning duels for Leicester (only Andy King and Wes Morgan have won more than he has). He completes most of his tackles, completing 24 out of 41 (59%). He also helps defensively, making interceptions, clearances and blocking a few shots is well.

Marcin Wasilewski – Center-Back

Key Stat: Wasilewki makes, on average, 12 defensive actions per match for Leicester, only Wes Morgan has more.

Another solid defender who will probably start on Sunday is Marcin Wasilewski. The Polish defender isn’t afraid in going into tackles, making an average 2.3 per game and makes more interceptions per match than anyone else in the team (making 3 on average).  He also makes more clearances per game than anybody else in the team (7.9). He is a tough defender to get past.

Who should we start with?

Option 1

Here is my first option for the team. Knowing Everton with injuries, Bryan Oviedo should not play in my opinion (too risky) and plus, it’s about time Luke Garbutt got a chance back in the first team. I think the over-lapping play and pace on the wings would be crucial for the game, so pacey wingers such as Aaron Lennon and Kevin Mirallas would be suitable. My only concern for me with this line-up is the absence of Steven Naismith, who has been the only one putting pressure on the opposition backline recently. It would be a big risk.

Option 2

A risky one which could work and could provide midfield dominance against there’s. Firstly, having Romelu Lukaku and Arouna Kone would leave Leicester with a lot to deal with and more to aim for us in the area. Seamus Coleman and Luke Garbutt could still push forward, whilst James McCarthy moves back and John Stones and Phil Jagielka can cover them positions. This also allows us too have Ross Barkley and Mo Besic pushing forward with Steven Naismith. We could also bring on Kevin Mirallas or Christian Atsu to add to the attacking pace.

You can choose your Everton team here:

Prediction

This is a tough one to predict, as Everton have just returned from Switzerland but have been solid in the league recently, conceding just 2 in 5 matches. It could be a close one but if we start as quickly as we did against Young Boys we could make an early breakthrough and not worry about wasting opportunities later on in the match. 2-1 Everton win.

Stats via Whoscored.com and Squawka

Up the Toffees.