City’s strikeforce could
BUT SQUAD MAY STILL NEED STRENGTHENING BEFORE THE BIG KICK OFF
LEICESTER City have acted quickly in the transfer window to bring in three players before their pre-season fixtures have even begun.
The arrivals of Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Ryan Bertrand have strengthened a few key areas of the squad, providing the depth needed if City are to compete well in domestic competitions and in Europe.
We have looked at each position to see how ready the City squad is for the new campaign.
GOALKEEPER
Brendan Rodgers has previously said he has two number ones in his City squad, and this summer has backed up that statement.
While Kasper Schmeichel’s quality and consistency is undoubted, Danny Ward proved on international duty that he has star quality too.
Ward’s displays for Wales at Euro 2020 prompted talk that he may seek a move away from City in search of first-team football.
He has not played a single league game since arriving from Liverpool three years ago, with the 28-year-old limited to 14 outings in cup competitions.
But he signed a four-year contract in April and seems very happy at City.
It has been unfortunate that he has not yet had a stint between the sticks in the league, with Schmeichel fit for three full seasons, having missed 27 Premier League fixtures over the four campaigns before Ward arrived.
Ward has said he plans to have “conversations with relevant people” over game-time, but an exit seems unlikely.
Backing up the duo is Eldin Jakupovic, who is finalising a oneyear contract extension, with Rodgers preferring to have three senior custodians in his squad.
Daniel Iversen, the highly-rated young Dane, will therefore be able to go back out on loan, with Preston interested in taking him back. Depth rating: 4/5 – well-covered
RIGHT-BACK
If every player is fully fit, this is probably City’s strongest position. At the top of their game, Ricardo Pereira, Timothy Castagne and James Justin are all outstanding.
But fitness is the question mark here. Justin is out until the end of the year after his ACL tear, while Castagne may have to be eased back in after an intricate operation over the summer, the Belgian suffering a multiple fracture of his eye socket.
Before going away on holiday, he did rejoin the Belgium camp for training, but only for walking, and cycling, and not any work with the ball. It is expected he will wear a face mask on his return.
Ricardo is working hard to get back to his best after he was unable to reach his previous heights following his return at the start of the calendar year. If he can do so, he may start the season at right-back.
If City want to play with wingbacks, Marc Albrighton can also fill in, while Vontae Daley-Campbell showed promise on his debut in February.
In short, it’s a position where City are well-stocked and don’t need to buy.
Depth rating: 5/5 – spot on
CENTRE-BACKS
City have three extremely good centre-backs, but that may not be enough.
Jonny Evans, Wesley Fofana and Caglar Soyuncu are exceptional defenders at Premier League level and have the right balance of experience and youthful exuberance, organisation and aggression.
As a trio, they are unbeaten. But in the season just gone, there were only six matches where they were all fit to play together.
City have Daniel Amartey next in the pecking order, but towards the end of the campaign, Rodgers preferred to field players out of position in the back three instead of the Ghanaian, with Castagne and Wilfred Ndidi dropping in.
With Wes Morgan retiring and Christian Fuchs, who occasionally played on the left of a back three, moving to the US, City have lost two players who can play there, albeit have gained one in Bertrand.
Filip Benkovic is not expected to be called upon, despite returning to City for pre-season, while 17-yearold Ben Nelson is highly rated, but a couple of years away from being ready.
And so City could look to strengthen at the back.
Merih Demiral, Jonathan Tah, Ozan Kabak, Attila Szalai and Jannik Vestergaard have all been linked to City over recent years, but with money being spent elsewhere, City may have to see if they can do a cheaper deal to get a centre-half in. Depth rating: 3/5 – needs cover
LEFT-BACK
Given the injury to Justin, and the exit of Fuchs, left-back is an area City felt they needed to strengthen this summer.
Luke Thomas held his own in the spot during the end of the campaign, but it is still felt he perhaps lacks the experience for a full campaign, and that he needs to develop further to be a regular.
City can field Castagne on the left, but his talents are blunted compared to when he plays on the right, so a fresh face was wanted. And so in came Bertrand. An England international arriving as a free agent, the 31-year-old is a solid option on the left side of the defence, possessing know-how in defence and a level of experience that can both aid Thomas and relieve the pressure on the youngster. Rodgers knows him well thanks to their time together at Chelsea, and so it should not take him too long to settle.
Depth rating: 4/5 – wellcovered
CENTRAL MIDFIELD
This is an area of the pitch that City have addressed – not because they lacked numbers, but because they lacked the right balance. Rodgers has made clear for the past 12 months that his midfield options are too defensive in their mindset and that he needed to add a forward-thinking player.
That man is Boubakary Soumare, a Ligue 1 winner with Lille last season. Soumare is physical and can hold his own in a defensive role, but that is not where he excels. Instead, he is at his best when getting the ball forward, either by passing it into the final third or breaking through the lines with it at his feet.
With Soumare arriving, Rodgers has a wealth of options. Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi will be hard to replace as the
first-choice pair, while redressing the balance means one of Papy Mendy or Hamza Choudhury may have to depart.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall looks set to be given a role too after he played out an impressive campaign with Luton.
Depth rating: 5/5 – spot on
RIGHT WING
It’s the position that City can’t solve. Set up in a 4-2-3-1 shape and this is the role that lacks an obvious starter and has done since Riyad Mahrez left for Manchester City in 2018.
There are options there. Albrighton does his best work on the right but does not get the goals and assists that Rodgers ideally wants from a wide-man, and while Ayoze Perez has a goal-getter’s instinct, he is better in the middle, the manager admitting as much.
Beyond that, there is Ricardo, a winger-turned-full-back who still has the attacking ability and dribbling skill to be a hit in the position. Rodgers has spoken about playing him there, but he can’t do so if he needs the Portuguese on the right side of the defence.
There is no doubt it is an area where City would want to sign a player, albeit the arrival of a new striker in Patson Daka hints at a preference for a three-at-the-back setup.
In that case, there would not be any wingers in the 11, and so splashing out on one would not make sense unless they made significant sales.
The arrivals of Soumare and Daka have set City back around £40 million.
While they have trimmed the wage budget with the departures of Demarai Gray, Islam Slimani, Morgan, and Fuchs over the past six months, they have not yet made any money back through transfers.
Given their average net spend over the past few years has not exceeded that number, there remains a question mark over the arrival of a bigmoney wide-man.
A loanee could therefore be the way to go for the time being, but there’s no doubt that it is a position City need to prioritise, and, eventually, need to spend big on.
Depth rating: 2/5 – needs investment
ATTACKING MIDFIELD
City seem well-set for attacking midfielders right now, giving the number of players they have there, and the different types.
James Maddison is a typical creative number 10, receiving the ball to feet, slipping passes in behind and occasionally scoring from range too.
Before his injury, he also improved his goal threat by getting into the box more regularly.
That is something that comes naturally to Perez, who gave a couple of good displays in behind the strikers.
Dennis Praet, meanwhile, provides endless movement from the position to link play and create space for others, always seeming to make the team tick better and quicker if not scoring or assisting himself.
However, there are significant doubts over his future, the Belgian unhappy with a lack of game-time. Even if he does go, with Tielemans and DewsburyHall, who could be pushed forward with Soumare providing cover behind, this is not an area that needs adding to.
Depth rating:
LEFT WING
4/5 – well-covered
Unlike on the right-hand side, City have a clear first-choice left winger. Harvey Barnes was outstanding for large parts of the past season and had really found his groove in front of goal when injury cruelly ended his campaign.
His pace and drive made him City’s biggest threat, and if they are playing in a formation that allows for wingers, he will definitely start. As back-up, Albrighton can play on the left and did so for the title-winning season, while it remains to be seen if Kamal Sowah earns a place in the squad. The Ghanaian,
on loan at Leuven for the past few years, has just enjoyed his breakthrough campaign, and while he is versatile enough to feature anywhere in the final third, it was on the left wing where he most regularly played for City’s sister club.
He may require one more loan spell away before he is deemed good enough for City’s first team, but may also be ready to play a support role on that flank.
Maddison can drift out there, while if any signing was made on the right-hand side, they would likely possess the versatility to switch over if needed.
Depth rating: 3/5 – needs cover
UP FRONT
Rewind six months, and nearly every City fan would have said finding a back-up to Jamie Vardy was the most pressing concern for the January transfer window.
City did not sign anyone, but Kelechi Iheanacho thankfully stepped up and produced an astonishing four months of form to finish as the club’s top scorer.
Between the two of them, City had a very good pair of hitmen, but Rodgers wanted even more goals in the squad, perhaps thinking longterm with Vardy now 34.
And so Zambian forward Daka has come in, fresh off the back of a season in which he scored 34 goals for RB Salzburg.
With three top-level strikers, plus with Perez and Barnes who can fill in if needed, City have a strikeforce that could be the envy of the league.
Depth rating: 5/5 – spot on
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