Leicester City Previews: ‘Nothing but the Huth’ – Can Leicester’s first visit to Fleetwood be a positive one?
Fleetwood Town vs Leicester City
06/01/18
Kick off: 12:45pm
Preview:
The Premier League takes a backseat this week with the arrival of the FA Cup third round. The magic of the cup they call it, full of drama, uncertainty and goals. This weekend is a chance for the so-called ‘lesser teams’ to stake a claim to get to the latter rounds of this competition, whereas the ‘big boys’ will want to make sure they’re not on the wrong end of a shock exit.
This weekend sees Leicester travel to Highbury Stadium. Unfortunately, the more memorable Highbury isn’t there anymore, so we’ll have to settle for Fleetwood Town instead – no disrespect of course Fleetwood fans.
One major talking point has got to be the return of Jamie Vardy, who spent a year at Fleetwood before moving to Leicester in 2012. He scored 31 goals in that season for the Cod Army, making a name for himself as he worked his way up to eventual stardom with the Foxes.
I’d love it if he scored on Saturday, I won’t lie. Obviously that all depends on the manager’s selection and whether Leicester’s number nine plays any part of the match.
Stats:
With this stats piece, I think it’s only fair to focus more on Leicester opposition this weekend, and whether the stats suggest any sort of cup upset this weekend.
Fleetwood are 12th in League One having had such a great start to the season, where they were once sitting pretty in the Play-Offs. Uwe Rosler’s men, it’s fair to say, have declined in the past few months, only winning two of their last five coming into this.
Leicester, on the other hand, sit in 8th in the Premier League, and so far this season have been fairly good going forward. However defensively, Leicester tend to leak goals, mainly from set pieces. Leicester have conceded the most in the Premier League this season, and do look vulnerable.
Head to head, these teams have never faced each other. This will be the first meeting between the sides in a first-team game. Leicester’s U21’s side did face Fleetwood not long ago, however I don’t count that game with it being a Checkatrade Trophy game and the fact it was our U21’s squad.
Fleetwood at home have only won four in 13 attempts, conceding just under two goals a game, only scoring just over one. This poor home form could play a part against a Leicester side steadily progressing under Claude Puel. They’ve also won only 35% of their games this season, where most of them came in the first few months of the season.
At home, 2.88 goals per game are scored and especially as Leicester are coming, a team who tend to score goals away from home, this game may live up to that stat.
Prediction:
Like any FA Cup game, this could be a potential banana skin for the Foxes. It’s important that we continue where we left off against Huddersfield and get into the fourth round. It will be no means an easy game, especially away from home, but our quality should really shine through. I think the later stages of the game will be where the home side tire and we can take advantage.
As with any cup tie, this game will give the fringe players a chance to show the manager why they should be back in his thoughts, so expect the likes of Musa, Slimani, maybe even Ulloa to play some part of the game at Highbury.
Devante Cole is Fleetwood’s top scorer this season with ten goals, so if he’s fit then expect him to give the home side an outlet up top.
However, all being said, we should and will win; please don’t let me down now boys…