Leicester right wing conundrum

Another PL related entry, this time looking to identify an adequate replacement for Riyad Mahrez at Leicester City. Rachid Ghezzal (who resembles the Algerian) and Fousseni Diabate were purchased and failed spectacularly. Simply put, there’s more to replacing a player than finding someone who looks like him, whether physically or in style of play. End product is what matters for a player like Mahrez.. Albrighton is still there, while Gray and Perez have lined up at RW. None of them provide the threat or consistency in terms of numbers that Mahrez did.

Candidates: Chukwueze, Orsolini, Cengiz, Leon Bailey, David Brooks, Neres, Malcom, Victor Tsygankov, Suleymanov, Calvin Stengs, Ismaila Sarr… Others I’m less keen on are Mbeumo, Diatta, Lukebakio… A few that won’t happen but would be great fits are Kubo, Ousmane Dembele, Kulusevski, Ferran, Chiesa, Trincao.

A few of the guys mentioned above were included in my Madrid piece, looking to supplement their RW position. That’s a different level (and tax bracket), so the search is broader. The only PL guys listed are Brooks and Sarr, and both of them were relegated this season. That, to be fair, is somewhat irrelevant, as it was Sarr’s first year in England and Brooks missed most of the season with injury. Harry Wilson is another shout, though IMO he’s a dead ball specialist and not a European competition level player. Speaking of level, a few of the guys I included are currently playing in “lesser leagues”, which is always a risk. The ones I’m referring to are Diatta, Stengs, Mbeumo, Tsygankov, Neres, and Malcom. I won’t pretend to have watched Diatta or Tsygankov, but they’re rated in the scouting world… the Eredivisie guys I think could use more time, as I wrote in the Neres part of my Madrid article. The Brazilian wasn’t a consistent starter at Ajax, and the stand-out attacker at AZ was Boadu, as Stengs was inconsistent at times. Part of the latter's struggles may be due to wanting to leave, as rumors can get to players' heads.

Just for a quick reasoning of the guys a) I don’t rate, or b) would love to see at Leicester but are incredibly unrealistic…

a) Mbeumo is the first. I won’t pretend to have watched every Brentford game. Far from it. But having watched his last 5 games, he simply hasn’t looked like a PL footballer. To be fair, it could be a result of fatigue, but it’s the worst possible time for that to happen. Benrahma and Watkins have also been subpar, but you can see why "bigger" teams have interest. The other part with Mbeumo is he has only recently arrived in England. I’d be looking for him to stay at Brentford for another season or two. Same thing with Sarr. He came from Rennes, who funnily enough qualified for the Champions League this season, while Watford were relegated. My issue with him is end product. He’d be a good bench option for a top team or a starter for let’s say, Palace if Zaha were to leave. Or he could go back to France. Lukebakio is one I’ve seen a good amount of, 2018/19 at Fortuna and last season at Hertha. Like the previous two, I’d like to see him play another year or two in the German capital, as he’s moved a number of times for his age.

b) Kubo is a good place to start here, as he’s (like I mentioned in the other article) owned by Madrid, having spent this past season at Mallorca. He's joined the Villarreal project with Emery now coaching the team, and that's a great fit, IMO. The Leicester project is based around youth, so I’m looking at a relatively young player to come in for the long haul, not just stick around for a year on loan. Dembele is in the same boat, as he’s had a torrid time at Barcelona but I just don’t see him leaving. Kulusevski only just signed for Juventus in January, and they paid Parma a pretty penny, so he won’t be allowed to leave any time soon. He would’ve been the perfect player for Leicester. He’s physically gifted, scores and assists plenty (10g 9a for a mid-table team), is only 20, and looks like he’ll be able to thrive in any type of system (Parma is a heavy counter-attacking side, while Atalanta is where he started out, and they play a completely different style). With Leicester, under Rodgers at least, I’m looking for this type of player. I also talked about Ferran in the other article, and as I type this, he’s edging closer to a move to Man City. Chiesa could potentially work, even though he’s quite different to Mahrez stylistically. They’re both creative dribblers, however, and there aren’t many of those around. I just see the Italian wanting to stay in Italy, or if he does leave his home country it’ll be to a “bigger” club than Leicester. Trincão is the other “less achievable” target that I expect great things from. He, like Kulusevski, signed for a “big club” in January and stayed where he was (on loan) until the end of the season. Barcelona is a mess, to put it lightly, especially in terms of finances. As I’m set to release this article, there are rumors of both Leicester and Wolves looking to sign the lad, and he’s yet to play for the Catalan club. A bit like the Arthur situation, I could see Trincão being flipped without ever making an appearance, just to balance the books. This is a bigger issue in the modern game, the richest clubs hoarding all the young talent, but that’s not the point of this article. As for the player, Trincão has

That leaves us with a few names that could reasonably move to the Foxes. One I’ll add after re-reading what I wrote about Kulusevski, is Domenico Berardi. When you have guys like Barnes and Gray, who are both fast but have questionable end product, it’s vital to supplement the squad with at least one player to ease the goal-scoring burden on an aging Jamie Vardy. In fairness, he is a bit older than the rest (born in ’94), so one could argue his end product is rightly ahead of the others as it’s something that tends to improve with experience/maturity. That said, he has 13 goals and 7 assists in 29 games for Sassuolo.

Mahrez league stats at Leicester (taking 2015/16 as that was the peak).

17 goals, 10 assists in 37 games (just over 3000 minutes). Another aspect of this situation to consider is that Rodgers has the team playing differently to how they functioned with Ranieri. In the title-winning season they played a sit back and counter style, 4-4-2. Okazaki would drop in and kinda play as a #10, but also would press, a bit like Perez actually. Vardy did pretty much what he does now, but more in a counterattacking way. Kante and Drinkwater bossed the midfield, although the latter has completely fallen off since that season. Albrighton played on the left as a defensive winger who was good at crossing, while Mahrez took up the other flank and played like prime Robben. His two seasons at Manchester City have been impressive as well, the second more than the first, and there’s more data available for those, so I’ll include that information in my report.

Getting back to the stats, I looked up Mbeumo and he’s taken the same route as Mahrez, starting out in France’s second division, heading to the Championship, and eventually ending up in the Prem. I’d argue it’s important to take stats from lower divisions with a grain of salt. I watch Atalanta primarily in Serie A, and that’s one of the most obvious “system” teams that is having success. Brentford may well be one of those as well. Though, to be fair, Maupay has done well for Brighton in his maiden season at that level. Also, it’s worth noting that Brighton played horrible football the prior season and Graham Potter was new there, so this is only the beginning of that project. It’s a mixed bag in terms of guys who’ve left Brentford. Successes include John Egan, James Tarkowski and Romaine Sawyers. Others have struggled, such as Jota and Scott Hogan, both owned by Villa. Konsa followed Dean Smith to Villa as well, though he’s young and hasn’t been there long, so the verdict is up in the air. Andre Gray was at least a bit successful at Burnley, as Watford came and bought him for twice the price after he scored a few goals.

My choices: three players fit the bill for what I’d be looking for at Leicester, since the best Mahrez replacements (Dembele and Kulusevski) are already at "super clubs".

· Brooks is coming off an injury, plus his team was relegated. There’s the “Prem proven” tax, but then again, Bournemouth are in debt, so he should be relatively affordable. He’s similar to Mahrez in that he's a lefty and “crafty”, while many wingers are only pacey. He can play in the middle as well, so he could fit into multiple roles at Leicester. Bournemouth, stylistically, have played more like the 2015/16 Leicester than the current one. I actually see Brooks fitting into a more possession-based system with ease.

· My “wild card” signing is Chukwueze. He’s at a club of a similar (current) level in Villarreal, plus there are two Nigerians at the club already in Kelechi and Ndidi. Also, compared to some other guys I’ve mentioned, he’d already know the language. An obvious downside is his “rawness”. End product is always at a premium, and he will have to improve that to make it at a club aspiring to win trophies.

· The other pick, from a productivity standpoint, is Berardi. He’s playing in a system under De Zerbi that shows his footballing ability, unlike numerous other Italian teams. He’s at the stage of his career to finally take that next step. The team sometimes struggles to score if Vardy isn’t at it, as he accounted for 23 of their 67 league goals (5 assists as well, nearly 42% of the total goal contributions). Since xG/xA stats have been available on fbref, Berardi has had one season of under-performing, one pretty much in line with xG, and one where he’s “over-performed” his xG and xA numbers. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that his improved numbers coincided with De Zerbi becoming his coach. The player currently starting most games on the wight wing for Leicester is Perez, and he’s exceeded his expected output in two of the past three seasons, despite two of them being in a poor Newcastle team.