Leicester City Lead FPL Draft New Class
The Foxes are primed for another sustained Premier League stay
Premier League Champions to relegated has-beens in just seven years is never the narrative you see in your future, but Leicester City’s immediate rebound to the top flight illustrates the Foxes ability to ignore conventional wisdom and forge their own path. We’re covering Steve Cooper’s team last among the newly promoted sides because this team bucks the trend and boasts a number of names that will be high up draft boards this summer and could finish the season well inside the top 50 most valuable assets.
Leicester have the most questions around their 2024/25 campaign of the three promoted sides, the highest likelihood of finishing in the top half, and the greatest chance we’ll be utterly confounded by Cooper’s tactics and squad selection in any given week. Before being dismissed by Nottingham Forest on 19 December 2023, Cooper was reknowned for his tinkering, his pragmatic approach to football and a willingness to lean heavily on his players best assets to force a lightening quick counter-attack. Looking back to December:
Needing a result at Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend to end a run of four straight defeats, Cooper switched from a 4-2-3-1 formation to a 3-5-2, using the nimble Morgan Gibbs-White and Anthony Elanga up front.
While this set-up lacked the physical presence of a target man, with Taiwo Awoniyi injured, it was a formation that provided Forest with defensive compactness, good width and the ability to break at pace.
So we’ll look ahead to the summer tours, the pre-season friendlies and the back pages to see what version of Steve Cooper we’re likely to get this fall.
No Country for Old Names
Before jumping in, it’s important to note that several names familiar to FPL managers are no longer with the Foxes including recent departures Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho and Dennis Praet (released, all). Kelechi’s 921’ earned the most minutes from the trio last season and he accounted for five goals and assist - Praet (1a) added the only other goal contribution.
Significantly more important: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Chelsea) has also left, a sacrifice to the profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) which were updated by the Premier League. 12 goals (2nd) and 14 assists (1st) were key to the Foxes success. So far the club has not replaced that productivity but a move for a proved international rather than relying on the remaining midfield options of Wilfred Ndidi, Harry Winks, and Boubakary Soumare. All due respect to that trio, who are covered more below, they are not filling Dewsbury-Hall’s boots. A year ago KD-H accounted for 202 shot creating actions (5/90’). Winks was the best best of the trio with 105 (2.34/90’) while Ndidi (2.45) was 6th among players with at least 900’ but totaled only 58. Meanwhile Soumare made 28 appearances on loan at Sevilla notching one (1) assist on 0.9 xA (also zero goals on 0.0 xG). These are not the replacements Cooper is looking for.
Links To Next Signings
This will be a busy window for Steve Cooper and the Foxes football operations team. As recently as 21 July they were linked with a move for Colombia international midfielder Richard Ríos. The midfielder recently won a title with Palmeiras and was electric for Colombia as they progressed to the final of Copa America, showing his versatility and range on the pitch. The knocks on Ríos are never having played outside of South America and being viewed through the prism of a defensive midfielder, a position where Leicester City are deepest. While this may not a priority position, a move for Ríos with Steve Cooper’s tactical flexibility in mind may give us some idea of how this iteration of the Foxes will approach matches reliant on ball winning midfielders and explosive wide attacking talent feeding an aged Jamie Vardy (37! FFS!) seeking one final season in the sun.
I expect that the shopping is nearer to ‘having just started’ than ‘wrapped up and headed home’ with a player in the mold of past Leicester star James Maddison ideally top of the wish list.
Comings and Golding
The link with Ríos is in line with their recent ambition bringing in centre back Caleb Okoli from Atalanta who showed great promise on loan in Serie A with Friosione last term. The 23 year old Italy youth international made 85 tackles + interceptions and 156 clearances in his debut campaign as a top flight starter. While there was minimal contribution in the final third, he won 59/74 (55.6%) of aerial duels - a stat that the Foxes and FPL managers should care about more. He’s a DEF4 off the waiver wire post-draft but I’m not using another higher than a 14th round pick on him as he’s maybe the fourth best fantasy defender in the squad.
The other incoming name of note is Abdul Fatawu (F) who completes his permanent move from Sporting Lisbon after impressing last year in his age 19 season. These are silly things for a 19 year old to be doing:

While his comps are as an attacking winger (where he plays) his FPL draft eligibility is as a forward, placing him neatly in the conversation as a FWD2 with a solid floor based on his individual brilliance and demonstrated ability to create goal opportunities for himself and others. In fact, there is a good argument to have Fatawu ahead of the Foxes out and out striker, Jamie Vardy, or Fatawu’s mirror part on the left flank, Stephy Mavididi. A very good question is whether Fatawu or Vardy understudy Patson Daka should be the first Fox off the board in your draft.
Also in are depth in Bobby De Cordova-Reid (Fulham) and a project for the future in Michael Golding (Chelsea) who moved in a ‘separate’ deal to help maintain both clubs plausible deniability under financial fair play. Neither are a 2024/25 FPL draft consideration.
Returning Stars and Role Players
Lets get into it: FPL draft managers have to be happy to see Ricardo Pereira and James Justin back in the player pool. Pereira suffered a pair of significant injuries in the relegation season, first he tore his Achilles in preseason and when he returned in February he tweaked his hamstring and was out through most of April. Now 30, the Portuguese fullback played 3,278’ last year, the first time he logged more than 1,000’ in the league since 2019/20. His 37 Championship starts were nice more league starts than he managed in the preceding three (3!) EPL campaigns.
We are now five years removed from his two-goal, six-assist EPL debut year and the elder statesman amoung attacking wingbacks finished last year with three goals and three assists. IF - and it’s a big if - Cooper gives Pereira and his counter-part Justin the freedom/responsibility of pressing the attack from either flank, each could end the year with a handful of assists.
In the modern EPL (and the updated scoring improving defender values in FT) there isn’t much room for a wingback that can’t deliver attacking returns but in recent years Antonee Robinson (6), Ben White (5) and Diogo Dalot (3) have been successful without having to aspire to Trent Alexander-Arnold levels of assists. One of the Foxes fullbacks finishes inside the top 10 defenders this season and my money is on Pereira. It is worth noting here that having *something else to do* besides contribute in the attack is a valuable asset for both of these guys. Kyle Walker gets unlimited playing time, had five assists last season and could not break 7 PPM. James and Ricardo will both have higher floors because of their tackles, clearances and duels being higher due to greater opportunity.
On the attacking end of the pitch there are three attackers who all merit consideration in the earlier round but we’re starting with Patson Daka because he has unquestionably the most upside and biggest questions.
No one, except Jamie Vardy himself, wants to see Vardy make 38 starts atop Leicester City’s attack. But even if he is healthy enough to get that done, he can’t do it alone. A year ago it was Vardy topping the charts with 18 goals (2 assists) while his 0.79 npxG+xA/90’ was just ahead of Daka’s 0.72. The primary difference was Daka’s limited minutes (1,068’ to Vardy’s 1,768’) and worse shooting (30.6% accuracy to Vardy’s 50.9%). The volume in Daka’s game was there - he led all regular squad players with 2.98 shots/90’ - but struggled with the final touch. In the end, Daka scored four non-penalty goals on 7.1 npxG while bagging 3/3 spot kicks to spare some blushes. All he needs to be a legitimate back-end FWD1 is a) a healthy season and b) a regression to the mean on goal conversion. Neither is guaranteed for the 25 year old Zambia international who hasn’t started more than 15 league games in any of his three seasons in England, but Daka’s back-to-back 24+ goals campaigns with RB Salzburg and four league titles before his 22 birthday all keep him at the top of the list of eligible Foxes.
For Vardy, it’s time to target him late and play him when he starts. 18 goals in a full Premier League season would be an amazing return and he did that in half-time duty last term. But the last time he had a half-season of minutes in the EPL he scored three goals with four assists, seriously under-performing the 6.7 xG he amassed. Within the current roster there is not another option to take those minutes unless 21 year old Irish international Tom Cannon takes a massive step forward. That means Vardy will get minutes, will earn those primarily from starts, and will be a boom or bust FWD2 play reliant on goals to deliver value. Few have done it like Vardy has with three 20+ EPL campaigns on his ledger; he’s worth a 10th round pick unless or until the Foxes bring in a top line forward to share the mantle/burden with Daka.
Directly behind Patson Daka is Stephy Mavididi, who contributed 12 goals with six assists in his first season in England since 2019. The former England youth international spent the last four seasons honing his craft in Ligue 1 for Dijon and then three years with Montpellier where he made 91 league starts (64 starts), amassing 21 goals (17.5 xG) and five assists (5.9 xA). Daka is my first player off the board in this team but Mavididi is in the running for number two, possessing solid shooting (34/88, 38.6%) and scoring efficiency (12 goals from 88 total shots); he generated 150 shot creating actions (3.76/90’) and 113 of those came from open play; and, he’s no slouch defensively with 89 tackles + interceptions while winning 50/70 tackles.
On the individual side, his progressive carries (204), progressive passes made (143) and progressive passes received (482!!) are all at or near the top of the Championship with carries and passive received easily topped Leicester’s charts. FB Ref’s comps list Omari Hutchinson as his top comp, but I’d rather have the Foxes bourgeoning talisman over Ipswich’s starting star and would pay a minimum of a two round premium to land Mavididi (or Fatawu…) over Hutchinson.
They’d be Mads to Sell Him
For now, 24 year old Danish shot-stopper extraordinaire Mads Hermansen is still the No. 1 at King Power, but with former boss and leading admirer Enzo Maresca now at Chelsea there’s always the chance. In his debut season he made 100% of his Championship as starts (44) and allowed only 41 goals, those coming from 45.7 post-shot xG a tidy bit of defensive work. I especially like that he had 77 defensive actions outside the box (aka “keeper sweeper” play) and saved 113/154 shots faced (73.4%). History tells us that being an elite save machine with low double-digit clean sheets is the way to make an impact in fantasy scoring and Hermansen has the tools and opportunity to follow Kasper Schmeichel one more time and be a top 5 FPL draft GK.
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