Leicester City’s fairytale league campaign seems like a thing of past these days. The Foxes endured a mediocre season last time around, which included the sacking of Craig Shakesphere midway through the season.
Claude Puel took over the reins and steadied the ship, but the club has undoubtedly lost ambition and has again degraded into a mid-table side.
The future doesn’t look bright either, as Riyad Mahrez’s future is uncertain and hence the club might lose their talisman without bringing in another reliable replacement.
As visible by the transfer activities of clubs like Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion, any club needs to show intent and step in the correct direction to survive the rigorous, ruthless nature of the Premier League.
The Foxes are being linked with Lazio’s attacking midfielder Felipe Anderson, and here we analyse whether this move is sensible or not.
Anderson: Player Profile
Anderson is someone who is capable of playing in multiple attacking positions but thrives while playing out through the centre. He is creative in possession of the ball and looks to split up opposition’s defence with well-timed, structured through balls. He roams around the attacking line and tries to pick out spaces in and near the penalty box in order to carve out opportunities to create goal-scoring opportunities.
He can make his way past a couple of players or two with some immaculate footwork, and hence he is integral to picking out teammates during swift counter-attacking scenarios.
Anderson also shifts out wide to whip in some testing crosses into the box, and that just highlights his versatility as an attacking midfielder.
He isn’t all about attacking as he often tracks back to do the defensive work as well. He registered 1.6 tackles in each Serie A game this past season and even scored four goals whilst having assisted seven times in 21 appearances. Twelve of those appearances were from the bench, and hence that makes his stats even more impressive.
More interestingly, he scored thrice and even assisted thrice in seven UEFA Europa League matches, and that capped off a brilliant season for him from a personal perspective.
Should Leicester make a move?
Leicester are in dire need of an experienced playmaker who can at times be played as a winger. Anderson has shown that he has the capability to churn out consistently good performances even though he was forced to come off the bench on a number of occasions.
The Foxes might provide him regular playing time, and even allow him to become the creator-in-chief for the team. Leicester need to ensure that they do not slip further in the league table next season, and hence they need some worthy, attacking reinforcements too.
Stats via Whoscored