Ace/Waste of Space: The best and worst of champions Leicester
Published:
Our alphabetical tour around the Premier League to find the best and worst player at each club finally reaches Leicester, with a tough fight in store at the home of the glorious champions.
Players who made 15 or more starts in all competitions qualify, with the men with the highest proportion of wins and losses picking up the laurels.
ACE – Christian Fuchs
Leicester’s remarkable season was even more so considering how little Claudio Ranieri tinkered with his starting line-up – only Manchester United in the inaugural 1992/93 campaign made fewer changes before going on to lift the Premier League title.
This presents a problem for our analysis, as exactly 11 players qualify – a goalkeeper, four defenders, four midfielders/wingers and two forwards. Fancy that.
Such a tight-knit group is tough to split, but the Austria captain just about edges the numbers game in every category.
Fuchs’ 63% win-rate sneaks him two points clear of teammates Marc Albrighton, Riyad Mahrez, Wes Morgan and Jamie Vardy.
The left-back also posts the lowest loss rate of the XI, with just two defeats leaving him on an impressive 6%, and lands an eight-way tie on draws by the same metric, with 31%.
WASTE(S) OF SPACE – Shinji Okazaki/Kasper Schmeichel
As with the best, there’s barely room for a toothpick between any of the men who turned out for Ranieri’s side the requisite amount last term.
Okazaki and Schmeichel found themselves’ on the losing side three and four times respectively, giving them the biggest loss rates of the Leicester regulars at 10% apiece.
That’s remarkably low, with the eight other players who qualify for this calculation each posting 8% or 9%, a further testament to the consistency of the side that went from bottom of the Premier League to crowned kings in 18 months.
Leicester are probably the biggest priced defending champions in history at 25/1.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
