By Thomas Carter
This season marks five years since Leicester City’s historic Premier League title win, but with the team observing an inconsistent start to the 2021/22 campaign, their progress is being questioned.
Currently, the Foxes sit at 11th place in the league table, achieving 14 points from their opening ten games.
With that said, the most effective way to evaluate the team’s performances is to look at four key aspects of their game: shooting accuracy, pass accuracy, clean sheets, and a comparison of goals scored and conceded.
Goals (scored v conceded)
In the title-winning season (2015/16), Leicester scored 68 goals, conceding 36, and after a few years of more turbulent scoring records, the team seem to have returned to their high-scoring ways.
Last season, the team scored the same amount as they did in the year they won the league, showing an improvement in attack. However, the more alarming statistic is that they conceded 50 goals, ultimately finishing the campaign in fifth place.
Shooting accuracy (%)
When it comes to shooting, Leicester’s accuracy is one of the more positive statistics of their game, having shown relative consistency in the last six seasons. Last season, the Foxes had an accuracy of 38 per cent, which is an improvement on their title-winning year (34 per cent).
Passing accuracy (%)
Similarly to shooting accuracy, the team has seen steady progress in the last six seasons. Though a slight decrease on the 2019/20 campaign, the Foxes’ most recent season produced a passing accuracy of 82 per cent – a major improvement on five years ago.
Clean sheets
Just as the number of goals conceded has risen, Leicester have struggled to keep clean sheets in recent seasons. The two seasons following their title success were especially difficult, going from keeping 15 clean sheets in 2015/16 to nine. Last year saw some improvement, as the team look to regain some consistency in defensive performances.
Luke Pawley, freelance sports writer and lifelong Foxes fan, said: “It’s been a poor start to the season for Leicester given the standards we’ve come to expect over recent years.
“The squad has definitely moved forward since the title win, despite our struggles so far this season.
“We’ve made it difficult for ourselves, but I believe this squad is more than capable of reaching the top five again and getting out of our Europa League group.”
For more stats on Leicester’s season, visit https://www.premierleague.com/clubs/26/Leicester-City/stats?se=274
