Tottiandor
- Jul 10, 2022
- 5 min read

Fantasy EPL Sleepers 22/23: Leicester

Updated: Jul 28, 2022

Our Fantasy EPL 22/23 Draft K it promises to be the most comprehensive set of pre-season Draft Premier League articles ever produced! A key component of our Draft Kit will be the Team Preview articles which analyze key assets to sit alongside our all-important Draft Rankings. This article highlights Fantrax Fantasy EPL Sleepers from Leicester, as we highlight three potential hidden gems for the new season! Click here for details on how you can access our 22/23 Draft Kit.

Check out our 22/23 Draft Kit for all the pre-season information you would ever need. Draft Rankings, Team Previews, Strategy, Draft 101. We've got it all!!!

Leicester Sleepers

As noted above, these are potential Fantrax Sleepers from Leicester. These Fantasy EPL players are likely to be drafted in the later rounds. Read below for three under the radar players who could provide excellent value in your pre-season draft.

James Justin

Position: Defender

21/22 Points: 64 (117th best defender)

21/22 Points Per Start: 6.5 (11 starts)

22/23 Projected Points Per Start: 7.6 (20 starts)

Recommended Draft Pick: 110 or later (12 Team League: Round 10 or later)

Overview: He came back from a horrific ACL injury in January and established himself as a starter for the league run-in. A versatile full-back on a team looking to push for European places represents great potential value after round 10.

It was always going to be a difficult road back from a knee injury but by the end of the season, Justin was playing mid-week to the weekend like it was nobody's business. A full pre-season will make everyone forget his injury worries.

His real value comes at the expense of Barnes and most likely KDH in this very article . This is due to the possible formations Rodgers has at his disposal. In a 4-3-3, wingers like Barnes and (INSERT NEW SIGNING'S NAME HERE) will provide the width and therefore will rack up ACNCs and KPs, or cut in to get in on the shots. However, the lack of wingers available and the deafening silence surrounding possible transfer targets points towards the possibility of a 3-5-2 formation, previously employed by Rodgers, featuring Iheanacho and Vardy up front. In this formation, the two wing-backs provide the width to the team. With Maddison operating as an attacking midfielder, a likely double-pivot of Ndidi and Mendy/KDH/Soumare provide the defensive solidity ahead of the 3 CBs, giving freedom to the wing-backs to attack at will. This is where Justin could shine.

Wesley Fofana

Position: Defender

21/22 Points: 45.5 (131st best midfielder)

21/22 Points Per Start: 6.5 (7 starts)

22/23 Projected Points Per Start: 7.5 (28 starts)

Recommended Draft Pick: 115 or later (12 Team League: Round 10 or later)

Overview: At times, he's been the best CDM in the league. But persistent injuries have kept him off the pitch. Fantasy-wise, he showed last season he can be a MID3 if fit & firing. He can be pure value after Round 10.

Fofana has missed most of the 21/22 season due to a broken leg suffered early in the season, so if you are planning on drafting him, it is worth looking at his 20/21 stats for reference. He ended he 20/21 season as the 100th overall top scoring player in the game, with a noteworthy 230 points in 27 starts adding up to 8.5 PPS. Most notably, he achieved this score while only collecting 7 Clean Sheets and 1 Assist. This equates to a Ghost Points per 90 of: 10.2 (for reference, think Martin Odegaard or Emmanuel Dennis) and a GACS reliance of 19% (for reference think Ethan Pinnock or Diogo Dalot in 21/22). Additionally, he managed 15 quality starts from 24 (62.5%) with an impressive 6 of those in the Q90 segment (meaning he scored above the 90% of defenders in 6 GWs).

So what does this all mean? It means that by all accounts, Fofana had a very solid debut season and any manager would do well to anchor their defence with him as a set-and-forget option who could provide non-clean sheet reliant points in any given gameweek. Better yet, you could get him at a discounted price as most managers will be sleeping on him due to his non-existent 21/22 numbers.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall

Position: Midfielder

21/22 Points: 175 (72nd best midfielder)

21/22 Points Per Start: 7.2 (23 starts)

22/23 Projected Points Per Start: 7.5 (27 starts)

Recommended Draft Pick: 89 or later (12 Team League: Round 9 or later)

Overview: KDH is the future of the Leicester midfield. He is young. He is dynamic. His work rate is exceptional and he is Leicester through and through. After an impressive debut campaign, he is ready to kick on in 22/23.

I am a HUGE fan of KDH both in real life and for Fantrax. Obviously, his value is much more clear to see in real life as he has taken to EPL first-team football like a duck to water. It wasn't until GW15 that he started his first game, having had 3 sub appearances before that, but afterwards he only missed the starting XI once for the rest of the season. It is pretty safe to assume he is nailed on for 22/23.

According to the amazing tables at Overthinking Football, he has managed to get quality starts in 12 of his 23 starts, which is on par with the likes of Rodri, Bentancur, and Tielemans. This is, in fact, a great segue into why I see him as a sleeper for 22/23. With Tielemans almost guaranteed to leave during the off-season, KDH will not only have his position in the starting XI strengthened further (as if he needed that), he will also step up to become the go-to backup set-piece taker behind Maddison, who is likely to take some of the corners even with Maddison on the field (which he did in 21/22 too).

Additionally, although concerns over the formations used in the 22/23 season remain, if the 4-3-3 becomes the main formation used, he will have a much more expressive role in the team. Barnes ahead of him tasked with providing width, and the 4-defender set limiting the attacking availability of the full-backs will allow KDH to step into the half-space vacated by the sideline-bound Barnes. This will give him ample opportunity to go on darting runs into the penalty area to either play one-twos with the forward or let a few stinging shots go from the edge of the area. It might be an obvious take, but it is definitely underlined by the data provided by Fbref which shows correlations between his playing position and shots during games.

Honorable Mention(s):

Ricardo Perieira - Not that long ago, Pereira was the 10th highest scoring defender in Fantrax. 2 difficult, injury-ravaged, underperforming years later, he might go undrafted. Do not let that happen. In addition to similar upside to Justin in a 3-5-2, he is able to feature on the right wing in a 4-3-3 where his OOP status could provide even more value.