Our Fantasy EPL 21/22 Draft Kit 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 three potential Fantrax Fantasy EPL Sleepers from Leicester City!
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Leicester City Sleepers
As noted above, these are potential Fantrax Sleepers from Leicester City. 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.
Kelechi Iheanacho
Position: Forward
20/21 Points: 251
20/21 Points Per Start: 14.4
Recommended Draft Pick: 90-100 (12 Team League: Round 8-9)
Overview: He completely flipped the script and caught fire at the end of last season. Can it last? Prior inconsistency & more competition in the form of new signing Daka - Barnes will also be healthy again soon - invoke too many question marks for an early pick. But Nacho is a lottery ticket that could pay off in later rounds.
Historically, Iheanacho is not a valuable fantasy asset. He has only scored more than 5 goals once in the last five seasons - that was last season. He has struggled for consistent starts and form but that ended last Spring. With Harvey Barnes going out with a nasty injury, manager Brendan Rogers reverted to two strikers up top and paired Vardy with Iheanacho. The results were insane. In the month of March alone, Nacho racked up 70 fantasy points (not El Messi levels but...). Despite only starting 16 matches, he ended the season with 12 goals, 2 assists, and over 250 total fantasy points. And his link up play with Vardy yielded some counting stats - he dropped an impressive 8.5 ghost points per 90. If he was nailed on and could replicate this form, he'd be an early round pick. But with Barnes returning and Patson Daka coming in from RB Salzburg, Nacho may not be first choice for much of the season, and he also will represent Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations (Afcon). He is too big of a risk to take early. He could be great value, though, later on.
Patson Daka
Position: Forward
20/21 Points: N/A (~440.5 in the Austrian Bundesliga)
20/21 Points Per Start: N/A (~20.2 PP90 in the Austrian Bundesliga)
Recommended Draft Pick: 115-130 (12 Team League: Round 10-11)
Overview: Coming in the summer with a good reputation from RB Salzburg, Daka may struggle to acclimate & could be used sparingly at least at the start of the season. If he hits the ground running, he'll be a good sleeper.
It's always hard to gauge how a new transfer to the Premier League will adjust, especially when coming from a lower level competition such as the Austrian Bundesliga. But talent is talent, and Patson Daka certainly has it. He bagged 27 goals and 4 assists last season, and 24 and 6 the previous campaign. Fantasy-wise, he scored an astoundingly high 20 Points per 90, with over 8 ghost points per 90. Daka will certainly not reach those lofty heights this season, and he will have a lot of competition - in addition to first season growing pains - with Barnes and Nacho vying for attacking roles. But any injury or slip up and Daka will get his opportunities. He also should get a few games while Iheanacho is playing in AFCON in January/February. The classic late round punt and hope to get lucky play, where the problem is: how long do you hold if he doesn't get any playing time early?
Ricardo Pereira
Position: Defender
20/21 Points: 66.75
20/21 Points Per Start: 6.4
Recommended Draft Pick: 90-100 (12 Team League: Round 8-9)
Overview: Riccy P is a Fantrax legend but could not find his footing after a lengthy injury layoff. If the injury lingers, his struggles will continue. If he reverts to his old self, he is a top set and forget DEF1. He's worth the risk in Rounds 8-9.
Many unfortunate souls drafted Ricardo Pereira last season in the later rounds, stashed him for months, and hoped to reap the rewards when he returned from his ACL injury in January. While he had a game or two in which he showed glimpses, the Riccy P of old never came back. In the 2019/2020 season, he was a top 5 DEF, dropping a mouthwatering 349 points and averaging over a dozen points per game. This past season, he was a shell of himself, only getting 10 starts and muddling through those games. Rogers tried him at RB, RWB, and RW, largely to no avail. These ACL injuries are incredibly difficult to get over, so it's not surprising that he struggled last season (a cautionary tale for his colleague James Justin, who is currently rehabbing an ACL injury). But will that brief experience and a full preseason propel Pereira to his old lofty heights? If he can, he is an absolute steal.
Honorable Mention: New boy Timothy Castagne was a pleasant surprise for much of last season before he fell off (he should be good value around the 10th Rd). That is IF transfer Ryan Bertrand doesn't nail down the starting LB spot (Luke Thomas is also about). TBD. Wesley Fofana, Soyuncu, and Jonny Evans are solid DEF3/4 material.
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