Once again plenty of goals in Leicester?

There should be no shortage of goals in the match between Leicester and Southampton. The game pits two of the three weakest defences in the British top flight so far against each other! Due to this shortcoming on both sides, the opponents are also still waiting for their first win of the season.

The home side started with a draw against Brentford and recently suffered a defeat at Arsenal. The visitors, on the other hand, lost their opener against Tottenham and drew against Leeds.

For the upcoming match between Leicester and Southampton at the King Power Stadium, the forecast includes goals on both sides.

Leicester – Statistics & current form

The Foxes have only made minor changes to their squad during the summer break. For this reason, they can fall back on a well-rehearsed squad, but the defensive problems from last season still exist.

Last season’s eighth-placed team has already conceded six goals in its first two league games. The upcoming opponents and Manchester United alone have already conceded half a dozen goals.

Meanwhile, Leicester veteran Kasper Schmeichel is no longer in goal, as the Dane now guards the box in Nice and Danny Ward has moved up to the number one position instead.

Defensive breakdowns

Furthermore, coach Brendan Rodgers currently has personnel worries in defence. With Ricardo Pereira, a powerful defender on the right side is injured and with Ryan Bertrand, who was brought in by the upcoming opponents last season, another defensive player is missing.

However, at least the 2016 champions’ offence has been reliable, scoring two goals against the Bees and Gunners

Once again more than two goals?

Given the combination of a shaky defence and high-scoring offence, the odds on Leicester and Southampton to score more than two goals by the final whistle also suggest themselves.

A limit that has been exceeded in both of the home and away games so far, and with an average of five goals, the Foxes even have the highest value per game in the league! On top, the Saints follow directly behind with an equally impressive number of 4.5.

Furthermore, Ayoze Perez will be looking forward to his opponents: The Spanish attacker has already scored nine goals in his 13 appearances against Southampton! This is three times as often as against any other opponent.

However, Perez is currently only second choice for the “Foxes”, as the 29-year-old did not appear in the first two league games and had to take a seat on the bench.

Next goal by Maddison?

Good on his feet, though, is James Maddison. The attacking player has marked five goals and set up four in his last six league games.

Since the start of last season, he even has the most direct and indirect goal contributions of all English midfielders in the Premier League (13 goals & 9 assists)!

In light of this, the prediction of a goal by him in the duel between Leicester and Southampton seems even more interesting.

Predicted line-up of Leicester:
Ward – Amartey – Fofana – Evans – Ndidi – Castagne – Tielemans – Justin – Dewsbury-Hall – Maddison – Vardy

Last matches played by Leicester:

Premier League
13/08/2022 – Arsenal FC 4 – 2 Leicester

07/08/2022 – Leicester 2 – 2 Brentford

Club Friendlies
31/07/2022 – Leicester 1 – 0 Sevilla FC

23/07/2022 – Preston 1 – 2 Leicester

23/07/2022 – Derby 1 – 3 Leicester

Southampton – Statistics & current form

In contrast to the three-time league cup winners, Southampton have renewed their squad in numerous positions during the summer break.

Among other things, the visitors helped themselves to the junior section of the champions: With goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu and Romeo Lavia, two talents from the Citizens’ U21 team were signed.

In addition, Armel Bella-Kotchap was brought in from VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga to defend the team.

Retrofitted defence has not yet convinced

But so far it can be said that the visitors’ newly assembled defensive line still has a lot of room for improvement and doesn’t look well-rehearsed.

For example, the defence conceded a whopping four goals from Tottenham at the start of the new season and last weekend the footballers from the south coast conceded two goals at their own ground at 2-2.

Ward-Prowse is looking forward to the “Foxes “

Coach Ralph Hasenhüttl, like his counterpart Rodgers, however, has one player on hand who is particularly fond of scoring in this pairing. We are talking about captain James Ward-Prowse, who has struck four times against Leicester. However, admittedly, he only managed three goals from the penalty spot for the 15th ranked side of last season.

Predicted Southampton line-up:
Bazunu – Walker-Peters – Bella-Kotchap – Bednarek – Djenepo – Ward-Prowse – Lavia – Armstrong – Adams – Elyounoussi

Last matches played by Southampton:

Premier League
13/08/2022 – Southampton 2 – 2 Leeds

06/08/2022 – Tottenham 4 – 1 Southampton

Club friendlies
30/07/2022 – Southampton 1 – 2 FC Villarreal

28/07/2022 – Southampton 3 – 1 AS Monaco

23/07/2022 – Watford 0 – 0 Southampton

Leicester – Southampton Direct comparison / H2H record

The last direct encounter ended with a 4-1 home win for Leicester against the 1984 runners-up, a success that has seen the hosts remain unbeaten in five Premier League and FA Cup clashes against the Saints (2-3-0).

The 2021 FA Cup winners had a longer run of this kind against Southampton only once in their history between 1953 and 1968, when they went six games without defeat.

Leicester – Southampton Tip

Since Brendan Rodgers took over as Leicester manager in March 2019, no team in the Premier League has played more matches with goals on either side (74)! This season, this pattern has been seen again in the first two league games.

Against this background, the betting on the clash between Leicester and Southampton aims at goals on both sides. This is also supported by the very similar condition of the guests.

The Saints have not been convincing defensively either, but they have been reliable in attack. The newly formed defence of the Hasenhüttl eleven obviously still needs time to find a functioning unit.

The prediction is supported by the statistics from the recent past: In the last three duels, the goalkeepers of the teams always scored at least once.