How Leicester City might line up against Stoke City on Saturday at the King Power Stadium.
Enzo Maresca has hinted yet again at rotation for Leicester City’s Championship meeting with Stoke, with fresh legs potentially brought in in a quest to win six leagues in a row.
Before the midweek triumph over Preston, the City manager stated that he needed to consider the possibility of injuries in the midst of a hectic schedule and that he would make changes. However, he only made one substitution: Conor Coady for the suspended Jannik Vestergaard.
With City returning to action in less than 72 hours, rotation may be explored so that some members of the squad do not start a third match in seven days. However, with a two-week break ahead, Maresca may believe he can get away with keeping his starters in place.
“For the players, we did some rotation in the past,” Maresca remarked during his press conference on Friday.”We’ll see what happens tomorrow.” They deserve to play again because of the way they work.”
Maresca must make several decisions, the most important of which is whether to bring Vestergaard back into the fold now that he is available. The Dane was doing well before his ban, so he could reclaim his place.
For the final few minutes of the game against Preston, Hamza Choudhury came on to relieve James Justin, who was one of two players, along with Ricardo Pereira, to start all three previous games. If Maresca believes Justin has been overworked, that might be a factor from the start against Stoke.
Nonetheless, Maresca does not believe Choudhury is a natural in that position, adding on Friday: “Don’t forget we played with Hamza behind but he’s not a defender.” We strive to balance all of our players a little bit. I don’t think we have a large number; I think we have the correct number for the number of games we’ll play.”
There is the possibility of bringing in Yunus Akgun, Cesare Casadei, or both for Wilfred Ndidi and Kieran Dewsbury-Hall in midfield, but moves are more likely further forward. It would be unusual for Jamie Vardy to start three games in seven days, so Kelechi Iheanacho might replace him, and Marc Albrighton could make a rare Championship start following his impact off the bench in midweek.
Hermansen; Ricardo, Faes, Vestergaard, Choudhury; Winks, Ndidi, Dewsbury-Hall; Albrighton, Iheanacho, Mavididi; Albrighton, Iheanacho, Mavididi.Stolarczyk, Coady, Souttar, Nelson, Justin, Casadei, Yunus, Marcal, Fatawu, Vardy, Daka are the substitutes.
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