Ben Stewart
How Leicester City will cope without Kasper Schmeichel
Leicester City captain Kasper Schmeichel has completed his move to Nice and we’ve looked into how Leicester might go about replacing him.
The Danish goalkeeper has made over 450 appearances for the Foxes and he will leave a big gap which needs to be filled.
Throughout his Premier League career, he has made 284 appearances and kept 82 clean sheets in that time.
He has made 814 saves in total and made 161 sweeper clearances.
His finest moment with Leicester was undoubtedly their Premier League triumph in 2015/16,
As well as lifting the Premier League, Schmeichel has also won the FA Cup and Community Sheild with Leicester.
Whoever is going to replace him certainly has big boots to fill.
How last season went for Schmeichel
Injuries to key players in defence often left them short in this area, which meant that they conceded more goals than usual.
In total Leicester conceded 58 goals and they particularly struggled to defend from set-piece situations.
Schmeichel himself faced 176 shots on target, which was the third most in the Premier League last season.
He made 125 saves in total and averaged 1.57 goals conceded per 90.
Perhaps as a consequence of having a weaker defence in front of him, Schmeichel actually underperformed his post-shot expected goals by –0.7 goals last season.
This was a decrease of 2.5 goals from just two seasons ago when he had an overperformance of 3.2 goals saves and he ranked alongside the best goalkeepers in the league.
The 35-year-old isn’t so much of a sweeper keeper, last season for example he only completed 16 defensive actions outside the penalty area, which ranked him 15th for this stat.
What Schmeichel did bring to the Leicester City line up though was a wealth of experience and professionalism which will be tough to replace.
Who replaces him?
As Leicester are losing such an integral player, there is every chance they dip into the transfer market in search of another goalkeeper.
Newcastle United’s Martin Dubravka has already been spoken about as one possibility, but Brendan Rodgers could instead choose to put his faith in someone already at the club.
Danny Ward has been patiently waiting in the wings since signing in 2018 and Daniel Iversen has just had a fantastic loan spell with Preston North End.
If Rodgers does put his faith in one of Ward or Iversen, who would be the better choice?
Danny Ward
At 29 years old Danny Ward does have experience on his side, although since joining Leicester he has only made 19 appearances across his four seasons with the club.
Most of Ward’s appearances have been in cup competitions and he has featured in just one Premier League match for the Foxes.
Ward does have a wealth of international experience on his side though.
Since making his debut for Wales in 2016, he has made 26 appearances for his country and he will be keen to play to guarantee his starting spot at the World Cup this year.
Daniel Iversen
Despite being four years younger than Ward, Iversen has actually played more matches throughout his senior career.
Iversen signed for Leicester in 2018 and is yet to make an appearance for the Foxes, but he has had five loan spells.
Last season was probably his best yet as he headed back to Preston North End after spending the second half of the 20/21 season at Deepdale.
The Danish goalkeeper featured in all 46 of Preston’s Championship matches and he kept 13 clean sheets in total.
Iversen made quite the name for himself and was a fan favourite in no time.
He made 126 saves throughout the season, the second most of any Championship goalkeeper last season.
In total, he had a save percentage of 70.6% and he shouldn’t be overlooked as Leicester’s next goalkeeper.
