Leicester City: Comparing Tom Cannon’s stats to Vardy, Daka and Iheanacho.

It was a hectic end to the summer transfer window, with teams across the division looking to get deals over the line in time.

The Foxes made a move to bring in Tom Cannon from Everton in a deal worth a reported £7.5 million.

The forward emerged as a promising young talent during a loan spell with Preston North End during the second half of the previous campaign.

This led to intense speculation throughout the transfer window over his future.

Several second division sides were interested in signing the 20-year-old, but Leicester proved the winning offer.

Cannon will now join Enzo Maresca’s side after the international break, where he will be tasked with helping the team’s bid to fight for automatic promotion this season.

How do Tom Cannon’s stats compare to Leicester City’s other attacking options?

Leicester managed to hold onto Patson Daka, Kelechi Iheanacho and Jamie Vardy despite suffering relegation to the Championship.

Here we compare the stats of the four players to determine the club’s best attacking options, with numbers courtesy of Opta, via Fbref.

Cannon scored eight goals from 20 appearances in the division last season, managing an expected goals (xG) of 5.1.

Cannon featured for a total of 1674 minutes in the league for the Lilywhites, averaging 2.42 shots per 90 at an xG of 0.11 per 90.

This is a solid figure for a player of his age, but he might need to improve the quality of his shots to cement his place as a starter in Maresca’s side.

Perhaps with better creators around him that will be possible, but that will be his big challenge at the King Power Stadium.

However, the Ireland underage international is helped by Vardy’s production suffering a dip in the previous campaign, scoring just three goals from 20 appearances from an xG of only 6.7.

So while he did uncharacteristically underperform his xG, his attacking threat still decreased massively compared to his peak.

Vardy was averaging 2.44, 2.49, 2.31 and 2.69 shots per 90 during his best years, but that dipped to 1.31 last year, with his xG per shot remaining steady around the 0.22 mark.

Meanwhile, Iheanacho has had a difficult start to this season, scoring zero goals from four league appearances.

The Nigerian is averaging an impressive 3.77 shots per 90, but at an xG per shot value of just 0.04.

His lack of goals can be easily explained by his poor shot locations.

In the Premier League, the 26-year-old was never a consistent goal scorer but his xG per shot total was better.

 

Iheanacho was averaging 2.84 shots per game during his six seasons in the top flight, at an xG/shot of between 0.12 to 0.17 over those years.

Daka’s two campaigns in the Premier League also saw him struggle to score consistently, managing an underwhelming nine goals in total, from an xG of 8.7.

The forward averaged 2.02 and 2.27 shots per 90, for a total of 0.16 and 0.12 xG per shot.

These are numbers that will need to improve in the Championship for both Daka and Iheanacho in order for them to maintain their place ahead of Cannon in the pecking order.

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