Sunderland travel to the King Power Stadium this evening. Here are five of their players you should keep an eye out for during the game.
KELECHI IHEANACHO
Finding the net eight times last season, Iheanacho is Leicester’s top scorer from 22/23 still at the club after Barnes and Maddison both departed in the summer. He earned himself Leicester’s Player of the Season award as well to help Kelechi at least have a good season personally. The Nigerian international striker (38 caps and 14 goals) has remained prolific for the Foxes this season, scoring six and assisting two already. After 21 goals in 64 games as a youngster at Man City, he was transferred to Leicester where he has (so far) played 220 games and struck home 64 times. He’s a player with a winning pedigree as well, he has a League Cup with Man City and an FA Cup and Community Shield with Leicester all on his CV. At 27, Iheanacho is entering his prime and will want Leicester out of the Championship as soon as possible.
KIERNAN DEWSBURY-HALL
Moving into the midfield, we now have Dewsbury-Hall. The 25 year old has been brilliant for Leicester this season, he’s their joint top scorer in the Championship with five goals and their top playmaker with four assists. He’s a dangerous player, and at 25 he should continue to improve. Kiernan has spent his entire career with Leicester, barring loan spells with Blackpool and Luton Town and is already approaching 100 games for his home town club (currently on 95) scoring 10 along the way.
MADS HERMANSEN
The absurdity of how good this Leicester City side is for the Championship continues with their number one goalkeeper, Mads Hermansen. Hermansen is still young at just 23 but is having a wonderful season with his new club so far. Four clean sheets and only seven goals conceded in his 11 games show his quality, as does the fact that he has the highest save percentage of any keeper in the league (80.6%). This demonstrates exactly why Leicester have had the best start to the Championship of any team in history, they have great quality (and depth) in every area of the pitch. Mads started his career with Brondby in his home country (Denmark), winning a league title with them in 2021 and their Player of the Year in 2022.
WOUT FAES
Faes didn’t have the best of times last season, but the centre back has had a solid start to life in the Championship. Capped by Belgium 9 times, the 25 year old defender has experience in the Netherlands, (with Heerenveen and Excelsior) Belgium (with Oostende) and in Ligue 1 (Stade de Reims). At that latter club he was their player of the season in 2021-22. Since moving to Leicester in 2022, Wout has played 47 times and chipped in with two goals. He’s sure to give our attackers problems, but so will the rest of Leicester’s defensive options.
STEPHY MAVIDIDI
The exciting attacking player to round off this list is Stephy Mavididi, who primarily plays on the left wing. He’s gotten off to a fantastic start (who hasn’t at Leicester this season) and is always brought up when debates about who is the best winger in the Championship occur (it’s Jack Clarke by the way). Mavididi himself has two goals and two assists already this season and he is also 25 years old. A product of Arsenal’s academy, Stephy had a couple of loan spells with Charlton and one with Preston before moving to Turin to play for Italian giants Juventus, where he featured mostly in their youth side and had a loan spell with Dijon in France. He moved permanently to Montpellier and then finally reached Leicester this summer. In his entire career he’s found the net 39 times in 201 appearances. Adding him to the attack Leicester have that features the likes of Vardy, Iheanacho and McAteer tells you exactly why they have scored the most goals in the Championship of any team so far with 26.
