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Southampton vs Leicester City: The Best XI

By Aaron Preston

LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 03: Jordy Clasie of Southampton in action with Daniel Drinkwater and Shinji Okazaki of Leicester City during the Barclays Premier League match between Leicester City and Southampton at The King Power Stadium on April 3, 2016 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)
LEICESTER, ENGLAND - APRIL 03: Jordy Clasie of Southampton in action with Daniel Drinkwater and Shinji Okazaki of Leicester City during the Barclays Premier League match between Leicester City and Southampton at The King Power Stadium on April 3, 2016 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images) /
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Southampton travel to the King Power Stadium today, where they face reigning champs Leicester. As we count down to kickoff, we look at the combined best XI.

With inspiration from our friends over at Green Street Hammers, we’ve decided to give this a go. The idea is that we pair the positions against one another and come up with the best overall XI between the two teams. Whichever team takes the most starting spots, be it Southampton or Leicester, should give us a clue as to how the game will progress.

While we recognize that teams line up differently, and that this impacts how players are used, we have chosen to use a neutral 4-4-2 as our base formation for the combined XI. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Goalkeeper

Fraser Forster

This is a difficult choice. Kasper Schmeichel really lived up to his father’s image last year, and is probably one of the top-10 best keepers in the world on any given day. Far beyond shot stopping, Leicester’s Schmeichel is superb at playing the ball from the back, spreading it out to his defence and building the quick attacks that won the Foxes the Premier League last year. Against most other keepers, I’d go with him.

But Southampton’s Fraser Forster can’t be overlooked, especially in his recent form. Five straight clean-sheets is nothing to sniff at, and aside from penalties the Englishman has been solid between the sticks this year. In five starts across all competitions this year, Schmeichel has given up 13 goals. In Forster’s past five, he’s given up only two.

The numbers don’t lie, and after one position, its 1-0 to Southampton.