This week Bleacher Report reported that Leicester City could be looking to loan out Kelechi Iheanacho and bring in Rangers’ Alfredo Morelos as a replacement. This news may come as a shock to Crystal Palace and Aston Villa who have also reportedly kept a close eye on the Colombian’s recent success (The Scottish Sun).
The step-up from Villa and Palace to Leicester is quite a large one, with Brendan Rodgers’ side currently sitting in second place of the Premier League (Sky Sports). And with the reports suggesting that Morelos would be brought in as a replacement for Iheanacho, it is implied that Rangers frontman would be playing second fiddle to Jamie Vardy.
Morelos has already shown his desire to find a starting spot at Rangers, becoming a regular this season ahead of Jermain Defoe. Morelos has played 1941 minutes compared to Defoe’s 1028. But with Vardy at 32 years of age, it isn’t unrealistic to suggest that Leicester see Morelos as a long term replacement for their current striker. Assuming the rumours are true that is. But who has performed better so far this season?
TIF Tactics – How does Morelos stack up to England’s elite?
With Vardy having only played 1508 minutes to Morelos’ 1941 in all competitions this season, it would be more realistic to look at their performances per 90 minutes. Since both players’ primary objective is to score goals for their teams, it’s an obvious place to make the comparison. Vardy has scored 12 goals in all competitions, 10 less than Morelos’ 22. When you break it down per 90 minutes, Morelos has scored 1.02 goals per 90 compared to Vardy’s 0.72.
There are many people who will claim that Vardy has played a majority of his matches in the English Premier League, against some of the toughest defenders in the world, though. To get a better idea of how they are performing, xG (expected goals) is more relevant. Vardy has 0.72 goals per 90 minutes compared to his 0.31 xG, while Morelos has 1.02 goals per 90 compared to his xG of 0.84. This means Vardy exceeds his xG by a whopping 0.41 goals per 90 minutes, while Morelos only exceeds his number by 0.18.
Shots on target also favour Vardy, with the striker having a shot accuracy of 62.5%. Morelos hits his mark 48.2% of the time. For Vardy, 37.5% of his shots have resulted in goals, while only 20% of Morelos’ shots have resulted in goals. It appears that Vardy is slightly more clinical than the 23-year-old Colombian.
But this shouldn’t cast a shadow over Morelos’ performances this season. It also doesn’t mean that the Colombian couldn’t fight for a place in the Leicester squad. Should Morelos make the switch to Rodgers’ side it would surely provide the Foxes with extra firepower. But with the way Gerrard’s season has been going, Morelos would crazy to leave now. Rangers are fighting for silverware in every competition they are in. And if he stays, he could be just the player to help them win those competitions.
(all data and stats from Wyscout.com, accurate at the time of writing)