These 2 Leicester City players have just a month to prove they are worth keeping around in January | OneFootball

Highlights

Leicester City continue their Championship journey as they aim to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

The Foxes were relegated from the top-flight last term under the combination of Brendan Rodgers and Dean Smith, with Enzo Maresca now tasked with bouncing the club straight back to the big time.

Despite maintaining a strong second-tier squad this summer, Leicester saw 15 players depart the King Power Stadium, with significant money coming in for the likes of James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Timothy Castagne.

As the January transfer window looms, more Foxes players will be linked with a move away from Maresca’s outfit, as the Italian figures out which players will help contribute towards a promotion push this campaign.

Here at Football League World,

1 Patson Daka

First up is forward Patson Daka, who arrived to the Foxes in 2021 from Red Bull Salzburg.

The Zambian international was an exciting prospect after netting 68 times from 125 appearances in Austria, but registered only five goals and three assists from 23 games in his debut Premier League campaign.

The 25-year-old would go on to score just four times from 30 top-flight appearances last term as Leicester suffered relegation to the Championship, with the forward department a key component in their decline.

While there was an opportunity to revive his Leicester career after dropping down a division, Daka finds himself fighting for a starting spot with Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho, and summer arrival Tom Cannon - providing him with a tough task to secure regular first-team minutes with such hefty competition up front.

Daka may be able to secure some game time over the hectic winter period as Maresca looks to use the entirety of his squad, but he will need to produce a significant improvement in performances if he is to lift himself from being the third-choice striker.

If this does not happen, Daka is likely to depart at the start of the new year and begin a fresh start away from the King Power Stadium to get his career back on track.

2 Marc Albrighton

Next up is Marc Albrighton, who has been a loyal servant for Leicester over the years.

The 34-year-old enters his ninth season at the club and has represented the Foxes over 300 times during a distinguished career.

The winger spent last season in the Championship with West Bromwich Albion but failed to provide a single goal contribution from 17 second-tier games, leaving him with a point to prove as he returned to the King Power Stadium.

The previous two seasons have seen Albrighton register just 25 league appearances in a blue and white shirt, with his game time dwindling as he enters the latter stages of his playing days.

The emergence of talented young forwards like Kasey McAteer and Abdul Fatawu has pushed Albrighton further down the pecking order, and he will only have the rest of this winter period to prove he is a positive asset to the side.

With Leicester possessing squad depth in this area, it would not be a surprise to see Albrighton depart the club in January, but he will have to do all he can to change Maresca’s mind surrounding his future.