Cesare Casadei to Leicester City: Will he really improve the Foxes midfield?

To say that Chelsea’s Cesare Casadei had an impressive showing at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup this summer would be a huge understatement.

The Italian shone during the youth tournament, leaving his name on the lips of all who watched him this summer.

Indeed, Casadei helped Italy to reach the final of the competition, where they unfortunately came up short against Argentina, but on the way, he put in some excellent performances.

This meant that at the end of the tournament, although Casadei did not walk away with a winner’s medal, he did come away with the ‘Golden Boot’ and ‘Golden Ball’ for being top scorer and player of the tournament.

Leicester City set to sign Casadei

After his star performances for Italy, it came as no surprise that clubs were keen on bringing Casadei in for this season.

As it turned out, one of those clubs interested is Leicester City, with reports as early as June linking the Foxes with a potential move.

Indeed, back then, Gianluca di Marzio reported that Leicester City boss Enzo Maresca wanted to bring the midfielder to the King Power Stadium following their relegation from the Premier League.

With plenty of time having passed since then, it appears there has finally been a breakthrough, with Fabrizio Romano giving the deal his famous ‘here we go’ and reporting that Leicester had agreed a loan deal with Chelsea.

Casadei is set to undergo his Leicester medical this week.

Casadei’s Reading FC statistics in 2022/23

If he does join Leicester, it will not be the first time Casadei has headed out on loan to the Championship, having spent the second half of last season with Reading.

With that said, we thought we’d take a look at the midfielder’s stats using FBREF from that spell to try and offer an insight as to whether or not he will improve Leicester City’s midfield.

With the 20-year-old having featured only 15 times for the Royals, bear in mind we are working from a small sample size.

Of those 15 appearances, though, Casadei was trusted enough, despite Reading’s relegation battle, to start most weeks, with only two of his 15 appearances coming from the bench.

Despite being known for getting forward, one interesting thing that stands out when looking at his stats on FBref is some of his defensive statistics.

Indeed, compared to other midfielders in the Championship per 90, Casadei is in the 67th percentile for tackles with 2.19 per 90, the 92nd percentile for blocks, with 1.87 per 90, and the 88th percentile for aerials won, with 1.95 per 90.

We saw at the Under-20 World Cup how Casadei can score goals, but the fact he is capable of playing defensively, too, makes him look a solid all round proposition for Leicester this season.

One area that he was perhaps underutilised at Reading, though, or struggled to have an impact statistically due to them being a struggling side out of possession, is passing.

Indeed, attempting just 33.71 passes per 90 during his time with the Royals, Casadei would be in just the 24th percentile for that metric in the Championship last season.

It’s a similar story for pass progression, where he is only in the 20th percentile, with just 2.76 progressive passes per 90.

For pass completion, things look marginally better, with 74.5% of Casadei’s passes completed per 90, but this still only ranks him in the 24th percentile in the Championship last season.

As mentioned above, in a Leicester City side, these numbers are likely to transform for the better, though.

Given he has worked under Guardiola, Enzo Maresca’s side will likely play possession-based football this campaign, which will be a completely different style to what Casadei was used to in a struggling Reading side last season.

This should mean he gets on the ball more, is more accurate with his passing and has a greater influence with the ball at his feet.

Will Cesare Casadei improve Leicester City’s midfield?

Having seen his performances for Reading last season, and at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup this summer, there is no doubt that Cesare Casadei will improve Leicester City’s midfield options this season.

The young Italian is very talented, and can contribute in both attack and defence from midfield for the Foxes.

Although at Reading, some statistics do not look the best, as mentioned above, in a more possesion based side at the other end of the table, these will likely improve.

If Maresca can get the best out of the youngster, he could be in for a special season.