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Leicester City kicked off their preseason fixtures on Tuesday with a 1-0 win at Scunthorpe United. The game was mostly about getting 45 minutes of fitness into most players, but the real standout was £30m signing Ayoze Perez.
It’s good to be back to action! The first minutes playing with the team and my first goal for @lcfc makes me feel really happy, so keep working! pic.twitter.com/xo2NLGAAjw
— Ayoze Perez (@AyozePG) July 16, 2019
The former Newcastle United forward started on the right wing, a position that he will hopefully get comfortable with, as it’s his clearest path into the first team.
To the delight of the fans, and I’m sure his teammates, the Spaniard appeared to gel straight away. In particular he showed an affinity for linking up with first choice RB Ricardo Pereira, which will be vital going into the season.
Perez was dangerous throughout, ghosting into gaps in the Scunthorpe defence to create opportunities for himself and others. An exciting start for £30m man - LCFC Live gave Perez a 9/10 for his debut performance
While a 45 minute performance against lower league opposition should be taken with a grain of salt, it was particularly exciting to see how often Perez found himself in front of goal.
The Spaniard linked up well with fellow front man Jamie Vardy and capped off the night by finishing off a great team move for his first goal as a Fox.
Gameplay rodgers + now with ayoze perez.
— Bolanalytics (@Bolanalytics) July 17, 2019
I am looking forward for @LCFC this season pic.twitter.com/H2mn28my9v
We’ve always struggled to find alternatives to Vardy in front of goal and his ability to fill that role was one of the most exciting aspects of his arrival.
Again, one goal against Scunthorpe doesn’t prove his ability to score regularly in the Premier League, but he’s displayed that already in his years with the Magpies. What has been confirmed is that Brendan Rodgers appears to consider him a candidate to fill that role, even from the wing.
He just has that knack of arriving into the box to score, to get shots on target. It’s something that we want to do this year. We have to score more goals… if we want to progress, we have to get more goals into the team, hence the idea of bringing someone like him in - Rodgers told LCFC.com that Perez could have had 3
In all, it was about as good a preseason as we could have asked for Perez, and it was good to see James Justin and Youri Tielemans out there in Leicester shirts too.