Southampton vs Leicester Bet Builder Tips and Player Props: Ricardo At The Double

Current market leaders for the title head to the second favourites in our Southampton vs Leicester bet builder article playing on Friday evening.

It is one of two Championship fixtures that night, this duel on the south coast kicking off at 20:00 live on Sky Sports.

Both sides come into it hoping to shake off disappointing results before the international break. The Saints were thumped 5-0 by Sunderland and Leicester pipped at home by Hull.

• Over 2.5 Goals
• Ricardo Pereira 1.5 Shots
• Leicester Double Chance

Bet Builder odds: 12.00

England, Championship, September 15th, 20:00 (UK)

Odds via bet365 as at 12:45 September 12th 2023. Odds may now differ.

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Southampton vs Leicester Stats: Total Football

• Only two sides, Norwich (14) and Ipswich (11), have scored more goals than Southampton’s league total of 10 this season.
• No side, however, has conceded more than Southampton this season (12).
• Adam Armstrong is the early frontrunner in the Championship goal scoring with 4. Only two have come from open play, though. Half have come from the spot, and his first was a deflection off his backside.
• Leicester’s last victory at St Mary’s was the infamous 9-0 in the Premier League 2019/20 season; Jamie Vardy bagged a hat trick that evening.

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Southampton vs Leicester Bet Builder Tips

Over 2.5 Goals

What happens when two possession-based sides meet?

The bookies fancy a goal-laden affair with overs priced at 1.73, and it is hard to disagree, but it is tricky to decipher who is going to score more.

Leicester defends with a high line. Enzo Maresca says he wants his defenders with 50m of space behind them – with a backline of Jannik Vestergaard, Wout Faes and Callum Doyle that could get ugly.

Liam Rosenior outfoxed Marcesca before the international break, Hull winning 1-0 at the King Power. It was a performance that provided a blueprint for picking up points against Leicester, with the Tigers enjoying just 35.6% possession but hitting the target four times more than their opponents.

The issue here is Southampton manager Russell Martin is not the contain and counter type. Like his counterpart, I doubt he will be willing to compromise on his total football approach.

The Saints are far from the finished article, though. In their last outing, they were battered 5-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Only Norwich (14) and Ipswich (11) have scored more goals than Southampton (10) this season, and no side has shipped more goals (12).

Over 2.5 goals make up one leg of this bet.

Ricardo Pereira 1.5 Shots

Jack Stacey of Norwich is the only right-back not to register a shot against Southampton in the Championship this campaign.

Both of Sunderland’s full-backs had shots against the Saints, though it is worth noting Dennis Cirkin (1) and Trai Hume (1) were operating either side of a flat back four.

QPR’s right wing-back, Paul Smyth, had 27.3% of his side’s 11 shots at St Mary’s and hit the woodwork with one of them.

Joe Edwards had two for Plymouth, and his counterpart Kaine Kesler-Hayden had three. Evan Callum Paterson at Sheffield Wednesday managed one on opening day.

The exact reason full-backs, particularly right-sided ones, are getting shooting opportunities against Martin’s side, I am not sure.

I suspect it has something to do with the inversion of Ryan Manning and Kyle Walker-Peters leaving space in transition.

Either way, Ricardo Pereira to have over 1.5 shots appeals as a selection for this bet builder.

The Portuguese full-back has had six in five league appearances this season, three on match day one, one against Rotherham and one in the defeat against Hull.

Leicester Double Chance

The final selection is Leicester Double Chance, and this takes the bet builder up to a cool 12.00.

In my opinion, the bookies think a little too highly of both these sides, but the value lies with the visitors.

I have already touched on the Saints’ gung-ho approach and feeble defence; I repeat, no side has conceded more.

Martin’s side did batter Wednesday on opening day in terms of possession and chance creation. However, the Owls, largely regarded as the worst side in the division, almost pinched something from the game.

Adam Armstrong scored twice from the spot against Norwich, the second coming deep into stoppage time to salvage a point. Che Adams snatched the points late again at Home Part (90+4).

The Saints lost the xG battle against QPR (0.42- 0.64), another side tipped for the drop this campaign.

Against Sunderland, the hosts scored five, but they actually missed four ‘big chances’ as well.

Having watched a fair bit of the Saints this season, they are slick on the ball, they dominate possession and territory, and their patterns of play and rotations are lovely. But they do not carve out that many clear-cut chances (6).

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