Wigan in the FA cup! Preview By Simon Mack

Leicester City vs Wigan Athletic

4^th January 2019 5:31pm

King Power Stadium

On the back of 2 valuable wins in the Premier League which both saw changes to the starting eleven Brendan Rodgers and his men welcome Championship Wigan Athletic to King Power Stadium on Saturday evening for the first of 2 home cup ties in the space of 5 days.

Wigan lie 3^rd from bottom in the Championship table having amassed 5 wins from their 26 league games to date. On New Year’s Day the latics visited Birmingham City and came home with all three points in a 3-2 victory with Josh Windass netting a brace. The festive period also saw Wigan defeated by Nottingham Forest and 2 draws to Derby and Blackburn respectively. Centre back Cheyenne Dunkley is the latics top scorer to date this season having netted 5 so far and Josh Windass (former Rangers man and son of Dean Windass) is the club’s 2^nd top scorer with 4 to date. Wigan will have to tackle the Premier League’s 2^nd placed team without the services of Kal Naismith, Michael Jacobs, Kieffer Moore and Charlie Mulgrew who are all unavailable. Young Everton midfielder Kieran Dowell has joined the latics on loan after an agreed move to Derby was cancelled at the last minute and is available for Saturday’s encounter.

For the foxes this 3^rd round tie is the first of 3 home games in the space of a week with Aston Villa in a Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday night then Southampton in the league the following weekend. Brendan Rodgers will have an eye on the hectic festive fixture list not letting up and you’d expect him to field an altered side for this one once and most likely not too far away from the side that went to London and picked up all 3 points against West Ham.

Jamie Vardy continues to be ruled out with a minor strain to his calf but apart from that all of the match day squad are available. The foxes have been public about their desire to bring silverware to King Power Stadium this season and the FA Cup affords another chance to broaden their net and with the lesser used players doing so well when Rodgers felt the need to give many regular starters a rest you’d sense he’ll have confidence in the wider reaches of the players at his disposal to come up trumps against a Wigan side currently fighting for Championship survival.

Young Croatian centre back Filip Benkovic has had little senior opportunity since his return from loan at Celtic last season due to injury and the form of his team mates but rumour has it that the young prospect may well get the nod in this one and an opportunity to impress his manager on the big stage. Other city players likely to get a chance from the first whistle are Demari Gray who scored that superb winner against the Hammers along with Marc Albrighton whose commitment and crosses in the same game were impressive. Christian Fuchs is likely to continue at the back and Kasper Schmeichel could well be rested giving Danny Ward a valuable 90 minutes. James Justin took many plaudits for his accomplished league debut against the Hammers and is likely to return to the side along with Hamza Choudhury who delighted his team mates with a barn storming 25 yard drive against Newcastle on New Year’s Day.

Possible Leicester line up: Ward, Justin, Morgan, Benkovic, Fuchs, Choundhury, Albrighton, Praet, Gray, Perez, Iheanacho