Riis goals give Leicester hope, but promotion needs more than one striker

For Leicester City supporters hoping for promotion to the Championship, Emil Riis’s scoring form offers encouragement — but the team’s points return tells a different story.

The Foxes sit three points outside the play-off places, with a match in hand over some rivals, according to www.leicestercity.news. Its assessment of their current pace projects a 69-point finish and 11th place, rather than promotion.

Goals at a record-challenging pace

Riis scored twice against Wigan Athletic, taking his total since joining from Bristol City in the summer to seven goals across 11 appearances in all competitions. Russell Martin had described the Danish striker as his ‘top target’ for the number nine role.

In the league, Riis has scored six times in eight matches. The website calculates that maintaining that rate could bring 34–36 goals over the season. The upper figure would equal Jordan Rhodes’s League One record from the 2011/12 campaign.

A supporter commenting on TalkingPoints called Riis the division’s best striker. That is an opinion; the more pressing question for Leicester is whether his team-mates can provide enough support.

The gap beyond Riis’s goals

The website credits matches in which Riis scored with delivering nine points, while highlighting Leicester’s difficulty winning when he does not score. Recent examples include a draw at Barnsley and defeat against Luton Town. His debut also brought a 4–0 home loss to Oxford United.

Its projections put Huddersfield Town top on 96 points, 27 ahead of Leicester, and Plymouth Argyle nine points clear of the Foxes. Those are forecasts, not settled outcomes, but they underline why Riis’s individual scoring rate alone does not put City on course for promotion.

Source: www.leicestercity.news