Leicester City 1-1 Stoke City: Claude Puel’s post-match thoughts

Leicester City’s win drought will last for another week after Claude Puel’s side dropped yet more points in the 1-1 draw against Stoke City.

The Foxes were denied by an excellent Stoke, who did everything right upto the point when Jack Butland put the ball in his own net to give the hosts a chance to possibly win the match from thereon.

Leicester City started the game really well, playing with passion and panache and everything else required to get the opener, but as we progressed and the home side began to put crosses in every now and then, Stoke found life more comfortable at the King Power Stadium.

Eventually, the Potters’ industriousness got them the reward, as an error from Leicester gave Xherdan Shaqiri his seventh goal of the Premier League season, and his third in the last three games.

Puel’s side came out more strongly in the second half, but the search for an equaliser went on till the 70th minute with Butland doing Leicester City a favour. The own goal gave the East Midlanders the kind of energy they had been lacking, and it was all Leicester City thereafter.

A number of chances came the hosts’ way, but each one of them went down begging, with even Riyad Mahrez missing a couple of chances, one of which was a one-on-one that should have been the winner. It was a rare moment of disappointment from the Algerian, who otherwise ran the show.

Perhaps, Mahrez’s display best sums up the game – good everywhere and a lot of times, but  not effective where and when it mattered the most. Speaking after the game, Claude Puel reflected on the same:

"“Not enough to win today. We could have, but we could also have lost so perhaps a draw is fair. Their goalkeeper made some good saves, but we also conceded chances.“I thought we started well, with intensity, but it became too slow to find space. It was better second half, but without a clinical edge or a little luck to find a winning goal."

Next: Leicester City 1-1 Stoke City: Three things we learned

"“We needed greater desire to score, to attack the box together. We did it at times, but not consistently enough. When we did, their goalkeeper made some fantastic saves.”"