How and why Leicester City blew it at Bournemouth on Sunday

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Dennis Praet of Leicester City (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images) /

The shocking decision to change at half-time

Let’s go back to half-time on Sunday evening. Leicester City were 1-0 up and playing similar to their early season form. The stats didn’t lie either. Rodgers’ side had 65% possession, 10 shots, five corners and had minimised Bournemouth’s attacking prospect with only one shot.

Fast forward 45 minutes later, the Cherries managed four goals in nine attempts. The possession also decreased to 56%.

Rodgers decided to replace Iheanacho at half-time with the midfield presence of Praet. A decision that back-fired, massively. It’s not that the Belgian performed bad and it’s his fault. Before the break, the link-up play with Ayoze Perez, Vardy and Iheanacho was sizzling and had created a number of opportunities. So the decision to take a striker off when everything was going to plan, seems odd.

Of course, the poor goal-kick, Soyuncu lashing out and the loss of the spirit within the players on the pitch played a vital part in the defeat. But the question is, would it had happened if there was no tactical switch at half-time? I do not believe it would: in the first-half, Bournemouth were struggling to make five passes together and were often caught in possession when transitioning the ball in defence and midfield.

The high press of Ndidi and Youri Tielemans back up with the consistent headers from Soyuncu and Evans had constantly caused Bournemouth problems. However, in the second-half, this changed. With the middle of the park being joined by Praet, Bournemouth utilised their wingers more. However, when questioned on the switch, Rodgers said that Iheanacho “wasn’t having one of his better games” and that Ndidi and Tielemans had a lot of space to cover in midfield.

I argue with Rodgers with that statement. First of all, Iheanacho had not done badly at all. If anything, he was one of our better players and looked confident on the ball.

Secondly, Bournemouth did not cause the Foxes many problems at all in the first-half. If anything, it felt like Bournemouth used the width more in the second-half than the first. Apart from David Brooks’ effort late in the opening 45 minutes, their wingers and full-backs rarely ventured forward to cause any problems.