Leicester comfortably beat Birmingham in first pre-season game

Leicester City began their 2020/21 with a trip to Birmingham City. The Foxes eased to a 2-0 victory, that saw an array of first-team, under-23, and under-18 players feature for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Leicester City’s two goals came in the second half, which surprisingly was the half most of the senior members watched from the sidelines. The first goal materialised off the back of a precise, sharp interplay down the Foxes left-hand side. Youri Tielemans – one of the few starting XI players still present – received the ball in the left half-space, before cutting it back to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

Having spent last season on loan at Blackpool Town, Dewsbury-Hall has started to progress into quite the goal-scoring midfielder (having scored four goals in just ten games with The Seasiders), his first touch, upon acquiring the ball from Tielemans, was cushioned enough to allow a strike with his weaker left-foot, which nestled in the bottom right-hand corner of the Blues net.

This wasn’t the first time Dewsbury-Hall found room in the middle of the park either, moments prior to his opener, the 21-year-old was in space in the final third, before finding Admiral Muskwe on the right – resulting in a Leicester City corner. As the game progressed, and the remaining senior players slowly resided to the bench, Dewsbury-Hall became a de facto senior member, demanding possession and always providing himself as an assured passing lane – it’s no wonder he’s the U23’s captain and looking at being rewarded with Premier League appearances this upcoming season.

The second goal came from club-legend Marc Albrighton – who grew up as an avid Aston Villa fan, and played for the Villains over 100 times – so, he will have enjoyed grabbing a goal, even if it was pre-season. However, Albrighton wouldn’t have known too much about the goal, as it came from blocking goalkeeper, Zach Jeacock, clearance, but it epitomises the 30-year-old’s willingness and work-rate, regardless of how important or insignificant the fixture is.

As to be expected, Birmingham City offered very little going forward, I suspect the opposition were chosen because of the deep-block they deploy, as it’s good practice for the Foxes to overcome such defensive structures. Throughout the first-half, Leicester City did struggle to manoeuvre the defensive block, which required more ingenuity in the attacking movement of Harvey Barnes, Demarai Gray, and George Hirst – however, it’s early days to be overly critical.

There were some exciting cameos for the Foxes faithful to enjoy, Filip Benković looked resolute defensively, with an important last-ditch sliding tackle to prevent a counter-attack for the Blues. The Croatian partners his physical presence with a good reading of the game and looked extremely comfortable in possession. There was a fifteen minute spell, early in the second-half, that saw Çağlar Söyüncü play alongside the 23-year-old and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this partnership feature in the Premier League at some point this season.

After signing a contract extension, Nampalys Mendy started the game and played as consistent as he usually does. The Frenchman has always been praised for his efforts on the training ground, and given this fixture was almost an extension of that, he flourished. I’d argue, his involvements were more positive than fellow defensive-midfielder, Hamza Choudhury – who himself did nothing wrong.

All eyes will be ahead to Saturday, as the Foxes face-off against Sheffield Wednesday. I anticipate it will be more of the same, start off using a 4-3-3 with an eleven composed of mainly starters, before integrating youth and peripheral players to encourage sharpness to the entire squad. All-in-all, a comfortable beginning to the 2020/21 season.