Preparations for next season continued for Leicester City on Saturday afternoon with a 0-0 draw with Championship-outfit Sheffield Wednesday.
The contest at the Loughborough University Stadium followed Leicester City’s 2-0 victory over Birmingham City, with the 2020/21 campaign kicking-off in two weeks.
Brendan Rodgers set out a strong starting eleven, with Jamie Vardy starting the game ahead of George Hirst, who began the victory on Wednesday. Luke Thomas and Dennis Praet also appeared for the first time this summer.
Despite the game only being a friendly, there were signs for worry from the Foxes performance. The game started with a high tempo and dominated the proceedings throughout. However, after the interval, Wednesday’s tactical switch meant they enjoyed some spells of the ball.
Chances were created for Leicester. Praet tried his luck in the opening minutes before James Justin was smartly denied by an Owls defender a few yards from the goal. Cameron Dawson did brilliantly to stop Vardy from tapping the ball in after Justin’s deep cross.
The worries the Rodgers fall in various areas of the pitch. In the first-half, Dominic Iorfa and Adam Reach had clear chances to open the scoring with free headers almost immediately after each other.
Another area that Rodgers would have noticed would be the lack of tempo and attacking prowess when pressed high-up. The ball was always played out from the back from Leicester and they were sometimes caught out.
With only the one more friendly planned before the trip to West Brom, we assess the three parts of the game we took away from the draw against Garry Monk’s side.
Leicester need a new winger
Even before Ben Chilwell’s move to Chelsea was confirmed, rumours of the club searching for his replacement had started. However, after another positive performance from Thomas at left-back, a winger needs to be the number one priority.
Rodgers opted for Harvey Barnes and Marc Albrighton to start with against the Yorkshire side on Saturday in a 4-1-2-2-1 (or 4-3-3 if you like) formation.
However, both really struggled to prove themselves against the Championship side. Albrighton’s link-up play with Vardy continued to work well and his work-rate is one of the best in the squad, but the intensity that the Foxes play doesn’t support Albrighton.
Lacking the pace and acceleration to catch team’s on the counter, Albrighton regularly finds himself receiving the ball with his back to goal before either turning and playing the ball over the top or returning it backwards.
Barnes, who started 24 Premier League games last season, failed to impress for the second game in a row. In the first half, he was left isolated on the left-hand side but improved in the second half.
A typical Barnes run down the left and into the oppositions penalty box nearly saw the winger score, but he fired too much power into his effort, instead of squaring the ball to Tielemans.
Demarai Gray was introduced and shown flashes of brilliance. He will be disappointed that he didn’t put away one of the chances that came his way. The first one was dragged wide before his flashed effort was brilliantly denied by Joe Wildsmith.
Ayoze Perez continues to not be involved and will the lack of efficiency from the wide men, a goalscoring winger must be added to the ranks if Leicester is to qualify for Europe next season.
They struggle against deep-lying teams
Many times last season Leicester City dropped points against teams who sat deep and let them play their possession-based football. The 1-1 home draw with Norwich City and the 2-1 defeat to Burnley certainly ring a bell.
Sheffield Wednesday defended similar to the Canaries on Saturday, with their two key chances coming from set-pieces. Leicester struggled to break down the stubborn back three, which turned into a five when the wing-backs tracked back.
A positive sign will be the nature of the number of opportunities that were created against the Owls in both halves. But a lack of creativity was clear to see throughout.
Both Praet and Tielemans did not venture forward as much as they would have liked and Nempalys Mendy was deployed as the ‘half-back’, sitting in the defence to form a back three when building possession.
The missing James Maddison would have created more chances with him often being in between the lines to join Vardy in through the middle.
In the second half, Sidnei Tavares was introduced and held the ball up well against a strong Wednesday midfield. However, unlike Wednesday’s pleasing display, Tavares struggled to be as attacking as he was against Birmingham.
Full credit to Monk’s side, their determination to deny the Foxes space through the lines and out wide forced the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho to drop deep to collect the ball.
But if Rodgers want his side to challenge for a European place next season and to go far in the Europa League, he will have to develop a plan to break these type of teams down.
The club possesses quality youngsters
Last season, Rodgers gave chances to Luke Thomas and George Hirst in the Premier League, whilst handing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall his professional debut in the FA Cup.
This week; Darnell Johnson, Sidnei Tavares, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Josh Eppiah and Josh Knight have been included, showing the wonderful work done at the club’s academy.
On Wednesday, it was Tavares who stood out with his forward runs and box-to-box ability. Today, Dewsbury-Hall added a professional performance to his goal from Wednesday. The midfielder spent the latter part of last season on loan at Blackpool and has returned a better player.
Labelled one of the stars of the future, the Shepshed-born made his debut in January against Brentford before he impressed in League One. However, after returning earlier than he would have wanted due to the Covid-19 crisis, Dewsbury-Hall has been handed a chance in the Leicester team.
There have been rumours of Luton Town requesting to bring the midfielder on loan this season, a move which will see Dewsbury-Hall test himself against Championship opponents weekly. If the deal is finalised, it would provide the Leicester City-man with a chance to collect more minutes before following the p
ath of Hamza Choudhury.
Elsewhere, James Justin put in another pleasing performance whilst Thomas provided another 7 out of 10. Names such as Nicolas Tagliafico and Robin Gosens have been linked with Leicester, but Thomas’s added more reason why he is capable of replacing Chilwell.
With all of these players impressing recently for the club and with Harvey Barnes and Hamza Choudhury first-team regulars, the future looks bright for the club. With Rodgers confirming following the game that a number of the U23s who are used throughout pre-season will go out on loan, they are bound to grow in quality for next year.