Leicester City cruised into pole position of the Premier League with a hard-fought win against a stubborn Wolverhampton Wanderers.
On paper a hard game for Leicester City against Wolves was looking likely and proved to be just the case on a mild afternoon at The King Power Stadium. Wolves set up with a 5-4-1 deploying a solid but not so deep block. Leicester set up similar with more attacking wing backs and two inverted number 10’s in James Maddison and Dennis Praet.
The game was tight and little chances were created in the first half until a seemingly harsh handball on Max Kilman handed Jamie Vardy his ninth goal of the season. That completed the set of Vardy scoring against all the current Premier League teams to add yet another feather to his cap.
He could and should have extended the lead further when Leicester were awarded a second penalty in the game after James Justin was wiped out by Rayan Ait-Nour. But Rui Patricio cleverly read Vardy’s direction, saving so fiercely that Vardy couldn’t react to the rebound.
Second half, Wolves livened up and pushed forward with more telling attacks. Chances for Neto, Kilman and an outstanding save from Neves by Schmeichel kept the West-Midlanders at bay. Substitute Harvey Barnes could have put the game to bed but Leicester played the game out strongly to ensure two weeks at the top of English football. But what were the three things we learned about Leicester City from this game?
Wesley Fofana has been a revelation
Leicester City are now on a six game winning streak across two competitions. They have won nine out of twelve games this season and are top of England and UEL Group G. All of the defeats have been at the King Power Stadium and were indicative of teams with strong defences sitting back and catching the foxes on the counter. A key statistic before the young Frenchman signed from Saint-Etienne was that the East-Midlanders had conceded nine goals in five games.
Following this latest win, Leicester have conceded just three goals in the seven that Fofana has played. His influence on the defence has been huge as typified by this man of the match display.
His strong and aggressive approach was key in getting this win over the line. A key challenge to deny Neto typified his attitude and confidence as did the countless amount of headers and carefully placed positions he put himself in to snuff out danger. Don’t forget at the start of the season that Leicester were constantly conceding on crosses and many time from Caglar Soyuncu’s man.
Fofana is adding steel and confidence to the defence and his teammates, Jonny Evans can trust in his partner and Christian Fuchs also knows he doesn’t need to marshall the 19-year old. He even had time for a pacy marauding run into the final third to set up an attack. He must have faults but at this early stage of his Leicester career he isn’t showing signs of any, Fofana already looks like a sensational signing.
Brendan Rodgers is finding different ways to win
There were huge question marks over Rodgers this summer after the Leicester coach seemed unable to halt an alarming slump in form. His soul searching seemed to find new ideas and new approaches that culminated in a thrashing of Manchester City, but that was quickly followed by two disappointing defeats.
His tactical nous and coaching ability have now showed real improvements with his management bringing about a famous Arsenal away win that utilised different set ups and adaptable positions of all of the players. Going to the so called ‘bigger clubs’ and setting in a deep block ready to counter is one challenge, but breaking down stubborn defences of teams that set out to frustrate has been a far bigger problem. Wolves were hardly that obtuse in their style but their aim was to give away little and catch Leicester cold. In truth the game was tight and could have gone either way if the penalty incidents were ignored.
But Leicester grinding out wins is not something common to Rodgers approach. His back three is looking more in keeping with where he sees his sides future, allowing his wing backs to be influential going forward and support his defence against the threat of pacy wingers.
In addition, substitutions are now working far more effectively and he nullifies opponents strengths quickly and effectively. Adama Traora hardly had a sniff as Justin and Fuchs doubled up on him when Wes Morgan’s arrival allowed the defence to be bolstered without a backs to the wall attitude.
Rodgers is managing all of his squad effectively whilst coping with huge injuries Ricardo Pereira, Timothy Castagne, Caglar Soyuncu & Wilfred Ndidi. When that quartet returns to Leicester are going to be an even more frightening prospect. But Rodgers and his coaching staff currently have a tight squad that are playing regular football confidently and effectively and soon to move into a state-of-the-art training facility, they may go far this season but you won’t find many foxes fans being bullish about their prospects.
Handball is more consistent than last season
It’s no small irony that Dennis Praet was the player howling at the referee to check for handball against Kilman. Praet suffered a similar fate at home to Manchester City last season that was compounded after seeing a first half De Bruyne handball bizarrely ignored by the referee.
My twitter account is dedicated to Leicester City’s handball misfortune last season. It will naturally sound like tribal bias to outsiders looking in, but I genuinely believe some of last seasons handball calls were borderline scandalous. So when I saw the penalty given to Leicester 15 minutes in i had a little bit of sympathy with Portugal Wanderers.
Kilman was not really intending to stop the cross it just so happened to hit his hand. The thing is it did stop a cross and who knows maybe a chance for Leicester. Either way you look at it, so long as the authorities treat all of these incidents in the same way, then at least we know where we stand. Last season’s frustrations were mainly due to the complete lack of consistency in the calls.
Leicester City have now been awarded a massive nine penalties this season with zero against. Todays was the first handball call penalty in our favour since 9th March. Hopefully the next time one goes against us we simply accept it and move on. Although if it involves Mane in the last minute at Anfield we might struggle to be so diplomatic.